The Latest.

I try to cover all 4 seasons my paintings - Hmmm . . . can you guess which season this one is? Spring hasn't come easy this year but this painting is my way of celebrating its arrival.

"Sign of Spring", Robin and Magnolia, Original Watercolor by Anne Gilna

The Art and Plant Sale

It was good to get together with the Reed-Turner Botanical Artists, though art sales were slow. It just was. The artists are very talented, and we're keeping keeping on.

A Positive Sign

The NSUC show went really well. Every year I make an appearance to set up for this show, greeting the same volunteers, occupying the same booth space, and even seeing many of the same customers. Most of the same artists are there. It's very reassuring, yet strange that an entire year passes in between a show, and little changes from one to the next. Attendance was noticeably higher, in part due to bad weather (the opposite of an outdoor show) and free admission.

Back to the printer issue. It turns out that a new print head, again, was needed. We're giving it another try. It's working great presently, though by deleting and reinstalling the printer driver, the color adjustments I'd made were lost, and images looked too intensely colored, and generally off. I'm making the corrections, recalling the general tendency of the program to overdo it regarding saturation.

It Continues.

After producing several good prints, the miserable lines reappeared, ruining a print. Though one of the cartridges was low, I decided to redo the print head alignment. While waiting for one of the test sheets to print, the machine just stopped dead and shut down. It wouldn't restart. Nothing. I waited. I changed the (presumably) empty cartridge. Still nothing.
I looked into getting the newer comparable model, which would cost the same as this one did years ago. I'm not giving up on this one though, I have it on good advice that a new print head assembly would cure the problem, guaranteed.
Though it doesn't resemble a yellow citrus fruit, I think I have a lemon printer.

The Continuing Saga of the Epson Stylus 2200

For the last 3 or 4 years, I have been producing my own high quality reproductions of my original work using an Epson Stylus 2200 printer. It produces good, sharp images, and the media and ink cartridges are reasonably priced. It has been fun to create prints as they are needed, and over time I have learned which images are most likely to sell, and which ones are more likely to stick around for a while.
Last September, one particular print came out of the machine showing some unusual marks, sort of like a faint bar code, showing each of the 7 colors, at random places within the print area, but not the result of ink on the rollers, and not responding to repeated print head cleanings.
The repair center that had replaced the print head in the past wasn't familiar with the problem, but didn't encourage repairing the machine again, since it's now obsolete. I checked out the newer models, but none seemed to have the familiar, simpler features I'd grown accustomed to.
So, I took my printing business to Blueraven Creative, and was very satisfied with the results of the work. However, I still missed producing my own prints, and the flexibility of creating prints whenever I wanted, as few or as many as I wanted.
I contacted the repair center again, and the technician suggested it may be a software issue. I uninstalled the program, and eliminated all traces of the printer from the registry. Then I downloaded the driver from the Epson website onto another computer first, and ran a test sheet. It came out clean, without the strange line pattern. Encouraged, I downloaded the software on my computer, and the test sheet again came out clean. I ran 2 prints successfully, and on the third try, the lines reappeared. This was frustrating, to say the least.
Though the machine is long out of warranty, I felt that I had nothing to lose to contact Epson support online. I described the problem, and their solution was to try realigning the print head, something I hadn't thought of. It took some time, paper, and a magnifying glass, but the realignment happened, and I ran several prints successfully. No strange lines.
This takes us to the present day. I hope this saga does not continue. . .

Serendipity

I've just attended the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association conference, as a vendor. The conference took place over 4 days, though I was able to sell for only one of the days. It was an unexpected find. The attendees were appreciative of my work in watercolor, as well as my portraits. I spent a lot of time discussing my bird knowledge, and I appreciate the dedication the rehabilitators have to their work. It turned out to be a productive day! I'd like to participate next year, but that will take place in Seattle - I may not be ready for that transportation adventure. We'll see.
Meanwhile, I'm giving serious thought to some springtime bird and botanical paintings.

Light and Shadow

One of the most difficult, yet essential, aspects of painting any subject is to create a contrast between light and dark. I have always struggled with achieving this effect, especially when painting birds or botanicals. Sometimes the light source isn't very distinct and I have to invent one, or I am too cautious with the dark areas, and don't want the painting to look overworked or muddy.

Now, I think I've made some progress in this area, with my latest watercolor, Kestrel. The light is cast strongly from the right side, defining the form. Another notable thing about this painting is that the bird is looking straight at us, creating more shadow away from the light. Here it is: