October demo and what's to come next month

On the second Tuesday of each month we have a membership meeting.    At this meeting we get filled in with some of the details of the art center/gallery and have a chance to ask questions and meet other members.   This month Doug Drendell, our Vice President gave the report, followed by Pam Bechill giving a financial update, then Valerie Pignalli reported on membership stats.    Doug also told us about the experience of being an auctioneer at the KVIE art auction recently.      We have been invited to show again as a featured gallery next year.    

After the business was over, we moved on the demonstration by Caroline Henry.    Working quickly on dampened watercolor paper, she spread colors on the paper broadly with no attention to detail, and set it aside to dry.  This is much the same way she works in her journals.    This time she was working large, so when it came to time to bring out the pen to define her shapes and sketch over it, she worked with a large marker pen.   In her journals she uses fine tips.     This is the charming bird she created in front of us from a blank piece of paper, and a photo reference.    

During the break when the base watercolor was drying, she showed us some of her journals and other work.  And also showed us how she sometimes will rescue an unfinished or unsatisfactory earlier work.   We all have these.   So, we found this quite interesting.   

In November we will  not have a demo for the membership meeting.  Instead we will have a critique of the small works show by the judge, Deanna Hunt.    These critiques are always fascinating and give good insights into what judges look for in a good piece of work.  And what does not work.     It's a great learning experience, I hope you will join us for that.   November 11th, 7 p.m., come a little earlier for visiting and getting a good seat.
 

Small works and Itty Bitty Art on the horizon

The information about the show is on the LCAC website, you will  find the link on the home page.

Time to get busy and decide what you will enter in this show.   You must deliver your art to the  Lodi Art Center on Friday Oct 31st or Saturday, November 1st.    Judging will be on Sunday, November 2nd.    Speaking of judging - the highly respected judge  will be Deanna Hunt, who has been a judge for our group in the past.    For more about her work, her web site is  http://www.deannahunt.com/

More LOST photos

I snagged a couple more photos from the Lodi Open Studio Tour last weekend.    

The first photo shows some of JCs beautiful fused glass pieces, with a fall theme.



















This is the work of artist Linda Osborn who was showing at JCs studio. She crafts some interesting textures in her works, and the faces are delightful.  

More photos from Lodi Open Studio Tour 2014

I put out a call for more photos, so if you were not able to go to LOST, you could at least see a little of it here.     This first photo came in from Caroline Henry, who was showing her work with Elizabeth Parrish sharing her space in Caroline's home.      This is the space they used for showing their works.    I wish one of us had taken photos of the paintings outside in her garden, perched on chairs and along the path.










Then I received a whole lot of photos from Patti Wallace, who is a prolific artist who showed her work at the Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi Winery in Acampo.   She had her display set up outside under a canopy.    Her are pics of Patti, her space and some of her art.

More photos from Open Studio Tour

Our good friend Pepe Pool took these pics while he was visiting LOST sites last weekend.  

  

This is Eric Baker who set up his work area at our own gallery in the studio.   He is working on a combination of pyrography and gourd decoration.     In January 2015 he will be the featured artist of the month, will give a demo at the membership meeting, and also give a workshop on a Saturday.    

Outside of McKinleys Frame Shop, Chris Thompson set up his area on the sidewalk.  I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed watching him turn pottery on the wheel. 

Here is Suzie Wilbourn showing visitors how to construct handmade jewelry at McKinley's Frame Shop at 11 W. Pine Street.

 Glenda Burns showed her ceramic painting tips to vistors at JC's studio.  She also showed her paintings, silk scarves, and pottery.

Outside of JC's studio, some of the glass pieces were shown.   With the breeze blowing the tinkling of glass windchimes and bottles was delightful. 


If anyone else submits photos I'd be happy to share them here.        Janene

What's next in October?

Next on the calendar is the MEMBERSHIP MEETING tomorrow (Tuesday the 14th of Oct.) at the gallery where Caroline Henry will demonstrate her watercolor painting techniques.     Most of us like to be there a little early so we have time to check out the gallery and have a little refreshment before the very brief business portion of the meeting.  What we really look forward to most, is the friendly atmosphere during the demos.  It is so great to be able to ask questions and learn new things.   I have  yet to go to a demo where I have not learned at least one little new thing.   And I've gone to lots of them.    Or at the least, I learn a little more respect for things I know I won't ever do myself.    

