floatin

floatin, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Here is another new one of mine, made from a gelatin monotype background, detailing the top layer with the ink birds. This piece sums up my weekend - floating along on a layer of happiness with the ones I love. Thank you dear ones for a beautiful weekend!

New Monotype birds

Just a quick fly in to show and tell a few of my new works on paper...
These monotypes (the backgrounds) have been percolating for the past year. I loved the rusty look of the orange and the multi-subtle colors of the ink on gelatin too much to go further with them for what seemed like ages. Then I saw the electrical lines inside most of the images.
The colors always seemed sort of junkyard industrial rusting metal peeling billboard signish to me.
Now the birds have roosted there and I am happy to call them done.
Happy weekend, mother's day (isn't it the finest holiday ever invented?) and most of all happy spring.
We are off to the garden with fresh-from-freshman-year-finished daughter Grace and almost-14-Chloe.

Overnight Art!

I have my installation date now for my Overnight Art piece. You are all invited. I think we are going to have a "cherry picker" involved and no, I won't have to be in it.
(phew) This is very exciting for me and I hope some of you will feel free to come along and join me celebrate... here are the details:

Piece: Large Scale Banner & Window Decal at Parking Garage
Location: Hanover Street Parking Garage, Portsmouth, NH
Installation Date: Wednesday, May 21, 10 a.m.

I will also have the original (8x10inches)work and other similar "birds" on paper available at Nahcotta throughout the summer.

stacey esslinger tea pot

stacey esslinger tea pot, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

We just opened up some new beautiful ceramics from stacey esslinger- a nh artist who has been making handbuilt ceramics with her family heirlooms now for about 5 years.
This teapot has a matching sugar and creamer and teacups. It is so incredibly made that a mere photograph does it little justice...buttons and texture with a form that is quite unique....she slipglazes all the details. Makes my head spin! In the shop this week. Click through the photo to see more of what we unpacked!

Paper Mache - Little Projects Tutorial

first you tape together two recycled styrofoam cups and then add a third for the top!

then you mix up the goo (white glue and water) and dip your paper strips in!

you paint it pretty colors with acrylic paint and then add visual texture with bubble wrap - POP!

pick some stray branches up outside and take small tissue squares and wad them up.
dip them into a little white glue and press them onto the branches!

With a couple of my younger students we made some mother's day gifts with recycled foam cups, paper mache and acrylic paint. Yesterday we made little "flowering" branches to tuck inside.
Sweet and handmade. Just the way we like it!

Heather Palmer glass nests

New colors of glass nests just arrived from Heather Palmer. Ruby red is now my favorite!
Rootbeer, charcoal, clear, seablue,steelblue and a pretty deep lilac. All in the shop!

Busy wonderful weekend!

Hello Monday! The sun has finally arrived back in our neck of the woods and is a welcomed sight after a long rainy week/end. Our Modern Spring opening was a smash and we are thrilled to offer such a variety of work through this exhibit, both online and in person (do drop in!)
mary o malley's wall
In other news, we have joined the large community of sporting leagues - *yes you read that right* here in Rochester and we now support a girls softball league. GO team artstream! Opening day was Saturday and the off and on showers did NOT dampen our team's spirits. They are a great strong group of girls and we are proud to be part of the gang. Someone mentioned that we should unfurl a piece of large artwork during the 7th inning stretch...
artstream team

team artstream member at the opening of Modern Spring
A couple of shots of the gallery from Saturday when we were just about done for the day. View more of them at my flickr and online shop.

albina mcphail

Modern Spring Opens!

Happy Friday all - we have the show up in the shop and it's ready to roll ... here's a little photo from last night's hanging and set up. Hope to see you tonight... or just drop by the shop!

Modern Spring

heather smith jones

albina mc phail

mary o'malley

small vase #1 megan bogonovich

susan schwake

erik boettcher

Our new show Modern Spring, featuring Heather Smith Jones, Albina McPhail and Mary O'Malley opens tomorrow night right here at artstream. As always, the work will be in the shop and ready to go at 5 p.m. tomorrow night. Along with these lovely ladies 2-d work - (it's all mixed media) we will have 28 new modern springtime vases from Megan Bogonovich and new smaller and larger pieces from Erik Boettcher!

