For many years I held an open studio at the beginning of December, in conjunction with a local Craft Studio Tour. This was a several day event, and because my house WAS my studio and the art WAS the walls as well as what was hanging on them, it meant that my whole house was on show. In the beginning I tried to clean the place up, but after a few years I let the perfectionism relax and the house just be the exhibit, messy studios and all! So it was that when earlier this year a viewer of this blog commented that she would love to see some more of my ART, I thought I might try to hold an Open Studio in my blogland world. Before you get your hopes up that I will be showing you ALL my studios here in my new house, I will tell you they are too messy and NOT ready for showing! That will have to come another day. But to make amends for making you wait, I will show you ONE wall of my new house. This is the wall where I hang the Christmas Cards I have drawn over the years. Every year I draw a picture that I send out to family and friends, and over time it became a scrap book of the family history, because I always drew from what had happened during that year. The drawings started out as pen and ink, and eventually added watercolor paint as color reproduction became affordable. These are each 8.5 by 11 inches in dimension. There are now more than 25 of them..... they continue on another wall. Sorry about the poor lighting..... poke the pictures to have a closer look!
And then, just to make amends further for leading you on about seeing ART.... I will take you with me as Pollyanna goes Christmas shopping! She has heard of a new bunch of shops that have opened up with some Galleries she wants to check out! They are in a new up and coming part of town and there is a sweet little park nearby.
Pollyanna stops to have a look. Should she walk through the snow to see the little pond? She's NOT wearing her snow boots!
The first shop she comes to is "Serendip Gallery". It has Old World paintings on display.
The owner is Will Peters Ott. He is from Europe, of the Switzerland Otts. He has many connections in Europe and imports fine art for his Gallery.
Pollyanna immediately starts thinking of filling the walls of the Lovely Old Dollhouse with Old World portraits.
Mr. Ott is very charming and knows a great deal about all his art.
Pollyanna is particularly taken with a couple of portraits of beautiful women from long ago.
(Just in case you were curious, I painted these MANY years ago when I was in my teens. They are not entirely original, as I was copying from actual portraits that were in a volume of costume history I owned. They are acrylic on cardboard with a varnish coating. The frames were also carved by me.)
Will Peters Ott also owns the shop next door "Otts and Ends", where he displays antique furniture and textiles.
He is only too happy to show Pollyanna around this Gallery as well.
Pollyanna sees many things she would love to buy.... but she really is trying to do some Christmas shopping! So perhaps she will be back.
The next shop is "Aileens Basement". It is owned by Mr. Aileen. It is not as "high end" as Will's shop. It has a little bit of everything from old bathroom fixtures to old bicycles.
Pollyanna immediately spots an old dollhouse in one corner.... should she get that for Annabelle? Is Annabelle old enough for such a fine old dollhouse? Hmmm... she will have to think about this some more. Perhaps she will be back.
The shop next door is run by Mr. Aileen's wife, Sherry. It is called "The Jewel Box" and is a Gallery catering to modern, little known, but perhaps up and coming artists. Pollyanna is intrigued.
The space has such a clean and polished look after the mess next door!
Sherry introduces herself and explains that the current artist she is showing is a multi-disciplined artist. She has only watercolors to show in this exhibit, but knows this artist also does murals, and furniture and sculpture.....
Pollyanna wants to see every painting.
It seems this artist has traveled in foreign lands!
This one is from Scotland....
And Switzerland......
And very recognizeably Greece!
And Sherry explains that this artist is also known to have painted directly in BOOKS!
Pollyanna wants to see every painting.
It seems this artist has traveled in foreign lands!
This one is from Scotland....
And Switzerland......
And very recognizeably Greece!
And Sherry explains that this artist is also known to have painted directly in BOOKS!
In fact, she has one on exhibit here if you want to take a peek.....
Pollyanna says "You mean she painted these directly in the book?"
Here, have a closer look!
And another page......
(This book was bought in Florence, Italy, a blank book. I painted on some of the pages, intending it to be a sort of sampler, with examples to use in later works, a scrap book of sorts.)
And of course, a few more paintings.... this one from Scotland again.
(These paintings are each about 2 inches square, and were painted in another small book that I carried with me on my travels. These framed versions are photocopies of the originals.)
And another painting, slightly larger than the others....... Pollyanna really likes this one....
(Sorry about all the reflections on the glass... they are hard to photograph...)
And yet another, this one a bit different from the others.
Pollyanna wishes she had enough money to buy some of these..... and somewhere to hang them!
She will have to come back to this Gallery again after Christmas!
When she steps outside again, it has grown dark... the days are so short at this time of the year! But the lights are lit and the shops all look so festive!
She passes Will Ott's Gallery and waves to him! She will be back!
So dear readers, I have not shown you my studios... but I have shown another glimpse of my miniature ART. Some of this was intended for the dollhouse world, and some was not..... and it only occurs to me now that some of it might work well in the dollhouse world!
And now I will confess that today I had INTENDED to work on drawing this year's Christmas Card! It is on the drawing table and already started, but NOT YET DONE!
And instead I have PLAYED with my dolls!
This is a shot of the set-up in my basement...... about the only place left in my house where there is room for a row of shops - tucked into cubby hole shelves!
It is dark as Pollyanna heads home past the snow covered park...... she thinks about the star-filled sky and Three Kings setting out to take gifts to a new born babe....
She still has a LOT of shopping left to do!
Pollyanna says "You mean she painted these directly in the book?"
Here, have a closer look!
And another page......
(This book was bought in Florence, Italy, a blank book. I painted on some of the pages, intending it to be a sort of sampler, with examples to use in later works, a scrap book of sorts.)
And of course, a few more paintings.... this one from Scotland again.
(These paintings are each about 2 inches square, and were painted in another small book that I carried with me on my travels. These framed versions are photocopies of the originals.)
And another painting, slightly larger than the others....... Pollyanna really likes this one....
(Sorry about all the reflections on the glass... they are hard to photograph...)
And yet another, this one a bit different from the others.
Pollyanna wishes she had enough money to buy some of these..... and somewhere to hang them!
She will have to come back to this Gallery again after Christmas!
When she steps outside again, it has grown dark... the days are so short at this time of the year! But the lights are lit and the shops all look so festive!
She passes Will Ott's Gallery and waves to him! She will be back!
So dear readers, I have not shown you my studios... but I have shown another glimpse of my miniature ART. Some of this was intended for the dollhouse world, and some was not..... and it only occurs to me now that some of it might work well in the dollhouse world!
And now I will confess that today I had INTENDED to work on drawing this year's Christmas Card! It is on the drawing table and already started, but NOT YET DONE!
And instead I have PLAYED with my dolls!
This is a shot of the set-up in my basement...... about the only place left in my house where there is room for a row of shops - tucked into cubby hole shelves!
It is dark as Pollyanna heads home past the snow covered park...... she thinks about the star-filled sky and Three Kings setting out to take gifts to a new born babe....
She still has a LOT of shopping left to do!
Pollyanna Goes Shopping
