It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. I have been busy sculpting various winter scenes, such as “Winter” above using Apoxie Sculpt. I also have a new series that I’m working on in wax of Pennsylvania juncos (they are so adorable) and have created a mold. I have several pours, but I’m still working on that. Also in process are a few “Tips of the Week.” It seems that the editing process in iMovie takes most of the time. As this pandemic rages on, I try to keep my focus on artwork, since it a rare time where there is no place to go and nothing going on in the outside world. So I can concentrate inside and try to produce as much as I can.

Just finished this ink on paper painting of the fall foliage in the backyard. The colors are so glorious this time of year that I had to set aside my sculpture to return to paints.

On another note, I am on instagram (gailsgallerynyc), and I can access a lot of artists' sculptures and processes. One process intrigued me (that an artist shared) that might be very useful - and that is new sort of mold material; epoxy that I can add onto my resin sculptures. There is one sculpture that I am working on, a small bird sculpture. I cast the body separately and will be starting on the wings and tail and thought that this material might be very useful. We will see how it goes.

It's been a busy few weeks. I sold a few singing dogs and took time out to box and send them out. One had a mishap in shipping and two pups came loose from the base. Since so much of myself is in my sculpture, I was concerned, but the figures weren't damaged. Going forward, I will be sending the sculpture and base unattached so that it won't happen again. But I can't adjust for all possibilities. Shipping is always a problem; once it leaves my studio, who knows what happens.

So, for the past weeks, I've been trying to paint resin on glass. Not so happy with the results, but I will persist until I can get the effects I am after.

I am also pursuing my base ideas for the White Bird. The photo above shows the current incarnation of the base. However, this will probably change.

I've been working on some pen and ink drawings to de-stress a bit. I started a pencil drawing of one of my Delaware River morning photos, but decided I needed a bit more color to get that feeling of a brilliant sunrise. So I started another drawing, this time in ink. I love the intense colors and feel of the morning sky. This is not an everyday occurrence, as some days are pretty overcast or the river is covered in fog. But this was a particularly gorgeous sky.

It's certainly a bit chilly today, as the weather turns colder in PA. I'm currently on a mission to create a concrete base for my White Bird sculpture. Today's goals are to drill some holes in the concrete to epoxy a metal bit to hold the two pieces together, since the epoxy by itself wasn't strong enough to hold the concrete. I should end up looking like the pix above.

To try to generate some interest in my pieces, I restarted an advertising campaign on Etsy. In the past, it has generated some views, but I'm not sure those views turned into sales. We'll see this time.

Over the past week, I've been working on a concrete base for my White Bird Sculpture. I used up the last bit of my Quikrete, which is more of a rough cement looking mixture; My go-to concrete is Rockite, which provides a more refined look, more so when used with a silicone mold. Luckily, even in this pandemic, I was able to find Rockite in my local hardware store and just did a pour of it in a silicone cube mold.

While that is curing, I have been working on a side project of a pencil drawing based on one of my photographs of Delaware River morning (see pix above) . It's a work in progress; although I did take a course a number of years ago in drawing with pencils, I am more of a novice at it since I only use pencils occasionally. But, it is relaxing, and right now, I need to de-stress.

I have been trying to decide how to mount the white bird. I bought some steel a while back and will probably mount the bird on the steel rods just as I did with the black crow. But, I wanted a slightly different look. So, I did a bit of work yesterday and today in concrete to create a few concrete spheres. Yesterday's pour in the spherical molds was a bit thin and wet so today I made it a bit thicker (added less water). I'll leave them in the silicone molds for a few days and then see whether they are dry enough to work on. Once they dry completely, I will drill some holes and epoxy the bird's wire legs into the sphere.

I spent most of the day yesterday revising one of my videos. I had created an intro and included some additional video on demolding the wax sculpture from the silicone mold and doing some additional sculpture on the wax form. What I didn't notice on the first video was the background noise of the cicadas. I thought the chirping of the cicadas was in real time as I was editing. But, it wasn't. It was on the video itself. Nothing I could really do about it, but it was a bit embarrassing. Oh well, live and learn. This morning , another stunning sunrise. Worth it to have gotten up at 5:30 am this morning.

It's a beautiful Sunday. Crisp and clear for an August day. Art beckons me, but with all of this quarantining, I need to get out of the house. We go for a drive in the countryside; it really is beautiful in northeast PA. There is so much farmland, greenery and vistas. There’s a little town, not too far away in NY State, Callicoon. I love the name. Callicoon. It has a market and an old train station. I should have taken a photo, but I didn’t think of it at the time. Back in the studio, I stare at the work I would like to do, waiting for a bit of inspiration. The weather is great to pour resin. I have a small project on my backburner of resin pours on smaller glass panels. The photo above is one of the resin on glass panels I just completed for the house; it serves a decorative function as well as a practical privacy screen from the road.

August 14, 2020. After a bit of a late start this morning, I decided that before I create a new mold of the little dog, I wanted to rework the wax figure to make it more precise. So, this afternoon, I melted some wax and poured it into the mold. Right now, the mold is curing. By tomorrow, I should have the wax figure solid enough for sculpting and creating a new mold.

August 13, 2020. Woke up this morning to an incredible sunrise. Top photo was taken 7 minutes earlier, not that impressive, but wait. See what this sunrise turned into. Spectacular. After updating my computer and Instagram post, I spent most of the day reading. But, now in the afternoon, I am setting up to create a new video on making a small silicone mold for my little dog sculpture. It takes a lot of work to make one of these videos. I might be a bit lazy this afternoon to tackle it, but I’m thinking about it and cleared off my space to begin. That’s progress!