On the Down Hill

Lately, I've been having fun with painting things on the edge. I recently saw some wonderful paintings by Jian Wang in a gallery in Carmel. Jian Wang does still life paintings of pieces of Chinese candy. The candy is shown on the edge of a table top, with beautiful shadows. His work inspired me to try using his composition. After going online to see more of his paintings, I read that he came from China to study with Wayne Thiebaud, which he did for many years. No wonder I like his work so much!

More Lemons on the Edge

This painting was done along with my other lemon paintings a few weeks ago. I did not have a chance to post it, so here it is. On this one, I was trying for a looser look. I will keep trying!

Art Talks At Knoxx, Aug 12, 2009

On Aug. 12th, The Lafayette Gallery, together with Knoxx Restaurant, will be hosting "Art Talks at Knoxx". Maggie Lucas-Hill coordinates this ongoing series of three salon evenings, featuring artists from The Lafayette Gallery. On Aug. 12th, I will be one of the participating artists. I am very excited about this, and am hoping to see lots of familiar faces. This should be very fun and very informative! Debby Koonce and Pat Hayashi, both very talented artists, will also be speaking at this event. If you are in the area, please come on August 12th , from 4:30 to 6:30. There will be a no host bar, with complimentary appetizers, generously provided by Knoxx Restaurant.

We're Very Close

As always, wonderful to be painting again, after being out of town. This was done very late last night, in not very good lighting. I tried to paint plums for the first time. It turned out to be more challenging than I expected. Plums have this blue-whitish, powdery color on parts of them that was somewhat of a struggle, until I decided to just not deal with it. Oh well, who says that every detail needs to be included.

Still on the Edge

I'm still working with the lemons on the edge of the upside down shoebox. I was trying to use looser brushstrokes, this time. It's fun to experiment, using the same subject, with different kinds of brushstrokes, colors, and compositions. This time I used a more monotone color palette. I feel like doing more with the lemons, with the shadow going over the edge. We'll see...

On the Edge

I'm back to familiar subjects, lemons again. I'm trying to vary my compositions. For this painting, I perched some lemons on the edge of an upside down shoebox. I loved the the way the shadow came down over the edge, I will try to work on this some more. There is always something that can be made better, which is part of what makes painting so much fun.

Lean on Me

One more watermelon painting. Today, I wanted to do a better job with the composition. I arranged and rearranged the watermelon slices, hoping to find something more interesting. This is what I ended up with. I think it may have taken longer to create the set up, hoping it didn't completely fall over, than it did to actually paint the painting. Challenges at every turn!

Wonderful to be Back, Again

It's so wonderful to get back to painting. After two weeks of not painting, it's like starting all over again, very challenging. This is my first ever attempt at watermelon. I probably should have tried something that I was a little more familiar with. Oh well, we will forge onward. Stay tuned for more watermelon paintings!

The Last Two

These are the last of nine, in my series of paintings of Hercules. They look the best, with black frames and arranged as a group. I framed them and took them to The Lafayette Gallery today. It will be interesting to see how many will actually be hung, hopefully, quite a few. Painting them was fun, but I'm so happy they are done and delivered. Now, onward to something new! Tomorrow is the beginning of a brand new month ! Can hardly wait!

The Men in My Life

I thought that it would be fun to show you the real Hercules. Here he is alone, and with the No 1 man in my life, Brian, my wonderful husband. Hercules is a close No.2! How lucky can I get, two handsome men in my life, one human and the other feline!

More of Hercules

Here are some of the paintings that were done for the " Fur, Fins, and Feathers" exhibit at The Lafayette Gallery. These are ready to be dropped off next Sunday. This was a fun project, that includes more paintings than are shown here, all very similar. I used lots of photos of Hercules, who is unwilling to pose for longer that 2 seconds. If you are in the area, please stop by and see the exhibit. It will be open, starting June 2, and ending August 1.

The Palm Springs Art Museum

During the two weeks spent traveling in Las Vegas, Santa Fe, and Palm Springs, I was lucky to see lots of wonderful art and get very inspired! This trip cleared my head, gave me new enthusiasm, and made me very excited to return home and start painting! In Palm Springs, I was thrilled to discover that the Palm Springs Art Museum was showing a 70 year retrospective of Wayne Thiebaud. This was an unexpected treat! I had never before seen so much of his work in one place. Many pieces were new to me. It was all wonderful! The exhibit included a video of the artist, explaining the successes and challenges of his long art career. Again, very inspiring. If any one is interested, the book from the exhibit is well worth having, and is probably available by mail from the museum. Of course, I had to bring home my own copy! Happy travels to everyone! You never know what you will see!

