What will you be?

You could be a pirate!

or --

You could be a mermaid!

You could be a picture frame!

You could be a baker!

What will you be?!

Happy Halloween!

OK, I will admit it, I am not a huge fan of Halloween. I know i know, I should be, it's so much fun, so creative! ... blah blah blah.

For me it just means having to endure the whooshing sounds of inflateable hideous lawn decorations everywhere, as my husband pointed out and now has made it ever present in my mind that some even look like Trojans inflated, along with annoying orange and purple lights swinging from the posts and house trims everywhere, spending money on candy - a LOT of candy, (we get 300 + visitors for trick or treat) working and sewing up costumes (which alright we have looked back over the years and chuckled about a few of them for sure...) and pretty much shooting my entire evening hours of said day into just answering the door but gee, I guess I can dress up for that!

Goodness knows I can open a bottle of wine to endure it and invite a couple of friends over with witch hats to help! I wish I had seen this fabulous post at Not Martha earlier - I would have loved to whip up this handy loaf!

This year we are going to do the T or T tonight and tomorrow on the real Halloween Chloe and I are heading out early to Concord to create the community mural project at the Concord Arts Market. Then it's home again to figure out our costumes and all go to the Portsmouth Halloween Parade. It's supposed to be fun and lord knows I could stand some fun around all this hoopla, so off we go. No worries, we will take photos and share them next week. Hope that your Halloween is spooktacular!

Bell'Invito Letterpress Studio

photo by Victoria Wall from Bell'Invito :: The Aquarius book plate
Oohh and ahhhh! This letterpress studio - Bell'Invito has some breathtaking work. When Anna contacted me about their Zodiac Collection for 2010 fashioned with Don Carney's antique woodblock inspired ink drawings a la letterpress, I was eager to learn more. Love Don Carney. Love this line!

These beautiful images are available in cards, both folded notes and gift cards, and a handsome desk calendar. But what really took me aback was the beautiful book plates and accompanying book marks. I love my books and am always on the search for something out of the ordinary in a book plate. These hit the mark and then some! Take a look at them more closely at their site Bellinvito.

Romy Kuhne

Romy Kuhn is an artist from Arnhem, NL who - for one thing - makes these incdredible paper vases coated to make them semi waterproof. Beautiful! As seen at MocoLoco tweets!

Community Mural :: Concord Arts Market

sketch done!, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

This is the sketch I did for the upcoming Halloween version of the Concord Arts Market. I painted it on a 7x8 foot piece of canvas this afternoon .. I didn't have a lot of time, just a lot of ideas and well, it's a guide for the community to go with!
The idea is based on a night garden, late autumn, with a little day of the dead thrown in there along with my imaginary marshmallow on a stick flowers. Hopefully, everyone will have fun in the painting process on Saturday and I will be sure to get lots of process photos and the final product too!

Autumn in full bloom

the bittersweet is coming in ..., originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

It's pretty, it's colorful and it's a pain actually to deal with as it likes to slowly strangle other bushes... but despite it's bad habits, we keep it!
Today we had a little frost outside which is very seasonal, with lots of leaves on the ground from the maples, and the birches. The oaks are hanging on dearly to their yellow foliage but I imagine this week, they too will be swept away from their branches. What color is it in your part of the world?

Friday Illustration Friday fun

holding fast-- mixed media collage

New peeks at some of my own new collage works - just in time for me to play along with Illustration Friday. The word was fast. I thought how appropriate for this week! I have just finished up a stack of new paperdoll girls which I was going to put into calendar form and decided I loved them so much that I would just keep them as 8x10 artworks instead and make some prints. What's fast about this piece? Well, she has a holding fast to that hanky with which she is waving goodbye with.

A World Geography project

which to me is more beautiful than the sum of it's parts and information.

Made by my daughter Chloe for her World History class - project on Africa. Under the weather here today, so keeping it short. Isn't it pretty against our newly painted foyer color "pebble"?

Photos of the renovations to come this month.

Mike Lewis Blue Bird Rock Prints!!!

rocking house finch! by mike lewis

Mike-Lewis-Blue-Bird-Rock-3437orig, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Mike was kind enough to drop off some fine looking prints of Blue Bird Rock and Rocking House Finch and so now, we are going to have them all available at the shop for a very affordable $20...and the originals are in the Dwellings show too!

Come and get em while the last!

