Patti Gibbons Art

I am on the road at least once a week with art supplies and and not every bag is suitable for every situation. After years of making art and being an art teacher, I have whittled it down to four different bags that I use when I travel/teach. My goal is to get the most that I can fit in my bag, and have ease of  transporting it. Starting from the top; a black cross-body bag, that I got for free from AARP.   I am saving my money for a bigger and better bag, but for now, this nylon freebie works just fine. It is my watercolor bag. In this small 9" x 6" x 3" bag I can pack the following:  3-4 of my Kremer  pan sets, fold-able cup (purchased in a camping store)  folded paper paper towels, waterproof and a non waterproof black ink pen a pencil or two an eraser brushes and water-brushes.  a pad of watercolor postcards, and a 6 x 9 or so watercolor book/pad. The red bag I purchased in a second hand shop in the Adirondacks a few weeks ago for 5.00, a...

I often work in watercolors. Though they can be difficult, and I have made a lot of rather awful paintings using them, they are an integral part of my art life. I have used many different brands over the years, ranging from school grade to the top of the line. I have done good and bad paintings with both. The main difference is the amount of pigment vs. fillers - the more expensive watercolors have a denser and richer color.  Think of it in terms of a mostly meat meatball vs one that is a mostly breadcrumbs meatball. I prefer pan watercolors because I like the ease of traveling with them. When I hike/travel, I have a small cross body bag that fits a 9 x 6" watercolor pad, 3-4 full sets of watercolor, brushes, paper towel, and collapsable cup. If I don't want to carry water on me, I bring my water brushes, although carrying water with you is always a good thing.  I discovered Kremer Pigments which is in located in Chelsea in NYC . My abstract drawing teacher/men...

                                     The Strange Moon Like Landscape of the Golf Course A sweet little bungalow on the Course     At Wellfleet Harbor    The Salt Marsh at the Eastham Visitor Cente I am on vacation on Cape Cod.  Over the years I have come to know and love the Cape, with its oceans, bays, salt marshes, restaurants. The only thing I DON'T like about the Cape is the 4.5 hour ride which usually turns to a 6 hour ride due to traffic. Over the past several years we have been finding places of our own to stay, rather than staying with friends. We can come and go, and not worry that we are cluttering up their house with our photography and art equipment, or estate/junking finds. Renting sight unseen on the Cape is someti...

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 ...

  Cover depicts one of Hugo's abstract ink drawings   Whistler Painting I have a lovely collection of art books. However, I  have never read nor looked at all of my books, so I decided a long time ago to stop collecting them obsessively, and to only buy what really touched me. The last major book purchase I made a few years ago was ODD NERDRUM: Themes , a book that gets 160.00+ on Amazon.  I got it as a remainder on B & N a few years ago for 50.00 (now it's triple that....and I am providing a link to Borders to get it for only slightly more than what I paid for it. ) But 163.95 Amazon? Really? Today I broke my "no book rule" and searched the Internet for two books that I had to have. One is Shadows of a Hand: The Drawings of Victor Hugo , and the other Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly .  I checked Amazon first and was taken aback on the prices of the books.  I REALLY wanted these books but could not afford tho...

I have been quite handicapped not having a computer,  and though I have a Droid, an iPad, and an old laptop, I was not able to do the graphic and business work that I usually do on my desktop machine. Bad New: swollen capacitors, and a fried graphics board. The poor Mac finally fried, and it had been telling me for a while that it was on its way out. and I had not backed up all of my files.  Good news: I have found a Geek god who was able to get my files off . All two years of music, photographs, art, etc. (Lesson REALLY LEARNED) But within the week I managed to get the data retrieved, do my research, and traveled to the Albany Apple Store to buy a new iMac - with the L A R G E  screen.  What a joy to be able to open up multiple windows which makes multi-taking so much easier.  And the timing was perfect - a long awaited retro raise payment was added to my paycheck, and I had enough to get myself back up and running, though I had NOT figured in this expense...

