Me & Bill Gates: Almost the Same Thing

Painting is on hold for a month as I'm firmly attached to my sewing machine. See, I have this obsession of making these mittens and selling them to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association. Read about it here. I've already sold 75 pair this year and have orders for at least 100 more. I've exceeded my goals and now to be honest - it's kind of a sewing frenzy.

Since the news of Bill Gates donating 50 Million to help find a cure for Alzheimer's ... I admit, I feel a little inferior. Like really small. But, I firmly believe if we all did just one tiny thing, that ripple effect will take over and each small act of kindness will make this world a better place. $50 million or $25.00 - it all adds up. I'd send Bill a pair but not sure of his address.

Contact me if you want to purchase some to benefit the Alzheimer's Association - we can pretend our contribution is as good as Mr. Gates. lehut@comcast.net or lisahut.com.

Batch #2 for the season

This group lined up ready to sew the cuffs

A custom order for someone that needed yellow fleece liner inside

Week 34 Annisquam Lighthouse

I finally unpacked my paintings from my October trip to Gloucester, MA. I was gone 3 weeks, loved driving across the country and had a great time staying in various Air BnB's. I stayed with an Mennonite family in Lancaster, PA, an 1840's farmhouse in Connecticut (complete with bats in the barn) and a chic apartment over a flower shop in Iowa. I did a lot of sketches which I posted on instagram here.

I met many lovely people all along this trip which confirmed my view that people really are great everywhere. OK, except that guy in Florida with the hidden camera in his air BnB.  I didn't find any hidden cameras ... but then again I wasn't looking.

After returning from that trip, I repacked and headed to Canyonlands National Park with my husband. Being in a remote area of Utah with no internet or cell service is an experience everyone should try. I love the Needles district and there also happened to be a meteor shower that weekend - score!

Before you think I'm completely self centered and my happy world is all about traveling & painting - know that my heart breaks every time I see yet another news story about a mass shooting and it make me want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head and never, ever come out.

Instead, I remind myself how insignificant I am in the big picture of it all ... try and be a good person, love fully, have gratitude daily and give back as much as I can.

Annisquam Lighthouse - pastel 9x12

Painting on hold for November as I'm busy sewing. A HUGE thank you to my friends and family for purchasing them to benefit the Alzheimer's Association, and dragging around batches of 20-30 to sell to your friends. I've raised $2,000 already this year. Read about them here.

If you'd like some mittens for holiday gifts or want to bring a basket to your local bookclub, work or school - just let me know - Thanks so much everyone and have a wonderful day!

Week 33 Local Color

I'm currently painting on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. Today I set up to paint a house off School Street. This one house had a beautiful magenta/purple door and trim and lovely flowers - purple. You know me, I couldn't resist. It was the color ... the purple lures me in every time.

As it turns out, I picked a great spot. First, I chatted with the guy in the building next to me, he talked about lobster fishing, told me about the guy whose house I was painting and recommended the best spot for a sub. Then another guy drove by named Jeff, we chatted for a bit and it turns out he is an artist with a gallery down the street. We stopped in to visit. Amazing artist, check out his work here.
http://www.jeffweaverfineart.com

Then Willie (whose house I was painting) came out - took a picture and off he went. Turns out he's Willie Alexander, a musician who was in the Velvet Underground and wikipedia tells me he has a checkered past - I just liked his house.

After packing up, another guy parked next to my friend Stacey (painting down the road) and said - want some tomatoes? We said OK and got some tomatoes out of his car. I've been painting here for 4 days and have met so many colorful characters - all friendly and helping us find amazing painting spots.

I LOVE Cape Ann.
It has the friendliest people I have ever met ... and the best local color in every way.

Willie's House

pastel

Jeff Weaver's studio space in his gallery

beautifully covered in paint

Week 32 An Orange Kind of Month

The aspen trees seem to be turning earlier this year, I probably said that last year too. I've been painting aspen trees all week and had the pleasure of some fellow artists to keep me company.

Everyone dutifully wore orange as it's hunting season and we are surrounded by, and painting on, National Forest and BLM land. There was a little incident last year that made me paranoid and you could read about it here. Today, I headed towards Fraser and found this amazing group of trees on County Road 50. I wasn't the only one enthralled, every car driving by stopped to take a photo.

County Road 50

pastel 12x18

Artists with the heaviest backpacks ever

Cheryl wins! Sort of ...

(This from a few weeks ago)

Backpacker Lori on left -5 lbs.

 Painter on right 25 lbs."at least"

This is why we sometimes paint out of the back of our cars

 A favorite spot in RMNP - have painted here for the last 3 years

Requires a 30 minute uphill hike and 10 minutes of scrambling over boulders

with the cumbersome pack - but so worth it

Smart painters wearing orange!

