end of year 2016

Hard to believe the "end is near"!
Looking back, I'm happy with the body of artwork I was able to complete and looking forward to more explorations in the future. The last painting of the year will be 'The Old Barn at French Farm, NZ", which I hope to complete and post soon.

Beach memories

Coastal California Cliffs
acrylic (12"x15-1/2")

Just finished a painting of some summertime beach memories... used a stretched canvas underpainted in orange to give the cliffs a bit of a glow. A fun departure from my usual more realistic style. Trying to loosen up!

art retreat in Cayucos

In mid-August 4 old-time friends and I planned a womens' art retreat up on the Central Coast of California. (Unfortunately one dear friend had to cancel at the last moment due to a death in the family.) We rented a funky beach house in Cayucos just 2 blocks from the ocean. We came from Redwood Valley, Santa Cruz, Santa Clarita & Claremont; it was a great mid-point location for all of us to meet.

beach house ~ watercolor

After arriving we piled all our communal art supplies on the pool table and prepared for the next four glorious, uninterrupted days to come. We induldged in sketching, acrylics, plein air, watercolor, jewelry making, and montage. 

Some examples of my work while there:

driftwood design journal cover ~  acrylic

the artista at work ~ photo by Linda W.

Cayucos starfish ~ pen & ink

brush painting ~ Chinese ink

8/19/16 journal entry ~ watercolor

still life ~ watercolor on handmade paper

My friends and their work:

little books

Assorted journals and cello practice books.

Making little books with new punch/binding tool. Started with two 5-1/2 x 8-1/2" sketchbooks using painted canvas board for covers and one 5x7" sketchbook using canvas boards for front & back. Proved to be too thick for punching and realisticly the back would wear away in places.

Ordered 8-1/2 x 11" chipboard for front & back stock and that works best. Can be collaged, painted, or left bare. As far as binding the 1/2", 3/4", and 5/8" coils seem best so far. 3/8" binding too small and the 1" is too big for this purpose.

     

4-1/4 x 5-1/2"

 

The cool thing about making your own journal/sketchbook is you can use a variety of papers, including old stashes one might have lying around. So far I've used rice , music, staff, graph, lined, drawing, mixed media, watercolor, toned, &  cartridge papers.

   

july

With Xandie back home for summer I've invited her to join my morning art sessions in La Verne with friend/artist Lynn McCallion. My subject of the moment is the Monterey Cypress, a beautiful twisted tree that grows along the California Coastline. Completed some pencil sketches, a watercolor, and am now working on an acrylic...

"inspiration"

In progress

yard art

      The lawn solution ~ the drought is relentless and the back garden lawn is getting browner by the week.  My solution was to construct a labyrinth in the center to reduce the lawn and watering area. After a bit of research I decided to order a pre-printed 12' labyrinth template from The Labyrinth Company and do-it-myself. We have a few rather large stacks of used brick on site and I'd been wanting to use them for a project for years, so brick borders seemed like a no brainer. I used a plastic version of the much more expensive steel border material I always see in commercial applications to form a ring and hold the outer bricks in place.

The next step was to place the bricks to outline the pathway. I poured a sand layer as I went, otherwise I'd be covering up the outline on the template! I wanted a barefoot friendly surface to walk on but because of the unbelievable seed drop frrom an awful neighboring elm or walnut tree (not sure which, but it's huge, invasive, and non-native) I deferred to gravel for maintenance purposes. After a layer of cheap "cement-mix gravel,"  I poured a more expensive top layer of rounded Mexican Beach Pebble mix.

Here's a pic of the finished project!

something fishy

This weekend's endeavor; a watercolor Koi painting (9x13"). Happy with koi, but background not quite what I wanted... just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

blue vase & fruit (after Cezanne)

Playing with acrylic gel medium, and a simple subject, to get that bumpy oil paint look without the fumes and slow drying time. Took me two afternoon sessions; I think it's done.

blue vase & fruit (after Cezanne)

Journal from India

So, here are a few of my watercolors on this amazing paper... I love this handmade journal  from 100% recycled cotton fiber. (6"x9" format ~ 140 lb./deckle-edged)

onions

paper

So, really starting to become intrigued with watercolor paper. (From 90-140 lb. so far.) Amazing what difference the paper can make. One of my favorites at the moment is hand-made Punjabi paper from India. Pricey (at $40 a journal), but I've been buying it at 40% off which brings it down to a reasonable price range.

paper surface

not my photo, but typical result (so fun!)

portraiture

Ventured into portraiture today... first one ever in watercolor. (Worked from photo to avoid drawing errors.) Very happy with result for my 1st attempt!

original photo from Alyssas's fb page

first layer of washes

modeling tones / adding darks

finished painting

Weekend time

I'd say I was influenced by the color orange this weekend!

Must be the brightness and warmth of the sun.

inside cover for my new sketch book (9x12") of
Claremont sketches and paintings

"Poppies"

CA natives

I wanted to paint a sampler of CA wildflowers in bloom now and decided on 4x6" image size in case I wanted to print them as postcards or put in photo frames. Each subject was treated differently, but using the same palette of colors: loose wet-on-wet/ iris, washes/ manzanita, neagtive space/ lupine, O'Keefe close/ poppy.

Next, I'm trying to decide if I want to add thin borders and botanical names...

Douglas Iris, Manzanita, Lupine, CA Poppy

Finished hand-painted CA native plant series:

 2 postcards, a photoframe card and a mounted card sprayed with fixitive for protection.

Music & art

 I found myself completing some long standing projects at the end of March... A triptych and cello front for the Claremont Community Music School auction, a painted VSO (violin shaped object) for the Claremont USD District Office, and a watercolor entry for the annual Celebration of the Arts Show in La Verne.

"Trio"

"Arioso" cello front

"Harmony" back

"Harmony" front

"Watercolor Calla"

Making time for art

Looking at tutorials to try and learn about watercolors. This was the result of time and patience. (Negative space painting/layering washes)

Study in Negative Flora

Most recent paintings (2013 to present)

Paintings completed since starting my classes with Lynn McCallion, La Verne artist.

garden tomatoes ~ acrylic

cactus in bloom~ acrylic

California mission~ acrylic

moonrise ~ watercolor

landscape #1~ acrylic

the grove ~ watercolor

vase with oranges
(after Matisse) ~ acrylic

Otago lighthouse

Sherlock (adopted summer 2015)
~ acrylic

Magic (adopted summer 2015)
~ watercolor