Once a year, the bargains come out of the basement on are on display at St. Andrews Church for the annual "It's A Steal" show of the Arlington Artists Alliance. This coming weekend, May 16th-18th, the works of over 40 Arlington Artists will be on display and on sale.... really On Sale. No artwork is priced at over $95.00. That includes (but is not limited to) framed and unframed paintings, large and small. There will also be unframed original art, prints, notecards, ceramics and more. 

Join me for a "meet the artist" reception on Friday, May 16th from 7 to 9pm. The sale continues on Saturday, May 17th 11am-5pm, and on Sunday from 11am-2:30pm. St. Andrews is located at 4000 Lorcom Lane, Arlington, VA 22207, at the corner of Lorcom and Military Road. Parking is located behind the church, off of Military Road. 

This sweet little pen and ink on hand made paper, entitled "Dog in Repose" sold this month at Gallery Underground. I am so happy this little dachshund has found a good home. I did a series of sketches a while back of a friends beloved dachshund, Max. He has since gone on to dog heaven but is not to be forgotten... a little dog with a big personality! I love doing these pen and ink sketches, because it is challenging to distill an image (or a dogs personality) down to a few strokes of the pen! My challenge is always to see how few stokes I can make. 

The nights are cooler, the sun sets earlier, the leaves are starting to change color.... And I start looking at leaves I want to paint! Really, as I am walking along, all of a sudden I look down and see leaf shapes and patterns, so I pick them up and make my watercolor monotype paintings that I like to call Leaf Impressions. 

"Sycamore" which is printed from a HUGE Sycamore leaf, will be on exhibit at the Gallery Underground for the month of October. 

I love painting these Leaf Impressions, because there is that unknown element.... the mystery and surprise of not quite knowing what the outcome will be. Here's a Painting Demo how I do it.... 

I am honored to have been selected to be the Featured Artist for the month of August by the Arlington Artists Alliance! My artwork, Dance 6, will be posted prominently on the Arlington Artists Alliance website, which is doubly cool because the Alliance just unveiled a new and improved website. You can check it out here. For any Arlington Artists out there, this is a great local organization... we have lots of new and fun opportunities. I am really excited to be the newly elected president. 

My paintings are on sale at Stifel & Capra! This is the once a year  Anniversary Sale, and many of the artists celebrate by putting some of their paintings on sale (not normally something artists do!). I have a selection of my framed watercolor paintings on display, all marked down. This watercolor, titled "Purple and Gold" is included in the sale. 

Stifel & Capra is located at 260 West Broad Street in Falls Church, VA 22046. 
My art studio is locate there, along with about a dozen other artist, and it's a vibrant place. Theresa and her husband, Bob run the place, and Theresa is an artist too. She came up with the vision of combining Local Art with Funky Vintage Finds to create Stifel & Capra. You can find Art, cards, jewelry, stained glass pieces, CeCe Caldwell paint, vintage furniture, Art, antique tools, mid century cocktail shakers, Art, frames, upcycled clothing, stylish hats, and, did I mention Art? 

And this weekend, alot of it is on sale! So go and have fun!

I had a great time at Stifel & Capra last night on FIRSTfriday, and I hope my many friends and colleagues who stopped by did, too. I can't believe my friends Theresa and Bob made lemonade out of the lemons that were pouring down from the sky in the form of raindrops, and managed to fit everyone inside... The awesome Pluckerland Blues Band, the folks from the delicious new restaurant, Little City Gourmet, and Me! My friend, Jim George from Examiner.com was there with his lovely artist wife, Maureen. Jim wrote a really nice follow up article on FIRSTfirday, which you can find here.  Now I am getting geared up for the mixed media classes I am offering at Stifel & Capra... 

They will be offered on Monday mornings, and students may sign up for one, two or all. Workshops are for beginning as well as advanced students who wish to learn new techniques. One session $60, Two sessions $100, Three sessions $130. For more information and to sign up visit www.stifelandcapra.com .

Monday, June 10th, 10am-1pm
Workshop: MAKING PAPERS
Sign up here.
Learn different ways to make beautiful papers for mixed media collage. We will stamp, scribble and paint. We will repurpose old papers to make exciting new designs. 

Monday, June 17th, 10am-1pm
Workshop: DESIGN for Mixed Media
 Sign up here .
Back to basics with some straight forward design ideas to organize your mixed media pieces. Make your painting and collages more cohesive with these basic design tools.

Monday, June 24th, 10am-1pm
Workshop: MIXED MEDIA MAKING
Sign up here .
Bring your materials, and your design ideas and we will cut and paste our way towards finished mixed media pieces. 

Over at Examiner.com, James George, the intrepid Arts Reporter for Arlington has written a nice article about my upcoming show. You can find it here. 

Let me tell you about Jim, in his "previous life" he has been a magazine publisher and has served on the boards of theater and dance companies, and he is a published author. His wife and daughter are both "creatives" and artists. Jim is genuinely interested in all that goes on in the art world, and especially in the with local area. He enjoys "matchmaking" and putting artists together with those who support the arts. If you are an artist, I encourage you to get in touch with Jim, and tell him about your work... tell him I sent you!

Spring Flowers continue to be big sellers, as "Double Daylily" sold at the Arlington Artists Alliance show over the weekend. I had a chance to chat with the new owners, who are big arts supporters (which I love!) and even though they didn't know exactly where "Double Daylily" was going to hang in their house, they loved the colors and brightness. I painted this piece, in acrylic, but painting an abstract underpainting first in orange, then adding the greens of the leaves, and wiping off and adding on more paint to build layers. Then I added more orange paint to show the structure of the flower. The daylilies are about to bloom again, so I might have to head back out to the garden and paint some more!