Living WholeARTedly: June 2013

Saturday, June 22, 2013

A Burst of Energy...
...A Weekend Spent In The Studio

It's been good to get back into the studio and do some painting. I had big plans for last weekend, but they got cancelled late in the week. No matter though, I had a burst of creativity energy and was happy to spend most of the weekend in my studio.

I am still somewhat obsessed with the tree I posted earlier and worked on another version of it, though this time I changed the proportions to accommodate the panel.

I worked on number of other pieces this weekend including finishing an Iris painting that I started last year, and a painting I've been wanting to do for a long time, a 'helicopter' from a maple tree. I love the feather-like structure of these seed pods.

The finished works are posted here. If you would like to see some of the steps that went into making them, visit my Facebook page album More Works in Progress. Be sure to 'Like' the page if you would like to receive regular updates on my work.

This week, while out and about, I found a couple of more trees that intrigued me, including a beautiful grouping of three trees.

Thanks to the early sunrise, I have four paintings started. I am waiting for them to dry so I can start the glazing, but this can take 12 - 24 hours. Fortunately, this weekend my plans will keep me busy while I wait!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Porch Roof Went Splitsville...
...But Everything's Back Together

Though nowhere near as bad as places like Oklahoma, we have had a fair amount of rain and wind here in Chicago of late. The other day on my way out the door I noticed that it was raining on the inside of the porch..."This can't be good," I thought. After the storm I inspected the roof and found that there were indeed a couple of tears in the membrane.

Fortunately, this is a relatively easy repair! SAFETY FIRST: This roof is flat and accessible by a doorway, and the tears were not near the edge of the roof. Don't go climbing up a ladder to save a few bucks if you don't know what your doing, and certainly don't do it alone! A storm earlier in the year caused some interior damage that I fixed, but the roof leak was fixed by a team of professionals with the right equipment to get up on the main roof and make a long lasting repair.

I didn't need much in the way of materials, just some roof repair tape, a bucket of roof sealer, and a cheap brush (you can try to clean asphalt out of a good brush if you want, but I have better things to do with my time!). You'll also need a broom and a drywall knife or some sort of blade to cut the tape. I already owned a broom and a knife, and the rest of the materials totaled about $25 at a home improvement store.

Materials overshadowed by the worker :)
(c)2013 Eric E. Paige

The first step is to sweep the area clean. Next, place the tape over the affected area. It's basically like a giant band-aid for your roof. You cut it to length, remove the paper to expose the adhesive and press it into place.

The final step (yes it really is that easy!), is to brush on a coat of roof sealer. You may have noticed that this roof is heavily checked (the asphalt has shrunk so the surface is all pebbly), so I used a thick coat to help fill in any gaps between the tape and the surface.

It might not last for ever, but it will buy some time. It definitely was quick and easy; in fact, it took me longer to put together this blog post! Stay tuned, I am working on an article about the wall and ceiling repair warranted by the spring storm!

There's more home repair and DIY projects here, click here to learn how I turned my sunroom from 70s paneling into a modern space.

To learn how I turned a discarded stool into a side table, click here.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

A Trio of Trees...
...What's New In The Studio

I took the week after Memorial Day off to get the studio in order. It's been nice to have my work space back! I have been working on some smaller pieces (perfect for art fairs). Recently, I did a series of paintings of a particular tree.

Most of my tree and grove paintings are out of my imagination, but I was enamored with a tree that I saw while out and about. I was able to snap a photograph and have done three different interpretations of this tree.