At the Junior League Artful Living Home Tour headquarters, a certain artist's paintings dominated the entry area, where the pianist was playing, where people could get something to eat, and just about everywhere.

Today was the first day of the Junior League's Artful Living Home Tour at which Mary Kay was a vendor. Lots of people came by and talked about her paintings. She sold her "Old Flowers" to a woman from Walnut Creek who said she liked its "old world" ambiance. Two other women were seriously interested in paintings, but wanted to consult their husbands before buying. Mary Kay will be back at the Alamo Women's Club Hall tomorrow.

Mary Kay added some definition to Veritas today.

new vine painting

Not to forget the wine country theme, the latest painting, called Veritas, looks like this. Makes me want to taste those juicy grapes!

Flowers for Little Girls

Mary Kay just finished two commissioned paintings to decorate the bedroom of two sisters Sydney and Leah. Sydney's flower is a red mum and Leah has a matrix of ranunculus flowers.

Livermore Art Walk 2009

Saturday October 10 started early as we loaded up three vehicles with 13 paintings and easels and drove out to set up for the Livermore Art Walk. We arrived there at 8:30 AM and started unloading and setting up for the show which began at 11 AM. The weather was great and lots of people stopped to look at and comment on Mary Kay's art. A highlight of the day was that her painting Autumn found a new home with a Livermore couple who live on a hill and have a large space over their fireplace which now sports a new painting.

First of new set of paintings appear

Mary Kay has been busy the last few days starting to work on the 17-19 paintings needed for the Wente show next year. A special challenge is the requirement to work small when she much prefers to paint large.

date set for Wente show

Mary Kay was just informed that her one person show at Wente Vineyards Estate Winery is scheduled for the month of November 2010. She will have an artist's reception at the winery on November 7. Save the date.

Artwalk website

The Artwalk website has come on line here. Over 150 artists will exhibit their work in downtown Livermore 11-5 on Saturday Oct 10. An index lists the artists and where their work will be displayed and, for some, a link to biographical material .

Oktoberfest celebration

Mary Kay's unframed two panel painting "Bouidoir Flowers" was auctioned off at tonight's Oktoberfest celebration , bringing in $550 for the St. Charles parish fundraiser. One of the people bidding unsuccessfully on the painting told Mary Kay she would like to have one of her paintings so that may well lead to another commission.

Preparing for Artwalk

Mary Kay was called by another local artist Linda Ryan who is organizing next month’s Artwalk in downtown Livermore to offer her a choice spot on First Street across from a coffee house, and near music and beer in front of the new location of the First Street Alehouse. Music, beer and art. What could be better?

St. Charles painting

Mary Kay took the final painting of St. Charles Borromeo for our pastor Father Gus and pastor emeritus Father Richard of St. Charles Borromeo parish to see. They indicated to her they would like to hang the painting of Charles in the entry area of the church.

opportunity missed

Mary Kay received a phone call from a local artist organizing a show at Murietta’s Well winery in October asking Mary Kay if she would be one of ten artists showing at that time. Unfortunately, we will be in Minnesota that weekend attending Michael Mauriel’s wedding to Sarah Mathews.

September Vineyards

We started the Labor Day holiday by driving down Vineyard Road between Livermore and Pleasanton checking out the grape harvest and taking over 20 photos of vines, vineyard rows and vines backed by the golden hills. These photos will provide some ideas for the next series of paintings, e.g. for the Wente show next year.

Boudoir Flowers

Here is the final version of Boudoir Flowers. At one point, Mary Kay was ready to paint over the left panel as a separate painting, but then decided she still liked the two panel idea. They look good apart or together. Some lucky person will get these at auction later this month.

St. Charles the final version

I can't believe how rapidly Mary Kay executes her ideas. She thought about the subject of St. Charles for some time before making the sketch at the beginning of summer. The sketch sat in the back room while she worked on other paintings during the summer. Presumably ideas were working themselves out somewhere deep in her subconscious. She started the actual painting only a couple days ago. The first version looked pretty good, several people commenting on it, but she wasn't entirely pleased. Today, she spent a good part of the day working on color, the face, the crucifix, etc. Here is the finished painting.

Charles Borromeo (work in progress)

A few days ago, we showed the sketch Mary Kay made of St. Charles Borromeo based on the painting (ca1610)by Orazio Borgianni. She has starting working on the painting and here is the first "work in progress" version.

first blush of Octoberfest painting

Mary Kay has started on a two panel painting tentatively called "Boudoir Flowers" for the Octoberfest celebration in September. The panels are shown together here. She isn't sure whether she likes them better together or apart. These are a preliminary version of what will eventually come to pass.

one man show

This past weekend, Mary Kay was invited to put on a one man show at Wente Winery in about a year. This would involve 17-19 works which would be on exhibit for a month near the holiday season.

Charles Borromeo

Our parish patron saint, Charles Borromeo, was born in November. The parish plans a celebration this year and the pastor asked Mary Kay to paint a portrait of the saint which will be carried in a procession. She made the enclosed sketch. He was happy with it.

Octoberfest

Our parish, St. Charles Borromeo, has an Octoberfest celebration every September. It is the big fundraiser of the year. Mary Kay is going to contribute a flower painting. Last year, she contributed a vineyard painting that brought a good result when it was auctioned off.

invitation from the Junior League

Mary Kay has been invited to be a vendor at the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay's 2009 Artful Living Tour in November 2009. This is a tour of "distinctive homes in the Diablo Valley. The tour is both unique and educational, focusing on architechtural style, landscape design, interior design and furnishings and is sure to inspire tour participants to build or remodel their own dream homes."

For more info on the tour see http://www.jloeb.org/?nd=home_tour

duvet cover

Group Show at Library

On its website, the Livermore Art Association is promoting its monthlong civic library show involving the work of 30 local artists using Mary Kay's entry.

Showing in Library in August

The good news is that both of the new paintings, Hibiscus and Irises, shown here on Saturday, are now in new homes with happy owners.

Another flower painting, April, shown here, will be hanging in the Livermore Public Library during the month of August as part of an exhibit sponsored by the Livermore Art Association.

welcome to MK's new blog

This is a new blog to share news about Mary Kay's paintings and art activities. We hope this will make it easy to let everyone know when new paintings are published on the website

web.mac.com/mfeit , and participation in art shows, etc. Let us know what you think