Crossed Bottle

oil 8x6 inches Some of my students mentioned that they wanted to see me paint glass. On the second day, with about 45 minutes left in the workshop, I borrowed this and placed it on the floor. Light from the open garage door shone through and added interesting highlights. My students had worked hard and tolerated the warm temperatures, so just watching me paint was a relaxing conclusion for us all. And why on earth did I not take pictures?!! I guess I was too busy trying to cram a lot of content into two days. Next June I'll transform my garage again, make a few changes to the schedule and remember to take pictures!

Quick Fruit Demo -sold

oil 6x6 inches click for purchase information Last week I taught an introductory oil workshop for my watercolor students. We had a lot of fun. It's hard to describe their excitement when they saw how you can wipe off what you don't like and repaint! This is the first of two demos. I tried to keep it really simple.

Still Life With Blue Pot

oil 8x10 not for sale at this time I found this little blue pot at my favorite local thrift store. Here I've placed a lot of circular objects in a circle. The squirrel mop brush was badly needed for a linear element. One of these days I'll put some water in that pot and do a splashy watercolor with that brush. You may notice the high key of this painting in contrast with my previous few. I had to lighten things up. All that dark muted paint was making me glum! The splashy watercolor might be a good fix too. For those of you following my Arches oil paper saga, here's my last entry: I gessoed this paper ahead of time, and the paint didn't soak in. Still, the texture was smooth in a fuzzy kind of way, not smooth like Gessobord. I decided I'll stick with canvas, linen and Gessobord. Arches oil paper might be great for collage work. It's tough. As for my finished paintings, I varnished one today and luckily the color came back up. All of them might go on sale at a later date after I figure out how to mount them on board. Any suggestions?

Geraniums & Glass

oil 10x8 inches not for sale at this time Finally, here's the first piece I did on Arches oil paper. Pictured below is how it looked before I wiped out the drapery several times. The paper took a beating and held up well. Still, the paint seems to die into the paper. After four paintings, going back to canvas sounds pretty good.

Unfinished stage. I masked the edges with tape before painting. Makes a nice "matted" look.

Nectarine With Jar

oil 6x6 inches not for sale at this time Next painting in my adventure with Arches oil paper. I'm happy to have found this grayed brown, almost like a dark taupe. The neutrality of it gives the painting an earthy feel. I used transparent red oxide, ultramarine blue and some cad yellow medium. It's amazing the variety of neutrals you can get with these.

Nectarine Between

oil 6x6 inches not for sale at this time Third painting on Arches Oil Paper. May be for sale at a later date.

Flowers & Fruit

oil 9x12 inches not for sale at this time I've been trying some new things. This is the second of four pieces (so far) painted on Arches Oil Paper, a relatively new product. No priming needed. You paint directly on the paper. Like everything, it has its advantages and disadvantages, which I will discuss further down if you're interested. Also with this piece, I'm entertaining some suggestions made to me recently: more muted color, and a varied color scheme rather than one dominating color. I felt like I really stuck my neck out trying new stuff on a new substrate, but what the heck. I won't post the first because it's hideous, but might be worth reworking later. I would love to hear some feedback on what you think of this one. About Arches Oil Paper: ADVANTAGES: ready to go, easy to store, tear any size, smooth surface, first washes sink in without dripping, subsequent layers sit on top, dries much faster, sinking in forced me to use more paint, can be varnished. DISADVANTAGES: no canvas texture, paint really sinks in, dries to very dull opaque, dries faster, harder to manipulate edges. For framing, I'm pretty sure it needs to be mounted on board. So I'm thinking, why not paint on canvas mounted on board already??? Still, it's good to try new stuff.

Ridge Sketch

oil 9x12 inches click for purchase information This scene was right behind our campsite. I liked the tree trunks in shadow, light behind them and particularly the blanket of pine needles. I've been super busy since we got back, but have managed a few paintings. I am trying out the new "Arches Oil Paper" and will let you know what I think in my next post.

Solid Oak, Idyllwild

oil 12x9 inches click for purchase information This is the second piece I did while camping in Idyllwild. Backlit scenes often appeal to me. While painting, a campground employee came by in his golf cart and jokingly said, "That looks pretty good! I can hardly see the numbers!" I laughed and told him, "That's because the numbers are on the tree." He replied, "Oh, that's how they do it these days?" Yeah.

Field Sketch, Idyllwild

oil 12x6 inches click for purchase information I'm back! We really enjoyed the Balboa Art Walk. We talked to a lot of nice folks and had good sales. Right after, I stocked our new little RV and we took off for Idyllwild. Temps were in the low 70's, and the clean mountain air at 6000 ft elevation was heavenly. I planted myself on a hill right behind our camping spot for this one. Can't resist a clump of rocks!

