Large-scale painting and small-scale gardening!

We had a great weekend of rest and relaxation, didn’t do anything really except recover mentally and physically!  On Tuesday, we all went to Canyon City for William and Ron to explore and for me to set up at the farmer’s market and try to sell my paintings.  I had gone through there last week and came across the farmer’s market – I talked with the manager and asked if I could ‘drop in’ and give it a try.  It was cloudy and a bit rainy, so it kept the people away for the most part.  There are several other artists/potters there, so I was hoping to try to sell something – I haven’t sold any of my paintings all year from my shop.  

William’s back to work and I’m back in my studio working on these huge panels for the local community theater.  Dan came into my shop several months ago talking about how he was starting this community theater and asked if I could create these murals/backdrops for him.  Over the months he had a terrible time getting a place (he’d get one, loose it, get another, etc) and had a hard time finding actors.  He had originally scheduled his first play to be the weekend of my festival, but because of all the problems, had to postpone it to July 26.  He set up a booth in the art festival and found a bunch of people interested in acting, so he set another try-out date and I hope things are going ahead for him.  He managed to get a place to perform (thanks to Audrey Beckett) who has the Events Center (that William had painted over the winter/spring).

Anyway, he brought me these 3 8x4 panels to paint a Gothic cathedral/stained glass scene – here it is almost the end of the week and I’ve only got one done (it took me 2 ½ days to do one, but the next one is going faster with the maping-out)!  I hope the rest go faster, because the kids will be filing in here again next week expecting to be entertained!

The community garden is a ‘flop’ when it comes to the community part – we are the only ones who put anything in; however, the squash, cukes, and watermelon is actually growing!  I still have the tomatoes and peppers on my front porch.  This climate is very harsh and it is very difficult to grow anything.  At this point, it is a matter of principal rather than the actual produce that is important.  We are determined to get something out of this desert!   We have to haul water out every day.  We put gallon jugs into the ground, full of holes, so we fill that up then distribute the water around the plants.