Feliz año nuevo from Todos Santos

Just a quick Happy New Year wish to you all from Todos Santos! I wish all your days to be happy, full of fun, peace, creativity and inspiration with many successful moments! Now that we have the wifi going I'll be able to blog more often and post some more photos. We're off to the Sandbar to celebrate tonight and then if we're up for it, to another restaurant to ring in the New Year!

Christmas in Baja

This is where we're staying. I've uploaded photos of the garden and the casita. We're working on projects and will be painting the outside of the house and garage in the near future as well as working on all kinds of other projects!

We're nearing Christmas but with the nice weather here in Baja it doesn't quite feel like it. But on Tues. night we're going to The Secret Garden restaurant for their Christmas dinner celebration which will get us in the spirit. They call it the Posada (means inn) and it celebrates Joseph and Mary's search for a place to stay at the inn. The dinner guests participate by lighting candles in a procession and all of us reenacting going to the inn and being turned away until we're told we can stay in the manger. We're looking forward to the dinner.

Greg is building me a work table for me to use for my paintings. It will have shelves and places to put my supplies. I'm glad he is so handy and likes to build things. Yesterday he built a gate for the property that has a sun ray pattern on it. We're going to paint it yellow and orange. It will look pretty cool when it's done. I'll try to post some more photos a bit later.

I'm in Baja

I'm in Todos Santos which is a little artist community about an hour or so north of Cabo on the Pacific side. There are quite a few art galleries here and I'm excited to go visit them. Greg and I drove down from Bend on the 1st and arrived on Sunday. It was a spectacular drive with some magnificent scenery. We'll be living here in Baja for six months! I'll be working on new paintings and will be posting new images as I create them. But first we're getting settled in and becoming familiar with our surroundings. Soon I'll be at work painting and we'll see what inspires me. Can't wait!

L. Gruger Christmas Ornaments

I have some new hand painted ornaments for sale that I made for the Christmas tree at the Tumalo Art Co. Gallery on Greenwood in Bend, Oregon.

Tumalo Art. Co. is having a 30% Thursday Sale-abration on Thursday, Dec. 4th. You're invited! The Small Works Exhibit will be on sale in the front gallery from 11 a.m. to 7 pm and drinks and treats will be served! Then for the rest of Dec. the small works will be 20% off as well as some specially marked green sticker items throughout the gallery. I have 2 small 12" x 12" chair paintings in the small works exhibit. They are acrylic on wood with a thin black rustic wood frame on them. The gallery is located downtown at 136 NW Greenwood Ave.

"Sit Down & Be Still II",
12" x 12", Acrylic on wood, framed with thin black frame. $395


"Sit in Deep Woods",
12" x 12", Acrylic on wood, framed with thin black frame. $395

Commissioned Dancing Bear Painting

I completed my commissioned bear painting. It is titled "They Danced with the Fireflies". I love the idea of dancing bears in a scene of celebration! It's painted on the top of a wooden chest and will go in a bear themed guest room. It was fun to paint! The fireflies remind me of my Costa Rica trip where I saw fireflies while Greg and I were sitting on the beach one night. They were so cool! I loved watching them.

Newspaper article on L. Gruger Artwork

I've had a newspaper article written about me and my artwork in the Bend Bulletin "Go" magazine. To take a look at the article you can go to this link on my web site. http://www.lgruger.com/Article.html

I'll be posting images from a new commission I just finished so check back soon.

Dragonfly paintings

I finished two dragon fly paintings and took them to the framer today. A sneak preview of one of them is on the left.

I tried to be a little more free form and use less black line. I wanted to try for a colorful yet airy, light feeling. I wanted to work with the feeling I had while walking in the jungle in Costa Rica and seeing giant blue butterflies and dragonflies. Not sure if I achieved what I was looking for but I'm happy with the way they turned out. I might do more paintings with this dragon fly theme and see what other things I can do with them. I'll have them in the December show at the Tumalo Art Co. gallery.

I'm painting tonight

I've been painting tonight. I'm working on another commission as well as some new work inspired from my travels to Costa Rica. I like the idea of fire flies and dragon flies. I saw both on my trip. I'm going to put some in my paintings.

