I have neglected to add in the following update of my work that I was invited to put two sculptures in the Changing Seasons Gallery in Sonoma, California.  It is right in the center of the wine country so may make visits there very inviting. 

The owner, Ingrid Martinez, has been warm and great to work with.  She has a 26 inch "Fireflies Too", the girl of the pair of "Fireflies".  She also has the little ballet dancer called "Dress Rehearsal."  I look forward to a long relationship.

The Gallery's address is 103 West Napa.

Hello again!   It's already 2014!


Sorry I have been so long away!  It has taken me many months to re-collect my e-mail address list so I can get notice of this Blog to you.  It seems as though the first of the year always prods me to get back to this, as the last two dates for posts indicate.  I have been distracted, too, with work deadlines, but now I do have the results to show you below.  2013 has been a good year.  I seem to slow down in terms of how much I can get done, but hopefully am concentrating better.  I am also trying to finish up some that have taken too long. There are many more in the works to finish yet.

This piece is an oil portrait of the seventh and last granddaughter of Gary and Pat Maxwell, Emma.  You can see the other six in my posts below.  It was a fun one to do as the background of Manito Park presented some interesting color, light and shadow.  She was a beautiful girl though, which is always inspiring.   I am sorry there are not more coming up! The best part of portraiture is the people I get a chance to know.  Gary and Pat are two of those .  I hate to have the project end.  It has spanned ten years. And I love knowing where my "children" are and that they have a good home. I do get kind of attached as I try to paint until they seem to talk to me.

27 years ago I did pastels of the two children of Gordon and Judy Rowand.  This year they asked me if I would do all five of the grandkids although three are still babies.  These are the first two, Kyla and Liam Welsh, children of Kristen and Jamie Welsh.  I drew their mother at almost this same age.  The eyes are the same, which is fun to discover as I work.
 















There were a couple of other drawings of my own grandchildren, Elizabeth and Brady, long overdue as gifts to their parents, John and Shannon.

Elizabeth starts her life on Dad's chest

These were photos I had had for a long time, always intending to do something with them to keep the memories.  There are so many things I wish I could capture of them that I will never get through the file.  It is hard to see them grow out of these fun stages.  I am sure it is like this with all grandparents.  They tell me that all the time.  I think when you are the parents you are too busy keeping up with everything to realize it.

The Big Bed

         

After the Dance

This is a pastel drawing done of Elizabeth, who posed for me.  She was most unsure about it because she did not know the "moves" of the dancer…but this was not a difficult pose to hold.  I was sorry to see her grow out of this fresh and wide-eyed stage. 

Elizabeth and Brady

This is a project started a couple of years ago as a present to ourselves, our two grandkids

before they grew up anymore,.. of Elizabeth reading and Brady about to drop asnake (in his hand behind his back) on her book.  I have worked on it at demos at the Painters Chair Gallery during Art Walks in Coeur d 'Alene, Idaho, for two summers now. I need to take time to finish it and get it cast.  The kids used to love to "work on it" when it was in the early stages so feel it is "their" sculpture.  Brady thinks I should somehow wire his arm so that it can move up and drop the snake, somewhat like the old iron banks. I am trying to think if that is possible without making it look like a toy.

Happy Spring at last!  At least I hope that it is almost here.  We could use some. Highlight of this month is the 2nd annual Mac Art Auction on April 21st.  It is to benefit the Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington, and is bringing artists from all over the Northwest to participate.  They will be donating half of the auction prices to the Museum which lost its state funding this year.  



I have two pieces in it.  The one pictured is in the Main Auction and is called "The Way Home".  It is an oil painting of my two grandchildren walking up our road in the late afternoon in Fall when the surrounding trees are glowing with color and the shadows are rich and deep...and we remind ourselves this is why we live here. We have been here for 40 years and have loved it since we moved here.  We are surrounded by deer and moose and all the little animals that are fun.... but eat everything.  It is sort of a love/hate relationship I guess.  We are on the side of a mountain at the edge of the Valley so we have a little more snow but the views are beautiful






Another which I will be finishing in the "Quick Finish" portion there is called "Summer Afternoon at the Lake."  It will be finished while the guests are watching, which provides an interesting chance for them to see how paintings happen.  This is to be finished there but it had to be started pretty far ahead because it is layered with many glazes to convey  the wateriness of it.  However the color still needs a lot of balancing, as well as moving things around a bit.  Paintings never come quickly to me so I need lead time..and thinking time. I also tend to talk too much to concentrate while demonstrating.


It should be a wonderful party at the Davenport Hotel here, which is such a beautiful 
place. I will be back after it is all over to report.  Nothing like this has occurred in the art world of Spokane in years. 


The Auction catalog is available online at www.macartauctionspokane.org.  It contains a
lot of beautiful work.  They even have telephone bids and online bids available.