Debby ... in orange!

  

Robyn - orange shirt under the jacket

laura gets to paint too! She's there ...

Jennifer - in the middle of a field with a very big canvas

 

Safe from hunters in National Park, no orange needed

Cheryl, Robyn & Anita

Another perfect spot 

Lounging safely in RM National Park and he knows it

Apparently, he didn't wear orange - National Forest

Get out to see the Aspen if you can ... and wear orange just in case!

Week 31 Animal Kingdom

It's that time of year when I spend as much time in the mountains painting as I can. Indian summer. Perfect weather (except for the smoke currently surrounding us). Aspen leaves turning. All kinds of reasons to be here. I'm very lucky to live in Colorado and appreciate it every day.
So, we have a hare living around our property, I've seen him a couple times this summer. It's either a jackrabbit or a snowshoe hare. It's as big as a medium sized dog, not a little fluffy bunny, so a hare either way. Google teaches me a lot.

Sunflowers are everywhere and along every highway in town

next time you are frustrated with traffic try and look for the sunflowers

Indian Paintbrush still to be found in the high mountains

Fluffy fox

White tailed jackrabbit or snowshoe hare - I can't tell

Driving through open range means you encounter this type of traffic

He refused to move even as we slowly crept up on him with the car

I moo'd at her "Moooove"!

Week 30 Labor Day Driving Adventures

Labor Day weekend, a time when you shouldn't drive up I70 ... oh, about 3:30 pm on a Friday night. But I did. I rolled out of town late and paid the price by crawling up the highway with thousands of others headed to the cool mountains. In my continual practice of choosing to view the world as "glass half-full" I blasted the music and enjoyed the gorgeous sunflowers all along the highway - creeping along at 5-10 mph.

My husband and I adventured out to find some early aspen trees turning and ended up doing a little unintentional 4-wheeling. I took lots of photos because yeah, I'never going back down that road. When we finally popped out on a regular dirt road I'm pretty sure I saw a sign that said "off road vehicles only" - hmmm, no such sign at the other end.

Now that I'm safe and sound I could paint that 4 wheel drive road

We would have missed this stunning view high above the Colorado River

south of Hot Sulphur Springs

We saw no other cars on this road - good thing because it was too narrow and not many places to pass. But hey, we did see this old armchair out there. I would have sat in it for a photo but was sure a bunch of wild animals would have jumped out the back.

Week 29 Best Trade Ever

Today I hiked back up to Lake Isabelle since I only had time to do a sketch when I was here last weekend. The lake had been half drained since Sunday but the paintbrush were still showing off their colors. I brought along friends which made it exceptionally fun. We learn new vocabulary and laugh a whole lot.
I accidentally left the bug spray in the car and the mosquitos were vicious. The trail is very popular and eventually I planted myself in front of the next group hiking up and begged for some bug spray while offering up a trade of M&M's. Luckily, I'm not the only person out there who think chocolate and hiking really go together. A nice woman saved me from being eaten alive and received M&M's for payment. Great trade.

So, it's always nice chatting with people on the trail, you know you already have something wonderful in common, loving nature.

Last Chance Paintbrush at Lake Isabelle

9x12 oil

Week 28 Did you say chocolate?

A really fun project for me this month was doing this painting for Third Eye Local, a marketing firm in Wisconsin. When they asked if I could paint a store front with a holiday theme for Fazio's Chocolate, I said ... mmmm, yes!
It was equivalent to asking my old dogs (labrador retrievers) if they wanted to go for a walk. Sometimes we would say "waffle" just to see the ears perk up - "waffle" was close enough to "walk" that the dogs would go crazy spinning around in circles. I miss them and their lovable destructive labrador ways. So here is the finished painting, soon to be seen on some chocolate packages headed out to holiday shoppers. If you find yourself near Fazio's Chocolate in Elm Grove, WI please stop and have some chocolate for me.

If only they knew how much I love chocolate ...

Week 27 Solar Eclipse: Big and Small Stuff

Today was a big day for small stuff. Like errands.

I ran errands this morning and my last stop ended as the much anticipated solar eclipse started. I found myself in the King Soopers parking lot with a group of cashiers. They were outside passing around one pair of glasses and kindly gave me a peek. It was pretty cool. Then I got home and the neighbors were gathered with even more glasses and an old fashioned shoebox for viewing.
Super cool.

I had started this painting a few weeks ago in anticipation of the eclipse and there it was waiting for me to finish this afternoon. It was nice to stop thinking about all my small stuff and see this big thing today. And then paint a big thing.

Back to regular small stuff tomorrow.

