With all the welcome recent rain it finally seems like winter – cool, quiet days to spend indoors engrossed in my many art projects.  I used to far prefer spring and summer, but in the past few years I have come to appreciate these wintry months as time to gather and rebuild energy for the flurry of activities that come in the spring and summer.  This wintry month brings two of my favorite holidays, Valentine’s Day and, yes, Groundhog Day!  It’s hard to imagine that as of February 2 there would ever not be six more weeks of winter, but each year the news media flocks to Punxsutawney, PA, to see what groundhog Phil has to say about it. 

But how to relate groundhogs and valentines to art?  Well, I suppose many of us are motivated in our art by our love for our subjects whether they be flowers, landscapes, people, animals, or the abstract interplay of form and color.  As I contemplate my paintings I see that I have certainly painted what I love – animals.  But I see that there are other things I love that I have failed to portray.  These are more abstract things like a sense of play, or a sense of mystery.  And although I love color, my paintings seem to have limited and repeated palettes.  This year I’m going to work on putting more of what I love into my art.

As for groundhogs, I think of the “unsung subject.”  Years ago I took a watercolor class from the wonderful teacher Chris Rex.  One of her assignments was to paint the “unsung subject” – items that we don’t usually think of as playing starring roles in “fine” art.  I suppose Andy Warhol’s soup cans is the obvious example.   So in honor of little Phil, this year I will pay attention to things that seem small or insignificant and find what’s special about them.

Happy painting, everyone!

Kaaren Poole

Calendar: 

Feb. 9 - Board Meeting, Raley’s, Placerville
Thru Feb. 11th - 3D Show at EDAC’s ArtSpace Center
Feb. 19 -  General Meeting, Senior Center, Placerville

Tuesday mornings - Come paint with us!
at the Placerville Sr. Center -  9:00 am - 11:30 am

February Meeting Program

Have you had issues in entering images of your work into art shows that accept only digital images?  Then this lecture/demo is for you!  More and more art shows that you enter currently request digital images of your work, or soon will be.  If  you are confused as to how to “digitize” your work, this will give you a start.  Bill Robinson will show you the basic steps and how to do them so that the next time you enter an art show, your work will be available to the judge in the best presentation possible. 

Come on out to the Feb. 19th meeting and learn how to do it!