Mason-Deerfield Open House Thurs May 13 at Cottell Park

Worked on these paintings this morning with the Mason Painting group. It's been a while since I was able to paint with this group and it was fun to get acquainted with some new members, as well as to catch up with old friends.
Fellow artist Don Shuster and I are hoping for good weather this Sunday, May 16, as we are both exhibiting at the Wyoming (OH) Art Fair on Worthington Ave. from 11 -5 pm. Don was trying to finish a painting he wants to display there and I think I'm set for this weekend, thank goodness.
Still working on paintings for the Taft Museum's Art in the Garden May 26, as you can see.
There's an Open House at the Snyder House in Cottell Park (Snider & Irwin-Simpson Rds.) this Thursday night May 13 from 5-8 pm. Because it's the new home of the Mason-Deerfield Arts Council, our group will probably meet there and I look forward to seeing it. Weather will determine what I paint that night; if it's nice, maybe the house itself.
One of the artists down at the Pendleton Art Center, where I have my studio, recently said "Being an artist means putting forth effort to preserve life on canvas." Usually I'm not but tonight, I am weary of the effort.

Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show

This is what I'm working on today, one of three prints of the Krohn's spring butterfly show that I'm making for my Happy Cincinnati series.

One is finished and framed and I'm still working on the other two, including this one.

I've had fun experimenting with a medium brown undercolor, which I'm finding tones down the acrylic layers I paint over it.

These three original paintings, and all the prints I make from them, will be for sale at The Cincinnati Art Club, near the Krohn, on the first weekend in June, 6/5.

Then I'll put any that remain at Newport on the Levee, along with my Roebling Bridge original, which I'm picking up from the framer's today. Can't wait to see how it looks!

Here's an interesting problem I need to solve: where can I buy a mannequin? I need one to display my Happy Cincinnati giftware and merchandise like ball caps, BBQ aprons, and tote bags. Actually I'd like to get an inflatable one (easier to pack and transport to shows), but I'm worried about what kind of store I might have to patronize to find one.

Taft Museum Art in the Garden May 26-27

I'm very thrilled and honored to be displaying my work at the Taft Museum's annual "Art in the Garden" fundraiser this month. I've been working on acrylic sketches for a "spring" painting of the Taft to complement the summer one I did based on photos I took at an ice cream social on the front lawn one July.

Today I need to get serious about staging my 10 x 10 booth for the Wyoming Art Show on Sunday, May 16. When I helped Glenda Suttman at the Clay Alliance show last Saturday, I asked her why her booth looked so much better than the last time we worked one of her shows together. She told me the reason was that she spent a full day in our studio staging everything and then taking photos of their placement. So I'm going to do that myself and see how much it improves my display at Wyoming this year.

I've got my inventory of giftware personalized with my Happy Cincinnati images like the Roebling Bridge, Krohn Conservatory, and Union Terminal and it's already selling well at Art on the Levee in Newport. And ADC is in the process of framing my 2 x 3 ft. painting of the bridge; Litsa guided me to an even better frame than we'd identified originally.

Lots of little things to fix on several paintings today: the center porch area on my McLean house, butterfly and tent roof on one of the Krohn paintings, and another Taft sketch. Meeting with a client about a home portrait of his family homestead in Idaho; he's emailed me great photo references and now I need to learn more about exactly what he's looking for and I want to understand more about the history of the home and its location.