I've also been working on getting some Christmas cards designed as well as some others and put on my online Greeting Card Store at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/lgrugercardstore
I used the snowflake art from my 2007 Jubelale painting I did for the Deschutes Brewery. I love those festive snowflakes! I think they make a very happy holiday card. Hope you do too and maybe you'll purchase a few to send to your friends and family. I'm going to. If you have any ideas for greeting cards that you would like me to make, let me know and I'll work on getting them into my store.

Art at Auction

I'm celebrating being back from Costa Rica by putting a painting on eBay. I've made the starting bid discounted by $200.00! This is the first time I've put my paintings on eBay.

Title of painting: Red Dog Sleeps by the Light of the Moon, size: 20" x 16", acrylic on canvas. Ready to hang, color wraps around a 2" edge.

See listing at this link: eBay. I hope you'll take a look.

Good bye Costa Rica

We took the bus down to Cahuita on Wed. and ate lunch at a restaurant there and then took a hike along the jungle trail that is at the Preserve near the south end of town. The trail goes along the beach and through the jungle out to a point. It took a couple hours! We saw some lizards, leaf carrying ants, a big spider, lots of flowers and unusual plants and a giant blue butterfly that was amazing!


Before we left Puerto Viejo we took a walk behind our hotel. We got to see a sloth! And some beautiful back roads. Then we left Puerto Viejo in the afternoon on Thurs. We took an Interbus shuttle van to San Jose. The 4 hour trip took about 6 hours though! Quite a long day! We stayed at a nice hotel called Hotel Los Volcanes in Alajuela near the airport. They had some brand new rooms and we got one of them! We didn't get to enjoy it very long though as we had to get up at 4:30 and take a 5 a.m. taxi to the airport. We flew to Houston and had a layover of 6 hours. And then our plane was delayed an hour so that turned into 7! We finally made it to Portland and went to my friend Mimi's where we spent the night and drove back in the a.m. on Saturday. Home sweet home. It is always nice to be home after being away! And now I'm looking forward to getting into the studio to do some painting!

Back on the Caribbean side

Last Saturday we missed our bus to Cahuita so we ended up staying the night in San Jose at the Hotel Don Carlos. It is a really charming small hotel with lots of nice artwork throughout. Two paintings I really liked are above. I like the way the moon and night sky are used in the paintings and the deep reds used!

 On Sunday morning we went walking around downtown San Jose and went to a park (see photo) where there was a national museum. And then we went to a public market where there were hundreds of booths inside a large building with people selling everything imaginable! It was very fun to browse the booths.

Then we got back to the hotel in time to catch a shuttle bus. We arrived in Cahuita in the afternoon. We really like it in Cahuita. It is much quieter, cleaner and friendlier than Puerto Viejo. Although it is the slow season now and we hear it really changes during the high season with so many tourists in town. There are a couple main streets there with lots of little shops and restaurants. We stayed at the Hotel Jaguar and enjoyed the beach directly across the street! There is a National Park at the far end of town with a trail through the jungle that goes out to the beach. But unfortunately since the Hotel Jaguar had their high speed internet down, we decided to go back to the Hotel Guarana in Puerto Viejo. It felt like coming home because they gave us our old room back. And since everything was so familiar to us, it felt really nice to be back! And we're really enjoying the sunshine! I'll post some more photos later.

Escape from the rain!

We loved the little cabin we've been staying at in Montezuma. And we liked the Ylang Ylang Resort next door cause they had a great breakfast and free internet, but after 4 days of torrential downpours that only seemed to let up in short spurts, we decided to escape! We left Montezuma by bus and headed toward the ferry. The roads were horrible from the rain. The road was washed out in places and there were downed power lines in a few places as well. We heard all the rain was from the tail end of a hurricane called Omar that was near Puerto Rico...we didn't check that news out so we don't really know for sure. But we do know it was more rain than we've ever seen and we were getting quite tired of having everything be wet! We took an hour ferry ride to Punteranus and then another long bus ride to San Jose. Now we're at a charming little hotel called Hotel Don Carlos in downtown San Jose. We'll take a shuttle over to Cohuita in tha morning. Back to the caribbean side...hopefully to sunshine!
Yesterday we watched some more monkeys playing in the trees and one came down and grabbed a piece of fruit from Greg's hand that he held out for it. That was fun to watch! I'll write more after we get over to Cohuita tomorrow.

