Well, Hello from the State Capital!

March 25, 2014 in announcements

I cannot believe it's been over a month since my last blog post. Since we found out that my husband got the job in Sacramento and we decided to move, it was like someone pressed the "forward" button. Things moved fast.

We have lived in the new place for a week and a half now. I like it quite a lot...quiet dead-end street; a bunch of trees in the front yard; big kitchen; living area with windows, one of them huge and looking into the green backyard shaded by a spectacular oak tree; a tree house that my kids love in that same backyard; and, most of all, a wonderful garage-converted-into-a-room space that I immediately claimed as my studio. That, unfortunately, means there is no garage for us to put all of our stuff that filled a 2.5 car garage in our old house. And my poor husband doesn't have a real workshop area (the shed we have is pathetic). So it's a trade-off. Seeing that I am the one spending most of my life in this house, though, it's probably a smart trade-off. Oh yeah, and the studio can be completely locked out of the rest of the house and has a separate entrance :D . Ah, the possibilities...

I am yet to set up an easel but I already have two shows on the schedule. I just got a call that I received an Award of Merit at the Sacramento's watercolor group (WASH) annual show for this painting:

Curiouser and Curiouser. 30x22" watercolor on paper.

...which was cool. This is my first award at a show that may mean anything (vs my ribbons from the San Bernardino County Fair, where I felt I had no competition to speak of). I feel good about it :) The show will run April 1 though April 19 with a 2nd Saturday (Sacramento's monthly art walk) reception on April 12 5:30 - 8:30 pm. Location is the Sacramento Fine Arts Center. You are invited!

The second show opening in May at the Kennedy Gallery Art Center is the 20/20 show and I'll tell you more about it soon :)

We are moving!

February 18, 2014 in announcements

To Sacramento, that is!

I will miss quite a few of the amazing people who I met during my four years of living in the desert but I am so ready for this! I look forward to being a part of Sacramento's growing art culture (I even dare to think about a real, outside of the home art studio (gasp!)) My kids will finally have grandparents and uncles nearby (did someone say "free childcare"? :))

Unfortunately, this also means that all the classes and happenings I had planned in the High Desert will not happen and somebody else will need to take over my High Desert Art Meetup group. It's bittersweet. I am hoping that I will be able to focus instead on developing the long-promised online courses, a regular plein air and figure drawing routine, and a solid body of work. I feel that this move is a step up.

A look back at 30 Paintings in 30 Days (Round 3)

February 02, 2014

I survived :). Not only that, but I painted more than I would have otherwise. I know I was a bit too ambitious to take the challenge at this time in my life, but I'm glad I did. The daily thought that I should find something to paint, paint it, and blog about it was sometimes stressful, but mostly, it kept me motivated. I would make an effort and find the tiny pockets of time throughout the day to do what I love.

Some of these paintings are still available here.

So, what's next? I plan on spending February's tiny pockets of creative time on a monument proposal for a local town (dust off those architecture skills!) and in March, I restart my watercolor painting classes. And, of course, I have about a hundred different things I want to do in-between.

Day 30 - Cape Cod Andirondack Chairs

January 30, 2014

After a short virtual trip to Cape Cod, I have added it to the list of places I would want to live in. Or at least visit in real life. And probably make more paintings of...

Today, just these two chairs overlooking a bay. Feels like a perfect spot to have a laid-back chat with a friend, or just relax to the sound of the water. Hope you like it :)

Watercolor and ink on paper. 7.5 x 11". Click to buy.

Days 28 & 29 - Abstract Landscape Watercolor Studies

January 29, 2014

Well, what can I say..In three days, I only managed to do a couple of small studies. And a few black and white sketches I won't post just because I don't have the time to scan them in. The 30 paintings in 30 days was not perfect this time around, but I did try and for that I'm proud of myself :). I am hoping to do another painting tomorrow for the Virtual Paintout, which is in Cape Cod this month.

