Her Internet name, to go nicely with her brother’s Internet name (Blazington,) is PhireGirl. She was born just before sunrise on August 1st, and she and I are both in perfect health! PhireGirl was born “in the caul” which is very rare and is said to be an omen of good luck for the child.

My art is in my dreams and my future plans, always…but for the moment painting is on the back-burner while I focus on more pressing matters…like taking hundreds of pictures of baby smiles!

I have 2 new paintings that I hope to get posted online later this week, but for now I just want to share a simple but amazing kids art project that may inspire those of you with rambunctious and creative toddlers!

Blazington, now 16 months, has become very involved in drawing in the past couple of months, and recently has become quite skilled at multi-colored scribbling. I’ve found that giving him a pad of paper and a pencil or crayon can sometimes keep him happily occupied for some time while I get things done. But “NO! Only draw on the PAPER!” has unfortunately become a refrain around here. I can see how it’s a hard rule to remember because there are so many fun things to draw on. (By the way, washable markers–awesome.)

About a week ago I became fed up with a few too many wayward scribbles on our living room coffee table (it’s not a fancy table, but still, it’s just the principle of it!) and I was struck with a great idea. 2 pieces of white poster board and some painter’s masking tape and voila–the surface of the coffee table is now made of paper!

Blazington gets to draw on the table without breaking the paper rule.

He spent 2 hours drawing on the table that day while I painted!

We have left it like that and there are now many many more scribbles than this.

I figure when this art piece gets too busy, I’ll have to replace it with fresh poster board.

Oil on Canvas, 40″ x 50″ x 1.5″

The sun washes over the contours of the mountains and brings their colors to life.

Light combines with vapor to create streaming plumes across the vast sky.

Out in the depths of space, billions of stars are clumped and swirling together under the force of gravity to form countless scattered galaxies.

The lights burn vividly through the darkness.

So many distant, twinkling stars seen from the earth–how many more are unseen?

We stand captivated in wonder at the mystery and the beauty of such infinite and faraway masses.

Here’s what this painting might look like in a room:

Like all of my paintings, this painting is gallery-wrapped with the painting continuing onto the sides of the canvas.

In non-art-related news, I just got a new (to me) car!  An ’04 Subaru Outback, the ultimate “mom car.”  So far I very much love it!  We have sold 2 of our old cars, the Lexus GS400 and the Jeep Cherokee, and I’m in the process of also selling my Nissan 240SX.  If the number of cars sounds excessive, that’s because it is.  The hazards of being married to a gearhead: always too many cars around.  Replacing 3 old cars with one super-reliable newish one that meets all my needs feels really good!

Isn’t it beautiful?

And of course every mom car must have family stickers:

From left to right: Myself (with palette and brush), my toddler Blazington (toddling), my most darling husband (showing Blazington how to work a remote control truck, of course), Blake Dog, and finally her feline majesty, Quani.

I’m almost done with that 30″x30″ sunflower I started last week, and I’m also in the beginning stages of a new Cosmic Dance painting that I’m still kind of working out in my head and have high hopes for, so I hope to have some finished paintings to share by next week.

In other news, I’ve decided that I don’t want to use my son’s real name online, but I’ve been unsure of how to refer to him.  I’ve decided that his Internet nickname hereafter shall be Blazington.  Blazington can now stand on his own for about 15 seconds!  He has yet to actually take his first step, but he is very, very close.

Also, I just made and froze a huge batch of pesto with basil from my garden!  My garden this year despite shocking neglect on my part has also produced an abundance of delicata squashes, and they are absolutely delicious!  This is one squash plant that grew as a volunteer out of my compost, and it’s currently about 20 feet across and so far has given us 7 ripe squashes, and there are at least 10 more baby ones waiting to ripen!

Z was born on October 4th at 2 pm, weighing 7 pounds 13 ounces.  He has a lusty cry and a voracious appetite, and he was given a clean bill of health by the pediatrician.

Today Z is one week old, and we’ve finally gotten around to taking our first family photo.

Z is 3 or 4 days old here:

I’m dreaming of the new art I will make when I go back to work, but for now I’m off to enjoy my babymoon!

This photo of me was taken a couple of weeks ago, at about 37 weeks pregnant with my first child:

At that point I was still climbing trees.  Now, not so much!  My estimated due date is now fast approaching, and I’ve shifted my focus inward for the time being.  You can expect things to get quiet around here for awhile, but I’ll check in when I can.

I plan to get back to work in the studio in January and start releasing new works again by February.  I won’t be taking on any new commissioned work until February.

Looking ahead to 2010, my artistic efforts next year will be focused on further developing several ongoing series’:

Sunflower Series

Lotus Series

Looking Up Series

Cosmic Dance Series

For the past 9 months, the same creative energy I put into my work has also been going into the creation of a new baby.  Now that same energy will form the start of a new family.  It is a never-ending process of growth.  Please keep me in your thoughts as I embark on this adventure!

Yesterday I visited my gallery in Waynesville, which is a small town about a 40-minute drive west of Asheville.  The area is hopping with culture and tourism, and Twigs and Leaves has a great location on Main Street, which is a fun place to walk around and enjoy interesting shops and good restaurants.