Each artist has a wonderful range of work from small art and vases starting at $35 and going up to larger scale works. Most of the work in the main gallery is on paper, with Albina's pieces are in canvas.
In the equinox gallery we have new works from Erik Boettcher and yours truly - my little fruit collages.
So here is a little peek - more to come... busy today with paint, filler, sander, you have heard my drill before...
Have a great sunny Thursday!

House on the Hill

front stairs, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Last day of our 5th year anniversary show "at home"... things are not all packed up however, they will be in the shop for another month. Please do stop by! Above is Megan Bogonovich's "House on the Hill". It's gone, but there are other beauties...right here at the shop.
Later today we will peek at our new show:
Modern Spring!

Trio in blue

trio in blue, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Just a little shot from my Black Bean show. One piece on the wall near the condiment station! The cafe was closing so I took some really bad photos, this was the best!
It was really a wonderful show with a piece selling off before I got there. Taking it down tomorrow and adding some pieces to the equinox show coming up. Ooooh the work is pouring in for the next show and it is so beautiful. Sneak peeks starting tomorrow! Heather Smith Jones with springtime goodness, Mary O'Malley and her amazing drawings and collage work and Albina McPhail's new darling buds of May. Did I mention that Megan Bogonovich dropped off her 28 vases today too? Just you wait. You won't believe it! It's the spring-i-est show ever.

Do something good Monday

Hello all!
Today at my little etsy shop I am donating 50% of all my sales to the Concord Hospital Breast Cancer ward. One of our street team members was diagnosed with her baseline mammogram and so everyone on the street team is trying to help out today. We also have three friends working their way through surgery, chemo and radiation and so it honors them all.
Lots of little cards, tiny affordable art and smaller sized works to behold there.

Heather Palmer in a design magazine from Israel

Heather Palmer in a design magazine from Isreal, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

We just got the magazine from Israel (and what a beautiful design magazine this is!) with Heather Palmer's work in it.So deserving and what a good fit with the other work on this page. We sent photos a few months ago and I had forgotten about it so it was a surprise when it landed here today!
Click through the image to browse some other pages from the magazine. I am not huge on photographing magazines, but this one is just incredible!

across the gallery

across the gallery, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Just a little shot of the gallery late afternoon. it's such a pleasant place to work.

Leora Lutz

New works from the lovely Leora Lutz of Gallery Revisited fame - tiny gems of LA skylines translated into beautiful works on deep canvases. Above is Southern Lilacs. We have four in the shop - all different - all original little works of art.
Sorry for the gap in posts - I have been away spending time with family in Boston and playing a little hooky with the fabulous spring weather we have been enjoying! More soon...

Awards night

Well, due to some unforseen scheduling conflicts, we couldn't attend the Spotlight Awards last night - but we are thrilled to report two of our artists won! Amber Lavalley for best painter and Abby Glassenberg for best sculptor. Hooray!

Mushroom love

square red mushroom goccos, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Poison pen letters anyone? No no no no, just a little spring undergrowth love from my Gocco. These little mushrooms mean no harm. They were so fun to print that I think you will be seeing my work incorporate a lot of them. For now, they are at the shop in the form of fine Italian paper notes.
Happy Spring!

Workin'

sour pickle alien on right, vase from recycled goods on left

one serious group of painters - love them!

a close up of a snapdragon- acrylic painting

making vases, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

This week the studio has been all a-buzz with papermache, painting and general happiness in the art of creating things. I thought it would be fun to show a few of the works in process and the students just having a general fun time of it all.
Summer classes are coming up soon - we just got our new brochures in the mail today - hope to see you all soon!

blossoms

blossoms 8x10 susan schwake
A new watercolor emerged yesterday with the sunshine and hope of a garden full of flowers. Spring folks, is finally here. Out and about today? Check out the fabulous coverage from Milan over at bloseem. Irene has done it again! And Amy Ruppel is over at designsponge guest blogging AND I got a beautiful box from Sandy in California for an exciting artist pass around... but more about that later...

High up

high up acrylic painting
Here is my latest painting in the "atmospheric series" ... entitled "high up"
... it is perfect for this week's IF prompt in my mind. It is a failed rain cloud. Nothing but blue skies.
Here's hoping that is what you have in your neck of the woods.

