Collaboration

My youngest son and I made this today.  He calls it the Pigheaded Kangaroo.  He made the head and I made the body.  The line at the belly is actually a seam where the lid with the head and the bowl with legs fits together. I think it's my favorite one yet.  I love the way he did the eyes.

Longhorn Red Clay, leather hard stage,  71/2 " tall

Our army of these critters are growing.  One of these days we'll get to glaze them and then I'll take a group photo.

Summer Time

Summer and the last couple of weeks:

When school lets in June our routines and schedules seem to evaporate.   I so enjoy these months but it is difficult to paint.  My boys are young and want to hang out with me (and I want to hang out with them) and I know that before I can blink too many times, that won't be the case---they'll want to be hangin' with their friends, not their mom.  I try to squeeze in painting when I can but I work best when I can do it on a more daily basis with uninterrupted blocks of time. Instead of getting frustrated because that's hard to negotiate and that I'm not painting, I pick projects that I can weave into the rhythm of our days. Right now it's a sewing venture. While I'm working on it, the boys and I orbit around each other. I'll be cutting material on the living room floor while pirate ships are circling about, sword fights are happening overhead (and our dog thinks the freshly spread out material is the best place to lay) or sewing at the table while they're drawing robots etc...---always close to each other. Then we take breaks and go on adventures: to swim, to the movies, to visit friends, to the park, and then return to the house and resume our individual activities. It all makes for a (mostly) peaceful and happy house.

My sewing project now is making a partial slipcover for a antique couch I inherited from my great grandmother.  I know---slipcover---not very exciting, but it is!  I love to sew, especially items of my own invention. The couch is white.  I have three boys and a dog in the house...  For the last couple of years I've draped quilts over it to extend its life --- not a look I like. So, we'll see if my plan works.

I've been thinking of this project since the couch came to me. It's a joy that it's finally coming to fruition.  When it's done, it's so satisfying---well, that is if it looks good---never know until the end.  I think I'll be done next week, I'll post the results.

Study of the Ocean Alla Prima

A few days ago we returned from a splendid family trip to South Padre Island on the Gulf of Mexico.  Before going I had envisioned doing all these small paintings on the beach under my umbrella with my cigar easel box on my lap. I did get to paint several times in such a way but mostly ended up playing in the water and walking along the beach.  It was so lovely.

Below I have posted my attempts to paint the amazing ever changing ocean which I found both extremely difficult and exciting.  I had many, many day dream thoughts of living for long periods of time on the beach so I could paint everyday and figure out how to convey what I was seeing. 

Day One: 

Studies in watercolor with thoughts of how I would paint in oil.  So much to see--- horizon gradations, folding of the waves,  reflections from the sky on the water, reflections of the cresting waves on the surface, the wet sand....

watercolor on paper

watercolor on paper

Day Two:
My first try in oil of the waves and sand.   So many colors in the water, it was hard to keep it simple.

4 1/2" x 6 3/4" oil on linen panel

Day Three:
Trying again to understand the waves and the sand as the light continually changes and the waves come and go.

4" x 7 1/2" oil on linen panel

Day Four:
Study from the balcony.

watercolor on paper

Day Five:
More studies from the balcony.

watercolor on paper

Day Six:
After an afternoon of swimming, my last painting done from the balcony. I could of stayed there for a year....

6"x8" oil on linen panel

Needle and Thread

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

I love sewing.  I always enjoy sitting at my old Singer.  It's a beautiful machine from 1940 that just goes forward and backward, and I think weighs than my youngest son.   My favorite projects are inventing my own patterns or trying to alter something.  I'm mostly self-taught so it's always an adventure when I try to make  something... oh,  so much to learn.

Red Tin Can

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

This is inspired by a DPW challenge to do an image incorporating polka dots. I have a few other paintings in the works that I have been stuck on lately so it was nice to put them aside and try this one. My favorite part is the bright red above the shadow of the shell.  My kids wanted to title it 'Mutant Snail' because the shell is unusually large in comparison to the ones we often find around our house.

Sketchbook Portrait- Our Friend CJ

watercolor & charcoal on paper

Mother's Day Collaboration

For Mother's Day my request was to get to play in some clay out in the backyard with my boys. It couldn't of been a prettier day. This is what we made:

bird head painted with yellow and white slip

longhorn red clay, leather hard stage, 6" tall

frankenstein head painted with green slip

 Happy Mother's Day!

Stand Oil

7 x 4 1/2 inches, oil on hardboard

Sketchbook Portrait- Jenna

watercolor and graphite

This is from a 20 minute pose at a life drawing session I attended today.  I haven't posted a sketchbook portrait in awhile as I had taken a break from doing them---I think I was getting tired of looking at a photo for reference.  Having a live model is much better.

Cactus Blooms

 3 1/2 x 5 inches, oil on canvas panel, 2011

I just noticed that the cactus on the side of our house has bloomed which reminded me of this small study I had done around this time last year.

Monday Morning

7 x 4 1/2 inches, oil on hardboard

This is a view from the same general area as my two previous plein air paintings. While I was working, I periodically heard the mooing of unseen cows which only added to the already idyllic scene.  I think two wandered into that far left meadow just as I was leaving.  I'd like to go back and paint this spot again.

