Friendship,Family and Home

Friendship, family and home are the real gifts that God has giving us. Wishing all my blogger friends a wonderful Holiday.

Rekindling my Spirit

My niece, Lauren heard I was still sick with pneumonia, and sent me this beautiful flower arrangement. The little girl with Santa is me.

The next day her mom surprised me with this lovely Christmas arrangement.

Trying to lift my spirits yesterday, I took the flowers outside to photograph hoping the images will inspired me to paint.

It was four weeks ago that I was diagnosed with pneumonia, and I have to say it has not been fun. My head is so ready to get moving again but my body isn't cooperating. I still have a persistent cough and lack energy. Thursday my doctor recommended that I shouldn't return to work until after the holidays. To say that I'm not fighting depression would be a lie. Yesterday I took a few photographs and went on a short walk outside with my husband. It felt so good to get out of the house. This morning I ordered Heather Smith Jone's new book, Water Paper Paint in another attemp to lift my spirits. Todays goal is getting my watercolors out and painting my flowers. Wish me luck...

Post Thanksgiving

The table my daughter,Jessie and son, Luciano set for this years Thanksgiving dinner.

Father and daughter getting ready to carve the turkey.

This was Jessie's first time preparing the Thanksgiving feast.

Our son, Gian's pecan pie.

Three days before Thanksgiving I was diagnosed with pneumonia. Some of you may have noticed I haven't been posting much lately. I've never felt so bad. But our daughter, Jessie took over the show. She had my favorite cookbook in hand and only casually asked my husband or me for advice. She did an outstanding job! The turkey was both beautiful and delicious, I did take pictures but for some reason their not on the camera. (I really wasn't allowed in the kitchen but kept sneaking in to document the occasion.) So a special Thank you to my daughter for stepping up to the plate and cooking her first Thanksgiving dinner.
Much love, mom

It was Celebration Time

Friday night was the big celebration. My new line of artwork was displayed, Artful Blogger magazines were all through the house, and lots of yummy food and wine were on hand for everyone's enjoyment. This was the first and last picture that my husband managed to take that evening. So many of my good friends attended the celebration, the house was truly filled with merriment! My husband was entertaining in one room while I was busy selling artwork in the other that not another photo was taken. Who would of thought I needed to hire a photographer. Thank you to all my wonderful and supportive friends, I truly felt loved.

Tribute to my husband

Sometimes we are so busy in our daily routines we forget to notice the accomplishments and talent of the people we live with. I must admit, the past few months have been crazy at home. Everyone is busy pursuing their dreams. Notes are posted on the refrigerator or left on the table with messages reading, can you pick me up? I'll be here, don't forget... You get the idea, we have all been there.
Well, one person in our home quietly goes about his day, walks the dog, makes dinner, picks up our son after late night rehearsals and spends countless hours in his home studio glued to the computer editing his photographs. The photographs will be used for ads and websites that he designs for clients.
I almost never look at what he's working on because I'm caught up with teaching, painting, blogging, housework, or driving our son all over town. This morning, as I was checking the latest news on "facebook," our good friend and Glass Artist, Nancy Gong had posted a link to her website with photographs of a recent installation. I followed the link to her new page. I stared with amazement at the beautiful architectural photographs and the gorgeous design of the new page. Good heavens, I discovered that the work was produced by my very own husband. Wow!
So today I'm spotlighting a very talented artist who shares his life with me, my husband, Chris Maggio. Your talent and creativity far exceeds anything I could create. I'm so proud of you!
Chris just finished-up the Erie Station Village website, and just started a site this morning, you can probably see a beta page at Zweigles.

Happy Halloween

Just finished a wonderful on-line class with Susan Tuttle, called Ghostly Figures.
Thought you might enjoy seeing an example of what I learned from the workshop. The lovely ghost is my grandmother.
Happy Halloween.

I've been published!

Good news fellow bloggers! I've been featured in the current issue of Artful Blogging Magazine.
I'm very excited to have been published for my first time. What an experience it has been. I recall reading about artists Karen Cole, Stephanie Hilvitz, and Alisa Burke to name a few in past issues and hope that my article will inspire others like they influenced me.

Sketch for a new painting

Updating my sketchbook for our next project at school. I got carried away painting the glazing steps for my example. The next thing I knew the gesso was out and of course my beloved newspaper. When it was finished, I thought it looked nice enough to transfer to a larger canvas.

First Video (Lync's instinct test for herding)

This is my first attempt at making a video. Eventually I would like to produce small video clips featuring local artist for my art students. Sorry about the lack of sound... it was such a windy day that all you could hear was the wind so it was turned down. I'm taking baby steps with editing. Hopefully, by next spring you will see a big improvement.



Saturday we took our two year old German Shepherd, Lync vom Fichtenschlag , to "White Clover Sheep Farm" in the Finger Lakes. He was there for an instinct test to evaluate whether or not he has potential as a herding dog. By passing the test, he can start training to earn an HGH herding title with Ulf Kintzel, the owner and trainer at White Cover Sheep Farm. Lync is from a long line of protection Shepherds from Germany, and I'm pretty sure he had never seen a cow let alone sheep. It was quite an experience, and yes he did have that natural instinct to patrol and one day herd sheep. Lync will be a true German shepherd working dog.

