Meet Ironstone's Spring Obsession Theme Division accepted artist, Renee Rondon

T-002  Tulips  oil  16x20  $295

RENÉE RONDON

Renée is a 4^th generation (of 5) Californian.  She moved to Calaveras County almost 9 years ago.  Her pastimes include camping, hiking and gardening.  Her passion is oil painting.   She is mostly self-taught, but has had lessons with many wonderful and respected instructors including Ed Garcia, VaLoyce Jensen, Gereon Rios, Gill Delinger, George Durkee, Diana Boyd, Judy Cain, and Peggi Kroll-Roberts.    

Renée welcomes the challenge of developing her paintings into a story that will touch someone’s heart, or remind them of an event that is a special part of their life.  Each painting is developed from a personal photo, sketch, or idea from various trips, other outings and even from her own backyard.      

Her art has won several awards, and her paintings have been in various galleries including the Aloft Gallery in Sonora, Mistlin Gallery in Modesto, Calaveras Arts Council in San Andreas, Lodi Community Art Center, and Delicato Winery in Manteca. 

If you would like to contact Renée, please call (209)772-0287, or email her at paintinglady2012@gmail.com.  

Meet Ironstone's Spring Obsession Theme Division accepted artist, Kathleen Wolf

Meet Artist Lynn Takacs, Ironstone's Spring Obsession accepted artist

Lynn Takacs

1820 Scenic Drive, Modesto, CA 95355

(209) 872-4418

www.lynntakacs.com

Lynn was born and raised in Humboldt County and currently resides in Modesto, California. She took art classes in high school. Having earned her AA degree in business from College of the Redwoods in Eureka, she went on to take coursework in fine arts and graphic design at College of San Mateo and Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

She is a member of several art associations.

Lynn’s art has been exhibited in the 2^nd Annual Central California Arts Showcase (2015), Central California Art Association member shows, the Annual Exhibit of Fine Arts at the Tracy Art League Gallery, and in 2015 she participated in the Stanislaus Artist Open Studio Tour. She’s a 5^th year participant in the Annual Art of Justice fund raising event sponsored by the Stanislaus Family Justice Center, Modesto.

Her hope is to be an inspiration to art lovers around the world with her art.

I paint because it makes my heart sing.

FIrst THEME Division entry is in!

We are very excited here at Ironstone.The first entry into the THEME Division for the 19th Annual Spring Obsession Art show is IN! Artist Connie McLennan has submitted her entry, "Daffodil Cheer".  As the very first entry submitted, Connie's painting bypasses the Theme Division review committee - directly to GO!
Read more about Connie McLennan and her entry here:

http://www.conniemclennan.com/2015/12/daffodil-cheer.html

T-001  Daffodil Cheer  by Connie McLennan  18x14  $400

Do remember the Theme Division entries are due January 15th. and the OPEN Division entries are due February 12th. with the Exhibit Open to the public starting March 19 & 20. Stay tuned for more information.

Call to Artists! Deadlines near ...

Ironstone Vineyard's 19th Annual Spring Obsession Art Show & Competition now accepting entries!

Spring Art show is a juried show open to all 2-D artists, excluding photography & digitally enhanced work.  Works must be original completed by submitting artist. Entry form must be completed with entry fee and CD of images at Ironstone by due dates.  Panel review will commence the following week with notification of accepted pieces going out to artists by end of review week.

• Download prospectus/entry form from pages above or go to Ironstone's website: ironstonevineyards.com

Accepted artists will receive delivery information & deadlines for original accepted art work. All pieces must be framed and ready to hang using wire hanging methods.

Theme Division "An Obsession with Daffodils & Tulips",

• entries due January 15th, 2016 
• $500.00 prize
• Winning piece becomes promotional poster for 2016.

OPEN Division, any subject matter, any media excluding photography and digitally enhanced images.

• entry, fee and CD due February 12th, 2016
• $1000 first prize
• $500 second prize
• $250 third prize

Ironstone's Spring Obsession opens Saturday & Sunday, March 19 & 20, 2016

• Free Exhibit viewing
• Art in Action
• Art's in attendance
• Free Daffodil Exhibit
• Free parking and FREE Shuttles to Downtown Murphys on Saturday
• Additional activities TBA

Merry Christmas!

Ironstone Heritage Museum wishes all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here in Murphys we are looking at a possible white Christmas!  It is falling just a few miles up the road and currently raining here.  Temperature is dropping though and hopefully will bring those beautiful white snowflakes in time to blanket us all for Christmas Day!

If so, we will post some photos!  Otherwise have a wonderful holiday. Postings will resume after the Holidays.

Till then, the Heritage Museum crew wishes you well...

Agate lapidary slabs

We mentioned several posts back that we had coming in items from an old Rock Collection. 

Today, we were able to unpack a box that was full of mostly agate polished slabs.  

(Posted below is the Wiki-pedia definition of agate. PS, please check out Wikipedia and make sure to donate to keep them up and running free of charge!) 

Here in the Museum, we are learning about all these rocks as they come in. We are reporting here from a layman's perspective, not as geologists or even rock collectors, so hope you pros out there can bear with us and offer your more educated comments on what you see... PLEASE! 

Now, back to the box....

As you can see, there is a huge variety of colors, formations and sizes, shapes  ... 

This pretty piece is a nice thin slab with crystal formations there in the right hand side. Colors are purple, orange, yellow and white banding. We held it up to the window and it would make a very pretty hanging window piece.

This piece is actually a slice of "Thunder egg", at least that is what "google says".  Those white bands are not flash marks, they are truly opaque white banding in the upper portion with the lower portion being white banding around some crystallization.  Very pretty.

This photo didn't come out very well... doesn't show the colors true, but you can get the idea of the banding and the crystals in the center. Nice piece.

This piece below is one of my favorites. I have been told it is petrified wood. Love the brecciated portions. 

(Breccia (/ˈbrɛtʃiə/ or /ˈbrɛʃiə/) is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cementedtogether by a fine-grained matrix^[1] that can be similar to or different from the composition of the fragments.)  See, always learning!

All of these pieces have been processed and are now available for purchase. Prices range from $5 - $70+

Agate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.

Agate
Banded agate (agate-like onyx); the specimen is 2.5 cm (0.98 in) wide
General
Category	Quartz variety
Formula (repeating unit)	SiO2 silicon dioxide
Identification
Color	White to grey, light blue, orange to red, black. banded
Crystal habit	Cryptocrystalline silica
Crystal system	Rhombohedral Microcrystalline
Cleavage	None
Fracture	Conchoidal with very sharp edges.
Mohs scalehardness	6.5–7
Luster	Waxy
Streak	White
Diaphaneity	Translucent
Specific gravity	2.58–2.64
Refractive index	1.530–1.540
Birefringence	up to +0.004 (B-G)
Pleochroism	Absent

Agate /ˈæɡət/ is a cryptocrystalline variety of silica, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks and can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.

Christmas at Ironstone

Maggie Mae decided to check out our new Christmas Tree here in the Museum.  Not sure she fully approves. After all, there are no doggie toys or treats that she can see...

There are plenty of special estate silver plate and glass ware though! 

We are so ready for the Holidays ... great 35% discounts on all our estate silver & glass ware, 50% off specially selected jewelry as well as special wine sales to stock you up for all the company.

We also have quite a bit of the Rock Museum items out and ready for you to check out. We will be doing a 25% sale on all cabochons and lapidary slabs through December. There are some beautiful pieces.