Some new work of my own

some new work of my own, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Hello Friday! It's been a very busy week here at chez Schwake and I have been hiding in the studio to get some of my ideas finished this week. I have been having so much fun with these little ink drawings.
It's recycled wood from an woodsmith's shop, which are all lovely cedar wood. Each one is unique and different and will be in our shop and my etsy tomorrow by noon. Hope that all of your dreams came true this week, well at least ONE of them ... enjoy this brisk autumn day and think sweaters, scarves and lovely cozy blankets and fires!

Tim Wirth :: strawberries

Tim Wirth was part of our Deep South show and I grew to love his work the moment we opened the first crate. Above is one of my favorites-of-the-moment. See the whole basket full right here at his site.

Pippa Caley :: new lampshades!

I adore Pippa Caley's work and have written about it each time she sends me new fodder- but now - oh - now she has something which I just adore even more than her beautiful pillows and bespoke line of work. Lampshades! yes, her signature style is now adorning lamshades ... go have a look. So beautiful.

October is here ...

Color abounds in October ..

Albina McPhail's strange candy

our back studio window with brushes

.

more Albina McPhail

leaves in ever changing sculptural patterns on our doorstep

The tree behind the studio

everywhere!

Dwellings :: the exhibition begins!

It's official and here are the details! Do stop by for a drink with us Saturday from 5-7 p.m. and meet all of our wonderful artists!

artstream gallery at 56 North Main Street in Rochester are pleased to welcome three diverse artists into their gallery for a two month exhibition entitled "Dwellings" exhibition opening on Saturday October 11 from 5-7 p.m

All of the painters have an illustrative background and this show is filled with a strong sense of individual graphic style. All of the artists will be attending the opening.

Amanda Woodward, a native of Edmonton, Alberta Canada and award winning illustrator will be flying in for the exhibition opening on Saturday October 11 from 5-7 p.m. Along with Amanda is her fellow Canadian, Melanie Ford Wilson of Toronto. Melanie's paintings along with her illustrative work has been included with such clients as Target, Loreal, Olay, Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno, the Four Seasons Restaurant, The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and the New York Restoration Project. Mike Lewis, a painter and illustrator from Portland, Oregon, now from Ashland. New Hampshire will round out the main gallery's group show with his whimsical paintings of birds, their environments and their love of headphones. His take on painting leans towards the whimsical illustrative with a great nod towards cartooning. Mike has been shown across the nation with his works in sell out shows at Blue Bottle in Seattle and has shown at Hive, L.A.

Alongside the show Dwellings we are introducing Zoe Pawlak's work. Zoe is a from B.C. Canada and her work has been celebrated all over North America. Where We Were and Are are emotive landscapes that are done from a mixture of memory and imagination that conjure up our sense of situating ourselves where we currently are based on where we have been and the physical and emotional landscapes we have traveled. Where we Were and Are considers the accumulation of places we have been and those experiences that commit us to the place we now are. We have three of her larger canvases on exhibit and are thrilled to welcome her to the gallery.

All the work is available online from October 6th and will be shipped at the end of the exhibition, November 29th but can be purchased right here in our shop!

Melanie Ford Wilson :: Dwellings

Melanie is simply one of the best illustrators I have ever met - her client list is long:Target, Loreal, Olay, Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno, the Four Seasons Restaurant, The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and the New York Restoration Project, among others. She is seriously cute to boot.

Her new work here at the gallery - on the canvas is exceptional too! She has mixed in some found papers, lush glossy layers of color and created some simply beautiful "dwellings" in which I could easily live. Here is a little peek into her world, above and below, two works which are part of our Dwellings show. You must come and see these in person - they are so deep and rich!

Did you hear? "Dwellings" upcoming new exhibit

mike lewis, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Click through the Mike Lewis painting above to see a little preview of the show going up. It's very exciting on all levels! The work is all now in the shop as a show too so you can pop over and start shopping right away. And come to the exhibition opening on Saturday October 11 from 5-7 p.m for music, wine and nibbles as well as all of the artists will be on hand for rubbing shoulders with. Some wonderful wonderful people! See you there...

artstream :: our next show :: WOW!

Opening 10/11 at artstreamstudios, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

More to come... but for now ... just ... wow! excited!!!!

Stephanie Howard :: The Guns of Meeting Street

Stephanie Howard, The Guns of Meeting Street

So much beautiful brown with poppytalk's brown day Thursday during Autumn Colour Week. I had to show Stephanie's drawing because it embodies brown and the paper color just sets the mood of the season. Is it their dress? the arch or those tracks going south? This lovely piece is for sale over at the shop too! Click over to poppytalk to see her picks for today's color: brown!