on the drawing table and holiday concert at Troy Music Hall

Work in progress:

one corner of the piece

in sepia ink

still has pencil guides in it

finished piece will have color

I thought I'd post this now since I have no idea when I will be able to finish it. I was hoping to finish it before the holidays to hang it in one of my holiday art shows, but it doesn't appear that I will be able to do that (and I do want to do it justice by thinking out all of the compositional elements).

The reason why? Our band is in rehearsals for holiday concerts, one at Troy Music Hall (which requires the most concentration, since the last time we performed there, it was a packed house-- about 1,000 in the audience) and a small one at a Victorian Streetwalk.

The concerts take precedence.

I was wondering if I should have done any holiday art shows this year since they are all-involving and take me away from my music and practicing for at least two weeks (sometimes more). When I get back to my instruments, the callouses on my fingertips has softened or peeled off (making playing more painful) and my instruments feel foreign. 

But now that I am into the swing of it, I feel much more like a musician than a visual artist. It can and does go the other way around too. Funny how that happens.

The fact that I can be a musician at all (and especially to be able to perform at such a great venue as the Troy Music Hall) is always amazing to me since I had severe asthma until I was 28 years old. Being able to sing was comparable to being able to fly... and not just sing, but professionally sing. How did this happen? I am so blessed!

My Website

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:
Artfire
Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):
Music MYSPACE
My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE
My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:
CD Baby
Amazon
InandOutRecords (Europe)
My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Holiday Art Show at Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council in Lapham Gallery

This is the postcard for the event (you might have to click on the image to see all of the pertinent information).

I was juried into this show again this year. This is the website for the Art Center if you want to check it out. I will have prints (framed and unframed), cards and gifty art tags for sale. It runs from November 12 - December 24.

I was also in the previous juried group art show at the same center. The show was called "Black and White". I discovered a picture of my entry in their latest newsletter:

You might have to click on this picture too. This one is a pretty tall handthrown porcelain bottle: 2 feet high.

I have some new art pieces I'm racing to finish up. I will post those soon.

And I am trying to fill up my Artfire Shop as much as I can possibly handle (the brick and mortar shops are taking precedence at the moment).

My Website

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

Artfire

Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby



Twin Hearts in Turquoise and Purple, new art print

Twin Hearts in Turquoise and Purple

original is 10.5" x 13.5"

print is 5" x 7" (image size is approximately 4" x 6")

I made the original in 2006 and then altered it in 2009, but never used the alteration until now.

The 5" x 7" print is available in my Artfire On-line Shop.

I am busy with a particularly intricate piece and preparing for holiday shows (both music and art), so I thought I'd show you this one since it will take me some time to show you my present design.

My Website

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

Artfire

Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Intricate Heart, before a greeting card design, now a print

I have had this design available as a greeting card for quite awhile, but decided it would make a nice print too.

I have it for sale in my Artfire shop as a 5 x 7 print.

I have been in a number of treasuries on Artfire and on Etsy.

The treasuries on Artfire are:

1. Autumn/Fall... Aren't the colors gorgeous?

2. Leaves... To Return Again

The treasuries on Etsy are:

1. Terrific $10 Temptations

2. Shops from Saratoga Springs

I also made a treasury recently:

1. October Beauties (have a look: you know you want to!)

Tonight I am framing some work for a gallery exhibit.

My Website

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

Artfire

Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

White Feather original painting & print

White Feather original watercolor and ink

7" x 9"

This is part of the Windswept Doves series. I had a bad flu all last week and this is what I worked on while I was in bed. I always come back to the theme of doves or angels when I'm down. It was slow going because I was mostly sleeping.

When I scanned it in yesterday, it seemed bright, psychedelic and almost neon. I tried different approaches in the computer and came up with this one for a limited edition giclee print:

White Feather limited edition giclee prints

7" x 9"

I have it listed in 2 online shops: Etsy and Artfire (yes, I am presently opening another on-line shop-- more about that later, though I did notice that the one at Etsy presently has 0 views and the one on Artfire has 7 views and they were both put online at the same time... hmmm...).

My Website

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:
Artfire
Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):
Music MYSPACE
My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE
My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:
CD Baby
Amazon
InandOutRecords (Europe)
My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Oak Leaf with Acorn Border art tags

note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual tags

I finally got around to making my last design (as seen in this blog) into art tags inbetween another bout of putting food by for the winter and another huge harvest of squash. Squash is everywhere! 

Perhaps I need to start painting some of it.

The tags are available in ye olde on-line store and some of the local shops in my area (edited on 12/16/11 to say they are also available through my Artfire on-line store).

