New Art, New Books - Ain't Life Grand!

I completed these yesterday at the festival - fun!



Three new books I ordered from northlight recently. I got all three for $25! They are very good books that I'm anxious to read through. I'm especially inspired by Moira Huntly's sketching.

Leaf and String Festival Display

I showed and demonstrated my artwork yesterday at the Leaf and String Festival. This is for the classes I will teach in the fall at Chestnut Creek School of the Arts.

Saturday Night Art Fun

My daughter and I worked in the studio until almost midnight last night! What fun! She made this wonderful collage on masonite and I did the paintings above.



Isn't this fantastic!!!





This is my favorite of my paintings, so I thought I'd put it in an individual photo.




Above is a new set up for 5 new paintings; I wanted to show how I did these. I took a canvas panel and taped down 4 or 5 5" x 7" sheets of watercolor paper. I work on all of them at the same time (for the most part). One sort of led to the other the first time around (see top photo). I started out with very tight drawings in my first two (you can see this in the pot of geraniums. They were from my imagination, but tight - I loosened up on the last two and kept going back in and working with all different media - watercolor, watercolor pencils, colored pencil, pen, and oil pastels - until I achieved the look I wanted. I plan to set up in a local festival this coming weekend and display these works for sale as well as demonstrate for three upcoming classes I'll be teaching this fall.

More recent sketches

I did this today in my new Moleskine. I have decided to make this moleskine strictly for DRY MEDIA. I went at lunch today (breaking my agreement with myself to buy no art supplies for a year) and spent around $3.50 on these two pencil (4B) and this kneaded rubber eraser to carry in my purse with the moleskine. I want these supplies to be with me at all times. I'm hoping to pare down my supplies that I carry with me to just these simple tools and see what happens. I do have a huge selection of colored pencils on my desk at work. And lots of pens. So I should be well-equipped.

This is a 5" x 7" gouache from my imagination/memory. I added colored pencil to further refine and define the shapes and to add texture and some brightness and contrast to the painting. The Pelikan gouache pans I have found very chalky. I think I used too much white mixed with them. They are very grainy paints.

This was done from my imagination, just doodling and playing one evening last week after work. The flowers on the cup are done with colored pencil. First I drew in graphite, added the black marker, and then splashed with watercolor.

Sketched this Wednesday, May 27 in a meeting and then added colored pencil later. This is on discarded letterhead paper. I like the texture very much for graphite and colored pencil.

The sketches on the right page were done in a meeting on Wednesday morning and the one on the left I doodled from memory while I was on the phone.

I did these drawings from my imagination/memory at my daughter's swim team practice tonight. Practicing and planning for later 5" x 7" bright paintings.

New Work - Wild and Wonderful

I've been busy painting and sketching lately and haven't blogged, but this and the next post will show you the fruits of my recent labors. Here are three of my bright drawings 5" x 7" in clear "bags" with acid free backing boards, both from clearbags.com. I completed all three of these on Monday from start to finish. (I had a wild streak)