While cleaning out an old purse, I found this poem that I wrote as my mother was dying, and my daughter was about to give birth to her post cancer treatment "miracle baby".  I was planning to drive    to Tennessee to help her for a week with Larry, as my mother lay in critical condition.  The Clash lyrics to  "Should I stay or should I go" were bouncing about in my tortured brain. Before I threw it away, I thought I would share it. Sanctuary music it says on the tape. A nun in the nursing home has left it playing on my mother's radio to soothe her. New Age music... to calm the soul for the journey. The angels are waiting at the gate mama. I wish you would go and meet them. I think you have suffered enough for your mistakes, and so have we. Free yourself. Free us. Rest in PEACE. Amen. As a postscript, my mother rallied.  It is a miracle she is still alive, though she never gets out of the bed in the nursing home. She seems happy enou...

The past two days I have managed to get some paint time in. The studio is pretty clean, table space available, and canvases begging to be reworked or started.  It's time that I kick into high gear.  I see the light changing, fading, and hear September calling.  I paint in desperation to hold onto the freedom of my summer, and during the time I stand in front of my canvases, I meditate on a plan to get through another year of teaching while keeping stress low and the work load manageable.  How do I balance being a full time teacher AND a full time artist?  How do I shift my thought from TEACHING TAKES AWAY MY ENERGY TO PAINT, into somehow getting energized from my teaching and bringing it home to the canvas?  Photos are of two unfinished paintings; one is of  three little cabins that were hunkered down in the steamy mist of a leftover storm,  looking like they had very long faces, and the other an evening trip over the Hudson, location unknown a...

Not a good start to the day. I thought the workshop started at 10. At 9 am I double checked online. It started at 9. I live 1/2 hour away from the center. In my rush to get leave (sans breakfast) I hit the portable dishwasher, which knocked over the bottle of wine, whose top was not on, and spilled all over the wall and behind the stove. The timer also fell, which I promptly whipped across the room and broke into a half a dozen pieces. I am not proud of this. I know I snapped. I have not done so in such a long time.I am a total hormonal mess, and this can't go on. On the way to class, I thought "great. I am just like one of the kids that I teach. I am going to class a total mess, and ready to have a meltdown". In that reflection, I understood how my kids must feel, some of them on a daily basis. I knew that I needed a cry, to be left alone to dive into the paints and get myself back into a human state. I have no excuse for this. I don't have any stressors in...

Tonight's painting BEWILDERED, along with last night's piece, PLANETARY PINCH are listed on eBay . I don't usually list my art there, as I have other venues to sell my art, but right now, I have art, and it all isn't out and about in places to be seen, and I figure that at the very least, different people will see it on eBay, and maybe someone will say I HAVE TO HAVE THAT. As the old adage goes, "you can't win if you don't play." I also look at it as a way to get my artwork out for the world to see at the very least. Pretty cheap advertising I say! And, if I make a few people chuckle, or it brings to them a memory or reaction, then that is part of the joy of making art. This piece is titled "Bewildered". Painted on location at Wilderstein , a historic site outside of the town of Rhinebeck that has a view of the Hudson River. Painted in acrylic on a 5 x 7" canvas panel, and collaged with an antique Victorian die cut, the little girl r...

My love for Olana runs deep. I wish I could remember the first time I visited it; it was probably at a time that I choose not to remember, like when I was raising two kids alone, working, and going to graduate school. But I am a sucker for romance, landscapes, Victorian painting, and exotic architecture, so I fell in love at first sight. I have made several paintings and numerous sketches of the site and landscape, and photographed it many times, during different hours and during all four seasons. I have been married there on the autumnal equinox at sunset. I have embellished my house with decorative objects that I have bought in the gift shop. I have sipped on wine and watched the sun set over the Hudson. I have heard the crunch of snow and ice, and felt the suction of mud on my boots on a late winter day. I have watched the sun reflect the windows at sunset, and witnessed the house turn a liquid gold on a hot summer day. I fantasize about living in the house and painting the la...