The Arbor Gate

OK, I'm finally on installment three of the belated birthday marathon day. After the art show and lunch, we drove out to Tomball to The Arbor Gate. If you haven't been there, it's time you went! We got there ridiculously late in the day and it was HOT! Next time it will be a morning trip. By the way, click on the link because they have a great website with a list of their classes, a blog, links, and a gallery of photos that might even be better than mine!

The main reason to go to The Arbor Gate is for the plants. That's not the only reason to go, but I'll get to that in a minute. Plants are the big draw and they have thousands of them! Everything is well-cared for and beautifully arranged. They specialize in roses, perennials, herbs, and native plants, but really do have a lot of everything.

Here is the herb area. They have more types of each herb than you have ever heard of. Whoops...ended with a preposition! Of which you have never heard? I'm afraid I don't really talk that way.

On the right are their shade houses, which is where I do most of my shopping. This is not like going to a big box store where they have plants shipped from all over the country, and you get them home and plant them and in a couple of weeks they're dead. And you think it's your fault -- that you have a brown thumb. Nope; they just sold you some plants that don't do well here. That will not happen at The Arbor Gate.

Dru also has a lot of shade at her house and found a big selection of plants that will work beautifully for her. Here's another great thing about The Arbor Gate -- the people who work there know their plants! And, they are happy to assist you in finding just what you need. I bet by now you think I am a stockholder or something. I'm not -- I just really like the place!

Now I mentioned that plants are not the only reason to go The Arbor Gate. They have lots of other cool stuff. Let's start with the fact that there are TWO gift stores on the property. One is more practical and outdoorsy, and the other has more decorative items for inside your house. You'll find something for a gift, maybe for yourself, at either one. Outside with the plants they also have lots of yard art, such as these great flamingos on the left. You can also find what you need for a beautiful serene water feature in your yard; arbors and trellises and anything you might need to coax a plant to do something it might not normally do on its own.; and then let's talk about the pots.

Oh my, you can find them in any color! Here is a grouping in one of my favorite colors.

And oh my goodness, did you see these over here? Wouldn't one of those look great on my porch?
If you plan to buy one of those super big pots, you better have a super big bank balance!

We had a great time at The Arbor Gate and plan to return soon. Now will someone come over and help me plant all these plants???

Belated birthday lunch

My last post was about the student art show, but that was just the beginning of that day. From there we went to have my belated birthday lunch at The Woodlands Conference Center and Resort. I was going to link to their website but it doesn't list where we ate, which was called the something-or-other grill. It was actually very nice! Located on the second floor, overlooking the golf course, the view was panoramic; the service very good; and the food yummy. The fare is soup, sandwiches, and salads, with a full bar. Of course I had to start with a spicy Bloody Mary, no salt. Mmmmmmm!

We get together for these birthday celebrations for fun, to exchange gifts, and to enjoy good food -- not necessarily in that order. So here's a picture of my meal. It was some kind of spinach salad with feta and shrimp and scallops, and it was quite delicious.

But maybe not quite as delicious as the fried avocado, which was ordered by all the other ladies. Isn't it gorgeous? Two avocado halves, stuffed with chicken salad and deep fried in batter, then presented on a bed of greens with a couple of dollops of some wonderful fattening sauce. I just hate ordering the same thing as everyone else, and I also thought I'd make a wiser choice, calorie-wise. Of course by the time everyone gave me a "bite" of theirs I had consumed way more calories than anyone else! Sigh.

Here are Charlene and Dru about to plunge into their avocados.

The unique thing about these birthday parties is we all give the birthday girl a gift, but we also give everyone else a gift. I'm not sure how this got out of hand. It started as just a party favor kind of thing for everyone, like some Halloween candy at an October celebration, but now the "extra" gifts run the gamut from gag to glitz to downright wonderful. I guess the gifts presented proudly below by Glenda and Gloria fall into the "gag" category...

... while at the opposite end of the spectrum I am modeling a gift we all received -- a set of handcrafted earrings and necklace by woodturner extraordinaire Butch, with assistance provided by Gloria who I just bet put these together with the findings. What a nice group of creative and generous people!
When selecting a restaurant good food is a must, but we also need a lot of extra space for gifts, and the kind of atmosphere that will allow for a little raucous behavior! This place fit the bill. The only thing wrong with this last picture is Dru's not in it, but I guess that's what she gets for taking the best picture! Thanks to the yayas for all the gifts and for being so much fun!