Oh yes, I am in another beautiful Etsy treasury called My Fairy Tale. Lots of peacock colors & dreamy elements in this one! The curator is Nangijalajewelry.

My Website
Artfire on-line store (largest selection)

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Oak Leaf with Acorn Border

(note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual art)

After my last project ("Pumpkin Faerie"... refer to last blog post), this was a relatively unambitious project. I had been out walking last weekend and picked up some acorns and a clump of oak leaves. I put them on a small table next to me as I finished the pumpkin faerie. They kept "speaking to me" out of the corner of my eye, as the saying goes, and as soon as I was done with the faerie, I started right in on this one.

Right now, I've got it for sale as a print in ye olde online store. (edited on 12/16/11 to say it is also available through my Artfire on-line store, which at prersent has the largest selection). I will probably be adding greeting cards & fine art gift tags in this design too at some point.

I also got a piece accepted into a juried art exhibit called "Black and White" at Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Center. The opening for the exhibit is October 1, 2010 from 5 - 7. And yes, I will be at the opening unless I get the miserable cold that everyone in my family has (ugh). 

Here is the front of the postcard (© Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Center):



I've also spent some time making Etsy treasuries this month (it is a good way to network & support each other). Here are my recent treasuries. I show them in the order I did them, i.e. my first in the month to my latest (note: if there appear to be missing items, it is either because they sold or expired after the treasury was made):

Coolest September

The next one was made for a group of artists who I got to know through a particular forum (many of whom are overlooked by the company) to show the company that there are worthwhile items on Etsy than the sellers they constantly promote:

Gorgeous September 

This next one was also made for these same group of artists: 

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

This one was made late on the evening after my walk through the woods picking up oak leaves and acorns:

Squirrels and Acorns

I've also been featured in treasuries by some of the same artists that I featured. I will share that with you next time.

My Website
My Artfire on-line store (largest selection)

My Etsy on-line store (seasonal selection)
Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Pumpkin Faerie

(note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual product;

you may have to click on image to get the full effect)



A pumpkin faerie, just in time for autumn! The original is 14" x 18.25" and watercolor and ink. I am selling these as prints in ye olde online store.

This one took a long time. Since mid August! Interrupting my progress was a huge harvest, putting food by for the winter, a gig in Bolton Landing, applying for grant funded gigs, entering a juried show at Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Center (which I still haven't heard back from), painting frames (for a gallery exhibit) and painting more OSWOAs.  

My Website

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

edited on 12/16/11 to add that I also have her available in my Artfire on-line store which at this point has a much larger selection than my Etsy shop.

Acorn art gift tags and Treble Clef art gift tags

Note: copyright watermarks do not appear on actual products

My latest designs made into art gift tags. These are on acid free card stock and printed with archival inks. Available in ye olde online store. edit on 12/16/11: these are also available through Artfire (it has the largest selection of my products).

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Artfire on-line store (largest selection)

My Etsy on-line store (seasonal slection)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Acorn

I can't seem to resist putting everything in a circle. Must be I'm still a potter in heart, mind and soul. And perhaps the symmetry is also akin to being a musician where the sound on an acoustic instrument often comes out of a hole. Hmmm...

Anyway, this painting is another OSWOA (an original painting, 4" x 6"). It is up in ye olde on-line store. (edit on 12/16/11: I have since started up an Artfire shop and there is a larger selection there than at Etsy). 

I was painting OSWOAs this summer as a distraction from large projects, heat and high humidity but now they are becoming irresistable. It is a bit like throwing small bowls and tea bowls and putting decorations on the rims (which I did for 25 years and aim to do again once I get all of my current 2-d projects done... might be at least a year...). 

Small bowls were good to make because it meant getting the kiln stuffed to capacity, i.e. fitting inbetween the larger pieces & not wasting room. I don't know what my excuse for making OSWOAs is, but I'll find one!

My Website

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Owain Phyfe and The New World Renaissance Band on the stereo while I'm in the kitchen

Two of my favorite CDs are from Owain Phyfe and the New World Renaissance Band: Live the Legend and Where Beauty Moves. I don't get to listen to them much because I'm always practicing my own instruments or doing my art.

But today I got a letter from Frank Orsini, our violinist, about a song we have been performing for about 5 years now called Maid in Bedlam. In the letter he said he had been listening to Owain Phyfe & that we were missing a ♣ magical ♣ chord that Owain had in his version of Maid in Bedlam.