This is the time to get your small works ready for next months show in the gallery.  It is a juried show, and non members are welcome to submit their art.    The information is on the Lodi Art Center web page.   Up at the top of the blog you can click on HOME and it should take you there.      Take in dates for small works are on Friday Oct. 31 noon to 5 p.m. and Saturday November 1st,  same hours.  I expect the show will be judged, hung and ready for viewing  on Nov. 5th or 6th in plenty of time for First Friday Art Hop on the 7th.   Put it on your calendar.     Remember these are one of a kind items for sale, so if you are shopping for gifts or something for yourself,  you need to view them soon after it's hung.         

LOST adventure - first batch of photos

Another month zooming by.    The Lodi Open Studio Tour is now in our past rather than our future.    I hope you were able to go to some of the venues - or all of them!    I went with a few friends, but we are older and didn't have the stamina to make the rounds.     Seems like we spent more time on the road going from one outlying venue to the next.    We saw some good art though and had a chance to visit with the artists.

We started at  Lisa Goldman's delightful studio in Woodbridge, where we saw, of all things, a mosaic piece done with an old toilet in the garden. It was really finely done and I'd love to have it in my eclectic garden.


 Next we drove to Acquiesce Winery in Acampo where Rich Allen, Lettie Nava and Mardie Driftmier were showing their work.     Let me tell you this was a perfectly beautiful day for an outing.    Blue skies, sunshine and a little breeze.      For those showing outside like Lettie and Rich, that little breeze could sneak in and topple paintings on small easels.     They each brought a quite a few pieces to show so we had a really good viewing.      And Rich was also working on the piece he had started at the Grape Festival.   He has a lot of hours into this piece now, and is close to finishing.     I didn't see Mardies' work as my eyes would  not adjust to the lighting changes.   I'm having eye issues.       I'm sure it was wonderful and I'm a great admirer of her personal painting style.     Here are Jean (our driver) and Frances at the winery.

Heading South, we planned to stop by the Woodbridge by Robert Mondave Winery, but somehow missed the road sign and missed the turn, so we didn't get to see Patti Wallace's work.  

We found ourselves on Victor Road, which turned out to be a good thing because we were now close to the Watt Winery where we saw Sandy Telle's work.  She had a wonderful room all to herself to show her work.    From paintings to fabric art, mixed media pieces and some fiber arts, she had a good display set up and used her space well.    The winery has an interesting garden and we spent some time poking around outside too.  

 This is Sandy and Jean.

Sometimes I don't know where to look.    Artistic gardens are such a love of mine, I am torn between looking at the art, and looking at the garden.    I could not believe there was a lovely yellow iris in bloom in October.     Mine bloomed early summer.     I wonder how this happened?      Then there was this wonderful view of Mexican Sage through the fronds of the palm tree.    I could have spent all day enjoying the garden.

One piece of interesting garden art was the cleverly constructed raft/ship made of wine barrels.   How clever.   How appropriate.  How delightful.    

Then we piled back into the car again for another turn Southward to Harney Lane.   At this point we all joked about popping in on Sam Bassett and Pepe Poole at Samba Studio.    They did not do the art hop this year and we missed them, but decided it would just be too rude to show up on their doorstep when we were not invited.     LOL    So we turned South and wound around til we arrived at the studio of JC Strote.    JC and her fellow artists, Linda Osborne and Glenda Burns had converted her garage/studio workspace into a gallery, filled with their creations.    With JC's beautiful glass works, Linda's potter and garden art, and Glenda's pottery scarves, beautiful large acrylic paintings and ceramic tiles - it was like eye candy to an art lover.     I can't imagine how much time and energy it took to arrange everything and set up the displays.    If only there had been a crowd of shopper/lookers, it would have been even better.    For some reason, perhaps it was the overwhelming amount of art to look at, I forgot to take any pictures.    Sorry.  

Back in the car again we headed Southward one more time - our plan was to make this big circle ending back closer to Stockton and our homes.      This time Morada was our destination - Caroline Henry's house.     We wandered through the gate into the back yard where there were paintings on display on chairs and perched here and there, then to the studio, where Caroline greeted us.     Elizabeth Parrish was also showing her work there.  So we saw their charming watercolors, acrylic paintings, and Elizabeth's artistic digitally enhanced photography.      It was a nice way to end the day of exploration and friendships.    This is Caroline in her studio.

I hear the other artist venues were wonderful too and wish I could have made the rounds.   If anyone has any photos of them they'd like to show here, just email me with jpegs and I'll be able to post them.   Or if you'd like to share the experience the visits you made to them, email those to me too.     I'd like this to be a place we can get together and share.  

I hope you liked riding along with us on our little day of art adventure.