Guest Artist, Diane White

Recently, Diane White invited us to her beautiful Santa Fe home. Here is Diane on the back porch, putting a few finishing touches on her gorgeous water lilly painting. Diane does brilliant work in oils and encaustic, mainly landscapes. More of her work can be seen on her blog, Diane White's Creative Muse. Thank you, Diane. We loved having the chance to see your wonderful work, and meet you, your husband, and friends in Santa Fe!

Carmel Sand Dunes

Another view from the beach in Carmel. So simple and fun to paint! With our temps near 100 degrees today, this is just where I would like to be, feeling cool by the ocean!

Seeing Art in Carmel

Carmel is famous for lots of art galleries. One of my favorites is the Carmel Art Association Gallery. This co-op gallery has been in existence since 1927, and is the oldest gallery in Carmel. Many of the historic, and well known California artists have shown their work here.

The Nancy Dodds Gallery is another one of my favorites. It is a privately owned gallery that shows the work of wonderful contemporary artists. I love visiting both of these galleries, and thought that you might enjoy them too.

Still More from Carmel

Here is another view from the beach in Carmel. Always a wonderful escape, always gorgeous views. This was another one done from a photo taken at the beach at the bottom of Ocean Ave. Trying to paint a little looser with this one.

More From Carmel

Here is one more from the beach in Carmel. I've also posted some photos that I used for this painting, and my last one. This was on a gorgeous sunny day. Still more photos waiting to be painted.

Carmel

It seems like this month we have been everywhere but home. The good part is that I had plenty of opportunities to use my camera. This painting is based on a photograph taken on the beach at the bottom of Ocean Ave, in Carmel. More of Carmel to come!

Giant Strawberries

Happy to finish one more strawberry painting!

Happy June

More strawberries! This time, I'm having fun experimenting with color shapes, lights and darks. Happy June, and happy weekend to all!

Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer! With the beginning of summer, comes wonderful fresh produce, and farmer's markets everywhere! After being away so much, I wanted to paint something quick and easy, so here we are, strawberries, fresh from the farmer's market. Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

A Sense of Place

The Bellagio in Las Vegas always has interesting art exhibits. We were just there, and I had a chance to see this exhibit, " A Sense of Place". The exhibit included landscapes of all kinds. Everything from Monet's haystack paintings, to David Hockney's brilliant and colorful stylized paintings. The artists are all well known, both living and historic, from the realistic to the abstract. If you are in Las Vegas , be sure and see , "A Sense of Place".

Wait for Me

One more painting from the plein air class. Still focusing on the light and dark value patterns. This was done in Tiburon, near the Lyford House. This location has a really beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay, with the east bay and the city showing across the water.

Drop and Roll

Since I haven't posted anything about Claudia lately, due her camera shy personality, here is a Claudia update. Claudia has grown into an adorable, and beautiful, little roly poly fur ball. Here she is doing her favorite trick, dropping to the floor and rolling around side to side, with her feet in the air. We are always so impressed!

Turquoise Trim

Still working on lights and dark value patterns. This painting was done from a photo of an adobe art gallery in Santa Fe. The turquoise blue window and door trim, on adobe colored buildings, is everywhere in Santa Fe. I was told that the reason for the turquoise blue color, is the belief that blue is a spiritual color that will prevent evil spirits from entering your home. I love that idea!

Germany Challenge

This was done for Carol Marine's Germany Challenge. Still working with light and dark value patterns. I've been having fun looking online at the work of various artist's, who work with dramatic lights and darks. Two women artist's, whose work I love, are Anne Ward Sures, and Maureen Gallace . Their paintings have been so inspiring! Looking forward to doing more!

Sun Kissed

"Sun Kissed" is the title of the upcoming exhibit at the Lafayette Gallery, opening May 24th. I am applying some of the ideas from Tim Horn's class to some new work for this exhibit. Still on the learning curve, and still getting comfortable. This was done from a photo taken in Santa Fe, last week.

Still More

Trying again. This is one more post from last week that failed. Things seem to be working better. The original problem with blogger, is still not solved. In the meantime, I am using an alternative posting method. Let's hope this continues to work. So happy to be able post again!
By the way, this is the same ancient phone, that I can't seem to get enough of.

Now Where Were We

Last week I began to experience technical difficulties with blogger. I tried to post many times, with no success. We'll hope for better results this time. These oranges were done for Tim Horn's class. This is the same exercise that is described in Carol Marine's, Daily Paintworks Challenges. The idea is to paint one object 8 times, allowing 10 min per image. For more info, please see the DPW website.

Just Call Me, One More Time

I've had this prehistoric telephone on my mind for days, just had no time to get back to it. I painted it a while ago, and meant to do a larger version. In the meantime, it's been floating in and out of my brain. I finally had some time today, and here we are! The telephone one more time!

Light and Dark Value Plans

This is the homework assignment for Tim Horn's plein air class. We were told to paint a cantaloupe slice showing the lights and darks, using a value plan prior to painting. This process is described in Kevin MacPherson's, "Landscape Painting Inside and Out", pages 58 through 61. Here is both the value plan, and the painting. In regard to what I painted on the first day of outdoor painting, let's just say, we're all learning.

The Algonquin's Celebrity Cat, Matilda

I just had to post a picture of Matilda, the Algonquin Hotel's celebrity cat. The Algonquin Hotel has had a resident Matilda, since way back in, 1930 . The current Matilda has been on duty for only about 4 months. Her predecessor, served for 16 years, and is now enjoying early retirement at the home of one of the Algonquin employees. I just love this tradition!

Baltimore, New York City, and the Famous Artist, Kelley MacDonald

We just arrived home from a week in Baltimore and New York City. While in Baltimore, I visited the American Visionary Art Museum. This museum is a one of a kind wonder! The top photo shows the out side of the museum , covered in a mosaic of mirrors. Parked in the front entry, is an old bus covered with an assemblage all sorts of old found objects. The total effect of the architecture, and the bus, alone, make a dramatic impression, well worth a visit. Inside the current exhibit is titled, "What Makes us Smile", also very entertaining. All of the work in the museum is done by outsider artists, from all over the world.

A few days before leaving for our trip, I emailed Kelley MacDonald, saying that we would be in NYC soon. It just so happened that she and, her husband , Tim, would be in leaving NYC, as were arriving. We had the good fortune to meet for a glass of wine at Penn. Station. Kelley, is a very talented artist and blogger, that I met in Carol Marine's class in 2008. She and Tim, are wonderful people, and made our trip to NYC all the more special. Please take a look at Kelley gorgeous work on her blog.

We loved NYC! Being California natives, we have not had too many chances to visit this exciting city. We can hardly wait to go back. We stayed at the historic Algonquin Hotel, ate at wonderful restaurants, saw the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Of course, no pictures allowed. Since it was pouring rain, I did not even get a photo of the outside of the museum. Oh well, we loved the Edward Hopper exhibit. So amazing to see work in real life, that you have only seen in photographs. With hundreds of galleries and museums, we only wish that we could have stayed longer. Ah, so much art, so little time!

Let me Give you a Ring

I've been working on finishing a larger painting, that is taking a lot longer than I expected. I decided to take a short break to paint this little phone portrait! It is so much fun to start and finish something, all at once! I love the feeling of accomplishment!