Hercules the Great

It's great to be home after 2 weeks of being in Las Vegas, NV, Santa Fe, NM, and Palm Springs. I am quickly trying to complete some small paintings for the "Fur, Fins, and Feathers" exhibit at the Lafayette Gallery starting on June 2nd. Here are two little paintings of our cat, the famous, Hercules. These were done yesterday. I have some more time, so I'll continue in this direction for a few more days and hope that everything dries in time for the drop off date on the 31st. Getting back into the daily painting routine is wonderful and am so happy being home!!

Let's Get Cozy

Another busy week, in a very busy month. It's great to paint again! I've struggled for days with various animal ideas for our upcoming exhibit " Fur, Fins, and Feathers", starting May 31st, at the Lafayette Gallery. It finally occurred to me that, perhaps, I need new brushes. Wow! What an improvement! After a trip to the art store, things became so much easier. New brushes make a huge difference. I did this lemon painting today, very quickly, so that I would have something to post this week. It's not the best work I've ever done, and it's certainly not an animal painting, but here we are!

Glad to be Back

Glad to be back to painting. I wanted to finish at least one more painting of the gladiolus. Finally, after a very hectic week, I was able to get this little one done, last night. I did it quickly and without daylight, so I don't feel that it was my best, but at least something is done! So wonderful to get back to the easel!

Bursting Out

Yesterday, at Trader Joe's, I bought gladiolus buds. I was not sure of the exact colors, possibly purple and red. This morning they were starting to open, bright greens , bright reds, with yellow, and purple. The colors are overwhelmingly spring. It's just what I needed on a gray and rainy day!

In Bloom

We just returned from the east coast, to spring. Everything here is in bloom, sunny skies, and very green everywhere. Spring has arrived! Before we left, I put the daffodils in the refrigerator, they were perfect when we returned. Amazing!

Let's Open Up

Day two of the daffodils. Overnight, most of the daffodils opened. Flowers always amaze me... they are gorgeous! Tried to capture the beautiful light greens and clear yellows!

Look to the Left

Yesterday at Trader Joe's they were selling ten daffodils for $1.29. How could I not bring some home! I bought two bunches. The buds were tightly closed yesterday. Today they have started to open up. It was fun to paint them. I was was trying to be a little more loose with my brush strokes, at the same time trying not to go over each stroke. I'll try again tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how they look in the morning! Stay tuned for more!

Welcome to Spring

Yesterday I took the day off and visited the de Young museum in San Francisco to the see the annual "Bouquets to Art" exhibit. This is a wonderful exhibit held every March to show fantastic flower arrangements inspired by works of art. One of my favorite Wayne Thiebaud paintings had inspired a very dramatic flower arrangement, as you can see!

It was interesting, for the first time, after seeing this painting in books and in the museum many times, I noticed a sign next to it explaining that this painting was unusual for many reasons. The main reason was that the gumballs had highlights, but not the glass globe that contained them, creating the impression that the gumballs were suspended in mid air. Another unusual feature, is that the shadows of the gumball machines had no relation to the shape of the actual machines. The shadows are are in the shape of cones, while the machines are rectangular and globe shaped. The machines also have no handles or price information on the front. The exit holes are too small to accommodate the gumballs. All of this information surprised me. I had never noticed. Amazing!

The most dramatic arrangement was the giant spiral of bird of paradise hanging from the ceiling in the main entry! Very impressive!

I think it is so important to get out and see art in museums and galleries. I try to do this as often as I can. I always come back inspired and energized, with all kinds of new ideas and excited to start painting again! To all, welcome to springtime!!!

Best Buddies

This has been a busy month, with not enough time for painting. Finally this weekend I had some time and was able to get back to the easel. I started with familiar territory, apples. I did three small paintings yesterday. This was the best. It feels so good to paint again. It seems like I'm starting all over. I have a few ideas for a new series, but first wanted to warm up with something comfortable, an old friend, apples.

Apart, then Together

The last of the sushi paintings for now. I think it's time to move on to something else. This painting seems to be more abstract, which is exactly what Kelley mentioned about an earlier post. She said that when painting the same subject over and over again, the image will get increasingly more abstracted. This sure happened with the sushi!