More flowers and creating a daily practice

Since I took the Explore Florals class with Victoria Johnson, I have been painting almost every day. (If I miss a day, I'll do two or three paintings the next day). I have been working with gouache, which is a wonderful medium. I'm using Holbein and Windsor and Newton paints and the colors are luscious and vibrant. Most of these paintings are still of flowers but I intend to start painting people and objects as we head in to Fall. I am having a blast!

Enameling Metal Jewelry

I've been taking metalsmithing classes for the last year. I started with metal about 15 years ago and then stopped when I started working full time. This last year I haven't been working as much which has been a gift in many ways; one if those ways is more time to work on my art.

The current class I'm taking is an Enameling. Enameling a process where ground glass is fused to copper or silver when heated at high temperatures (1500 degrees). You can heat the metal in a kiln or through a process called torch firing where you apply the flame from a torch underneath the metal until the glass melts and fuses to the the copper or silver.

I am in love with enameling! I love color and experimenting with transparent and opaque enamels is so much fun. I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get because the powdered enamel colors look very different than the heated and cooled enamel. Here are a few recent samples I made.

The colors of Mexico

Hola! I'm in sunny Mexico where blue skies and sunshine are plentiful. This is a nice switch for a Seattle girl used to gray on gray. I spent a week in Puerto Vallarta and wandered the streets taking pictures. I also enjoyed some really good food which I'll tell you about in coming posts. Today I headed north to the small town of Bucerias. It has miles of unspoiled beaches and big waves with surfers. I'm having a hard time getting used to the lazy pace here after frenetic PV. A few days here will slow me down.

Abstract art or painted over graffiti?

I've taken a series of pictures of walls that have blocks of painted over graffiti on them. They look like modern, abstract art to me. I've posted one set over on my flickr site. You can go there to view them all:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturegirl/sets/72157628296745071/show/

Balloon Window Display at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC

Check out this great use of color and balloons at Bergdorfs for Spring 2011. Pictures are from Bobbin Talk blog. Go there now!

Kaffe Fassett Workshop

I had the opportunity to take a painting workshop with one favorite artists and textile designers last month on Vashon Island, Kaffe Fassett. We worked with colors by starting with an art postcard and using the colors in that to inform our colorway. The results were stunning and I learned so much from the master himself.

Inspiration and Belly dancing at Medfest

This past weekend was a huge gathering of belly dancers for an event called Medfest. There are nonstop performances for two days. All the women are beautifully and exotically dressed and it's a very colorful affair. One of the best troupe's I saw perform was Troupe Hypnotica...they do tribal belly dance. A little girl in front of the stage was transfixed by them and was dancing around in her princess outfit. It was priceless. I also saw more flags and I'm still inspired to make some from fabric scraps.