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!