On a different note, I am slowly getting back into teaching and will start classes in March, at the newly-expanded Burning House Art Studio in Apple Valley. I'm rather excited about that.

Day 26 - South Lake Redux

January 26, 2014

Wet-into-wet full sheet yet again. I wanted to try a vertical format and a more uniform foreground. Everything is still wet, so it will look a bit different when it's fully dry. I like the process...always loved working wet-int-wet and doing it on a full sheet feels good. I may even pull out the roll of Arches paper I have and go bigger. These should look good in interiors, even if there is no huge mystical meaning behind them ;)

Day 25 - South Lake

January 25, 2014

A full sheet today. Sunrise at the South Like from Bodhi's Lake House. An interesting discovery is that something like this is quite doable as a daily painting...Hmm..Do I see a month of sunrises and sunsets in the future?

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico rough watercolor paper. 22x30".

A baby and my feet for scale and a glimpse into my studio reality :) :

Day 24 - Casa Del Desierto (Barstow Harvey House)

January 24, 2014 in step by step, plein air

Finally done with this painting! I started it on a plein air outing over a week ago and worked on it in tiny pieces of time since. It even went through an ugly stage (which is normal, particularly for paintings done in multiple sessions) and through a husband-critique stage (that's how you know it's getting serious ;) ). I

Watercolor and ink on hot press paper. Original sold. Prints and cards available.

A few progress photos:

First step: completed drawing at the plein air session. By the time I was done drawing, it was getting close to sunset and windy, so I decided to do the painting part at home.

Here, I am beginning to lay first washes. The paper is hot press, so I'm getting some nice blooms!

I have some white areas left here but most of the painting has a layer of paint. Evaluating if the contrast between the white columns and dark spaces between them is too dark. So it is. Also, not crazy about the foreground.

One step further: I toned down the white areas and lightened up the shadows between columns. I also decided to separate the far right side of the building from the background by darkening the tree area. The foreground got another wash of gray-blue to tone it down and ground the building. Brick detail on the left side and a bit of cleaning up in the shape of the columns and bottom of the building.

At this point, I got a feeling that my problem with the foreground might be because it was also too large. I began thinking about the best way to crop it.

Final, cropped version. The foreground is significantly darker and quieter. I took off some of the paint first, by wetting the area with a soft brush (to agitate the paint and make it liftable without damaging the paper) and blotting with soft tissue paper (like Kleenex). I repeated the process once or twice. Then, I covered the area with a fairly uniform wash of mixed gray (French Ultramarine + Quinacridone Red + Quinacridone Gold).

And that's the story :). I think I've lived in the desert for too long (4 years!), because I am beginning to find cool things about it and even like some of them...

If you would like to see an excellent virtual tour of the Barstow Harvey House, watch this:

Day 21 - Mimi's Cafe watercolor sketch

January 22, 2014 in sketchbook

We went out on a date yesterday, also known as "let's-go-eat-food-I-did-not-cook" :). I brought along a sketchbook. This was the view from our booth...rather charming, with the chandelier, the oval mirror in an ornate frame, the little photographs and the big paintings on the walls. First thing that drew my attention, though, was the quiet and cozy quality of light. I tried to infuse the sketch with it. What do you think? Can you feel it?

Day 19 - Impressions from LA Art Show

January 19, 2014

Miss me yet? "Life" won over again in the last few days and I have made only very slow progress on my Harvey House painting. My head, however, is plotting new paintings since my visit to the Los Angeles Art Show on Thursday! It was good. An artist friend of mine came along and I enjoyed a dialogue on all things artistic and artful. We spent several hours absorbing the beauty and studying the skill of top artists throughout the world. We discovered new favorites. Quite often, I found myself wondering why a particular piece was selected for this show.

It was fun to hear a lot of languages along with English spoken with all kinds of accents. I even began feeling not accented enough :) Obviously, to be interesting in the American art world, you need to be a bit exotic.

