Last weekend

It was a good weekend. We started with our usual 4 mile walk in the park and then continued on to the farmers market, only an additional quarter mile. We browsed and enjoyed the sights of all the fall produce. We noted that tomatoes are really decreasing in price as the last of them hit the stands. There were tomatoes everywhere. It would be a good time to make some tomato sauce and I just happen to have three baskets of them from our own garden so there was no need to buy any. Finally, with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in my hand, we made our way back to the truck and drove home…only to return in just a few hours. Saturday also marked the second weekend of the Open Studios art tour and we wanted to see what was being offered to view in the local art world. We started with a visit to the home of Michael Mulcahey. His garage is his studio, much like mine, but he had his work lining the walls of his house and it was great! I asked him about the framing he used and he gave me some tips as to how to frame my own pieces. Cheap. I really liked the size of his paintings although I would probably be intimidated by that size if I tried one of my own. I have to work on that fear. After leaving his home we toured some other not so memorable studios until we got to the home of Janice Porter. She was busy working on projects while standing at a table in her driveway. She showed me how she used 'door skins' for support for her paintings, an idea that I might try for those larger pieces that I hope to work on some time. Janice Porter is married to Anthony Peyton Porter, a writer that I much admire. She was also working on some fantastic cardboard creations. She used a small craft knife to cut away, in a design, just the top portions of the cardboard sheets. Then the remaining top of the cardboard sheet was painted, leaving the brown underside revealed wherever she had cut it away. It's hard to describe and I couldn't find a photo anywhere on the 'net. Anyway, they were spectacular and they were pinned to the outside walls of her house for display. I wonder where she gets such large flat pieces of cardboard? They were at least 5'x3' or larger. After leaving the Porter house we drove over to a very old building that houses one of the few remaining blacksmiths in the state. Here, Dave Richer does his magic with iron and steel. The website doesn't show his latest creations; stainless steel bowls. I won't attempt to describe them as I couldn't do them justice. A few more stops and then it was time to go home…where I am looking at two large and blank surfaces for my imagination to fill. They're only 30"x30" but that's gigantic…for me.