March News and Notes

The Rivard girls, Anna, Sarah, Ellie and Julie

Welcome back! The month of March is nearly gone already! I am sorry to be so late this month but it has been a busy one.  I did want to show you, though, my latest portrait of the four Rivard granddaughters of Gary and Pat Maxwell. They are pictured on the beach of the Maxwell's home on the edge of Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, Idaho.  They spent many hours there while growing up.  It was a fun painting to do, as well as a challenge.

Katie and Trisha Covin

Ten years ago I painted their first two grandchildren at their piano music.  A interesting addition was the painting in the background depicting their mother playing the same piano. It was set against the wallpaper that was actually on the wall where it was hung.


Both were interesting and challenging paintings to do and I am grateful to the Maxwells for giving me a chance to do them.

February 2012 News and Notes

This was a painting not exhibited much.  It was a neat experience in the difficulties of light control and  the warms and cools that causes on the skin, my favorite thing to do.
It was accepted and exhibited  at Catherine Lorillard Wolfe 114th Annual Exhibition
 held in New York City in 2010.

  

Welcome back!  This is February and I promised to be here sooner, but we spent two weeks in California and Arizona so I have not had a chance to get here till now.  I do want to bring you up to date to this year, so have included two paintings  not yet shown much.  The first is "Lamplight" a pastel that illustrates warm and cool light, my favorite thing to play with.  Skin tones get so much richer when those elements are part of it.  Everything else does too.



This pastel was done for my show down home.  
It depicts toys from three generations that were too
 precious not to keep. (Prints available) 

"Family Keepers", things too precious

 not to keep from three generations of the family, make a meaningful pastel to tell the story.  The quilt was made for me by my grandmother and used for my son and grandchildren. The porcelain doll was my mother's and is dressed in a baptismal gown and bonnet handmade by my grandmother.  The stuffed toy was my husband's and of course the truck and beaten-up Teddy bear were our son John's. It was an idea in the back of my head since I found the doll in pieces in a box where she had been for 50 years and had her restored . She had been like that for all those years as my mother never did find someone to do if for her.

The portrait that I did some years ago of Marian Gallagher,
the Founder of the Law Library at the University of Washington.

A good friend surprised me with a photo of the new placement of the portrait I had done some time ago of Marian Gallagher for the University of Washington's Law Library, which she founded.  The Marian Gould Gallagher Society, made up of law librarians all over the country who had been trained in her program, provided this elaborate setting near the entrance of the new Law School building.  Marian pioneered the idea of a special program to educate law librarians as well as establishing the Library.  It was a thrill to see it placed as her friends had intended it when they  commissioned it.










"

A Show Down Home

                                                                                                                                                                                                                In September of 2011 I did a show in my home area,  Uniontown/Colton, in south eastern Washington.The community has rebuilt a historical dairy barn into a wonderful community Art and Music Center called the Artisan Barn.  Two othr artists, both raised on nearby wheat farms too, shared the show with me, Nona Hengen of Spangle and Sherryl Evans of Ritzville.  Thus we billed ourselves   "Three Homegrown Artsts".

It was a great experience and a lot of fun in a beautiful venue that the community can be very proud of. 


I did several pieces for the show that were of my family, especially my parents, that meant a lot to me and to the people who attended who knew them.  The "Heritage of Needlework" was of my mother who was well known for her needlework and she passed it on to me in many years of sewing.  Her mother was a dressmaker in the
days before sewing machines so everything was really handmade.  She is depicted in the background.

Two pictures were of my father, one in his field checking the crop and one leaning on his tractor enjoying the beautiful green of the Palouse hills as the crops come up.  It is a well known time of year to drive down through the area and be astounded at the rolling green hills and is a favorite of photographers. 


Doing the show was a very meaningful thing for me.  Nona did a number of paintings of old harvest scenes and Sherryl provided her well-known watercolors of work horses.  


The opening was Labor day but two weeks 
later we all participated in their annual
 Harvest Festival which featured many 
old-fashioned farm events from home-made
ice cream to hand wrought iron tools.  A 
collectors club brought old farm equipment 
and plowed a field next to the Barn.  It was
really a fun afternoon and brought back 
many memories.  Some of the "old-time"
things were actually of my vintage!

I wish you all the happiest of New Years!

Welcome to my new blog...a great way to start the year!  I will be posting my latest work here as I finish it. But first I have to post those pieces done since the last update of my web page...www.marianflahavin.com.....some time ago.  This will be a continuation of it as a way to let you see what I have done recently and will be doing...as long as I remember to keep posting.  This past year was a busy one going in many directions.  My resolution is to try to simplify my life...but then that is my resolution every year and it doesn't last past the next idea!