LSC-Montgomery Student Art Show

Last Thursday was such a busy day it's going to take three posts to write about it! This post is about the first event of the day -- the reception for the LSC-Montgomery annual student juried art show. What a mouthful! And actually the first event of the day was to meet Charlene and Glenda at Starbucks for a little pre-show frappacino fortification! Always yummy!

This was a juried show, which means that a juror was hired to select works for the show from the pool of student entries. The intent is that the "lesser" pieces are eliminated, and the resulting show is high quality and cohesive. Closer to the truth is perhaps that the juror selects his or her personal preferences to get down to a show of manageable size, and a different juror would select different pieces. It's important for students to keep this in mind and not feel terribly dejected and rejected if their artwork is not chosen. If you're an artist, you better get used to rejection!

The juror was from the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and was on hand to discuss his selections and awards, which was interesting and informative. He said that most of the pieces he eliminated had problems with presentation, and indeed all of his selections were framed. In a way I think it's too bad that a student has to go to the expense of having his or her work framed in order to be considered, but of course presentation is of utmost importance, and is a lesson best learned early on. I'm also sure that many of the eliminated pieces were ones that were too similar (i.e. same class assignment) to the ones he selected, and too many of the same doesn't give the show enough variety.

I am proud of all of my students this semester -- all have produced and achieved and some have made true breakthroughs! I appreciate those who took the time and went to the expense of entering the show, and I'm especially proud of those who were selected and awarded! Drumroll please!

This is Amy with her incredible ink drawing of her son, which received an honorable mention. The assignment was a gridded image, and she filled each tiny square with designs, many of them in a winter theme to go with the image of the bundled up baby. I wish you could see the image more closely -- each square deserves to be scrutinized! If you live in the area, get over to the gallery in Building D at the LCS-Montgomery campus by May 13th to see Amy's work and the whole show.

Here is Cindy, who was successful in having both of her entries selected for the show, and the piece at right was awarded Best in 2-D. Woo hoo!!! Again, I wish you could really see it -- and sorry for the glare that I captured on the glass. It's a pencil drawing that she did last semester in my drawing class of a guitar wrapped in a blanket (I think it's a blanket!). The blanket is wrapped around the neck of the guitar with a set of headphones, which was a clever choice. What you can't see is the incredibly painstaking rendering of the objects, and her skill with graphite. The artwork on the left is an acrylic painting in white, black, and three shades of gray, and was painted this semester as a design assignment. This was an early effort at painting, and what a result!! Kudos, Cindy!

Another student who had two works selected for the show is Dru, shown here with everyone's favorite, Robby, ceramics instructor extraordinaire. This piece is a watercolor, masterfully painted by this experienced watercolorist, and beautifully presented in a handcrafted wood frame. It's so convenient to have a brother who can work miracles in wood!

Dru's other piece, barely showing below behind the crowd, was also a watercolor, and like Amy's, was a gridded image of her baby. Whoops, it's not HER baby (she just thinks he is) but her grandbaby, Reid. Beautifully painted in pastel yet boyish tones, the artist has embedded symbols of babyhood, such as a rattle, bottle, or toy, within the larger portrait of the baby.

Blocking the portrait of Reid, from left to right, is me, the instructor; Charlene, a student, nurse, and accomplished artist; Dru, student, retired art teacher, and adoring grandmother; Gloria, Dru's sister-in-law, married to master craftsperson Lonnie, and a very creative person in her own right; and Glenda, also a student and accomplished artist. Oh, and they are also my good friends!

One day last week Charlene picked me up and off we went to the Antique Rose Emporium. I'm sure most Texas gardeners have been there countless times (Charlene has) but this was just my second trip and I was psyched! Plus driving out to the Brenham area in the height of wildflower season is always a pleasure, not to mention the fact that we were planning to eat at Must Be Heaven in Brenham. That is truly a reason to get excited -- I won't drive an hour and a half to eat just anywhere!