Angel Kitty

oil 8x8 inches click for purchase information Many years ago we returned from vacation to find in our garage a stray cat and her litter of six newborn kittens inside a paper grocery bag. We found homes for five and kept the one that looked like this. Our little girl named her Cindy and she lived fifteen years. This kitty is just a Christmas decoration, I think. I chose the cat first, then the other objects for the violet, blue, green scheme I had in mind. Round versus linear and the contrasting textures were considerations also. I'm all packed up for the BALBOA ISLAND ART WALK TOMORROW. It's my first year. Wish me luck!

Found My Marbles

oil 4x6 inches not for sale My friend, Rachel recently took a trip back to Maine where she grew up. She brought back wild blueberry jam and a small bag of the most beautiful marbles for me to use for my still life paintings. So thoughtful. Thanks, Rachel! I poured a few out of the bag and painted them as they landed. Tomorrow I'll get ready for the BALBOA ISLAND ART WALK this Sunday. The weather will be perfect, so if you're in Southern California, don't miss it!

Pasta Prep

oil 12x12 This is a commissioned piece I finished about two weeks ago. I snapped the photo reference for this at Il Fornaio Italian Restaurant in Pasadena. This is the first of three cafe scenes for my client. We had ten days of non-stop family fun, and now our Idaho son and family are on their way to Mammoth Lakes. With being sick the week before, then all the activities, I've been away from my easel for two weeks. I'm hoping to pick up a paintbrush today while working through 43 loads of laundry. It's all good. 102 degrees outside...a great day for laundry and still life inside. UPCOMING EVENTS: BALBOA ISLAND ART WALK, Sunday May 19th. 100 artists and live music along the sea wall, 9-5pm. I'll be near Pearl Drive. SO looking forward to this!!! Come see me!

Ontario Open Art Exhibition

Bay Arcade oil 12x9 inches not for sale My painting, Bay Arcade is included in the Ontario Open Art Exhibition at the Ontario Museum of History and Art. The exhibit runs through May 26th. For more info on the museum, click here.

Field Study & Balboa Art Walk

oil 8x10 inches click for purchase information or zoom feature In Murietta the Santa Rosa Plateau welcomes hikers and artists. On a beautiful morning a few weeks back I stood atop a hill overlooking the plateau. It was quiet, cool and only a little buggy. I had a great time. In other news, there's a lot going on! I've been away from my easel while fighting a nasty respiratory bug that really hit me hard. On the mend now. We have family coming on Friday and staying a week. For you locals, the CHINO ART FESTIVAL is this Saturday from 9-4 on the Courthouse Lawn. It is mostly performances, but I will be there and would love to see you. I'm really excited to announce I was accepted into the BALBOA ART WALK coming up on May 19th! One hundred artists will line the seawall and 4 bands will add music. How fun is that?!!! And what a setting! Don't miss it! For more information click here. (Right now their link to my blog is wrong, but I hope it will be corrected soon.) Fun stuff ahead!

Rice Bowl

oil 8x10 inches click for purchase information and zoom feature The last of my Asian influence paintings for now. This large ceramic rice bowl has a shiny blue glaze and little holes/slots for the chopsticks. Very cool. I think we bought it years back in a little shop near Zion National Park. Kinda big for rice. Maybe it's a noodle bowl. I love noodles.

Asian Influence 2

oil 8x8 inches click for purchase information Nothing to say about this one. Rare, but it happens.

Asian Influence -sold

oil 8x6 inches click for purchase information I found a boxed set of Xian Soldier figurines. So many possibilities! They have a peach dust on them that ties in nicely with orange. There's glare on the photo. The darks are much richer in person.

Studied Tangerine

oil 8x8 inches click for purchase information I bought fifty shades of gray fabric for drapery. Not really. Just seven or eight. Exploring different color schemes on gray, I have found that the gray is hardly noticed in the overall look of the work. It also allows me to adjust the gray to my liking. For "Emily and Madeline" I leaned it toward taupe. Here it's pretty much gray, and you'll see in the next post I leaned it toward green. I think I've finally solved my problem with backgrounds. I don't mean the gray, but rather reversing my process. Painting them first as a loose warm up really works for me. I get them out of the way, have a "support" for my objects, and can manipulate edges as I go.

Emily & Madeline

oil 10x8 inches not for sale Our granddaughter, Emily loves to paint. This is her painting as a backdrop for Madeline. The colors seemed to go together perfectly. You might remember seeing it before in my painting, "Child's Play." I'll give this to Emily for her birthday in July.