Work!

Happy weekend, friends!

I was going to post a blog post last week, but I should have known that that wasn't going to happen. Last week was add/drop week at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), when student can add and drop classes without any financial consequences.

View from the building where I work

What that means is that it is REALLY busy. We have walk-in hours all day every day during that week when students can see us without appointments.

Student work in one of the buildings - it's huge!

It's also the week when most of the departments have student orientations and faculty meetings, which we try to go to.

One of the School of Design buildings decorated with clown shoes

I advise all graduate students in Design for Sustainability, Industrial Design, Design Management, Service Design, Creative Business Leadership, Writing and Dramatic Writing (for theater, movies or television).

From an exhibit at the SCAD Museum of Art

Altogether, I advise about 450 students. It was so fun to see many of them again after winter break, as well as the professors. Yes, we are busy but for me it is incredibly fulfilling work.

The view from my parking garage

As an added bonus, I get to be around art and creativity all day long and work smack-dab in the middle of historic downtown Savannah (although it's a little dangerous that I work only a block from the main shopping street).

Next week will be a lot calmer and I won't have evening meetings to go to, so hopefully I'll check in a little more often.

I wish you all a beautiful Saturday!

❧ Silke

Art and Much More

Another week has passed and it's been a busy one. It's also been a week where spring has arrived complete with sunshine, warm air - a few days felt downright summery - and tree pollen, which is giving everything a thick dusting of light green and making many people sneeze.

I've been busy painting. Small paintings like this horse. Can you see it in the background photo below?

Another small painting - a fun bird!

I saw him right away in the shapes of the background below.

This was the final small painting of this last week. Love the closeup of the owl face. The horse and the owl have already flown off to their new homes. This little paintings don't stick around for long. I'm grateful!  

Now here finally is the finished large painting of the alligator and his friend, the kingfisher. This is such a fun canvas size - 12 x 36 inches (31 x 91 cm).

I loved painting this keeping my palette to three colors plus white: Naphthol Red, Payne's Grey and Phthalo Green (blue shade). 

The funny thing is that I started the background with the red and blue because I still had a lot on my palette from another painting and didn't want to waste it.
Then I liked it so much that I only added the green for the gator and left it at that. I like both challenges - using many colors and making it work or using only two or three.

This was a very quick sketch for a larger painting I want to do soon.  I liked her pose.

Aside from making art, I went to the beach one morning just for a long walk. It was so beautiful. 

 The sun was shining and it was warm. Even warm enough to walk barefoot and put my feet in the (still cold) water.

Then, one evening I met Daniel in town after he was done teaching and we spent some time at our favorite rooftop restaurant/bar on the Savannah River.

We were in luck in that two big container ships made their way past us.

A perfect evening!

Of course with the warmer weather nature is exploding and with that our garden. Even the frogs are coming out of hibernation... 

And our fig tree, which last week was still completely bare, now is full of leaves and already has little figs growing. How amazing is that?!

I'm linking - as usual - to the fun and always inspiring Paint Party Friday. It's always an inspiration to visit everyone's beautiful art blogs!

And to you all a beautiful, warm, sunny and creative week!!

With love and joy,

❧ Silke

Nothing Stays the Same

I know this. I know that change is the order of things. I know that the only constant in life really is change. And of course my art has to evolve just like everything else, but it catches me by surprise every time.

I really made a commitment early on that I would let my intuition guide and drive my art and that's what I try to do. So, you can see by the elephant and the bird that my color palette was changing. A little darker, calmer and subdued.

And I kept feeling a need to paint more complex paintings, small and large. Today, I'm only showing the small ones as the larger ones are in the sketch phase only at this point.

The background above happened by me dripping high-flow acrylics into watered down absorbent ground. It made for such cool shapes. When I put this on Facebook, one of my friends saw a horse in the upper right, another saw the face in the lower left and I filled in the rest.  I love this painting!

The same with the one below - the figures were suggested by the shapes in the background and I just went with it.

And this one is really different. She was all there in the shapes, wing and all. We'll see where this leads.

Already in the background I created today, some warmer colors are sneaking back in. The textures of this piece are amazing! We'll see what it wants to become. 

And now a few photos I snapped around town and in our back yard (the flower photos at the end!). Savannah is full of "secret" gardens and whenever I walk through town, I try to find one of two.  

Everything is starting to bloom and it is gorgeous!

Winslow and I spotted this heron on our walk yesterday. It was so focused, it totally ignored us.

 And this color is all from our garden. It is spring here in the South and everything is waking up!

Head on over to Paint Party Friday for more beautiful art and inspiring blog posts!

I wish you a colorful, warm and sunny week! 

❧ Silke

What a View!!

We spent last evening with friends at the Top Deck in Savannah, a rooftop bar/restaurant on River Street.

While the conversation was great, we all kept getting distracted by the stunning sunset and the freighters drifting by. I couldn't resist taking several photos!

There is something about commercial ships and ports that I love!

Just look at the sunlight on this ship!

The clouds were spectacular!

And the setting sun was bathing everything in a rosy light.

This is one of my favorite views in Savannah for sure! I don't think I'll ever get tired of it...

Monday is almost done here, but still I wish you a great evening and a fantastic Tuesday morning to those of you who will get there before us...

❧ Silke