Okay, so now I'll have to try to drum that chord into my head before the next gig (not easy when you can play it in your sleep without the ♣ magical ♣ chord). 

It just so happened that I was inundated with squash and basil today and had to spend the day in the kitchen dealing with it in one way or another, so I listened to both Live the Legend and Where Beauty Moves.

Then I remembered the last time I played the CDs (summer 2009) & had a chuckle. You might too if you read further:

It was a hot summer evening & the windows were open to keep the bedrooms cool. Our neighbors kept us up all night with a loud party, rap and hip hop music, drunken fights and slamming car doors. The party died down at about 4:30 A.M., just as the sun was coming out, some of the neighbors' friends crashing on a lawn. I got up at 7:00, took my stereo outside and blasted Owain Phyfe and The New World Renaissance Band in the direction of the party house (because, as I said before, it was one of my favorites). My house mate ran out to where I was playing the stereo and said, "Hey, you're being waaaayyy too nice blasting Owain Phyfe. Put on Drew Minter! Or even better yet, Tiny Tim!"

(links to these musicians are in grey... just click).

My Website

My band site: Saratoga Faire

Oak Tree in Autumn II, original oswoa painting

I thought I was all done with oswoas, but the weather got hot again and I was once again inspired. For those of you new to my blog, an oswoa is an original work of art that is 4" x 6".

It started out as just an ink drawing with sepia ink. Then I decided to add watercolor. I thought at one point that it was a disaster, but then it seemed to come together with the dark blue background.

It's always a challange for me to paint so small!

My Website

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Bolton Landing Fabulous Folk Festival

We (Saratoga Faire) performed in Bolton Landing for The Fabulous Folk Festival last Sunday. Above was the poster for the event.

Our setlists included songs and instrumentals from the past and present day including Brian Boru's March, Mulberry Garden/Juice of Barley, Silkie, Crazy Man Michael, The French Report, Come to Me In Dreams, LaRue's Lament, Wind in the Willows, Water is Wide (among many others).

Also performing at this festival was Peggy Lynn, Dan Berggren and Nancy Walker Trio.

Peggy wrote this stunning piece which she has been performing for years called "Lydia". She played it at this festival. The melody is gorgeous and there is a refrain that goes: "Mountain women can be heroes." It stays in my head for a day every time I hear it!

I also tapped my feet to Nancy Walker's version of "Sweet Home Alabama".

After the festival was over, Frank, our violinist was remarking to the show's promoter about how beautiful Lake George was, even surpassing some of the well known gorgeous lakes he has seen in Europe.

We also got a very unusual opportunity by a woman who approached us on the stage after our last set which I won't divulge until/if all band members are informed and are able to perform for it. But it was one of those episodes that is truly unexpected, something you would never even dream about or aspire to (unless you knew about it, which we didn't).

Saratoga Faire band site

Our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

other performers at the festival:

Nancy Walker Trio

Peggy Lynn

Dan Berggren

updates, new member of the Etsy Visual Arts Team

I'm a new member of the Etsy Visual Arts Team (VAST team for short). I'll be posting recent works on their blog as well as this one, though the rule is only wall art, so I won't be posting greeting cards, tags, CDs, pottery & music updates.  But you can still count on those posts here.
The link to their blog on blogspot is here. I already have a new post up.

I am planning on putting some of my pottery up in my Etsy on-line store soon. I have been slowly draining out my pottery inventory from brick and mortar galleries to sell on-line. I'll be emphasizing drawings, paintings, greeting cards, prints, tags and journals for brick and mortar galleries and shops, but will no longer be selling pottery in a brick and mortar gallery unless it is for a specific art exhibit.

I will also be phasing out my "gift shop" pottery unless on-line sales are amazing.

If I do work in clay again in the future, my plan is to make only art pottery & sculpture.

But before I can post my pottery here, first we have a performance coming up at a folk festival in the Lake George area and I am entering a piece into a juried exhibit. So, those things take precedence before I can start the long process of picture-taking, listing and configuring shipping. I'll post as soon as I've figured out all of the issues with listing on-line.

link to

Etsy Visual Artist's Team Gallery

other links

My Website

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Sepia Dragonfly with Border, oswoa

This is another oswoa, another sepia ink drawing of an insect, this time a dragonfly. As mentioned before in another one of my blogs, an oswoa must be a 4" x 6" original work of art.

This one is available at the moment in my olde on-line shop (Etsy on-line storefront).

Note: edited on 12/16/11 to say that since this was written, I also have an Artfire shop that has a lot more product in it than my Etsy shop. If you do not find what you are looking for on Etsy, then click here to be taken to my Artfire shop. 