It seemed that oils, other than in the Chinese section, dominated the show. The Chinese had a large percentage of works on paper and I found their large abstract ink paintings on rice paper fascinating. I saw a couple of watercolors in traditional/historic art section (plus a gouache by Van Gogh). All of it rubbed in the (usually unsolicited) advice that I get from people: 1) switch to oils and 2) paint big.

I found myself drawn to figures (mostly in contemporary traditional and modern sections) and to abstracts. Of course, I already discovered that I like both last year when I went through an exercise of clipping images that resonated with me. Now I just need to figure out how to reconcile them in my own work...

Day 15 - Harvey House in Progress (WIP)

January 15, 2014

This one is taking a while to paint and I have to steal short pieces of time here and there throughout the day to work on it. So, just a progress photo for today. The color has begun! :)

Day 14 - En Plein Air, En Progress, and a Yucca

January 14, 2014

Today, I spent a couple of hours at one of the local landmarks, the Barstow Harvey House, also known as Casa Del Desierto. It was one of my scheduled paintouts with the High Desert Art Meetup. The meetup was a bit on the lonely side, as nobody except me showed up, but I didn't mind that too much. I was able to really focus on the drawing, which is probably why I spent around an hour and a half on it and didn't have time to paint and dry it.

So, I plan to finish that painting tomorrow. Meanwhile, here is another painting from a paintout a week ago. I added the background at home.

Day 13 - Lunchtime

January 13, 2014

Warning: this post also has a baby in it. Or, rather, a toddler. Because I can't post today's painting without telling you how Katia (our 1.5-year-old), while I was blissfully finishing the painting, took my bottle of sepia acrylic ink and spilled it all onto our living room floor (tile, fortunately). She then proceeded with multi-sensory exploration of the puddle of ink (full bottle, by the way...I only started it today). By the time I snapped out of my zone and began wondering why she was so quiet, she had ink on her face, in her mouth, and all over her body.

So...moral of the story? ~~Don't have kids~~ Don't leave your stuff where a toddler can get it and never ever let yourself be lulled into thinking you can do your own thing while the toddler is awake. A bit sarcastic...I'm sure I will remember these days fondly one day.

As for the painting, I finally tried something I wanted to for some time: the ink + watercolor method but on a larger scale. I used a half sheet of paper and a brush to apply ink. It was actually pretty fun! I don't have as much control of the brush line as I do of the pen when I work on a small drawing, so this was a bit out of my confort zone. But I liked it.

22 x 15 " watercolor and ink on hot press watercolor paper.

Day 12 - to France!

January 12, 2014

At least, virtually for now :) I got a few reference photos of windows and doors from Bix of France Painting Holiday and used one of them today. Not crazy about the result but happy that I actually managed to paint some. There are things I like and dislike about this painting, but in general, I declare it a dud, a stinker, a wiper. Any other terms for unsuccessful painting attempts? Often, my "wipers" turn into experiments (since I already know it can't get much worse, I'm not afraid to mess it up with wild ideas). On this one, I want to do a few things...One is to apply gesso with a bristle brush (for texture) over the timber and freshen up the color on top.

Day 11 - a few sketches from the days before

January 11, 2014 in sketchbook

Things get crazy, no time for anything, etc. Here is a sketch of baby Ella (who is already 2 months old!):

And an animated gif of her created by the almighty Google through their awesome Auto-Awesome feature. I am having all kinds of fun with it. (Sorry if you hate pictures of babies...I can't help it! I promise I won't do it very often, though :))

The second sketch below is something I made based on a picture of a woman walking through an alley. Initially, I just liked the figure and the tall buildings around her (which were not dark or menacing in the reference photo). As I worked on it, though, it began morphing into an abstraction more and more and taking on a darker mood. I'm not sure it's finished. I like the transparent layers but I also want to see how far I can push it into abstraction and darkness. We'll see...

Day 8 - An Orchid

January 09, 2014

I have two orchid plants that somehow survived several years in my care. "Survived," because I am definitely not known for having green thumbs, and anyone looking at my front yard will be able to tell that :). But these things...they keep being alive and making me happy with gorgeous flowers. One of them just opened its first bloom of the season and I enjoyed painting it this morning.

