Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All

Best wishes to everyone for a very Merry Christmas! Thank you, all, for your friendship and encouraging words during the past year! May 2010 be your best year ever! And to all, a very good night!

Going Green

In the midst of the holiday fray, I've had no time to paint. My familiar escape has been sorely missed. Finally, yesterday, I squeezed in a little painting time. As we all know. it is always a challenge to get back into painting after a long break. After several false starts, I was finally able to complete this small painting. This painting was based on a photo, taken from the passenger side car window, while driving between Killkenny, and Dublin. Everyone, just having returned from a trip to Ireland, always comments on how green the country is. It is really true, everything is very green, and not just green, all different varieties of green. I tried to capture that sense of greenness. It is everywhere. Just the opposite of California, where for most of the year the hills and fields are brown. There will be more. I have a small stack of photos, just waiting to be turned into paintings! Can hardly wait!

To Ireland and Back

Here we are on Grafton St., in Dublin, Ireland. The lower photo is of the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin. This is as close as I was able to get to taking photos inside the gallery, very few visitors, and security everywhere, along with signs warning against taking pictures. I felt the need to restrain myself. The gallery was fabulous, in spite of the ban on photos.
We arrived home very late last night, after a wonderful vacation. We visited many historical sights in Dublin, drove to Killkenny, and several small villages in the nearby area. We met many terrific people, and saw all kinds of beautiful, and interesting things. We took lots of photos. We are now exhausted, and very happy to be back home. Stay tuned for paintings to come, once I get over this jet lag.

Thanksgiving good wishes, a few days early

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This past week has gone by way too fast. I had hoped to complete a few small paintings. Alas, there was no time to paint, so nothing new to post.

We are leaving early tomorrow morning for a trip to Ireland. Getting organized, and making last minute plans, has taken up lots more time than I expected. The cell phones, computers, and paints will be left at home. While away, I'll be taking lots of photos, for future paintings. Stay tuned for more to come in early Dec.

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

The Folk Art Museum, Santa Fe, NM

We just returned from a short trip to Santa Fe, NM, where we attended the annual fundraising gala for the Folk Art Museum. This year, the theme was "Noche de Los Muertos". It was a wonderful event, with great people, food, decorations, music, and best of all, the event raised money to support the children's programs offered by the museum. We had the pleasure of meeting lots of terrific museum supporters, such as these colorful, "Los Muertos". Now, it's time to get back to painting!

Leaving Santa Fe

This was done from a photo, of a mesa, taken from the car window, somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The desert is unusually green, because it was early spring. I am trying to integrate some of the ideas from my landscape painting class, with my usual way of painting. It's a good start for me. At the same time, I can see that I need to spend more time with this. More to come!

Friday's Class

Friday was the final day of the landscape portion of Carol Tarzier's class. The lesson was about the use of perspective. This painting is, once again, another start on a, yet unfinished, landscape. The concepts of vanishing points were discussed as a means to create perspective. Again, we used the peach ground, with a purple drawing, not too warm, and not too cool. Diane left a comment on an earlier post, asking me to include some of the ideas that were being presented in the class. In response to Diane's request, I'll try to present some of the main concepts that Carol emphasized, at the same time, try to keep it short, and simple. So here goes, the most important concept involved the idea of the basic values used in landscape painting. Usually the lightest value is the sky, the source of light, the next lightest is the ground, which receives the light, followed by the distant slanting plane, usually the mountains. The darkest value would be the foreground verticals, such as trees. This information must be very familiar to experienced landscape painters. To me, learning about the four values was all new information, and it all made perfect sense. If interested, these ideas are presented in more detail in John Carlson's book, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, which is an assigned text for our class. Learning about landscape painting has been a whole new experience for me. I learned a lot! Thank you, Carol!

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Happy Halloween and Friday's Class

Here we are, it's Halloween, and we're in between trick or treaters. That means it's time to post my efforts from Friday's class. By the way, this photo is not blurry, this is the way the painting actually looks. Our lesson on Friday was about painting reflections on water. The main idea is that the clarity of the reflection is based on the stillness of the water. The smoother the water, the more mirror like the reflection. The choppier the water, the more uneven the reflection. Also, the closer the object is to the water, the larger it appears in the reflection. In the above example the tree would appear much larger than the distant hills. Anyway, this is just a start, the initial drawing, with the lights, and darks, blocked in. It needs more work. So far, I have started five small paintings in various stages of needing more work, and our critique is next Friday. I have to get busy! Yikes!

Nevada Museum of Art

We just returned from a short trip to to the Sierras, and Reno, NV. We visited parents, and Brian attended a meeting in Reno. While Brian was in his meeting, I visited the Nevada Museum of Art. They had a wonderful exhibit of California landscapes. I loved the beautiful composition of this painting of cattle, by Maynard Dixon. This one photograph was discreetly taken, before being reprimanded by the guard. My excuse, was that I had I turned off the flash. Alas, they didn't care. I was was firmly told, no photography of any kind. Oh well, I tried.