My Website

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Oak Tree in Autumn, art tags

This is my latest. The design was taken from my most recent ACEO painting (I widened the border a bit to square it off). It is available for the first time in ye olde on-line shop (Etsy on-line shop)!

Note: edited on 12/16/11 to say that I also have an Artfire shop with a lot more product in it presently than my Etsy shop. Also at Artfire you don't have to sign up as a member to buy. If you are interested, click here to be taken to my Artfire on-line store.

My Website

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing CDs and some of my art

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Sepia Butterfly, art gift and product tags

I took my latest ink drawing (which is on this blog post) and made some tag art. My newest for sale in the olde shop (Etsy on-line store)!

Note: edited on 12/16/11 to say that I also have an Artfire shop with a lot more product in it presently than my Etsy shop. Also at Artfire you don't have to sign up as a member to buy. If you are interested, click here to be taken to my Artfire on-line store.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Window Shopping at Etsy

PURPLE!

You might have to click the above image to get the full effect!

The first one is by Emici Bridal (see the item in its entirety here)

The second one is by Quilt Lover (see the item in its entirety here)

The third one is by Sharlotte (see the item in its entirety here)

Oak Tree in Autumn, original ACEO painting

Here is my latest attempt at another original painting ACEO. An ACEO is trading card size at only 2.5" x 3.5" (a challange especially because the tree inside the border is so tiny).

Check the availability of this piece at my ETSY STORE or ARTFIRE STORE. 

I am planning on finishing more ambitious projects in the near future, but hot days in the summer seem perfect for mini paintings. 

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Sepia Butterfly with Border, oswoa

This is my latest oswoa. Oswoa stands for "Original Small Works Of Art". All oswoas must be 4" x 6" to qualify.

This one was done with sepia ink on bristol board. It reminds me most of carving pottery (which is what I used to do).

I am much more comfortable with the oswoa than the aceo (2.5" x 3.5"). The aceo is just so tiny and with one little distraction, the composition can falter easily. But I am determined to keep trying!

I have this one for sale at the moment in my Etsy shop, but may take it to a gallery at some point if it doesn't sell at Etsy and I get a theme going.

Note: edited on 12/16/11 to say that I also have an Artfire shop with a lot more product in it presently than my Etsy shop. Also at Artfire you don't have to sign up as a member to buy. If you are interested, click here to be taken to my Artfire on-line store.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips) 

Sara Milonovich's Daisycutter

Every Spring and Summer I have a favorite CD that I like to take with me on my jaunts to art galleries to deliver work.

This year’s favorite is Daisycutter by Sara Milonovich.

It was released last year (2009), but this year was the first time I got around to listening to it. She recorded it at the same studio that I recorded Wing’d With Hopes and The Goldenrod (Scott Petitio’s NRS Recording Studio).

I love this album! It is an album that grew on me (there is a lot to listen to in the lush production and I wasn’t used to the genre).

 My favorite is Willie Taylor (just because I like new interpretations of old songs done brilliantly), but the most powerful songs on the album are probably Country Life and Insanity Street.

The album kicks off with Country Life by Steve Knightly of the British Isles. It’s a powerful song about the loss of farms in the English Countryside:

For a taste, here are some of the lyrics:

If you want cheap food well here’s the deal, family farms are brought to heel

Hammer blows of size and scale, foot and mouth the final nail

The coffin of our English dream, lies out on the village green

Where agri-barons CAP in hand, strip this green and pleasant land

Of meadow, woodland, hedgerow, pond, what remains gets built upon


No trains, no jobs

No shops, no pubs.

--- © Steve Knightly

The original Knightly version is here. But, Sara did it great justice with an angry vocal delivery, a blazing fiddle track and a haunting dobro by Abby Gardner. You can hear what Sara did with Knightly’s song on her MYSPACE here.

The next track is Under the Weather (written by K.T. Tunstall and Tommy Danvers). It starts out sounding political:

Under this national raincloud
I’m getting soaked to the skin
Trying to find my umbrella
But I don’t know where to begin

A couple of lines later, it still seems to be in a political vein with these lines:

‘Cause I’m under the weather
Just like the world
So sorry for being so bold

--- © K.T. Tunstall and Tommy Danvers

But then it turns into a love song.

The song is sung in a soft meandering spirit, like the lyrics.

