By this time, I had hoped to be working in my backyard hideaway which has been in the works since last Summer. The design was approved by the county in December but sadly, building has been delayed by… you guessed it, Covid 19. Apparently, windows cannot be delivered with reliability, so they can’t start. So, I continue to paint, wandering from room to room in my house.

I completed the January Strada Easel challenge and posted 31 new paintings of directly observed subjects on Instagram for the month of January. Most are small works on prepared paper. This exercise greatly added to my understanding of reflections on my favorite silvery tray. I learned a lot and it was fun.

 Spring classes at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) have started up, virtually of course, so that will be my focus for the next few weeks. It is nice to have some larger and more complex projects and I will keep you posted as they go on.

I was juried into a virtual show at Winslow Art Center in Washington State. The selected piece is from the Isolation paintings series, completed in Spring of 2020. It was my first landscape from imagination. It’s a virtual show, so you are welcome to visit it online (link) and enjoy the works of all the selected artists.

A surprising honor came when one of my collages was selected for a show of the Collage Artists of America. My piece titled “Redeeming Features” was juried in to this national competition that I entered on a whim. This collage was one of two I made by cutting up canvases from my student work and combining parts I liked. It cut down on stored canvas and let me keep the best moments. (link) Maybe I should do more collages.

Howard County Open (link) is still on display, both virtually or in physical space at Howard County Center for the Arts. My “Lockdown Blues” is included.  It is so nice to participate in exhibitions again. So many were cancelled last year. People are getting creative about safely displaying art and I hope for more opportunities as time goes on. Meanwhile I post most days on Instagram @artdoc2020 and Facebook Katherine Farrell Art.