The Artists and Illustrators Collaborative Annual Art Show

Here are some pics from the annual AIC (Artists and Illustrators Collaborative) art exhibit held at the Portage (Michigan) Library every year.

The show looks great and there were a lot of very Spring pastel landscapes and florals. The grounds of the Portage Library are beautifully landscaped with LOTS of flowers, trees and plants every year, tulips especially, so the whole experience was very SPRING:) Isn't this a great dog done by Barbara Marquis? It's even better in person, I'm just not that great a photographer. Barbara did several pet portraits and has her own website that you'll want to check out www.barbaramarquis.com. Her critters are fantastic :) The amazingly detailed graphite self-portrait was done by Dave Middleton (great job Dave!) and the beautiful floral in the hand-made-by-her-husband pickled finished frame is by Kris Klesney. There's my "Ancestor" painting right down here.

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Our crab apple trees are just about ready to BURST into bloom. Tomorrow should be THE day! However, they're predicting SNOW, yes that's right, snow, for tonight so we're hoping that the bossoms don't get frozen, that would be sad. Our neighbors lilacs are also just about ready. Their lilacs are old lilac bushes from the 1950's and they smell so fragrant. The scent billows in our windows on one side of our house. One year they were so strong that we were just about high on lilac scent for two weeks in Spring.

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I decided to show you all the damage-job I did on my drawing of Dan's rose as a cautionary tale for all the artists out there who "overdo". Artists, namely me, sometimes have a hard time deciding when to s-t-o-p on a painting. Here is a pic I took of the rose before it was quite finished, and you'll see it looks pretty good. Then I ruined it by adding all the background silly stuff. Well, nothing ventured...... :/

I've started a new painting of a girl swimming. Hopefully I'll know when to s-t-o-p (hear that Annie, STOP) on this one :) Have you all been checking out the EBSQart website? I do mean it when I say there is some spectacular art to see there (including mine, tee) so don't miss out. Here you go: www.ebsqart.com
HAPPY SPRING and Happy Art :)

annie