Tagged

I've been tagged by R Garriott.


Here's my list of "Seven Unusual (okay, maybe not so much) Things About Me":

1. I had the good fortune to go to high school at the American School in London. We took art field trips to Paris and Amsterdam. It was an amazing experience.
   
2. In college my first series of paintings was of Purina Dog Chow bags. (The old bag with the red and white checker board and the portraits of various breeds of dogs.) We were able to have pets on campus at my school, and I shared my dorm room with a cocker spaniel. His bag of food sat on my desk. I still like the folds and creases that distort the pictures and words on the bag. And I remember the tag line "All you add is love." Silly then and silly now.
   
3. I tend to organize my books by color, I always strive for the rainbow... with colored pencils and markers too. I like having a variety of different colored post-its and high-liters, I need color!
   
4. Due to a "series of unfortunate events" (scaffolding collapsing on my car) I rented a Mustang (a black convertible). I had no idea what it is like to lust after a car before this! I'm thinking I should be looking at a Prius, but I can't get that Mustang out of my head...
   
5. My birthday is the same as A. A. Milne the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, who is still one of my best friends.
   
6. My new favorite food is Vongole Pizza at Otto's in New York, fresh calms in the shells on top of the pizza. Is there anything like that in Los Angeles?
7. I have a skateboarding cat. He hasn't learned to do it standing up yet, once he gets that down we will be posting the video on YouTube. I think he is the kind of cat that would wear a Halloween costume. As tempting as that is, I know it would be wrong (so didn't do it this year).

And now I am supposed to pick seven artists to tag, so they can join the game and play too:

My first pick is Kevin's Studio Blog with the hope that it will encourage him to actually blog!
Jelaine Faunce Studio

A Painting A Day: Miniature Masterpieces - Small original oil paintings by Darren Maurer

Ryan Studio
Ali Cavanaugh Fine Art
my fiddlestix
Susan Abbott

Date Palm Detail

This is a detail of a watercolor painting looking up at a date palm. The full painting is all branches covered in dates radiating out of a center point. It is part of my Meditation Series: Natures Mandalas. I've always liked the painting but never thought it reproduced well. The digital image I have of the painting was scanned from a slide. Today I decided to take some close-ups of the painting myself. I am thrilled with the result. I included this detail of the painting in my 2009 Art Calendar.

National Watercolor Society 88th Annual Exhibition 2008

I had the honor of having a painting accepted in the National Watercolor Society show for the first time. I missed the opening but finally made it out to Riverside on the last day of the show. The paintings were great but I was not impressed by the way the show was hung. When I was describing it later it occurred to me that perhaps there had been additional movable walls that had been taken out as the gallery was being set up for a wedding reception that evening.

Despite the difficult viewing situation I was glad I made the drive to Riverside and saw the paintings in person. I particularly liked Susan Stuller’s “A Balancing Act”, Irene Roman’s “Connected by Shadows”, Mary Ann Pope’s “Still Waters”, Bruce McCombs’ “Porch” Kay Carnie’s “Red Door” and Carol Hubbard’s “ In Your Dreams II” to name a few.

In case you can't find it on the wall. "Giant Wheel" is my painting that was in the exhibit.

"Christmas Tree" Completed

I felt stuck for a long time and left the painting alone. It felt like it was time to add the metallic gold, but I knew once I did that I would be limited on the changes I could make… so I did nothing. Finally bit the bullet and did it. (Used mainly Daniel Smith’s powdered gold watercolors.) Santa was looking good but I felt I had to separate him from the rest of the painting to make him pop. So I darkened the area surrounding the ornament. I lost some of the subtle colors that I thought were really beautiful, but it was the right thing to do. I am pleased with the way Santa turned out.

As I mentioned at the start of this painting, it will be this year's Christmas card from Ken, Cameron and me. I have cropped the image for the card. The card card is available online at zazzle.com.

"Christmas Tree" Stage Six

Building up the tree – brightening already defined areas and adding branches to fill out the tree. Also working on Santa’s face.

Deepened colors on Santa. Removed masking.

"Christams Tree" Stage Five

Added more masking to the sparkling bits and deepened colors on the ornament.

"Christmas Tree" Stage Four

I have been mainly working on the tree. Parts of the tree are drawn in detail, but I have left much loosely defined. I want to get it sorted out before I focus on Santa. I have a tendency to include everything & I don’t want to do that here.