Montezuma, Costa Rica

We’re in Montezuma. We’re staying in a little cabin/yurt right off the beach. To get to the cabin from Montezuma, one has to walk along the beach for about 5 min. There is a main house on the property which the caretaker is staying in. The owners live in Switzerland. It’s been raining in bucket loads almost non-stop here. At times it makes the metal roof on the cabin roar. Other times it is a continual pitter patter sound. But we’re used to it by now. It lulls you to sleep at night. And when the sun does come out, it is gorgeous here. Even without the sun it is beautiful. The flowers are colorful and so pretty, the palms and plants all green and healthy!
We have monkeys that play in the palms around the cabin in the mornings. Big butterflies and hummingbirds come to visit the flowers. We haven’t ventured out much though. Just into town to buy groceries and eat some dinner. The cash machine in town has been broken since we got here so we’re thinking we have to get to the next town to go to the bank. There is a bus that goes there every 2 hours. It is 7 km away.

I’ve been working on getting new greeting cards online at a shop I created at Greeting Card Universe. I have new cards there and I'm working on getting my older ones online now. You can check it out at this link: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/lgrugercardstore

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

We've been exploring and getting to know this small town of Puerto Viejo. At first when we got here we weren't too sure about it. It is smaller than I thought it would be. There is one main street that most of the restaurants and shops are on. There are side streets too of course and the Hotel Guarana where we are staying is on one of them. The more we explore, and go to the restaurants and talk to people, rent bikes and ride around, go to the beaches and hang out, the more we like it. We snorkeled one day and have been going swimming everyday too. We especially like this one cafe called "The Bread and Chocolate". We've gone there 3 days in a row now.

We're starting to get familiar with things and meet people who live here and now, I will say we really like it here! Yet we are looking forward to visiting the next place. Montezuma which is on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We've met two different persons that have said Montezuma is their favorite place in Costa Rica. It has been great staying in one spot and being able to explore the area for a week. We will stay a week in Montezuma as well.

It has rained some here. In fact, we've been caught in a couple down pours. But we haven't needed our rain gear at all and we're thinking we won't need it...but one never knows. It is so warm that it feels good to be in the rain. There are lots of beautiful trees, plants and flowers everywhere....very lush and green!

The Hotel Guarana has a Treehouse (see photo)! And it was fun to climb to the top and check out the view! There are also lots of cool art touches around the Hotel that we are enjoying discovering. As well as lots of mosaics around the town.

Travel to Puerto Viejo

We went to Austin, Texas first for 2 days and enjoyed the music scene. And then got up early to get to the airport to fly to San Jose, Costa Rica. We had a long travelling day yesterday. After we landed in C.R. we took a 4 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo. We had got up at 4 a.m. to drive to the airport. Puerto Viejo is a small town/village on the Caribbean coast. It has a jamaican feel to it. Very laid back and artsy. We're staying at Hotel Guarana, a very nice, charming, comfortable place to stay with little cabinas. There is lots of green jungle surrounding the area with beautiful beaches. I'll try to post some more pics of the village and beach soon.
I liked these boat images and I'm thinking of putting it into a painting with boats in it.





Also, here's a good link to a packing list for Costa Rica. It came in handy for remembering things to bring.

Costa Rica Trip

Greg and I are getting excited for our trip. We leave this Friday for Costa Rica. We're formulating our plans and getting confirmations from all the places we're going to stay and the transportation services we'll be using. We aren't renting a car so we have to get creative in how we'll get to various places. We're looking forward to renting mt. bikes and exploring different areas once we get to a place to settle into. We'll be staying in 3 different areas. Each for almost a week. One on the Caribbean side and 2 on the Pacific side. I added the weather window on my blog so you can see what's happening there. Looks like a lot of rain!! Oh well, we'll have fun no matter what.

But before we get to Costa Rica, we'll be going to Austin Texas for 2 nights. It's Greg's birthday next week and he wants to show me the sights and sounds of Austin before we start our Tropical Adventure. So we're looking forward to hearing some great music and celebrating Greg's Bday. I'll keep you posted. For now, be well and I'll write again soon.

