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!

Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search

So tomorrow the 50 artists who made the first cut in the Global Talent Search will be announced. Here is the entry I submitted along with the one I didn't submit. In the end I decided I wanted to make a bold statement and stand out...I still like the other one, Grow, too.

Which one do you like?

Global Talent Search - Thinking about terrariums

I turned in my entry for Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search last night...I had a hard time deciding between two of the paintings I had done...We had two weeks to work on it and I did about five paintings. Here are parts from the one I didn't submit. I'll show the one I entered on August 26.

It was a fun project. I had a blast painting...I used mostly gouache and watercolor with some pen and ink thrown in.

Progression - Fall and Helicopter Seed pods

The leaves are falling from the trees and my sidewalk is littered with what we used to call "helicopters". I've been fascinated by the shapes and today I painted some.

New Season, new beginnings

It's beginning to feel a little like fall here, though the days have been gloriously sunny. We had a beautiful blue moon over the weekend and I am accepting that summer is over. There are some other changes happening in my life...letting some things go, to allow space for new things to come in.

Wet Stones 

I got out the watercolor crayons I took with me to Penland and spent half an hour in the morning at my kitchen table drawing. I'm pleased with the results. I wet the paper first with a watercolor brush, then started drawing shapes...love how the color feathers out on the wet paper. The paper is Rives BFK which deliciously takes color and ink. I plan to do more of this.

Home from Penland

Penland View

I'm back from two weeks at the beautiful and wonderful Penland School of Crafts. The school teaches all kinds of crafts and arts from glass, metals, printmaking, textiles to bookarts. I took a book/lettering/painting class with Laura Wait. It was fabulous. We started with large pieces of paper and then started writing words with sticks, shingles, rocks and whatever primitive materials we could find. Next we graduated to brushes and calligraphy pens, creating layers of text which bagan to take on the look of abstract forms. The next step in the process was learning to sew exposed bindings such as the herringbone. Paint was added to pages before and after the sewing process. Here are some pictures from the workshop.

Writing tools

Sample text

exposed bindings

Sewing a book on linen cords

Laura Wait demonstrating writing and painting with sumi ink

Palette and books in progress

Exposed binding book

My books on display

Some of my books

Happy Valentine's Day

To all the lovers, valentines, singles and romantics at heart: here is a valentine love book I made several years ago. It has images on the front and back for a total of eight ways to show love. Here are four of them.

Here is a painting called "Flying".

And last but not least, a felt heart.

Art show - First Thursday Artwalk

My First Thursday opening was great fun. Here are my friends Dina and Cory posing in front of some of my art. I'm in the dots in middle.

textile design

Here's a new one in a few different colorways. I started with a pencil sketch, scanned it into the computer, then added colors.

Art show - First Thursday Artwalk

I was in a small art show for First Thursday Artwalk in Pioneer Square. My friend Olivia hosted it in her fantastic loft with a view of Elliot Bay. Great music was performed by Hejira. This group is called the Women and their names are Iris, Fanny, Courtney, Sabine, Rachel and Lola. If you're interested in one, drop me a line.

Summer Girl with Freckles - Watercolor painting

This is one of the new paintings I've done recently, inspired by summer and the beach.

Art and Sunshine

I'm in heaven. Days on end with perfect weather. Sunshine and time. Unemployment suits me, except for the part where you don't get a paycheck. Otherwise, it's so nice to wake up naturally without an alarm clock and spend long mornings working in the garden. I've been cleaning out my outbuilding/studio and found some gouache so today I made two paintings. I'm rusty but like anything else, if I keep painting, I'll get better. You have to use those artistic muscles or you lose them. I'm going to do a little painting every day until July 5. Here is my first effort. It is painted with blue and the inspiration is Delft china and Charles Kraftt.