It’s been a long time since I’ve done plein air. Since having my children it’s been easier to be a studio painter. Painting in the open air teaches you to paint in the moment, to rely on the gesture and the medium, to lay down your poetry on the canvas quickly before the light changes or your fingers freeze or the bugs chase you away! Plein air works are known …
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What makes a plein air party you may ask? A gorgeous day, a stunning location, a mess of easels, paints, mediums, gloves and canvases or boards and you’re good to go – oh yes, and most importantly a whole whack of talented artists! What makes it festive is a hot barbecue, a cold beer and a mountain of mouth watering desserts. Add in a painting and gift exchange, some lava …
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I will miss Christy Ann’s Lace hanging above my mantel, reminding me of my dear friend who took the original photograph and the spectacular if short summers of my childhood home in Nova Scotia. It’s good incentive to work on something new that moves me just as much!
These flowers remind me of Christmas as it was all the rage when I lived in Toronto (especially in the design shops I frequented) to force the bulbs to bloom indoors during our icy winters. Today my narcissus just bloomed on its own in my decidedly un-icy Californian garden! In these days of rampant self-gifting and overabundance it seems appropriate that the narcissus can represent selfishness in Victorian floriography.
A group of paintings is always a great idea! So is protecting the environment! Here are the three little pond lilies that were commissioned by a client in France for her husband for Christmas this year! They were painted from beautiful photographs she had taken at Desert Lake in Kingston, Ontario where her husband’s family had a cottage. The land in now protected as it has been donated in a …
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The storms have past, stripping persimmon trees of all their leaves, leaving their fruit dangling naked and ripe for all to see. This tree at Picchetti tempts hiking visitors to wade through poison oak and blackberry brambles to see it they can pocket a few. Picking wild fruit is a primal urge my mother and father-in-law and son couldn’t pass up while on a family hike over Thanksgiving. While they …
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I guess I have a thing for Wonder Woman too. I had taken a photograph of this street art image of her in San Francisco in the late 90s and had cropped it down to the minimal essentials of the portrait, the eyes and the crown – stopping just before it would have crossed over to abstraction. It’s a tiny image in a small frame and I think it has …
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Abalone and Float found a new home today! It was lovely meeting Kristen and Isabella as they came to my studio to pick up the painting, I really enjoy getting a sense of who my clients are and how they relate to the art. I hope they also enjoyed getting to know me in the context of my studio and how I work. We spoke of my motivation in painting …
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I was recently asked to help a friend with some mug shots. No, she was not arrested. She was asked by Good Housekeeping to provide some photographs of her beloved Wonder Woman mug and I happened to be around with my camera. When asked by Gretchen what makes her happy, Nilofer shared that drinking coffee from her Wonder Woman mug that was given to her as a gift by her step …
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Cutting out silhouettes gives you time to think. Maybe I thought about it too much. I must say, I did have lot of fun sitting in a rocking chair in front of this back-lit frame handing out candy corn to unsuspecting trick or treaters! I was often asked if I was the Woman in Black but the movie reference was so lost on me. “I’m a Victorian silhouette come to life!” At …
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Victorians were over the moon about silhouettes! In fact, the term for this technique of cutting portraits from black paper, which was becoming popular by the mid 18th century, was originally coined as a slur against Etienne de Silhouette the comptroller under Louis XV. He had encouraged the melting down of silver and gold to address the deficit from a long running war and his name became synonymous with cheapness. Since …
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Everyone’s getting in the mood for Halloween, including this neighborhood Chihuahua!
While real roses adorned our wedding cake, this vintage cake topper did not, although I’m sure I’ve had at least as long as my husband. Back in my giftware days I thought it would make a cute card and here it is in my studio, still whole after many years of moves and shuffling about. Today is our wedding anniversary. Passages from Tagore’s Firelies were read at the ceremony and …
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I’m normally in bed soon after the sun sets but I made a special exception last night. I’m being considered for a guest spot on SV Talk Art and the director, Nance Wheeler had asked me to come in to their Mid Peninsula Media Center studio to learn the ropes while they taped an episode. I got to be a colorful fly on the wall as the crew set the lights, …
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I keep an album of vintage postcards in my studio as evidence of what preceded the Silicon Valley. The mountain views of the Valley of Heart’s Delight are still recognizable of course but these fluffy blankets of blooms now lie like bits of lint intersected by highways and subdivisions. Our last remaining orchard in Los Gatos, the North 40, is now slated for development. It would be bulldozed already if …
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I thought I came up with a cute design trick this morning when I used an antique pedestal as a computer desk. Although I longed to paint I had to complete an entry for an upcoming exhibition. Once that was done I was still drawn back like a moth to flame. Twitter this and Facebook that, Google here and email there, Etsy convos and blogosphere bonanzas! I realized that this was …
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When my paintings went off for exhibition at Breathe there was a huge vacuum created in my home and studio, and you know how nature feels about that, well me too – we abhor it! It didn’t long for me to tire of all those empty nails and hooks everywhere, and soon enough they all were hung with elaborate vintage frames teasing me with all the endless possibilities of my …
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Do all artists dress in black? Well yes, a lot do. It’s kind of a minimal thing, a simple uniform: focus on the lines, form and certainly the work. And while I do love black, I’m not cut of that cloth. For me it’s quite natural that the same impulses that drive me to create art would influence how I live my life in all the big and little details, …
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