Murals

Shirley Perry finished this big panel mural for Webster House. Great Job!

Shirley will be moving south soon and we are sorry to see her go, but wish her well in her new ventures. Thanks, Shirley, for all your help with our art projects this year.

Movable Mural for Webster House by Shirley Perry

Hi Linda!

I'm finally sending you some photos of the work-in-progress mural for the Webster House. I've learned how to sand, prime and paint the plywood to get ready for my mural! It's been interesting :-) and I learned a lot. I'm also glad I didn't sand in my house!

I've attached some photos. I still have to finish my quotes around some of the "paintings" and in the general space will be a quote that's very positive.

I've been working from 7 a.m. until it has gotten too hot lately. In fact, today, the paint dried so fast I couldn't even paint a letter in a quote because it dried too fast and wouldn't flow nicely on it.

I'll keep you posted.

When this is all done, Anthony Williams said he'd help me seal it. Then I'll get it back somehow.

I've learned a lot about stenciling! It took quite a bit of time to sketch out a quote and then arrange it around my painting so it looks even. The size of each sport paintings are  21" wide and 15" tall. I used my computer to sketch out my idea and see what spacing to use to make sure everything is "even/lined up." I will have final touch ups when the all the quotes are on the mural. With my first cup of coffee, I'm out painting!!! What a way to start the days lately!!!

Hope you are enjoying your summer.

I hope to see you soon,

Shirley

Guest post and photos by Shirley Perry. Thank you, Shirley. You're doing a great job and I think the Webster House people will be very happy with the mural.

Webster House - Project Completed

Thank you to all the artists who participated in this project for Webster House: Tina Gagnon, Deb Funk, Anthony Williams, Judy Gelinas, Stephanie Byrd, Linda Feinberg

Webster House Project (continued)

Thank you to Tina Gagnon and Deb Funk for this beautiful 4’ x 5’ acrylic painting. The painting has been delivered to Webster House and they are very happy to have it.

Webster House will be having a reception for us when all the paintings are up. We are still waiting for the completion of the last painting.  Two other smaller paintings that we had in storage were also donated to them, from our former president, Colleen O’Connor.

We have purchased an E-Z up tent, complete with sides, sandbags and lights. If you are a member of our organization and would like to borrow it, please contact our treasurer.

We do not have any April meetings scheduled, but if you would like to get together, just to chat, to draw or paint, just contact us.

Please remember that all paid-up members are entitled to promote their exhibits, classes and current paintings on this blog. We would love to hear from you.

Project Ideas for Spring and Summer

Our winter project is gradually getting done. Paintings by Linda Feinberg and Deb Funk have been delivered to Webster House. Linda’s painting is up on the wall of the conference room.

Carolina Davison is working on getting the building that the city owns (former Latin America Center at 521 Maple Street) turned into an art center. We hope she succeeds! She has already had a fundraiser and an open house. Lots of people are interested in this project.

Several ideas were suggested for spring and summer projects, including a sketch crawl (bring your camera or sketchpad, meet somewhere, then head out, do your thing, and come back to show everybody what you accomplished afterwards). This would be both a social and art event.

Several of our artists are interested in painting more utility boxes and will be taking photos to discuss which ones with the city. 

Tables will be available at Veterans Park during their concerts.  We might take a table one evening and sell some items as a fundraiser for our group.  Linda suggested we could buy notecards (Strathmore has some) and paint them to sell. Items to sell need to be fairly low prices as these are free concerts and people who attend are not bringing much money with them.

Another project from Webster House – finish up the 4’ x 8’ mural in their basement. We have some volunteers already and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished mural. Our next meeting is May 20, 2015.

Webster House Winter Project

Artwork by Christina Burke-Gagnon (Tina Gagnon)

The proposals/sketches/photos are coming in for our winter project. We will be discussing these at our annual meeting on Jan. 21st (see the Jan. 2nd posting on this blog for more information).  We will be choosing four designs for the 4' x 5' panels at Webster House and possibly some alternatives in case our top four picks are not acceptable for some reason or other.  Please take a few minutes to look at all the photos and come to the meeting with your suggestions and comments.

Four beautiful designs by Deb Funk (above)

Two sketches (above) by Eileen Belanger. I can imagine them in color easily having seen Eileen's paintings in the past.

Sketch by Anthony Williams (our top muralist!). Looks like he's really thinking.....

Urban scenes from Manchester, NH, bridge and river studies by our blogger, Linda Feinberg. That's the Merrimack River flowing through our interesting city.

And finally, some suggestions by Lou Catano, director of Webster House. We could make a variation of any of these. I don't know who the original artist is so we wouldn't be able to copy without permission (copyright issues), but we can certainly do something similar.

These are the submissions that came in by the deadline. If there are a few more ideas, they will be added to this post if possible, or shown at the meeting.  Hope everyone has a creative and artistic weekend.

To view the pictures in full, just click on them.

Annual Meeting

Our annual meeting will be on Wed. Jan. 21, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.  Please RVSP to our treasurer, Linda Feinberg, lhfeinberg@myfairpoint.net. We will be buying some refreshments and will need a head count.

Meeting agenda:

1. Welcome from President
2. Treasurer’s Report
3. Election of Officers
4. Report on Completed Projects for 2014
5. Discussion on Projects for 2015
6. Collection of Annual Dues
7. New Business

If you would like a copy of our Bylaws before the meeting, please let Linda know. She will send you a PDF file.

We have seven artists committed for our Webster House project. Sketches are due to Linda by January 15th and will be discussed at the annual meeting.  We will need to confirm everything so that we can buy the materials and start painting. If you don't paint, but would like to assist us, we will need help with photographing our final paintings and with hanging them.

To recap for those of you who have not been following the information:

Webster House has asked us to prepare paintings for 4 rooms.  We are researching the cost and possibility of doing 4' x 5' canvas panels.  These could hang from dowels or we could use grommets. (If you have experience with this, please let us know. We need your knowledge.) Webster House has been providing a safe supportive home for children in need since 1884. 

Suggestions for paintings include:

Girls area - animals, nature

Boys lounge - sports, music

Dining room - NH scene, nature

Conference room - urban scene, nature

Dues remain at $5.00 annually and may be paid online with Paypal button on this site, or you may bring cash or check to the meeting.

Photo of winter sunset by Joe Smiga. Happy New Year. 

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas/Happy Chanukah/Happy New Year. Whatever holiday you celebrate, FOA wishes you peace and creativity this winter.

Our winter project will be creating four 4’ X 5’ canvas panels for Webster House.  We have 6 artists committed for this project.  If you are interested in painting, please contact our treasurer, Linda Feinberg, for design guidelines. LHFeinberg@yahoo.com Initial sketches are due January 15th.

When the canvases are finished, we will need help mounting and hanging the panels. If you are not a painter, perhaps you would like to help with that. If you are a photographer and would like to see your photo as a painting, please contact Linda for guidelines. If you have materials (or cash) you can donate for creating the panels, that would be appreciated too.

Take a moment to enjoy this beautiful prayer. Deep Peace video with Judy Collins and Richard Stoltzman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRejYkJOYJM