Yesterday at the Winterset Art Center, I met with other art center members for a day of painting and getting ready for the annual Pancake Breakfast that we are putting on for the community on February 23 from 7am til 2pm. I'm thinking most people with not be thinking about pancakes after noonish, but we'll see. This is one of our 4 dinner fund raisers we have during the year. I'll have a bunch of my paintings for sale. Come by and say hi. If you buy a painting, I'll buy your pancakes!!! Can't be a deal like that! Any sales made during the breakfast will also benefit the Art Center. Of course, any sales I make will benefit UMCOR. Almost forgot, Barb C. and I were elected co-directors of the art center at the January board meeting.

Went to the Winterset Art Center yesterday to hang out with painting buddies. Found out that it doesn't pay to miss a board meeting even if the weather is bad and it's 20 miles to the art center. Looks like Barb C. and I were nominated to be co-chairwomen for the coming year. Sure sounds like fun to me.  Next thing happening at the art center is our anual Pancake Day. We (the buddies and I) think it's the 23rd of February. Coming up soon.Check out the Winterset Art Center website. wintersetartcenter.com

Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter
Twice a week I get an informative letter from Robert Genn. Check out
the link to his website. You'll learn a lot. It's like a letter from your
favorite art professor. Here is a bit from his recent letter

Esoterica: Now familiar with my own particular voice and accent, my Dragon app prints out exactly what I speak into my iPad. Twenty years ago this miracle would be unthinkable. You can be assured that painting apps will get better and better. The current clunky line and substandard gradation will be history. Artists may only need to think of something and the app will make a masterpiece. In the meantime, for my buck, the iPad and other devices for painting are useful learning and testing tools. And like that old hog's bristle lying half-dried-up on my palette, those new-fangled gadgets can let you down.

Foggy morning

Taking a trip to my favorite antique shop plus machine quilting shop in Perry, IA, today with my sweetie. I'll be looking for "models" for my paintings. Owners, Marty and Gordon, have been married forever, work together, play together, etc. Their shop is on the main street in the business district. Hotel Patee is just around the corner. The movie, Ticket Out, had scenes shot in town and in the antique shop. Scenes were shot in front of the bowling alley across the street from the antique shop. Months later, the back half of it just collapsed into a heap in the basement. It's totally gone now. The movie is supposed to be released this year. We'll see!

There is also a thrift shop in town. Good place to get books and models for my paintings. And there's the tea room, the hotel, the El Salvador restaurant, just to name a few. Oh, and an original Ben Franklin and an art gallery.

Foggy morning on Windy Hill. Trees covered with hoar frost.