Mushroom Tea I

November 13, 2015

Tulip Tea I

November 13, 2015

Bachelor Button Tea

November 13, 2015

Bamboo Tea I (WIP)

November 3, 2015

I love to start a new painting with the new week – fresh start, fresh paint and all the those days stretching out before me like an empty road. I was able to race ahead with an image I’d already worked out…a cute, vintage Japanese bamboo demitasse filled with lucky bamboo against the lush pattern of a period cheongsam (that used to fit me). I loved this combination but wasn’t sure what bird to pair it with until I saw these Japanese White Eyes in Kawaii last winter (yes it takes me a while to get to all the ideas I have filled away). I love how their chartreuse feathers and little white eye rings act as a perfect compliment to the vignette.

As usual, I keep the initial oil sketch very loose, making sure only that the teacup is centered.

Next I loosely blocked in the background – there’s not much detail in the fabric anyway being some kind of watercolor looking satin and velvet burn out affair (I wish it sill fit me!).

The teacup came next.

Then the bamboo.

Then the birds were roughed in, all I could manage for the day.

Today, with the paint a bit set, I was able to come back in and start working on the details. At this point the birds are starting to develop personalities and the teacup is taking on it’s character. I’ll bring fresh eyes to it tomorrow, but it’s well on it way to being complete!

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)

October 27, 2015

This week before Halloween seems a good a time as any to begin work on my barn owl. This bird, who goes by the name of Owlivia at the local Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center, is paired with an Aynsley teacup (circa 1939) filled with trumpet mushrooms. I love the woodland magic of this combination – now to try and do it some justice with paint!

Loose sketch in oil.

Loose dark background.

Blocking in the owl.

Mushrooms.

Teacup.

Blocking in the table, feet and mushroom perch.

more tomorrow ( I hope) … the chainsaws are coming….

The chainsaws were only intermittent today and I was able to really start laying in some details in my owl and work on the appropriate background contrast to really make her glow. In the white of her face there are lots of other hues – lavenders, blues, greens, ochers and rusts. It’s these subtle variations on white that create depth and volume and vitality.

Chainsaws came back for a few days to finish off the oak so I wasn’t able to complete the painting but at least I have the owl standing on a mushroom now instead of a pair of oversized gulab jamuns!

Tulip Tea I (WIP)

October 21, 2015

I’ve begun a new bird & teacup piece. This time a Purple Finch (the only red bird I’ve shot) with a Coalport teacup paired with some vintage redwork embroidery, calico and red and white striped tulips. I start, as always with a loose, painting directly on the prepared board.

I really should have worked the background first but I decided to block in my reds instead.

Eager to see some tulip action I painted these in loosely as well, letting the pigment pull through the brush strokes.

I was eager to see the finch too .

I worked on the teacup next, as it supports both the flowers and bird, I wanted to make sure they felt well integrated.

Dobbing in the foreground to feel where the shadows would fall.

Filling in the vintage linen embroidery backdrop I experimented with a crosshatched look.

Dropping the crosshatching, I tried more definition and a brighter backdrop.

Wanting a deeper shadow I try blocking in dome darks but the grays are all still too wet.

I end up wiping it off down to the initial sketch with a rag dampened with mineral spirits.

I begin to apply the darks in a more controlled way – a muddy mess is a nightmare!

More to come….

Finished! I’ve messed around with little details until the painting told me I was done.

Rick Guidice – Plein Air

September 30, 2015

So THIS was the gorgeous sunset over Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company last night where Rick Guidice was having his opening reception for his plein air paintings! The exhibit will run through October 31.

With all the tables cleared away, the cafe made a great venue to exhibit art and host a ton of people!

For someone to just pick up oils and produce a fabulous body of plein air work within a year and a half would seem pretty unreasonable, but this is Rick Guidice who has spent a lifetime working in art, as an architectural illustrator at the age of 16, space art for NASA (now on view at NUMU), advertising illustration for Atari and creating residential and commercial designs for his own firm. Pencil, acrylic, watercolor now oil. The medium doesn’t matter it’s the skill and the eye and the passion that matters.

Me and Rick at his very well attended reception.

Moss Landing

Scotts Valley Two

Rick Guidice with artist Maralyn Dorsa and Frank Dorsa.

Elk Horn (a personal favorite)

Rick Guidice’s wife, artist, Susan Jaekel.

Artists Ed Lucey, Maralyn Miller and Veronica Gross

Ed offered to get me in there too!

NUMU Curator, Marianne McGrath with Rick Guidice.

Wildflower

August 25, 2015

Painting Wildflower

August 11, 2015

I love starting a new piece first thing on a Monday morning, with whole week stretching out before me for miles and miles and nothing on my schedule but a paintbrush! I feel a fresh sense of ease and possibility!

I’m so excited to be working on this painting! It’s a portrait of a singing man, wearing the wreath of wildflowers his daughter had just made.

I’m going to try and portray a sense of this man’s beautiful spirt, his joie de vivre.

I’ll keep adding to this post until the painting is complete.

Day 5 – trying to bring some richness to the background but concerned about loosing all the spontaneity!

Day 11? I’ve lost track, but I’m done and I’m so delighted with this piece!

Working on a portrait is so challenging but the rewards can be huge! I am so grateful to my subject and his lovely daughter who made this painting possible in every way.