Palletters paint: 10 ladies dancing...12 drummers drumming....

What a great way to put us into the spirit of the season as we painted new clothes, gave new hairdos, and freshened up the instruments of these colorful cutouts that were originally painted by the Palletteers (no one could remember how many years ago). These holiday characters will be on display during the St. George Botanical Garden's Christmas Spoken Here event next weekend. Even though we missed lunch and painted until 2 (OK, it wasn't really so bad because we all had had enough turkey the day before so that we could easily afford to miss lunch), and our backs hurt and our necks twinged afterwards, we loved the camaraderie of working together on a project, and felt really blessed by the sweet breezes provided by the Christmas winds that had arrived last weekend, so we enjoyed being able to do our part to help make the Garden's fundraiser weekend a success. Ginger

Buccaneer by the Palletteers

It's always interesting to see what each Palletteer chooses to paint. I have long wanted to paint the lily pond on Buccaneer's golf course (holder of many errant golf balls that had stopped for a dip on their way to the second hole), so I went directly there and found a great spot to paint; the lilies cooperated fully, greeting me with open blossoms! Carolyn found a cool spot in the restaurant's entry area, but her new watercolor paper was not cooperating! Everyone else headed into the restaurant or to the beach to paint some Buccaneer vista that caught their fancy. Lunchtime will be remembered for the magic genie who came to visit and give us a good laugh!
As can be seen, we may not always finished, but we always love what we're doing!

Ginger

Starving Artists need palletteers to volunteer!

The Landmarks' Society is short of volunteers for Starving Artist's Day, as the gala is the night before. Anyone interested should contact "Sara Zuckerman" at Whim.

Palletteers: Interested in Oil Painting Workshop in March?

Bruce Williamson, an artist who gave an oil painting workshop here last winter, will return for a repeat performance March 24-28. He needs to know how many people are interested ASAP. Most of us who took it last year liked it so much we plan to take it again. His website is williamsonart.com if you’d like to see his work. If you know of anyone else who might be interested, please pass this on.

Palletterers: Is this Synchronicity?

I attended the reception for Haitian Relief last evening and was so proud to recognize the signatures of quite a few fellow Palletteers on the artwork! It was a great gathering of people in support of a worthy cause!

Afterwards we went to the Top Hat for dinner and I found out that this coming Wednesday night will be the opening for their next show, featuring Portrait artist RALPH WOLFE COWAN. Cowan is considered one of the top portrait painters in the world, famous for his portraits of Princess Grace and H.H. Diana. After the Palletteers' recent attempts at portrait painting, what synchronicity to have the opportunity to meet an artist who has mastered this art. His flower paintings will be a treat too, reminiscent to me of Georgia O'Keefe! You can see some of his work at ralphcowan.com. The artist will also be at the Top Hat Thursday evening for those who can't make it Wednesday night. Both nights, from 5PM.
Ginger

Portrait Painting Palletteers week 2

The Palletteers spent the morning portrait painting again today and we all agreed that this week's efforts were an improvement over last week's. Thanks, Jan for your hospitality and guidance.

Pretty good work by the Palletteers, eh?

Palletteers: Benefit Reminder

Don't forget to drop off your artwork donations at the Walsh Gallery on this coming Wednesday, November 12th from 2:45- 6:00 PM, or Thursday, November 13th from 9-12, for the Haitian relief benefit coming up next weekend. If you are on another island or away, call Mandy Thody at 340-773-2202 and she will arrange delivery help. See the October 2 blog entry for more details. Thanks for your help with this effort.
Ginger

Portrait Practicing Palletteers

We had an interesting time at Jan Giles' yesterday, taking a break from our normal landscape painting and working with live model, Nancy. Ever the teacher, our hostess began our session by having us do quick pencil sketches of Nancy in various poses, to relax us and her. Then we dug out our paints and spent the remaining time working on our "Nancy portraits". For some of us, this was a first time doing portraits; for others, it was a return to something they'd done many years ago; for a few, it was a continuation of doing something they've always loved to do; for all of us, it was fun! Quiet reigned; as each of us focused on our painting, you'd never know it was a studio full of women! As expected, our results varied, but if you're familiar with our members, you could probably tell who did what. Sorry I didn't get a photo of our model for you to compare to our artwork. Hmmm. Maybe that's good? :^) We liked all the paintings! Maybe we'll do it again next week.

Ginger

Palletteers at Sondra's

Just photos today, from a lovely morning.

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Aha! Here's an internet trick for you! Put your cursor, the arrow-that-turns-into-a-hand, on the picture above (One of Melissa's quick sketches) and click, it will open in the size that it was uploaded. This was a large version, 1300 X something. The other photos are smaller.

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If you post your own paintings or photos on the internet, and you don't want them to be copied, just make the size really small, like 200X100 pixels, for example, and if downloaded into someone's computer, the picture cannot be enlarged very much at all without it just turning into a nice abstract design. Like the little? caterpillar here.

