Garden Love - Lewisia

My newest plant obsession involves the spectrum of succulents in the world. This species popped out at me while visiting a nursery site. Lewisia Cotyledon "Sunset Strain". Then I stumbled onto this nursery while hunting the plant, Wild Ginger Farm, to find the entire Lewisia Family.... I'm smitten.

Honorable Mention

Not too shabby and maybe next time a ribbon!

Winter Shoreline 36x48" ©2010 N Strasburg

just add water continued....

Views from the gallery...

San Diego Exhibition

JUST ADD WATER
Group Show

June 3rd - August 22nd 2010
Opening reception, Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 6-9pm

Susan Street Fine Art Gallery

415 South Cedros, Suite 160
Solana Beach, California 92075

Phone: 858.793.4442

Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am-5pm | Sunday 12-4pm

January Tide
40x40"
oil on birch panel
©2010 N Strasburg

Carmel by the Sea

My two day road trip this past weekend took me to Santa Cruz where I delivered work to the Art League, dropping off two paintings for their annual juried landscape exhibition.

While in the area I drove south to Carmel to meet (for the first time) Chris Winfield in Carmel. He has a beautiful space, Winfield Gallery, off Ocean Avenue, the main drag in Carmel. The gallery hosts an amazing collection of artists, a virtual treasure trove of painting and sculpture.

Chris is wonderful and easy to talk to... about anything, anything art, business, politics. He seems to have his hands in many cookie jars as well, working both with the Fresno Art Museum and the Crocker Museum in Sacramento.

Lucky me, Chris has agree to try a few paintings. I will be interested to hear the response from an entirely different kind of audience.

If you are passing through the area Carmel is an incredible location to stop and get out. The trees are breathtaking, the ocean air invigorating and there is a lot to see in shops, galleries and restaurants. Make sure to pay a visit to Chris' gallery for an eyeful of beautiful work and a warm, knowledgeable host.

Creek Grove oil on birch panel 30x30" ©2009

Shore Patterns oil on birch panel 48x24" ©2009

Blue Tide oil on birch panel 29.5x19.5" ©2007

Acceptance

Two of my paintings were recently accepted into an exhibition at the Santa Cruz Art League Gallery. Delivery is this coming weekend and the show will open on May 29th with a reception on Saturday, June 5th from 3-5pm.

Winter Shoreline 36x48"

Sand Shadows 48x24"

80th Annual Statewide Juried Exhibition
"Nature's Treasures"
Contemporary Landscape Painters of California

Juror is Artist Richard Mayhew

Santa Cruz Art League
526 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: (831) 426-5787 Fax: (831) 426-5789
www.scal.org
hours: Wed.- Sat., 12AM - 5PM,
Sun. Noon-4PM

Lecture
A lecture entitled “Exploring Creative Consciousness” by the Juror Richard Mayhew will be presented on June 4th, 2010, Friday, at 7:00pm, in the SCAL Gallery. Mayhew, who refers to himself as “an improvisationalist,” has had a long distingished career since his first solo exhibiition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1950, to his latest exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora (October 10, 2009 - March 7, 2010). After retiring from his teaching position at Pennsylvania State University, he moved to Aptos, CA to continue his work. Mayhew’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian Institution, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

Time Machine

How is it that it's May and nearly a third gone already. Can we get in a time machine and go back a few months? Pretty soon we will be watching 2010 disappear in the rear view mirror and wonder where it all went!?!

I would love to say that it's been all painting and printing all the time but it is has not. Life has a funny way of interjecting it's own designs on your time. The home projects continue and one more piece of the puzzle has dropped into place and crossed off the list.

Last week the back yard landscaping got completed. Yes, yours truly and the hero husband dug for two days installing gopher mesh for the new sod that arrived last Monday!

Do I need to say that the supervisor was on duty? Or perhaps the inspector... the one that inspects surfaces for adequate sleep-ability?

ready for action

inspecting equipment



mid morning siesta

let the digging begin

we slowly worked our way across the yard... that we thought looked really small until all that darn digging!

then there was the compacting and the grading

OF COURSE more napping ...
Molly was exhausted witnessing the work

Finally the first piece of sod went down...
what a beautiful thing that was....

and a little more napping was needed before we finished....

It's beautiful and we're tired but couldn't be happier. Soon I will be talking about painting again. May is full of fun and deadlines and shows coming. It's good the hard labor is done for the time being.