Solar Eclipse I

36 x 36 Acrylic

Week 26 Steamboat Springs Paintout

Well, it's not really week 26 but I've neglected posting, so I will still number my posts in order. I'm in Steamboat Springs for the week painting wth PAAC. I got rained out this afternoon so thought I'd take advantage of the bad weather and do some "housekeeping". Ya know, all that stuff we don't really want to do, it's just "art housekeeping" for me. Gave up the real housekeeping years ago. If you stay gone painting, there isn't much to clean. That's my plan anyway.

Last night, I got in a quick painting and many insects died for the cause. They insisted on landing on the paint, on the canvas and on me. All choices were sadly ... fatal. The birds at this camp spot are scavengers and I'm waiting for one to swoop down and pick up a pastel thinking it's a cheeto. Let you know how that goes.

This morning I set up to paint along the Yampa River and guess what I saw? A big yellow duck, and a swan and a unicorn. Seriously. You see the craziest thing when you get out of the house.

Along the Yampa 12x12 oil

I haven't pulled out the oil paints for awhile so here's hoping I remember how to use them this week!

 First came the swan and rubber ducky - grandpa was in the swan.

The best kind of tailgating!

Then the darn cloud storms moved in ...

Here's the Unicorn floating on by

Some watercolor sketches of wildflowers that I did over the July 4th weekend

Indian paintbrush at North Supply Trailhead in Grand County

Just working on design for this - obviously not accuracy

Week 25 Stop and Paint the Roses

I'm back from my trip to Australia and had a fantastic time. Kangaroos, koalas, rain forest jeep tour, waterfalls, a boat trip out to the great barrier reef, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and I saw only 3 or so terrifying spiders. I did not scream once. It was good.
I posted daily on instagram while I was gone - you can check it out here. You don't need an instagram account to view my stuff as I'm posting publicly.

I did get out with my friend, Anita yesterday to paint in Littleton -we chose the War Memorial Rose Garden. It was beautiful with roses of every color and I want to go back. (don't I always say that?)

Highlights from the trip included snorkeling on the great barrier reef. I floundered in the water like a tourist (total shark bait) for the minimal amount of time so I could say I did it, then swam back to the boat to do a sketch. I know my strengths.
One of the crew told me at the end of the day how some people come out and don't snorkel or dive but actually just sleep on the boat. He said what a waste of time and money. He obviously didn't see me skipping the second afternoon snorkel trip, taking a nap and drawing at the other end of the boat.

The best place was visiting the Lone Pine Koala Bear Sanctuary - us and a bunch of preschoolers feeding kangaroos - fantastic. Then there are the Koala bears. They are mesmerizing and I honestly could have watched them all day. Katt and I took some time to sketch.

This was Noosa National Park at Alexandria bay. We saw dolphins and whales off in the far distance.

This is Australia - mmmm.

We saw a lot in 2 1/2 weeks from Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and all the way to Cairnes. I didn't paint as much as I wanted - was with my husband and daughter. Unless you are traveling with other artists people don't really want to stand around all day while you paint apparently. So I can't wait use the reference photos and get some studio painting done.
Thanks for following my art journey!

Week 24 Littleton, Denver and Sydney

Littleton Plein Air event - 3 paintings are for sale at the Art Depot until June 18. Last weekend was the ASLD Summer Art Market - thank you SO MUCH for purchasing & visiting during the hottest weekend ever. I also appreciated the great conversations with old and new artist friends. Saturday night was the Alzheimer's Association Art Auction - I barely had time to race around and get bids in on art and say a fast hello to people I would love to spend more time with, but couldn't.
Tomorrow I'm headed "down under" to Sydney, Australia and can't wait to see my daughter and the beautiful county. I might be the only person in the whole world looking forward to a 14 hour flight. Because I can take endless naps ... and I will.

Downtown Littleton, putting in a watercolor underpainting

Photo credit to Peggy Dietz

 

The two paintings I donated to Alzheimer's Art Auction - very happy to say they raised a lot of money for the Alzheimer's Association. Check out the bags under my eyes ... I felt the need to point them out, they are tremendously large after spending the day in 96 degree heat in a booth.

My booth full of art. Will work on getting unsold stuff uploaded to website later this summer.

A corner where I enticed people to ask about the mittens I make for Alzheimer's

The highlight of my weekend - a small child who loved my soft carpet and crawled under the back table for some relaxation. I loved forts as a kid and I was especially jealous that I couldn't crawl under there myself. I really love kids abilities to just do what the feel like with no inhibitions. I also love that my "kid" who is 23 years old hauled all this stuff for me and helped me set up and tear down the booth. Absolutely could not have done it without my wonderful husband and son. XXOO