Clean Hard Fast: 4

 Yes, head is still clanging - along to Mozart piano music this dark morning.

CLEAN: not the work desk or kitchen table.
HARD: to believe our outdoor art fair season is over. It went out well, with a lovely, nippy, sunny weekend in Red Wing, MN. I learned that when a man says "I LIKE that bear" it means "I want to BUY that bear." Two different gentlemen at different times of day on Saturday. Thank you, gentlemen. I hope you enjoy your new bruins. Oh, and got to give away two of the Junk Drawer Journals made earlier this year to two new art fair friends who immediately put them to note-taking use!
FAST: how early mornings went DARK. It's 7:05 A.M. - time for tea, egg, bacon, and garden greens. But greens will have to be gathered blindly or by flashlight. Sigh. I still vote for five A.M. daylight - all year round.

A bit over a month ago it felt time to play with new techniques - thus the playing with acrylic paints that happened to be on hand and goofing off with papers - just to see. Here is one result:

Acrylic paint on 7" x 5" paper

I'd started doing mono-prints, but ended up cutting stencils out of scrap backing boards. Yay, for not tossing scraps. The four-inch wide boards can be cut into pieces for three bears. Yes, the designs are limited in size, but forcing oneself to work within limits IS a good challenge.

Papers, were, once again, scraps. But good scraps - either printing or heavy-weight water-color papers.

Paints ranged from garage-sale "craft" stuff to  new good goodies that I had to go BUY once I started loving the results. Especially exciting were the metallics in with or over the original layers.

The acrylic bears have now graduated to being painted on small wooden boards, and folks and I are happy with the results. I even "craft" stenciled two bears onto a canvas tote. It sold at the Red Wing Art Festival, though I wouldn't have minded using it myself. Have a small stack at these tote bags (25 cents each at a summer estate sale) so more of that doing will get done. We'll see how tough the board paper stencils are and how long they last.

Well, typing has taken long enough that a bit of yard is visible. Greens, here we come?

Web-site is down at moment - argh, but Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios is alive and fun.

We are attempting a too-long-in-the-doing vacation soon. And yesterday while working a shift at American Gothic Antiques I learned, at long last, of Kansas City's Oklahoma Joe's BBQ, so new eating plans for KC! We always ate at Gates.Time for a new chowing adventure. Great Art and Great Meats await! Now to carve out a chunk of time. Carve out a bit of time today for creating happiness, joy, and perhaps a piece of art or two. A crow is cawing "You CAN do IT!"

On to the day's Grand Adventures!

Fare-thee-well,

Sue