Left Behind

Well, a bunch of my art buddies took off this morning for a week of painting together at Port Aransas, on the Gulf Coast. I went with them last year and had a blast. So, I’m bummed to be left behind. An opening came up at the last minute, but I didn’t think I was going to get to go, so I booked other stuff to do. I’ll stay home and clean my house and studio, paint as much as possible and browse some more cool art blogs.

I talked to Patricia Bowler, who will become the President of Southwestern Watercolor Society in June, while we were receiving and hanging the Waterloo Watercolor Group’s Spring Show, yesterday. She has inspired me to send in my dues to SWS, and maybe TWS. It is time that I started upping the anti in my art world. For 35 years I have wished I was good enough to have the SWS after my signature on my paintings. Patricia reminded me that you will never win the Lotto if you never buy a ticket, and you will never be a signature member of SWS if you never join the club. Enough said. I’m in.

I want to congratulate the WWG members on an excellent show, once again. It is a beautiful representation of the talent we have in our organization. I am reminded what a privilege it is to belong to such a marvelously talented and hard working group of artists. Congratulations on your gorgeous work everybody.

The Austin ArtSpace Gallery show was hung today at the Bass Concert Hall, on the UT campus. I can hardly wait to see it! I’ll take pictures and post them here soon. It feels like a really big deal for me to have paintings hanging in the Bass. Maybe someday it will be old hat, but today it feels very exciting. Yeah!!

Have a great week. I’ll be back . . . . .

MS150 Weekend

This was my birthday weekend, as well as the MS150 Bike Ride from Houston to Austin. My daughter and her family came over for both events. We played games, went to a movie, ate lots of wonderful Austin food and then met our friends Cheryl and Andy Neil (who rode in the MS150) at the Finish Line. This is such an awesome annual event. The riders all raise money from their sponsors , friends and business associates to help eradicate Multiple Schlerosis. There were 13,000 riders this year. All shapes and sizes, ages and ethnic backgrounds riding 150 miles to make a difference for people with MS. I especially appreciate their efforts because my oldest daughter happens to have MS. This year the weather was cool and rainy, so our friends said it was an easy ride . . . . compared to some of their previous rides over the last 8 years. It is a completely awesome experience to see all these riders passing the Finish Line, most of them grinning from ear to ear at seeing the huge crowds waiting to greet them. My thanks goes out to every single one of them, whether they made it all the way or not.

Whew, what a week!

I have hardly had time to do anything but paint all last week and the weekend. I’m still working on my 3-30″ x 30″ acrylics on canvas for the Bass Concert Hall. The acrylics are pretty new to me, so this has been a real challenge. However, having the challenge has forced me to “put up or shut up”, and I have learned to find my own way with the medium. If I hadn’t pushed myself to do it, I would probably never worked with the acrylics enough to get proficient with them. I will post my results as soon as I have all 3 of them finished. I’m getting very close to completion, so watch for them here.

Okay, I will admit it here and now. I am pretty excited about these three pieces. They make my watercolors feel a bit quiet and safe. I’m certainly not ready to quit the watercolors. They have been my medium for over 30 years. It does feel good to have more tools in my box. I’m thinking this is going to break me out of some mighty deep ruts. And, that is a good thing.

Windows on the World

Now, I will begin to post some of my paintings. I chose this one to be first because I named my blog, “Nikki Atkinson’s Windows on the World of Art And Life”. This painting is from my trip to Italy with Judi Betts, 3 years ago. It was just one of the gorgeous windows at our residence, a 500+ yr. old farm house named Selva, outside of Lucca. The flowers there were incredible. What a wonderful trip. I’ll never forget it.

I’d like to do this again, larger. I would probably darken the inside of the room to make the flowers pop some more.

Have a great day!

Austin Art Gals Night Out

Last night was the first of what we hope will be a regular networking event. Eight of us (Art Gals) met at Iron Cactus for happy hour. It was really fun to meet, greet and get to know several artists in Austin, that I didn’t know before. Some of these ladies are already members of Creative Arts Society, which I just joined this week. Some were also members of Pastel Society Austin. Though we paint in different mediums, we have many issues in common and it was great to share our successes and concerns. Well worth the time it took to go. Marilyn Rea Nasky was the instigator of the event. Kudos to Marilyn! I am already looking forward to the next one.

Sign of the times: At one point, I pulled out my IPhone to show someone my paintings. Within a few minutes almost everybody had their smart phone out showing their own works. Each phone got passed around and around. It was hilarious! The technology of 2010 is AWESOME.