Patti Gibbons Art

I spent my first TRUE vacation days (which means no little people and no family) on Perch Lake on the northern edge of the Catskill Mountains in Delaware County.  It is a 50 acre crater lake,  and at its deepest is 75'.  A friend of mine invited me to spend a few days in a lovely home 20' from the waters edge. It was three peaceful days. No wireless, no cell phone reception. I had a land line which mean I was the one in control of whom I called and when. And that was a call or two to my husband to make sure all was ok with Alanna.  He was playing Mr. Grandpa. It was one of the hottest weeks of the summer, but with the elevation and light breeze that constantly blew over the lake, I never felt the heat, and interestingly enough, I never had one hot flash. If I got warm, I  took a dip in the lake and floated around for a while on my noodle. If I felt like a workout, I did some swimming. When I felt inspired,  I drew and painted. When we were hungr...

I intended to be writing more, but I have to admit, I have been putting my energy into my granddaughter the past 10 days.  This is the third year that we take Alanna for two weeks in the summer, and indulge her in every experience that we possibly can.  I joke that her social life is better than mine, which means we move like twisters. We swim a lot as we are graced to know many people with pools, a necessary respite on hot summer days when you don't have A/C.  We've also watched the first three Harry Potter movies, and just borrowed the next three from a friend. I am hoping that one of us will take her to see the last one in 3D before she goes. I was not the perfect parent.  I loved my kids, but I was a stressed single mom who had no money, worked and went to  college to get my BS and MS so that I could have a good job with benefits to support my kids.  There price for that often took its toll in ways that make me wince.  Short tempered, always ...

The Hudson Valley is rich in the arts.  One does not have to look far to find fabulous historic sites, or galleries with amazing art.  It is the BEST when a historic site and a local artist meet on a weekday night and have an opening. Thursday afternoon I took a ride down Route 9W, past the monasteries and over the Hudson River to attend Jane Bloodgood Abrams opening "Earth, River, Sky" at Locust Grove, the Samuel B. Morse historical site .  Jane is a painter in the tradition of the Hudson River Artists, a genre of painting that I have studied over the years, a style which has been an inspiration in my own landscape painting. Jane has a gift for creating a landscape that evokes many moods, and her work has an other-worldliness to it.  Her paintings and pastels take me to a place where if there is a God, I can feel him. I am fortunate to own a small pastel painting by Jane of the Hudson River from Olana.  It was a gift from my husband to celebrate Chr...

  It was a glorious weekend. Time with family and friends. Painting time.  The mood was great, even though one day was damp and rainy. We took Alanna last night with a friend to go see the fireworks on the Walkway Over the Hudson , which is one of the areas most scenic and enjoyable walkways in the Hudson Valley.  Built in 1888 as a railroad bridge over the Hudson River, it was the longest truss span bridge in the world at the time, towering 212 feet over the water.  It has been restored and made into a 1.28 mile walkway, where pedestrians, cyclists, and wheelchairs can traverse from Highland to Poughkeepsie, with a view of the Catskills,  the Mid Hudson Bridge, and the river of course. The fireworks were great;  the Poughkeepsie fireworks were set off from a barge on the river, strategically placed between both bridges.  Behind us, on the north side, just below the walkway, Highland had its own little round of fireworks. I felt like we were surr...

I finally got it together to design a mug and online printed greeting cards through Zazzle.  I had opened a Cafe Press Store, but found it difficult to navigate, so I popped over to Zazzle, which itself has been a challenge to learn, but there is a learning curve to any online site.  I have sold on eBay and Etsy for years and can breeze through listing/managing my items, but this site has the added challenge of making ones graphics work with the program and the product. With the advent of NY passing the Marriage Equality Act, I decided that it was about time that I promote the card I had designed several years ago into products that fit the message.  I love greeting cards, but the mug was something I really wanted to make.  I am going to check out what else I may want to carry the design on, but will stop at items that I consider silly or unappealing to me.  I need to do the female version of the card and mug, then order one of everything myself to see how...