The Antique Rose Emporium is located in Independence, Texas, a little town just outside of Brenham, another somewhat larger town (famous for Blue Bell Ice Cream). They have a thriving mail order business, and this retail outlet is kind of a demonstration garden. In looking online I read many lukewarm to negative posts about the ARE; most complaints were about the condition of the roses and the beds -- leggy and blackspotted plants in weedy beds. I didn't find this to be the case on our trip, and I'm also not sure why people would expect to find ideal conditions in the middle of the Texas summer, or after weeks of rain.
Things were lookin' good to us! My advice is go in the early spring. It looked very well-stocked to me, although wouldn't cha know, they were sold out of a rose I wanted -- an orange Livin' Easy. The one I bought last year at the MG plant sale gave up the ghost -- I think I planted it too late and the summer was brutal. Instead I bought a Caldwell Pink. This is a "found" Polyantha that some experts believe to be the China rose known as "Pink Pet". (See the link for more info.) It's supposed to bloom profusely all summer and that was my main requirement. Also important is that it is cold hardy, and heat and drought hardy, and resistant to disease and pests. Sounds like a winner to me! My rose is literally covered with buds, but it's a late bloomer, so I didn't take a picture of it. I will once they open.

I did take pictures of some of the roses at the ARE like this gorgeous yellow rose. No, I don't remember what it is! I gotta learn to take notes while I'm taking pictures but I've never been that organized.
Part of the attraction at the ARE is not just the individual plants, but the way they are grown and displayed. I'm not sure if this is called a trellis -- seems like it should have its own name -- but it was absolutely spectacular with the pink roses cascading down on all sides! There are lots and lots of roses and other plants for sale, but also, as I mentioned, demonstration gardens to give the customer some clever ideas about how to use roses in the landscape. Wonder how much this would cost? I didn't ask...you know the expression about if you need to ask...
This gorgeous white rose really got me thinking about what I can set up for some climbing roses. Our property is mostly shady, but we finally made some raised beds in the vegetable garden for roses, and they are doing great! So now I want to make some more beds and get some "mannerly" climbers like this one.

We've all seen this use of a "flower bed" before, but it got me fired up again about dragging out the antique bed frame that has been languishing in the barn, and making it a home for some deserving plants. By the way, the ARE is all about roses, but not totally. If you're not in the market for a rose, it's worth the trip to see the gardens, and then have a look at the annuals and perennials they have for sale. Charlene and I both bought several herbs that were healthy and inexpensive, and there were lots of other plants I wanted to buy but I restrained myself. Just thinking about the 40 or so plants in my potting shed waiting to go in the ground is a sobering and restraining thought!

Everything is so beautifully arranged and displayed and crying out "take me home!" that it is really easy to buy more than you can deal with, which is what usually happens to me when plant shopping!
I had my hair cut this morning and Brian, my hair sylist, said he had been to a wedding last weekend at The Antique Rose Emporium. If anyone is interested, you must supply your own food and drink, etc. -- all they supply is the venue, but what a venue it is! How about walking down this aisle! You wouldn't have to buy any flowers! Probably not too great for a summer wedding, but April brides, take note!

Rockport Birthday

April 17th was my birthday and I really wanted to take a little trip as Martin and I hadn't been anywhere together in a very long time. After considering various destinations I decided on Rockport. Neither of us had ever been there and I had heard that it offered a nice combination of beach, art, shops, and nature. We headed down there on Thursday, April 15th -- a bad day for some but our taxes were done the week before, nanner nanner. Martin didn't want to go through Houston and we wanted to see an incredible wildflower display. When I tell you that we drove to Rockport via Brenham you will understand that we took a very scenic and indirect route! (look at a map!) The wildflowers were indeed incredible! The very best area was between New Ulm and Columbus -- I think it was Hwy 109. Awesome! We tried to go to the museum in Victoria but it was closed so we had to settle for lunch instead -- some pretty good Mexican food.

We actually were staying in Fulton which is next to Rockport and they just blend together unless you notice a city limits sign. We went directly to a goup of cottages called "Living on Island Time" which were located on Broadway just two blocks from the bay. You can see our cute little yellow cottage ("Fin and Feathers") below. It was quite small but clean and fresh and had everything we needed and more. We got unpacked and drove around and scoped out the town. We had some drinks at Moondog (spicy Bloody Mary for me -- yum!) and later seafood at a restaurant just blocks from our cottage called "Charlotte Plummer's." Coincidence: a close family friend from my childhood was named Charlotte Plummer so it seemed a good place to eat -- and indeed it was!

