Mill in Buren

The Mill at Buren

Here is a watercolor of the the flour mill in Buren, the small village in the Netherlands where I just spent a few lovely days eating crisp apples and cherries, riding bikes and visiting family. Summer there is sweet and gentle with warm breezes and soft showers. I took only watercolors on this trip and enjoyed playing with them for the first time in years very much. As you can see I juxtapose a waterproof black drafting pen over the watercolor, after doing a pencil sketch. This painting still needs a hint of sky painted in. I did not do it on site for fear of running the wet paint of the foreground into the sky. I will sit down this afternoon and finish up.

Drawing of Angola, 16 x 18 inches, pencil on sanded paper.

Angola in Color, 12 by 20 inches, pastel.

These two drawings were done last friday at the portrait group that I attend occasionally at the Alameda Artworks. I did the pencil drawing first, and then the pastel painting. It was such a pleasure to draw jsut for the pleasure of the thing! A drawing can be a thing of whimsy--always the best equalizer of art angst! Sanded paper turns out to be a wonderful substrate for figure drawing, the sanded paper allows a lovely, wandering line, yet is also quick to accept dark shading.

Vinyard Light, 30 x 40 inches, oil on canvas.

I worked yesterday's posting up to a large painting, but essentially using the same methods. At this size the painting seems over the top--large and busy. I will go back into it and work on it some more--this will mean solidifying and unifying some of the shapes, and perhaps toning town the oranges a bit. This might be difficult, because the painting is done a la prima, with soupy paint--adding new paint to dry paint will give a painting a very different look.

Fall Vinyard

Fall Vinyard, 10 x 10 inches, palette knife oil.

I recently completed this study in my studio in preparation for a larger work that I hope to take to the COPIA show in Napa at the end of May. Pallete knife work is somehow viscerally satisfying. Colors are cleaner and brighter, and an element of surprise, and a lack of perfect control can lead to a strong, whimsical paint expression. I have completed (almost) the larger work of this one, and will post it tomorrow--it is still a little rough, but maybe that is the nature of the approach.

Open Studios this weekend, and two Gardens

Iris Garden, 8 x 10 inches, palette knife oil.

Sunflowers, 6x6 inches, palette knife oil.

My son napped through the painting of these two paintings. I painted them in the order displayed--as is often the case, the second is a distillation of the first. I find that this phenomenon often occurs...it is a good reason to paint more than one painting at a time of a single motif.

A reminder: Open Studio this weekend at Cubberley Studios, there will be about 16 artists there with their doors open.

Open Studio
May 3 & 4
11- 5 pm
Cubberley Studios
E-6
4000 Middlefield Road, right next to Piazza's and Peet's

Cottonwoods, 21 x 23 inches, pastel, on display at Anita Siepp Gallery at Castilleja School.

This painting has been posted before, but it recently appeared on the cover of the Palo Alto Weekly. The show is a collection of artworks by alumni of Castilleja School. I was very pleased to be interviewed on the decision I made to be a professional artist. It is a short article and in a local newspaper, but it still made me think about some of the choice I have made over the years. The show is interesting in that it allows me to display pieces like the one above, very traditional, as well as some of my modern work, like Torch Song.
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Red Barns, 6 x 6 inches, oil on canvas.

The spring is sprung, and I packed up my 8 week old son and went painting with the POPS group (who have a new web site!). I did this painting while he was napping, just to see how it might work out. I love these buttery, bright colors--I often feel as if I am icing a cake. Painting in close color harmony gives me practice in bending a color just a bit to make a big difference. My palette always looks lovely afterwards as well.

Escape Shoes, 14 x 14 inches, oil on canvas.
I just completed this portrait of my skates, which turned out to be a surprisingly difficult drawing task. It was hard to get the perspective of the wheels and trucks correct. I am still not sure that I have done so. This is one of the first paintings that I have completed in my new studio--it is such a pleasure to work there. The new space has windows with natural light!

I know that a few of you are waiting to see more paintings or drawings of my cutie pie here...oddly this painting has a lot to do with him. His dad was watching him, so that I was able to both paint, and and go for an evening skate--my first skating since getting pregnant 10 months ago.

Crazy Garden, 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas.

I finally had a little time away from my sweet son to work in the studio. This weird piece is done exclusively with my fingers, or rather the tips of my much to large rubber gloves. This appoach makes an interesting and delicate mark--I may do some more of it, but with a stronger subject matter. I am not the first to come up with painting with gloved hands..one of my favorite painters, Ken Auster, has been doing this lately.

As an pictoral explanation of the total silence on my blog for the last month, here is a (quick, and not excellent) sketch of my latest project, sleeping....