Acorn looking Gourd

Students in my drawing class have been learning pen and watercolor techniques this week. Today was the first day of watercolor. Everyone was given one gourd and asked to sketch it, paint it and then ink it using a pen.
This gourd looked so much like an acorn I just had to share with you.

Last spring I purchased these en expensive opaque watercolor cakes from Sax's art supply catalog. A few of the colors look very similar.
Students were asked to paint a swatch of each color in their sketchbook, then # each color. This way they could record which colors were used for the painting. My recipe was written on the side.

Love Fall &Painted Newspaper

Just love the colors of fall leaves. After my morning run the other day, I spent time collecting a few samples to use in my sketchbook.

Better yet I decided to illustrate the leaves with a few of my favorite acorns on old newspaper.

I don't know what it is about recycling newspaper. But it has become one of my favorite papers to paint and draw on. I have a wall of papers in my studio just waiting for me to find of a good use for. Bare with me you will see where this is going.

"Unusual Fun"
3 x 4.5'
acrylic and mixed media
The start of a new series of larger paintings.

Just love the Fall colors. Inspiration from the leaves.

Close up of the recycled paper that was added to the painting.

A good friend asked me to apply for membership to the "Arena Art Group" awhile back. The Arena Art Group is a club for contemporary artists. At the time I didn't have an idea for a new series of artwork to show them, but maybe I have an idea.
I love unusual combination's and this week decided to paint a pepper and peach. Looking around the studio for something to add to the painting my eyes rested on all the hand painted newspapers hanging on the wall. Why not collage my newspapers to the painting.
To my students, keeping a sketchbook/journal is a wonderful way to record what inspires you and sometimes leads to bigger ideas.

Color Theory and the Recipe Book

This summer I took another on-line class with Alisa Burke called "Color your World." It's a fun class on color theory, and even though I have my masters in painting I knew Alisa would come up with something new that would excite both my students and I. I'm not giving away any secrets you'll have to take her course.
The past few weeks I've been super busy revamping all my classes. One of the projects has been designing a new way to incorporate the sketchbook into my curriculum. No longer is the sketchbook used for homework rather it has become my students' "Recipe Book." All instruction for new projects will be recorded in the Recipe Book.
As you can tell from the photo, our first project was reviewing color theory.

The students are now ready to paint, and we are using our recipe book to record the process. This is the example I shared with the students last week.

This week, students will be selecting a color scheme of their choice and creating a color palette of it in their recipe book. Its very important that they record what colors were used to create the palette. I keep reminding them in ten years they will be able to come back to their book to see the recipe for their first painting.
After each project, students hand in their book and art work for grading. So far the recipe book idea is working great! Hope you all enjoyed the glimpse into my classroom.

My favorite sidekick is two years old

Lync turned two years old today. He continues to entertain me daily, and never hesitates when I ask if he would like to go on an adventure.

Mary Whyte "Labor of Love"

Mary Whyte is one of my favorite watercolor artist. I own several of her books and reference her work when I'm teaching watercolor to my painting students. This past weekend she was featured on the CBS Sunday Morning show. Just had to post this video for my students. Hope you all enjoy as much as I did.

Final Watercolor Deer Hill

Here is the final watercolor of the Deer Hill suite at
The old Rhinebeck Inn.
I also posted the ink drawing again so you could see the process.
After loading the pictures I realized I should have included the two thumbnail color studies that were done before working on the final piece.
Just love the head board, look at all the detail.

Sunflower Heaven

It has been a busy two weeks. My mother had surgery that didn't go as planned and I got behind on my studio work. Today I decided to take a needed day off from responsibilities.
We spent the morning at the flea market and on the way home couldn't resist stopping at this field of sunflowers and taking pictures. Hope your enjoying your Sunday.

Ink drawings for the Rhinebeck Inn

I was commissioned to paint four paintings for the Rhinebeck Inn.
This is a detail from the Deer Hill suite.

This is the Rye Field suite.

An another view of the Rye Field room.

This is the Spirited Dove suite.

A detail of the old chest from the Spirited Dove room, did you notice the date? The inn keeper didn't ask for a painting of the antique chest. It was so lovely I couldn't help myself. This ones for me.

The Plow & Harrow is the final suite.
Tomorrow I will start adding the watercolor, and by the end of the week you will see the final paintings.

Pursuing his dreams...

This summer, my son Luciano was pursuing his dreams of acting by attending Geva Theatre's
Summer Academy. Geva's summer academy is a five-week professional theatre training program for 30 selected young actors. The students took courses in acting, voice and diction, movement, monologues, expansions and improvisations.

This year's camp celebrated Modern theater. The 2010 showcase was based on Ray Bradbury's classic novel, Fahrenheit 451.
Luciano's character was the young boy in the adaptation from Shipwrecked by Donald Margulies.

Final photograph of the entire cast and directors. Bravo to all! It was an amazing show.

Proud parents

Grandparents Marlene and Donald Maggio

Great Aunt Georgia and Grandma Jane

Just love this picture, and I wonder where my children get their creative expression from.