Cherry-on-Top on eBay!

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12x12, original collage on panel

This collage is FRAMED in 1.5-inch natural wood molding, it has all hanging hardware and would make a great gift! 

Peafowl, New Work

Plumage

20x20, collage of hand made and found papers on panel

Here is a piece I finished at 1:00am this morning. I am sending it up to the Juxtapose Gallery in Westfield, NJ. They don't know it's coming! I figured Gerri has been selling my work so well that I'd try sending her something a little different.

Being that Art Nouveau is my very favorite art movement, it is probably appropriate that the image of a peacock was my very first tattoo, and remains one of my favorite color palettes today. When I was in college, I created a huge pastel of a full peacock with Cyndi Lauper's head on it. So you can see this has been a long running theme for me!

Let me know what you think of this latest feathered fowl, which is similar but different from my workin the rooster series.

Upcoming Workshops

New Smyrna Beach, FL

I will be giving a figurative collage workshop at Artists' Workshop February 7/8, 2009. The title of the workshop is Paper Painting: Works in Collage. To promote this workshop, there will be a demo on January 7, at 7:00pm at the Artists' Workshop. This demo will last about an hour and a half. If you are interested, please contact Nancy Hagood on her cell phone: 386-690-1281

Sanford, FL

The Sanford Seminole Art Association has asked me to give a half-day workshop on January 24th from 9am-noon. If you are interested in attending, please contact Charlene Hoofring via email: DHOOFRING@cfl.rr.com 

Deland, FL

The Museum of Florida Art will be hosting a Paper Paintings workshop in the spring. March 14/15 10am - 4pm. Pam Coffman is the contact for more info: coffman@delandmuseum.com

One More, Before I Go

Collage Withdrawal?

Cherry-on-Top, 12x12 Paper Painting

I will be out of town all next week, going on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas with my family, in-laws and all! What that means is no technology and no art for a week, what will I do! At sea I will not have my cell phone, my computer, OR my collage materials! yikes.

I am thinking it will be a good break to cleanse my mind of cupcakes! My sister-in-law came in last night with her family from New Jersey, along with my other sister-in-law and family. (I am so lucky to have two great sister-in-laws!) The entire Nelson clan is going on this trip... Anyhoo! Wendy said to me "I thought you were DONE with cupcakes!" And that reminded me that after the Scrap Bag Studies I had indeed said I was done with cupcakes. We have Christine to thank us for these recent cupcakes, as she wanted me to do one for her, and then I liked them so much I did another one. The truth of the matter is that cupcakes are fun, who doesn't smile about cupcakes?

Have you figured that I like working in a series? I sure do, because I don't have to spend a lot of time thinking of what I am going to do next, AND I can take what I have learned from the last cupcake and apply it to the next one, and the next one, and the next one... remember the roosters?

Speaking of roosters, when I come back from my art and technology break, it is going to be time for me to switch gears and prepare for my February solo exhibition at the Katharine Butler Gallery in Sarasota. The series of roosters I did was for this gallery and they have already sold one. In February I will be adding other barnyard friends and objects of nature. So, stay tuned for that big shift in gears and if anyone has any suggestions of animals I can do, post a comment. The most interesting request I have gotten so far?

Alpacas.

Cupcakes in Progress

It all Starts with a Sketch

Here are my two sketches for the new work I am doing, 12x12 cupcakes. I start with a pencil sketch on wood panel.

Under Paintings

Here are the under paintings for the cupcakes. I do a loose acrylic painting on unprimed wood panel before I collage. I use this part of the process much like a pastel artist uses a colored paper to start, rather than white, so that any paper that shows through is complimentary.

Final Pieces

Flower Cupcake and Pink Whip Cupcake 12x12

Final Paper Paintings of the two cupcakes. I hoped that YOU, my blog subscribers and viewers, would help decide which cupcake you liked the best for my friend Christine.