Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

Three huge boxes sent off to Watts Fine Art, Zionsville, IN, yesterday. Finally. Today I'm back to the easel, painting for an upcoming show in Chattanooga at River Gallery. The show will be April 1-30, the reception Friday, April 2. Now I have to clarify something, because some people are thinking my piece will be on the cover of American Artist Magazine. Little Dancer is just a finalist. The actual piece has not been chosen yet. It's an honor just to be a finalist, and my piece will definitely be in the magazine in July. Just don't know whose will be on the cover yet. I'll keep you posted.

So this week I received this email..."Congratulations! Your artwork has been chosen as a finalist in American Artist magazine’s 2010 cover art competition. Your painting, Little Dancer, along with information about you and your working process, will appear in the July issue of the magazine..." Wonderful! All I needed to do was send them a 300ppi 11 inch image for publication. But wait...was it this one, named "Little Dancer" or this one named "Little Dancer?" Or this one named "Little Dancer?" So I've spent the last 3 days frantically trying to find documentation of which image I may have submitted to the competition. Nothing. Nowhere. Nada. A frantic email to the publication. A frantic phone call to the person who made the initial contact. A CD sent with all the images and a note. Finally someone called and emailed me the correct image. It was the first one. A little 5x7 which was purchased from my blog and ebay link a while back. So, if the...

You don't know how moving it is for me to open my email and come across all these generous good-wishes from you all. Most of you I've never met, but I feel like I've got all these wonderful friends. It makes me almost giddy to read your comments. Thank you very much. "Villa Rica Work Crew" was the clean-up crew during the Villa Rica Pet Parade back in the fall. Villa Rica is a tiny little town 30 minutes west of Atlanta. A train runs through it, so there are a couple of shopping strips on either side of the tracks, with little restaurants, antique shops, the Villa Rica Police Department. The whole span of 'downtown' Villa Rica is about 3 blocks. It's a cozy little place, 3 minutes from I-20. I never have to deal with traffic, unless I choose to go into Atlanta, which I do regularly. Yet I can pretend I'm in the middle of NYC in my little loft. I'm looking forward to getting to know the place. One more thing I've been doing in my recent abse...

It's been months since my last post on the blog. I've missed writing and uploading my small pieces. The habit of that seemed to have kept a rhythm in my life, which I've most definitely been without lately. I'm hoping to regain that rhythm. I've moved my studio to a new place, an artist's dream in Villa Rica, GA. An old warehouse with polished concrete floors, original brick walls and exposed rafters and pipes. All I have to do to clean up is pull a dry mop around the room. No vacuums, no carpet spot removers, no constant worrying about ruining anything. A kitchenette, a separate room large enough for a bed and my computer. Couldn't ask for more. And the studio is large enough to accommodate 5 other artists and a model, if I move furniture around. So I've taken to hosting a one-day workshop, once a month, which pays for my new little refuge. My February and March classes filled. "Lisa", above, was the model from my first workshop here. She'...