Sheila M. Evans

The past few weeks have found me neglecting my website a bit, I’m afraid. Luckily, this was due to good problems: I had to get twelve small pastels ready for my two small works shows in December. (Of course it would have been no problem had I not spent several days recently painting the oil version of Isis, left.) The deadline sort of snuck up on me, but a little extra adrenaline is always good this time of year.

In fact, this year has been filled with all sorts of goodness for me, and now seems like an appropriate time to send out some appreciation to those that helped make that happen. So, while this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are a few things for which I am grateful:

Juries that let me into shows

Shows that invite me back

Galleries that invite me to show my work

Suppliers that bend over backward to make sure I have what I need, when I need it

The Pastel Journal, again (specifics coming soon!)

All the traveling artist friends that make strange places seem like home

All the local artist friends that make home that much better

My local art community for making me feel part of it all

Paul, for schlepping my stuff and enduring countless boring hours of travel and fairs

My parents, for never telling me I should become an accountant instead

And  most of all, I am grateful to the people who would argue against the statement “art is not a necessity.” You keep me in business with your generous patronage, and I couldn’t do this without your support. Thank you!

I’m on jury duty this week, and thus far it has been the easiest jury duty EVER. After a two-hour orientation Monday morning, the roomful of potential jurors was sent home after all three cases settled. We weren’t called back for Tuesday and yesterday was a holiday. Today, still no jurors needed. One more day and a new set of jurors rotates in, putting me into the backup group for one week and that is it. If the case load stays this low, I can only imagine the two hours on Monday will be the entire extent of it. I have seriously lucked out. Not that I was unwilling to do it—in fact, I found the process fascinating. But with as much as I have on my plate right now, I really needed the time.

So, with my bonus week I got to finish Fall Garden No.3, left, and start work on another big pastel for my show at the Tinman Gallery. I really need to be painting in oils, but they will have to wait another week or so. Being on call makes me really appreciate the fact that I can put down and pick up pastels anytime without worrying about them being too dry, too wet, or too anything. Of course that doesn’t mean they are always so easy. The  big pastel on my easel right now is giving me absolute fits, and taking way too long. But since I might not be here at all right now, save for the county’s light case load, I really can’t complain. Or shouldn’t, anyway.

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(Too bad I live in the city. There could have been a Rural Juror joke in there somewhere. Oh, well.)

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” - Douglas Adams

I have a lot of painting to do. A lot. I mean, I knew I did, but the magnitude of the job ahead of me is really starting to hit home as I count down to four gallery shows coming up in the next few months. It’s a great problem to have, don’t get me wrong. But I probably need to complete ten small works, ten large oils and ten large pastels by February (the oils show is in May, but the oil paintings will need time to dry before varnishing). And with jury duty (*sigh*) next week and the holidays coming up, I will have to reach a previously unheard-of level of efficiency to get it all done. Wish me luck. Please.

(Isis Study, left, will be at the Tinman Gallery’s December small works show. I hope to use it as a study for a large oil to show in my Kress Gallery solo oils exhibit opening in May.)