The Stare

3 1/2 x 5 inches, oil on canvas panel, 2011

This is one of many male Boat-tailed Grackles that inhabit our city. I'm endlessly fascinated by their intelligence, confidence, and beauty.
I painted this last spring.
(sold)

Thistles

7 x 4 1/2 inches, oil on hardboard

This morning's plein air adventure took us to the same spot as last Wednesday.  My initial intention was to do a painting of a single thistle but instead, I found myself lured by this scene.  
I attached a tiny bungee cord to my panel and it held up perfectly in the wind---no flying off to land in the dirt today!

Sky

3 1/5 x 5 inches, oil on canvas panel, 2011

About this time last year, I painted this small study of the sky seen through the canopy of trees.  I did a series of them and this one was my favorite.
(sold)

Out in the Field

4 1/2 x 7 inches, oil on hardboard

My youngest son and I went on a hike this morning.  I set up a place to paint and he laid out a blanket from which to catch butterflies, play on his Gameboy and draw. Pretty idyllic even when the wind picked up and blew my panel face down in the dirt!  I had to wipe a bunch off but I think I was able to salvage it.
I could have stayed out there all day.

Peach Blossoms

This morning I found on our Loquat tree two sweet ripe loquats beckoning to be painted.   I went inside to do a few things and gather my materials to paint.  Earlier, I had told my boys 'don't touch the loquats until I get to paint them'. Well, while inside getting prepared, my boys were outside playing and 'forgot' and ate my loquats.  Sigh...

There's still loquats high up on the tree.  Maybe I could sacrifice a little branch and paint inside---later, if the mood returns.

This is one of the peach blossoms paintings that I did last spring.  This year the flowers came and went before I got a chance to paint them.  The young peaches are already the size of walnuts.

3 1/2 x 5 inches, oil on canvas board
(sold)

Past Poppies

7 x 5 inches, oil on Crescent board

Another of my pre-blog paintings. This was last April's poppies. 

Recovering from a bout of food poisoning this last week, hope to be back to painting soon.

(sold)

Glass Pitcher with Purple Heart

 
5 x 7 inches, oil on canvas board

This is from a series of small paintings I had done before starting my blog.  I really like that glass pitcher, it belongs to my mother-in-law.  I just borrowed it again with some new paintings in mind...

Young Pods

5 x 5 inches, oil on panel

Poppies II

7 x 5 inches, oil on panel

Poppies

6 x 8 inch., oil on panel

I went out in our front yard this morning with the intention of doing some yard work....but upon seeing these guys, my plans changed :) .

Spring Fun

detail of lid

Longhorn Red Clay, leather hard stage, 5" tall

Playing with some clay today.  I just finished prepping a new batch of surfaces to paint and I have a couple paintings in the works that I'll post soon.  But I have to say, when spring arrives, as it has, I get distracted by the mild temperatures and all the flowers blooming that I try to be outside all day long to play in the dirt, sit on the porch, go to the park... Thinking about trying some plein air paintings but first I need to get planting, prunning, and raking out of my system.

SXSW Wraps Up

This was my husband's set up at the Flatstock Poster Show.  In all the craziness of the weekend, I somehow only got one photo of his set up and not even in its entirety!  

Flatstock 33 - Mig Kokinda

His posters are all spray paint and stencil, mostly for music venues or film festivals. This was our 10th year of participating in it---lots of fun and lots of work.  Flatstock has been part of SXSW every year since 2003. There's also shows in Seattle, Chicago, Germany, and now Spain, but unfortunately we don't get to go to all those.  

Now that its over,  I'm resting and catching up on laundry and such, tomorrow I hope to resume my painting, drawing, and being able to post more regularly!

SXSW Color

I'm helping my husband at the Flatstock poster convention during SXSW.  The days are long so I probably won't be posting any of my work until next week.

Outside the convention hall there's a big table of legos available for any passerby who has the urge to build. My boys and I played there today for a few hours!

Legos, Legos, Legos

Sunday

Longhorn Red Clay, leather hard stage,  8" tall

detail: bunny head

This beautiful spring day led us outside to play in some clay.  My youngest son and I collaborated and made this bowl with a lid.  While I made the body, he created the bunny head with the two big teeth.  He also made a clay carrot (not shown) to go with it.

Two Lemons

8" x 10", oil on board

This was the other painting that I had brought home unfinished from the workshop. I decided to finish it last night and do a little experimenting. It's interesting painting objects that don't belong to you.  This was the first time in a painting that I used my fingers! I did this mostly on the lemons.  It's funny, but I was kind of dreading going back to this painting but once I started working on it, it was a blast. Painting is such a joy.

Plum and the Green Bottle

8" x 8", oil on panel

This is one of the paintings I brought home unfinished from the workshop. I completed it today---yay!
When I brought it home, the values seemed almost all the same across the painting.  The challenge was to make those objects pop out from the background.  It was a tough painting. The foreground is actually a bit  brighter in real life but I couldn't get the camera to pick up the subtleties.

Study in Four Squares

6 inch. x 6 inch, oil on Crescent Board

I had set up a still life to paint but felt I didn't have enough time for my goal of doing it alla prima, so I opted to do four 15 minute studies of just the bowl. I like doing these studies a whole lot.  It's a great opportunity to experiment and learn.  In between each square I clean my palette and sit back and try and recognize the problems with it and think how I might do the next different.  Then I change the lightening and position a little, set the timer, and try again.
The first two squares my palette was limited with my only blue being ultramarine and my only red alizarin crimson. The third square I added phthalo blue for the bowl, but not the shadow. For the fourth, in addition to the phthalo blue I added cadmium red. It doesn't quite show in the photo but I put a line of cadmium red just in the shadow where the table meets the wall and it glows ever so slight---really lovely.