The weather was not looking good on Friday, but at least the wind had died down a little from 50 mph. We planned an inside day. First we went to the Rockport Art Center where they just happened to be showing the annual juried show of the Texas Watercolor Society. That was great to see -- so many excellent paintings! And of course some not-so-excellent ones, but that just makes it more fun. Martin and I just love to critique! If you click on the link you can see the whole show. My favorite painting was "The Long Wait" by Susan Montague. This watercolor had everything -- a great composition, excellent technique, and content. You will not really be able to see her technique on the computer screen and you may even wonder why it's my favorite. The technique involved many layers of washes carving out the figure and creating beautiful colors on paper. Other favorites included "Green Stair" by Bill Bailey, "Fourteen" by Linda Sherman, "Peaceful in Pennsylvania" by Joyce Hicks, "All Aboard II" by Pam Stanley, and "Waiting for Her" by Duncan Simmons. It was great to see works by two of my favorite watercolorists -- Dan Burt and John Salminen, and also really cool to see one by an old Junction friend, Mary Lambeth. Kudos to the artists!

We also went to several art galleries on South Austin Street. One stood out from the others as having some excellent art not just aimed at the beach tourist -- The St. Charles Art Gallery. We did a little antiquing, had a good lunch, and then headed over to the Rockport Cemetery. It was truly a beautiful place as they don't mow and the whole place was covered with wildflowers. I'm not sure how great it looks at other times of the year, but in April it is truly spectacular! Don't tell but we drank a bottle of champagne while we there and had a lovely time!

On Saturday we were ready for some outdoor adventures, even though the weather was still not cooperating fully. The temperature was great but it was overcast and the forecast was 60% chance of rain. In spite of that we drove out to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a 3440 acre area just north of Rockport on the bay. Apparently this area was a historic port for European immigrants but was destroyed by several devastating hurricanes in the 1880's. We missed the whooping crane season, but expected to see lots and lots of birds and were somewhat disappointed. Because we were there at midday we didn't really expect to see any of the mammals that inhabit the area -- javelinas, feral hogs, bobcats, armadillos, etc. -- but we expected the place to be teeming with water birds and it wasn't. We did see deer, several alligators, a snake (variety undetermined), ducks, egrets, herons, and some other birds. It just felt good to be outside and walking, and although it wasn't a beautiful day, we didn't get rained on. Here is a view from a pretty cool observation tower.

That night, my birthday, we ate at Hemmingways, which had a lovely ambiance and yummy food. The next day, Sunday, we packed up and drove home by a slightly more direct route. The flowers were not as spectacular, but we went through some towns that we had never been to -- Port Lavaca, Bay City, and Wharton to name a few. We went to an excellent antique store in Wharton on the square, and it looked like there were quite a few others but we were running out of time. Have to go back sometime! Again we ate Mexican food on the way home, and got back in time to spring Sparky from his accommodations at the Biscuit!

I'm calling the picture below "This is what 60 looks like" and I hope I don't regret posting it! It's no glamour shot -- no makeup! -- but you can see the progress of my going gray, and even though it was very windy and I was making kind of a funny face, I was having a great time and that's what I think of when I look at it! So happy birthday to me! ;-D

My Studio: Before and After

So I haven't been creating much art in the last few months for several reasons. One is that I've been concentrating on the marketing aspect -- something that's been neglected for most of my art career. So lately I've been on the computer making an Etsy shop, starting this blog, reading the blogs of other artists, creating business cards. etc. etc. Another reason is that other stuff always gets in the way -- my teaching, Master Gardener activities, yoga, my dog, and let's even go back to Christmas and blame that too. But probably the main reason is that my studio has descended into a godawful mess where I can't find anything I'm looking for, and there are not clean surfaces to work on. See exhibit A above.

So when I'd think about going out to my studio, then I'd remember that first I would have to clean up before I could ever get anything creative going. I would tell myself to just clean a little area, and then everytime I'm out there, just do a little more. I used to like to go out there even if I wasn't going to paint or make a collage -- I'd just sit out there in my comfy pink-striped chair and read a good book or some art magazines, or listen to music, or whatever -- and just enjoy my beautiful space. But I started noticing that I just didn't want to go out there at all, and that is NOT a good thing. I'm not sure how this happens...how the mess gets so out of hand. But it's certainly not the first time! I was about to leave for Slaton, and I didn't want to go out there and hopefully get pumped up about making art, and then come home and lose all my motivation because I couldn't work in my space.
This called for drastic measures!