Commission Work

Last week I finished a commissioned painting. It was to do a companion piece for a painting that had been purchased earlier in the year by a client. They had an idea of having a bear in the painting. The first painting is titled "The Wind Whispered Him Home", the companion piece is titled "He Contemplates the Trees". My clients were very happy with the way the painting turned out. So was I. They have a bear theme in their guest room and I will also be painting a chest as an addition to their room. I have fun with commission work....especially when I'm given free rein. I also have another panel that I might continue the scene onto just for fun. To see what else happens with the bear...maybe a river and fish jumping...we'll see. When I finish it I'll post it on this site. If you have an idea for a commissioned painting, send me an email and we can talk about it...Mail to: lindyhanson@hotmail.com

Lindy on Facebook

Well, I've gotten a lot of invites from Friends to join Facebook so I did awhile ago. But recently I just started using it and adding photos and friends and comments. It's been pretty fun. I like how you can search for people and find them! I have a lot of relatives with Facebook profiles it turns out. Who knew?

I just discovered a new form of art called ACEO or "art cards". ACEO stands for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals". These cards have one main rule - they are 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches - the size of a trading card. And you can buy them, trade them, or keep them and display them. See art-cards.org I had the idea that maybe that would be fun to do while I'm traveling. Make very small paintings as "art cards". I'll have to think about that one. I like the idea though. Travel size art.

And another interesting web site is art-bridge.com - a web site of art links, art directory and art portals. Everything art. Gotta love that!

More Costa Rica Links

Greg and I have all the legs of our trip for the various ways of travelling in Costa Rica covered. We're not renting a car so we'll be travelling by bus, taxi and plane. This site has been very helpful www.easyridecr.com. And this site is great too: www.monteverdetours.com/transport/index.htm
Greg found a site about the night life/music scene in the Montezuma area which is on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific side: http://beachareapropertiescr.com/costa-rica-night-life-tambor.html
We'll be staying in Montezuma for a few days...Looks like we'll be doing some dancin'. I'll be bringing some paints and paper along too so I can get some paintin' in as well. Can't wait!

Free Shipping on Prints in Sept '08

I'm celebrating going to Costa Rica by having free shipping through September on the limited edition prints on my web site and also imagekind.com has free shipping on prints as well for Member Appeciation Month.

I was told about a couple other art web sites for purchasing art. See art.com and boundlessgallery.com I don't have any artwork on these sites but if you're looking for art, they are good ones to check out.

We made a reservation to stay at a cute hotel in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. It looks like our kind of place because of the art and relaxed atmosphere. See Hotel Guarana Cabinas web site. I like the mosaics they have on the walls. I've wanted to experiment with mosaic work someday and have for years collected pieces of tile and bits of glass for when I do try it. Greg would like to set up a pottery studio and sometime we may collaborate on ceramic work together. I've imagined myself to be a potter as well as a painter when I'm an old crone. But that is for another day. Good night for now.

Some more great Links

I've been surfing the web looking for info for promoting my art and also for my work as a graphic production artist which has been my main way of supporting myself as I work on my Fine Art Career. Here are a few links I looked at tonight. Maybe some of them will inspire you with some new ideas.

A website on advocacy, classes, insurance for freelancers - www.FreelancersUnion.org

A place to buy and sell all things handmade - www.etsy.com

A good article on social media marketing.

An online sales & marketing platform for select international artists and photographers. I think the woman who runs this site, artist Tanya Trevor Saunders, is quite innovative and I love her art too! - www.dezinedesign.com/

Costa Rica Travel Plans

Greg and I camped out last night under the stars near Todd Lake, near Mt. Bachelor. The sky was so beautiful with so many stars! Made me wish I could capture it in a painting. We talked about our trip to Costa Rica and made plans. Today we've spent most of the day researching Costa Rica on our computers. Lining up places to check out and stay, etc. Looking at all the transportation means of getting around, etc. We both sat with our lap tops and surfed, discussing and sharing and getting excited about our trip!
Here's a couple great links we found for traveling to Costa Rica.
http://www.puertoviejosatellite.com/
and
http://www.costaricaguide.info/en/home.htm
AND check out this beautiful tropical image by Chris Ambrose at her Imagekind.com gallery shop.

Happy Travels!

Quit Work, Travel, Do Art

Today I submitted my resignation where I work. I'm going to be traveling to Costa Rica for 3 weeks with my boyfriend, Greg. We are leaving Oct. 3rd for 3 weeks! AND I am going to be focusing on my ART, devoting more time to painting and my online presence. It is not easy having 2 careers (I'm also a computer production artist) and focusing more on my Fine Art ventures will make me very happy. :) I'll write more about getting ready for our trip and my leaving my full-time day job in the days to come.

Here's a link to some other artists telling about quitting their day jobs.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... C: wait... SD: wait...