Fiona’s Breakdown is written by Sara and arranged by Sara, John Doyle (who also plays acoustic guitar on the track) and Greg Anderson, the producer of the album. Viktor Krauss, Alison Krauss’s brother, plays acoustic bass on the track. This piece shows she is in the same league as any of the great fiddle players of our time (including Natalie MacMaster). The composition is in tribute to her car, a blazingly fast piece.

Northern Cross is a longing love song written by Leslie Smith. The gist of it is in these 2 poetical lines:

Oh meet me on Red Mountain, lace of laurel, bed of moss
Where the wind's forever howling beneath that Northern Cross

--- © Leslie Smith

Sara’s vocal delivery is plaintive on this piece while 2 fiddles (one played by John Kirk) drone on in the background.

Pleasant Valley Sunday is one of the nice surprises of the album and sets it apart from being another folk album. It has a zydeco rhythm and is just as fun, frolicking and “zippy” sounding as when The Monkees did it. However the Monkees look like a band born in and comfortable with suburbia and their Beatlesque version fails to convince when they sing this anti-suburbia song. Sara’s version does a much better job of persuasion. Here’s a taste of the lyrics:

See Mrs. Gray she's proud today because her roses are in bloom
Mr. Green he's so serene, He's got a t.v. in every room

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away
I need a change of scenery

--- © Carole King/Gerry Goffin

Perhaps the writer, James Howard Kunstler, and the painter, Eric Fischl, would be happy to use Sara’s version as their background music.

The sixth cut, Insanity Street shows Sara’s vocals at her best. The vocal delivery here is soft and melancholic with Sara’s beautiful baritone violin, Abbie Gardner’s stunning dobro and Greg Anderson’s tasteful arrangements on electric guitars, electric piano and organ. The anti-war lyrics by Lillie Palmer pack a powerful punch:

We live on Insanity Street
Where the ends and the means seldom meet
And we walk and we talk while the four horseman stalk
The stones of Insanity Street

And we talk of the coming of peace
Of a time when hostilities cease
But we make and we store all the weapons of war
‘Cause we live on Insanity Street

And when in the turning of years
The market for war disappears
Should we meet on the street with the dust at our feet
And stare at each other through tears

--- © Lillie Palmer

Another favorite is The Last Snowfall, a tune reminiscent of Jay Unger’s sweetest pieces with Natalie Haas on cello, Abbie Gardner on dobro, Scott Petito on bass, Greg Anderson on acoustic guitar and Andre Brunet and Sara on violins.
Right after that is the romping traditional Willie Taylor with a creative arrangement by Sara, Greg Anderson and John Doyle which takes a bit of folk, zydeco, rock and Celtic and melds them into one. As mentioned earlier, it is my favorite on the album.

Here Comes the Flood by Peter Gabriel is probably the most vocally challenging piece on the CD. It enigmatically refers to an apocalypse.

The Lake Arthur Stomp is how I remember Sara before Daisycutter, as part of a fiddle ensemble which included John Kirk, Trish Miller, Ed Lowman and Cedar Sanistreet.

To conclude, this album is one of the best that I have heard in a long time. The fiddling is as good as the fiddling of more well known names in the field, her arrangements are often stunning, her choice of material shows concern for the world that we are building and her vocal chops are as good as any of the better known folk singers on the circuit today.

However, for her next album, I’d like to see her push her vocals to the maximum, reach beyond and below the comfortable range that she shows on Daisycutter because she'd run past the lot of us then.

Sara's Website

Sara's CD Baby store

Sara's MYSPACE

My Website

Autumn Tree ACEO

This is my latest attempt at painting an ACEO (my 4th try). An ACEO is a mini work of art at 2.5" x 3.5". As stated before, I am not entirely comfortable about painting anything smaller than a 4" x 6" painting, but I enjoy a challange and I thought I'd try one with my usual border (which made painting the tiny tree that much more painstaking!). 

The designing took much longer than I expected for such a mini piece. It is part of a series I have been making about trees with knotted borders and knotted roots.

This is for sale (for the meantime) in my Etsy shop. (note: edit on 12/16/11: this piece is presently available in my Artfire shop, but can be requested in my Etsy shop if you have an account on Etsy -- Artfire has a guest check-out, so no need to have an account).

More mini paintings coming soon.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Windswept Doves and Hearts II

I thought I'd give another one a try using different colored watercolor paints. This one is 3" x 5" (and is on Arches Watercolor paper like the last one).

This will probably be my last in the series as I've run out of this size paper. It is available right now in my Etsy shop, though if it doesn't sell, I may be bringing this to a gallery.

Here is the preliminary (I draw it out lightly in pencil & ink, then add the watercolors):