I was at the gallery to touch up 7 of my 9 recent sunflower panels, which had been slightly scuffed around the edges during shipping.  The damage was completely my fault, as I was in such a hurry to get them shipped off that I didn’t wait long enough for the oil paint to set, and it was still tacky.  I should have let them dry for another week.  (Oil paint dries sooo slowly!)  Lesson learned.

So, after several hours of meticulous touch-up work involving color-matching and careful brushstrokes, the paintings were restored to perfect condition.  They look great and are hanging in the front window of the gallery:

Next was a visit to meet one of my collectors in person while I was in the area.  She purchased 9 different sunflower paintings earlier this year and has displayed them in her home in a grid just like the ones above.

Her home, which she and her husband had built to their specifications and just moved into this year, is built of gleaming wood.  It’s architecturally beautiful, with large open spaces, wraparound decks, and big windows facing incredible mountain views.

When you walk in the front door, the first thing you see is my paintings hanging on the wall of their foyer.

The foyer and kitchen are one large open room–this angle is from the kitchen:

Here’s from the top of the staircase:

And here are the happy collectors!

They are very sweet people, and were gracious hosts.  I brought my mom along for the visit and we spent a couple of hours enjoying their company.

That’s me on the left.

So, this week is off to a fantastic start for me, and I still have my baby shower to look forward to later in the week.  My mother and mother-in-law are arranging it, and I can’t wait!  Unlike a traditional baby shower, men will be included.  They are planning to serve great food and it should be a good party.

I probably won’t update again till I’m back home in Baltimore next week.  I’ll leave you with this picture of my 12-year-old brother’s new kitten, Daisy.  She is possibly the cutest kitten I’ve ever met, which is saying a lot since cuteness is one of the defining qualities of kittens.

I hope everyone has a safe and festive 4th of July!

My dad has enthusiasm in spades, and he gave that gift to me–possibly through genes but definitely through example.  Feeling thankful for my sweet dad today.

Happy Fathers’ Day and many thanks to all the fathers, grandfathers, step-fathers, fathers-to-be, and father figures of all kinds!

The latest batch of sunflower paintings has been successfully shipped to the gallery in NC.  The gallery owner loves them, which makes me happy.  She’s sending me a copy of this year’s Waynesville Gallery Association brochure with my sunflower art on the cover, which is to be distributed all over Western North Carolina!

If someone’s going to sell your work for you, first they have to be a fan of it themselves–it’s such an obvious fact, but I remember a time not too long ago when I was so eager to show in any gallery, under any circumstances, that I didn’t even think about that part.

Now that I’ve developed long-term relationships with several galleries, I realize how lucky I am to work with people who relate to me well on a professional as well as a personal level, and believe in me and my work.  The painting I’m about to start is probably going to one of my Maryland galleries when it’s done–more on that later!

My puppy Blake was neutered on Friday.  For months we’ve known with dread that it was coming, and we couldn’t bear to say the word “neuter” in front of him, so we started calling it “his noodles appointment” and it stuck.  We’d say, “Do you think when Blake gets his noodles he’ll stop digging under the fence?” or “Oh Blake, I’m really sorry you have to get your noodles, my sweet little guy.” or in angrier moments, “Blake, you little @*#$!^, you ate my favorite shoes!!!  Boy do I have some noodles for you.”

Blake is now in recovery from his noodles and is doing well.  He has to wear the ridiculous Elizabethan collar, aka lampshade, to keep him from messing with his incision while it heals.  For the first day his eyes were so sad and he walked around with his head down, clumsily bumping his lampshade into things, and it compounded my already terrible guilt at what we’ve done to him.  But now he’s gotten used to wearing it and is acting like his normal self, so it’s not too bad.

I hope everyone had a great Mothers’ Day weekend!  This was the first Mothers’ Day when I could vaguely claim credit for being a mother.  I wasn’t sure if mothers-to-be count or not, but then I remembered the 3 months of nausea, vomiting and fatigue, my carefully orchestrated new diet, and the hours of baby-related research I now do every day, and decided that it totally counts.

My inventory of paintings currently for sale is consistently dwindling.  I feel so blessed to keep selling my work to people who want it and to have a flow of income, especially when it seems everywhere I turn I’m hearing stories of artists struggling to make even one sale.  My main source of anxiety about work these days is that I need to create more paintings as soon as I can!

The past couple of months, I’ve been less productive than usual in the studio.  But I have an good reason!  As I publicly announced this week to all my family and friends, my husband Kevan and I are expecting our first child in mid-October!  We are delighted.  However, morning sickness (NOT FUN) and crippling fatigue have plagued me every day for the past 2 months.  I had no idea early pregnancy could be so debilitating and I am truly humbled.

That said, I’m now at the end of the first trimester and everyone tells me I should start feeling better very soon, and I am eagerly willing that to be true.  For now, I’m going to just do whatever I can each day.

Cleveland, my 2-year-old pear tree, is displaying full clusters of sweet pink buds in the true spirit of springtime.  The air has been alternating between chilly and balmy, and the grass is becoming more vibrantly green.

I rarely see the sunrise, but I did today and the glowing orange light was surreal.  Today I’m working on a new set of paintings for my Sunflower art series, so it seems the sun has set the perfect mood for today’s work.

I’ll post pictures of new paintings as soon as I have them!