I Needed a Plein Air Easel.

| janicepd

I have easels. I have a Julian Full Box . And they are all really heay. Too heavy for me to cart around for plein air. And the Julian is awkward. And heavy. And I am not a spring chicken who needs to spend time lugging around heavy easels. Where is the joy in that? I need a lightweight easel that can be used with any media I decide to use that day.

Good name brand plein air easels are darned expensive. That’s why many artists decide to make their own set ups. Over the years I have collected lightweight aluminum easels. I used them for display in the studio and for art tours or show and sale events. Surely I could figure something out…..figure something out without spending next month’s mortgage payment. It was time to drag out all my miscellaneous aluminum tripods and bits and and pieces to see what I could cobble together.

I had the base of the old Testrite plein air easel that was missing the top part for the canvas and one of the canvas clips. I found the table top Stanrite aluminum easel on ebay. Ron took a piece of one my misc. aluminum easels to extend the back leg of the table top. Then I could attach it to the stable Testrite easel. I love it, it is lightweight and extremely sturdy. The good thing about it is I can disconnect it and still use it as a table top.

There will still be a few modifications as I use it. I can use it sitting down or extend the legs to stand and paint. A good thing about the Stanrite is that even attached to the old plein air easel base I can change the angle of the painting . Im looking forward to some paint time soon!

And 3 is the magic number!

| janicepd

I am totally surprised that all 3 of my art quilt entries into this regional exhibit were accepted. Here is a little about the exhibit and the juror. Now I need to check the quilts over and make certain bindings are tight and sleeves are secure.

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri’s Seeing Stars: Regional Quilt Exhibition was developed to provide a forum to demonstrate the talent, skill and diversity of quilt makers working in the five-state region (MO, IL, AR, TN, KY).

JUROR: Rachael L. Baar

Rachael Baar is the curator for The National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky. She has over twenty years of experience in the visual and performing arts as the past director of Preston Arts Center, formerly Henderson Fine Arts Center in Henderson, Kentucky. She has Masters’ degrees from Brescia University and the University of Kentucky.

Getting Back in the Saddle

Image | | janicepd

There was a call for entry for Star Quilts for a regional exhbition sponsored by The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. The prospectus specifically encouraged art quilts. I realized that I had a few art quilts with stars in my inventory so I dug them out to photograph and enter.

This has always been one of my favorite pieces. It has never been exhibited or entered in a show. It started life as an Amish style stretched star quilt. Pretty ho hum but a perfect base for some experimenting. Lots of free motion machine quilting, some beading and then acrylic paint. It looks so much like the colorful Mexican pottery that I love.

I have no idea if any of the 3 quilts entered will make the show but it was fun to get back in the groove.

Lolo is getting some jewelry

| janicepd

Bits by bit we get work done on Lolo the 1959 Shasta Airflyte. She had no original light or step assist so we went shopping. ( Yay! Shopping is one of the best things about restoration projects.) Love the LED porch light we found and the step assist is a stainless handicap grab bar. I think they look good! Ron got the DOT exterior marker lights on and working while I worked on stripping the nasty black paint off all the original cabinet hardware. It’s an icky job but this CitriStrip at least smells like oranges. I plan on stripping the black paint off her wings and shining them up. I am also planning on adding a silver stripe in the black.

Project Red aka Painted Pig

| janicepd

This is what happens when you start undoing all the bad things the previous owner did. New flooring looked nice but there is rotted wood underneath the edges. So the seating had to be taken out so we could see the extent of the damage. See those arrows? That’s the front wall that is no longer attached to the trailer frame. HUGE repair that cannot be ignored. They did the walls and not the floor. Dumb dumb dumb. Ron has the AC going out there now so he will be able to work without getting heat stroke. We were hoping we could get some camping in this fall but there is a lot of work ahead.

All the cabinet doors and drawers had to come off to correct the really messy paint job. So very sad they painted the original birch paneling in this 1959 Shasta. To make it worse they spray painted the cabinet hardware black and it is chipping off big time.