High summer summit o’ blossoms and fruits

June meeting saw us examining art containers for nearby (check out ArtSacks) and distant (see AirFloat) exhibits and shows. We also saw the 12x12 Small Works Essentials natural gallery frame from Dick Blick/Utrecht (#18862-1904) prescribed for ASBA 2017. General discussion included our Prez Vanessa showing us a technique for mounting prints to wood panels using decoupage product. Carol Till recommends Plasti-care (Steve Capone, 4211 S Natchez Ct, Englewood) as a source for Plexiglas. There’s a scrap pile available at $2/lb for the smaller pieces. So there, framers and printmakers.

Canada Day is tomorrow, July 1. Happy birthday, neighbors. Have a lovely party. Thanks for picking such a great flag design back in 1965.

Rocky Mountain Land Library is offering some swell workshops this summer. Eileen Richardson offers this flyer.

Independence Day is Tuesday this year. Fireworks shows all over the place, so make sure you find one. July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted, sending a serious dart into the eyeball of the British Lion. Years of war and political struggles followed. We’re still here.

RMSBA Art Show & Sale at Tagawa Gardens in Centennial on July 22. The Lavender Fields Forever festival and the High Plains Iris Society expected. A bunch of us are taking stuff to sell and you can visit with us while you’re there. Come on out!

Cannabis show could use some more entries so let’s beef up the participation. Contact Vanessa Martin if you need access to plant materials. The deadline for submissions approaches…

RARE II opens in Vail at the Betty Ford Gardens on Saturday, August 19. This is the Last Known Venue for RARE II so come up for the sendoff. 

Open Studio July 12 at the Mercury Café, 2199 California St, 10 am - 1 pm (it gets warm after that). Join us (suggest intent via this link) for whatever might be your Open Studio pleasure. A participatory demonstration with carbon dust, ink, and drafting film is anticipated.

After Solstice, days shorten, nights lengthen, and the Heat goes up

Dorothy DePaulo and Heidi Snyder have an Opening this evening (6 – 9 pm) at Valkarie Gallery, 445 S Saulsbury St, Lakewood. Come see what they’ve been up to!

Reminder: Member meeting tomorrow, June 25 1 – 3 pm, at Koelbel Library, 5955 S Holly St, Centennial. Bring what you’ve been working on and show us.

June 10 – Another crop of graduates from DU – they’re the last in the Regular Academic Season – Rock on!

June 13 – Loved ‘Wonder Woman’.  Wore my 'Xena' T-shirt. Loved the film. May have to acquire a personal copy… ‘Beauty & the Beast’ pretty good, but I can live without a personal copy.

June 19 - Golden Banner, Shooting Star, Mountain Iris, Strawberry, even Columbine, all at the meadows occupying the 8000’ elevation range. Go see! Go also to see Dos Chappell Visitor Center on Mount Goliath, where King’s Crown and Purple Fringe are headlining.

Who's This?

June 20-22 – Summer Solstice, when the Sun hangs around at the farthest northern reaches for a couple days, to make sure we got the point.

Open Studio will happen on July 12 at the Mercury Café, 2199 California St, 10 am - 1 pm (it does get warm after that). Join us (suggest intent via this link) for help, critique, exploration, encouragement, a good cry, uninterrupted time, and whatever might be your Open Studio pleasure. We look forward to seeing your work and hearing your plans.

ASBA 2017 – Well, the conference hotel and the overflow hotel are fully booked. Good luck.

Now a few blossoms seem to be showing up

Irma Sturgell, Carol Till and Susan Fisher have original prints in the 528.0 Regional Juried Printmaking Exhibition (artists living within 528 mile radius of Denver) at the Center for Visual Art, Metro State University at 965 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80402. This show (2017: 58 Artists, 96 works) is held every other year. Go have a look.

Carol Till: "Locally Sourced’ L to R: Indian Hemp, Yellow Warbler Nest, Black Chokeberry’

Intaglio triptych with colored inks.

Open Studio coming June 14 (Flag Day!) at the Mercury Café, 2199 California St, 10 am - 2 pm. Join us (suggest intent via this link) for help, critique, exploration, encouragement, a good cry, uninterrupted time, and whatever might be your Open Studio pleasure. We look forward to seeing your work and hearing your plans. A Reminder will show up presently.

Clean up, rescue, replant, replace, repay…

Tip for artists and gardeners. Quite by accident, your Editor stumbled across Ground Covers, just east of Colorado Blvd on Iliff Ave in southeast Denver. They have a large selection of very healthy plants of several species unfound in other garden centers in central metro Denver. The staff looked happy to be there, too. Try them out as you recover from the recent carnage, or if you’re looking for a nice specimen for a class or project.

Open Studio will happen on June 14 (Flag Day!) at the Mercury Café, 2199 California St, 10 am - 2 pm. Join us (suggest intent via this link) for help, critique, exploration, encouragement, a good cry, uninterrupted time, and whatever might be your Open Studio pleasure. We look forward to seeing your work and hearing your plans.

This in from Susan Panjabi at CSU: “I wrote a thumbs up about the [Fort Collins Museum of Discovery] RARE II exhibit that appeared in the 5/17 Coloradoan newspaper. Here’s the link!:”

http://www.coloradoan.com/story/opinion/2017/05/17/thumbs-thumbs-may/101808690/

Thanks for the compliments and references, Susan!

Blue, Bleu, Azul. Mmm, good: a new blue pigment (not a spectral color of light, so the

frequency remains a mystery) – the first since Cobalt blue in 1802 – discovered/synthesized in 2009, contains two metals and a trivalent semiconductor. Officially YInMn [Yin_0.8Mn_0.2O₃] (for Yttrium, Indium, & Manganese), a friendlier name is the goal of Crayola’s contest to betitle that new shade of blue [your Editor offers “Nuclear Blue”]. Alternative Press cites this replacement for retiring “Dandelion”, new in 1990. This blue pigment is very lightfast and stable.

Formulae for computer nerds (do feel free to round up/down to satisfy your program; it’s probably close enough you won’t notice unless you’re a dye chemist [or Susan Rubin or Connie Sayas]:

sRGB: R: 45.82   G: 79.92   B: 143.51    CMYKH: C: 68.07   M: 44.31   Y: 0   K: 43.72

Hex Triplet: #2e509D

Hail & Decapitations!! Torn & Tattered Leaves! Blossom Shreds...

Reminder: Open Studio 10 am - 2 pm May 10, upstairs at Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St, Denver. Join us and bring your stuff! Bring your Out of the Woods piece you submitted (or didn't...), or your Illustrated Urban Gardens piece (ditto), or whatever else you have up your sleeve. Bring some graphite pencils (2H, HB, 2B) and we'll chat about pencils and compare them on various papers. It would be helpful if you let me know if you might try to come through this link. See you then!