Gratitude!

green light by rebecca litt

up late #4 by Joe Blajda

house and garden by Megan Bogonovich
Thanks to Poppytalk blog and Darlin Doodles today for mentioning our fifth anniversary (pop over there to get your coupon folks!) and my own work online. Today is a real New England Spring Day with grey skies and rainshowers. Somehow it didn't seem as though yesterday's over-sunshine-summer-feeling would last. But I will take this each and everytime over the dreaded S word.

Have a blast this weekend friends!

fitness

fitness, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Here is another one of my collages from the Black Bean show ... I most particularly like this one because of the beautiful hand written paper in the background. It's old, from Germany and in a lovely "ditto" (for all you ancients out there like me) blue-purple ink.
Busy day today, but hoping to end up meeting Gretchen Wagoner at Nahcotta's opening tonight! If you are around you should go see her lovely things in Portsmouth!
happy friday all.

Art workshop opportunities

clay workshop at artstream last weekend - get in on the fun!
Love to get into the creative process? Want to learn something new? Lots of opportunities here in NH from now until next September! I know I have told you about Megan Bogonovich and her work and peeked in with the camera to her last workshops - but she is at it again this weekend with another clay vessel workshop! Sign up here.
During the months of May and June we will have more clay workshops with Megan and to finally serve the niche of the jewelry maker, some high quality classes with SCAD graduate in metalsmithing - Makala Brown. Check our site right here to learn how to do everything from making a bezel set style earrings to properly stringing a pearl necklace!
Along the way into the summer there are painting classes which travel to outdoor locations and lots of children's fine art camps.

Come fall, I have been asked to participate in the exciting new Squam Arts Workshops with a group of very talented women. Not only does this location at one of our state's most beautiful lakes inspire, but people like Penelope Dullaghan, Andrea Scher, and Misty Mawn will be teaching there too! It's so exciting. Check out the details now right here and register soon - time's a wasting and spots are filling!

eQuinox Show - Jessica Gonacha

Jessica Gonacha has some wonderfully bright springy mixed media works here at the gallery and in our shop now for the month of April. Her work just makes me feel warm inside. Pop through here to see them in the shop!
My favorite (can I really choose just one?) is called "Backyard Swing" and it measures 16x16 inches and packs a punch of color.

Beatrice

beatrice, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

By Megan Bogonovich. She is one sweet girl 15x9x9 inches made from white stoneware. So amazing I can't believe it. One of the many wonders this month at artstream's fifth anniversary show - "at home"
I think she feels quite at home here, don't you think? She will be in the shop with the other works this week.

"at home" opening

the fabulous band!, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Click through the photo to my flickr set to see some of the fun and more of the art from our opening at artstream on Friday night. What a fabulous turn out, wonderful music by the Chris Bernuolli band and just a great time.
Thanks all! All of the work is going into the shop this week, but there are a lot of pieces we still have to photograph. If you have a request for a piece that you see, please don't hesitate to email me!

Almost there ...

hanging, fixing, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Without any further ado - here are some scenes (click through to flickr) from the last few days at artstream. There are still some goodies to make some final touches, but we are getting close to count down to tonight. Yes, snow is flying again, but it's a silly spring snow... lost from it's mother season, teasing us in the air and melting as it hits the ground.
I'll let the photos do the talking and full disclosure on the event at flickr tonight and next week in the shop and here at art esprit! Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed and dropped by, your support is wonderful!

shy

shy, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Here is a collage in my new little solo show at the Black Bean Cafe in Rollinsford, NH.
Click through the photo for more photos of the show...
On the artstream front:
We are working hard to get the details done for our opening tomorrow night!
5 years flies when you are having fun! Photos and details to come!

5 wonderful years!

This month we are celebrating our 5th anniversary of artstream. Above is our invitation to you to join us at the gallery for music (live blues band), nibbles and sips and some of the finest artwork around from three amazing NH artists. More on them a little later. Off to paint and patch some wallspace!

Nantaka Joy arriving!

photos by Karen Wise for nantaka joy
We are pleased to announce the addition of the absolutely beautiful line of cards - Nantaka Joy - to artstream. These cards are pure art, a gift in itself and truly wonderful to hold in your hand. These will be available at our opening on Friday - our 5th Anniversary Exhibition - "at home". More on that later! The cards will be popping into our shop to buy online as well.