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico hot press 140lb watercolor paper. 5.5 x 7.5". Special price of $50 until February 1.

Speaking of blooms, also known as backruns, or bleeds, or even cauliflowers - I like them. I don't always create or keep them but in general, I think they are fun. If you like them, too, and want to make them happen in your painting, the secret is using lots of water when you paint, so that you have puddles of paint. Additionally, hot press paper is more bloom-friendly than cold press.

Day 7 - Italian Window 4

January 08, 2014

I was too wiped out last night to post this, so...I was about to say that it means two posts today, but probably not. Small changes in routine seem to mess up my painting opportunities in a major way. Yesterday, I had the baby's 2-month checkup appointment in the morning and then, a sick 1.5-year-old for the rest of the day. So not much happened in terms of art production and marketing.

This reminds me of the popular artist-blog expression, "life got in the way." On one hand, I can relate completely: "life" can demand so much attention and energy that you don't have anything left to feed your creative self. Or, in another scenario, you have to constantly switch gears between "life" (in my case, it means being a mom and wife) and art-making or business mode, can't focus on either, and become very frustrated. Multitasking, you say? What is that?

Now, as to the other hand...I am slowly beginning to realize that life, the one that "gets in the way," is actually more important to me than, albeit more pleasant and fulfilling in the short term, process of making and selling art. (This may be the reason why women artists rarely "make it" in the art world).

Anyway, another window from Venice today. Hope you like it :)

10 x 7" Watercolor and ink on hot press 140lb watercolor paper. Special price of $75 until February 1.

Day 6 - Plein air by the Mojave River

January 06, 2014 in plein air

Today, I went on a plein air paintout with a couple of local artists. I chose a location fairly close to home, where Highway 66 crosses the Mojave River. Beautiful place with a lot of different subject matter. I spent most of my time painting the view below, though the resulting painting is "unblogably bad." I don't have much plein air experience (at least, compared to my in-studio experience) and still get easily distracted and overwhelmed with visual information when I paint outdoors. However, I keep trying and I'm sure I will be making blogable plein air paintings more often :)

Another view I painted was of a couple of Yuccas. If you don't live in the desert, chances are, you don't know what those are. I didn't. These are also called Spanish Dagger, which adds a touch of drama...The painting below is not completely finished (I added light background wash at home but didn't take a picture of it yet). I spent maybe 15-20 minutes on it and was a lot happier with it than my first painting, which took 1.5-2 hours.

22 x 15" Watercolor on hot press watercolor paper.

....And I also dropped my pastels and, when I was about to pick them up, I noticed that they looked all nice and colorful, randomly arranged on top of the gravel, almost like an idea for an abstract, and I had to take a picture. So there you go :)

On Day 5, I rest!

January 05, 2014

...Not entirely true. I'm taking a break from daily painting because I need to catch up on housework (to a degree, of course. In my experience, housework is a black hole that will gobble up all the time and energy you let it). However, let's keep the Italian theme alive! If you follow me on Facebook, you may know that recently, I developed a new hobby: making wonderfully delicious bread. So, my current batch is Italian semolina bread that looks like this:

Go ahead, drool...Beg me to invite you over for a cup of tea. It makes awesome toast, too! :) And because I can't leave you without some art, here is a sketch of another loaf I made recently:

That one was a "peasant loaf" out of my new favorite book, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." Interested in making your own bread that is easy, fast, and tasty? Check it out on Amazon:

The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

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By Jeff Hertzberg, Zoë François

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Day 4 - Neighbors

January 04, 2014

Venice yet again! I noticed these two windows sitting next to each other on two adjacent buildings. They have an intriguing balance of contrast and shared old world charm that I couldn't walk away from.

6.5 x 10" ink and watercolor on hot press paper. Special price of $75 until Februrary 1.