More from the Higher Ground

Here is the redo of the photo from the last post. This time the photo was taken in the early morning. I think that it is a little better. It could be that the painting is just a little blurry. The second painting is more of the red plums. These are so much fun to paint. I can't seem to get enough. Meanwhile, I am still working on my landscape painting in my Friday class. Will post my latest one soon. It needs a little more work. So much to paint, so little time.

On Higher Ground

Now that I see this photo, I wish that it was better. It's a little blurry. I will try to redo this. In the meantime, please bear with me, I will try again tomorrow, and leave it for now.
One more "on the edge"painting, and still having fun. I'm back to the familiar, my comfort zone, only, this time with beautiful red plums. Hard to believe, but I still have more ideas for more on the edge paintings. At the same time, I'm also really enjoying my class in landscape painting, which, I had to miss last Friday. I will be in class this Friday, so stay tuned for more, more still life, and more landscape paintings to come.

Friday's Class

Friday was one more class with Carol Tarzier. She is such a wonderful instructor. Each class begins with a demo of Carol painting a landscape, from a photograph. After her demo, everyone paints the same landscape, using the same photo. So simple, but such a great way to learn. Never having done landscape painting, this class has been wonderful for me. I feel that I have learned so much, already. Carol also gives a short lecture in the beginning of class, based on ideas from the book, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, by John F. Carlson. This is all new information for me, even though this book has a original copyright date of 1929. Some ideas remain timeless!

All Ready Now

On Sunday, I took four of my framed pears over to the gallery, for our new exhibit, opening on Tuesday. If you are in the area, please come by the Lafayette Gallery to see all things "new".

Back from La Jolla

Last night we arrived home from a short trip to La Jolla. It was beautiful, great weather, gorgeous ocean, and wonderful restaurants! Here are some photos from a day at the Museum of Contemporary Art , complete with ocean views! This a fantastic museum, very modern and a perfect location. Once of the current exhibits, focused on cities, included an assemblage by Joseph Cornell , one of my favorite artists.

Three Reds

My friend Kathy asked me if I ever did Red Bartlett Pears. The answer is, yes, I do, and here they are. Another quick pear painting, done yesterday, thinking about Kathy. This was done quickly because we are leaving today for La Jolla, and won't be back until Wed. A short trip to attend a conference with Brian. I'll be on my own, looking at galleries and the sights, while Brian is attending the conference. More to come after we return.

Back to Class

Just finished day two in my painting class with Carol Tarzier. Here is the new landscape that was just started in this recent class. So many new ideas, that my head is spinning. So inspiring! Looking forward to more! Learning is a never ending adventure!

All Four of Us

One more pear painting for the upcoming exhibit. I still want to do a few more. This one was a quickie. Experimenting with blue, a color I normally don't use. For some reason, my comfort zone is a warmer color palette. I feel a little out of my element, but will forge ahead. I think it's always good to get away from the familiar, once in awhile.

A Strong Wind

Back to the pears. I need to bring some paintings in for our gallery exhibit change coming up. I am hoping to have a series of pears done, and ready for hanging by the 11th. Time seems to be flying by. Yikes!

Just Starting

This is the beginning of a landscape painting that I did in last week's painting class. Actually. my first attempt at landscape painting. Carol Tarzier is so inspiring, a brilliant teacher, and wonderful artist. I have enjoyed her so much already. Carol recommended using an apricot color for the ground, and purple to make the preliminary drawing. Those two colors are just beautiful together! Stay tuned for more updates on this W.I.P.

Still in Line

One more on the edge painting. I can't seem to get enough of this composition. It is still fun, and I still have more ideas. I'll keep moving onward and we'll see where we go with all of this. Stay tuned for more.

Color Wheels

These color wheels were done for the first assignment for Carol Tarzier's class. It seems like I have done many, many color wheels in the past. I am always amazed at how many colors can be made from just three colors. The top color wheel uses, cad. lemon yellow, alizarin crimson, and pthalo blue. The bottom one uses, cad. yellow, cad red, and ultramarine blue. The photo does not show an exact duplication of the colors, but you can get an idea. No matter how many times I have done this exercise, it's always fun, and I'm reminded of how many colors are just out there waiting to be used.

Still Friendly

More cherries, and more words of wisdom from Pam's blog. Pam mentioned that Quang Ho advised artists to make a decision, that no decision is wrong, only that it is wrong not to make a decision. I love that! It is useful advice for painting, and for life!

Very Friendly

I just finished reading Pam Holnback's newest post on her blog. She has done a great job sharing ideas from "The Weekend with the Masters" in Colorado Springs. It makes me wish that I was there. One of the ideas that she shared today, was Skip Whitcomb's quote, "simplicity is power". The more information you include in a painting the weaker the statement. I just love that idea. Again, if you have not seen Pam's blog, please go take a look, pamholnback.blogspot.com. She has generously shared all kinds of ideas from her "Weekend with the Masters"