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If you want to download a picture from the internet into your own computer, put the little arrow-that-turns-into-a-hand on the picture, and RIGHT click. A window-menu will open. Find "Save Picture As..." and click that. A 'Save Picture' window will open. Look at the top, find 'save in', and remember where it's going, so you can find it!! Left click 'save'. And there you go!

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Got that?

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Have a great week!

Palletteers blogsite now has a counter

We have a 'counter' for this blog now, to see how many visitors we have. They don't come in a larger size than this, so, get your magnifying glass!

The Fort for the Palletteers

Hi, everyone, I was still hurricane groggy and didn't make it Friday to the Fort. So here are a few quick snapshots for our blog! Hope everyone is fine and OK, Melissa

Palletteers on Beeston Hill

St. Croix: Island of Opportunities for Palletteers

Alexis Lavine
Artist and fellow Palletteer Alexis Lavine is offering her annual workshop, A Caribbean Artistic Adventure, February 24, 25, and 26 from 9:30AM-4PM each day. Check out her website http://www.alexislavineartist.com to learn more about her background. Contact her at alexisart@earthlink.net for more information.

Roseway
Just received news that the Roseway is coming back and part of their itinerary is a plein air painting workshop as she cruises to the BVI March 15-19, 2009! To get more information about the cruise, click http://www.worldoceanschool.org/. Instruction will be by artist Colin Page.

Two great sounding workshops! Both have limited enrollment, so act quickly if you're interested in participating.

Palletteers paint Estate Grange

It is always a great experience to paint at some of the historic sites on our island, and this morning, at Estate Grange, was no exception. There are so many interesting things to paint this former home of Alexander Hamilton, that we were really surprised when each one of us decided to paint the Bell tower, located near the greathouse's patio. Has that ever happened before? As you can tell by the photo, no two paintings are alike, each showing the individual style of its artist. Can you tell who painted which painting? Melissa, who joined late in the morning, impressed us all with her quick acrylic of ... guess what? Yes! The bell tower!

Hint: If you left click any photo with your mouse, you can enlarge it big enough to get a really good look.

Happy painting!

Ginger

Requests from Two Worthy Causes

HAITIAN RELIEF BENEFIT
Palletteer members have been asked to donate a piece of art-work to the Haiti Community Support Inc. (http://www.haitisupport.org/) for their Art Benefit for Emergency Relief for Haiti fundraiser taking place November 13–15 at the Walsh Gallery on St. Croix. This VI non-profit conducts rural development in Haiti's remote mountain region. Recent hurricanes and escalating food prices have created a terrible crisis there right now. Officials with the UN's World Food Program recently declared that all-out famine may be around the corner if immediate help isn't forthcoming. It's been said that Haiti is our hemisphere's Darfur. We can't watch it happen and not try to do something.
100% of money raised is going directly to Haiti - to double the children's hot meal program, and toward establishing the town's medical clinic, to help fight the malaria, infections, worms and anaemia and other poverty-derived conditions. You won't get anything in return except good publicity, the organization’s thanks, and the gratitude of our Haitian neighbors only a few hundred miles from here.
There are no restrictions on medium or size or materials. Pieces will be accepted at the Walsh Gallery on November 12th from 2:45 to 6:00 pm and November 13th from 9 to 12. If you are on another island or away, call Mandy Thody at 340-773-2202 and she will arrange delivery help.
Thank you for whatever you see fit to send to help make this genuine and essential effort a success.


ARTIST TREE
We've also been invited to participate in the St. George Botanical Gardens' Christmas Gala by donating art-work for the annual Artistree, THE best selling tree at the Christmas Gala every year. Many of you have all been a part of it in past years and the garden really appreciates your efforts.
This year the tentative theme will be Carnival Christmas and they would like to really fill it up by putting at least 60 pieces of art on the tree! Betsy will again be donating the frames for the pieces.
They would love if you could donate at least two 3x3 paintings for this tree (more if you want!). Art-work can be dropped off at Gallows Bay Frame or sent to Connie Lemco at 72 Estate River #34, Kingshill, VI 00850. They will need them by the last week of November.
We all love to paint at the Botanical Gardens and this is one way we can show our appreciation for being there for us to enjoy!

Palletteers Paint Botanical Garden

Last week we painted at the St. George Botanical Gardens. We met several challenges to our painting morning: 1) it was really hot and even standing in the shade provided little relief, and 2) after all our recent rains, the mosquitos decided to pay us a visit. But we persevered and still enjoyed the sense of serenity the garden offers, its varied plantings and choices of subject matter, and the sheer joy of painting in such a lovely setting. Pictured above are Marilyn's watercolor of the reflection of one of the garden's magnificent trees in the pond and Emy's oil paintng of the Greathouse.

Ginger