So I hired my friend Paula to help me. She came the day after I got back from Slaton so there would be no time to get unmotivated. She was the perfect person for the job. She was actually looking for little cleaning/organizing jobs so I wasn't asking her to do something she didn't want to do. She's an artist so she understands my frustration and she has respect for my materials and my stuff. She's pretty ruthless and helped me get rid of stuff that was taking up space that had little meaning or relevance to my art. She was great about asking questions like "What would you think about moving that piece of furniture over to the other side of the room?" or "How useful is this to you where you have it?" or "How long have you had this anyway?" without being TOO pushy.

That box of exotic wood veneers from around the world that I've had since 1973 and have never used for anything? Chucked it. The sketchbooks from my Art Appreciation class from two semesters ago? Bye bye! The huge bag of lace that I was maybe going to use someday to apply textures to paintings? Taking it to Bluebonnet to sell for next to nothing.

This is one of my problems -- my studio is a multi-use space. I not only use it for creating art, but it's also a holding area for stuff i.e. antiques, collectibles, and junque that I'm going to take to Bluebonnet Square Antiques, an antique mall in Huntsville where I sell this stuff. Well, I sell some of it. My booth there is sometimes fondly referred to as "my museum" where the public is welcome to come and admire my very cool stuff. So all of that stuff has been moved to one area, and the last week of April is my target for getting as much as possible inventoried and into the shop. Here you can see two pictures of the same area -- before and after -- that really illustrate the magic worked by Paula.

We didn't get totally finished on that Monday but ran out of time. But a huge amount was accomplished! I still have boxes of stuff to sort through and purge and/or organize, but I can do that in my own time and that stuff is no longer in the way preventing me from working. It's slightly pathetic that I need to involve another person in cleaning up my mess, but we had fun and now it's done and I have no regrets! THANK YOU PAULA!!!

Slaton Sojourn

It seems that I am always a week or two behind in posting, and this post is about a trip I took with friends to Slaton, Texas, about 20 miles southeast of Lubbock. We were there for three days leading into the Easter weekend. Our destination was the wonderful studio/living space/gallery of a friend, artist, and former instructor who is on the art faculty at Texas Tech. Her space was a former furniture store in downtown Slaton, and as it is about 9000 square feet, you can imagine that it is a magnificent space! Just so you don't have to totally imagine it, the picture above shows two of her very cool sculptures on a little "stage" in front of a window that looks out on one of the state highways that runs through downtown Slaton. Awesome windows and check out the vintage flooring!

The stated purpose of the visit was "art retreat" and we did indeed do some art-making, but that was in between catching up, eating, antiquing, planning meals, walking, cooking, driving, eating out, exploring, and conversing about food. ;-D That's how I see it, but doubt anyone else did! All kidding aside we did get some nice blocks of studio time. Here is Ann Marie hard at work, and I love the light in this photo!

We made a couple of side trips, like to Post for Trade Days (don't bother!), but the one to Ransom Canyon to see the famous Robert Bruno house was very worthwhile. Bruno was a faculty member of the Architecture Department at Tech, and he built this house out of welded steel. The house is almost all steel on the outside, and a good proportion of the inside as well. Of course I had forgotten my camera so here is one from the internet. If you click on the link there is an interesting article. Apparently it took Bruno almost 30 years to build the house, and it's a pretty amazing sight hanging there overlooking the lake.

There was a dinner party the last night we were there that included other Art Dept. faculty and two California artists who have started a project called Earthbound Moon. As it says on their website, "Earthbound Moon is a noncontiguous sculpture garden, discrete parcels of land spaced across the face of the Earth, each parcel the home to a publicly accessible sculpture. " The first site is in Bledsoe, Texas which is not far from Slaton and that's why the artists were visiting. It was pretty fascinating to hear about their vision, and it was an enjoyable evening.

I got a start on some little paintings that I think may evolve into a new series. These were fun to paint, and I'll do some similar but larger pieces next. This one is called "Woodland I" and I'll probably list it sometime soon in my Etsy shop CynART.

Thanks to our hostess for a wonderfully special visit, and to all of us for being so much fun!