Rescue

What does a baby bird rescue have to do with the Joy of Art? I guess I would just say that this relates to the art of living. And to see a tiny fragile living thing barely alive, and to rescue it and restore its vitality, well that is art of its own kind.

This little robin owes its life first to my cleaning lady who found it in the street fallen from its high nest, and then to my son who lovingly fed it and placed it in the tree on a bit of towel until its parents started feeding it again. In a few short days, it was able to flutter and fly and so very soon was gone from being close-up in our world....into the large world where we hear many birdsongs around us.

Visual poetry of my cat

She's 'one with the blanket' I'd say! I have

had this photo on my screen saver for a while

and finally decided I had to paint the painting!

What wonderful curving lines, and what a pleasure

it was to draw this! This is my photo of my

cat, snoozing on the back of the sofa while

I relaxed watching a little TV!

Art and Humor

OK folks, I just had to veer off of the usual

sorts of things I post here. So I thought I

would go for a chuckle. I think that if I were

working in three dimensions, I would want

to bring a sense of humor to the pieces, such

as this one does! To create something that

makes a person smile is a true gift. This surely

gives me a smile! Hope it does the same for

you.....

My Christmas kitty

I went out on the porch to take photos

of my wreath and lo and behold, here

was a much better photograph! My

lovely cat was in the window by the

candle watching my every move.

Eventually she'll have to move over

for grandchildren!

Happy New Year everyone!

The art of the season!

Just got the tree up yesterday. We

took it from the bucket in the garage

and juggled the screws until it seemed

straight. Is it ever? Well with the lights

and ornaments on, it is yet another

season of loveliness to enjoy. I trust

that all of you are doing that with

your holiday preparations as well!

Student set-up

A student of mine has created this beautiful set-up

to learn more about painting glass and also doing

a flower. The cast shadow of the vase is really quite

fabulous I think!

Flowers are among the more difficult

things to paint and so I like to have students start

with one that has only a simple petal formation.

Perhaps she will let me post her painting when it

is done. So far she has just created this and next

lesson will be doing the drawing before beginning

to paint.

Sharing what I know

Today I had the privilege of talking to two art classes

at one of the high schools near me. I was happy to

have their interest and great questions about my

life as an artist. I did a demonstration about glazing

in oil paint and here I am showing a painting before

the glaze is applied. I very much appreciate the help

and interest of their teacher who asked me to do this

and who set it up beautifully. All in all there were

about 60-some students and I hope I planted a few

seeds that will sprout more artists. Y

Demonstration of glazing with oil paint

This is a shot that includes everything I was working

with to demonstrate how you glaze color over a

dry underpainting. The underpainting was done

in raw umber and titanium white and allowed to

dry completely. Then layers of color are applied,

each one needing to dry before the next one is put

on. I use an alkyd medium as the glaze medium.

In the 'olden days' I made my own glazing mixture.

But hey, I don't use tin cans and string to make

calls anymore either!

What I've been doing!

This past weekend was the spring show of our

Art League which I founded some 25 years ago.

When one is doing an art show there is a great

deal of preparation leading up to it, actually being

there and doing the various jobs and then breaking it

down and putting one's materials and paintings

away. I did a demo of how to do glazing in oil

painting. I'll post a shot of that eventually. This

gives the big picture to the variety of work done

my our members and the very good attendance

that we get.

On my studio desk

I have been trying to get just this

photo for ages. So I had a cup of

water on my studio desk and my cat

was very interested in it. Sometimes

she will do this....dip in her paw and

then lick off the water. It is quite the

operation to watch. Artful, I'd call it.

Full view of card

Here is the card opened out so you can see how

I wrapped it. There is even a little tab that wraps

to the inside of the card.

Carded!

For my son's birthday this year I

decided to make a card for each

year of his life. I've had great fun

doing it and each card gave me

inspiration for the next one. This

is one of them where I took something

I had in my boxes of collage material

and wrapped it around the cardstock.

Then I put the personal message on

top and inside is a statement of his

purpose as he told it to me. I am also

leaving that untold as that is up to him

to spread around the internet!

I have used gold and silver inks,

photos of my Dad's, collage pieces of

watercolor paintings that my Mom did

and cut up for later use. Now that they

are no longer here, I have used bits and

pieces of the creative work of their lives

to send on to their grandson, my dear son.

Maybe he'll consider this post as yet another

card of sorts!

Work on Display

You saw the colorful walls of a place that

I visited several posts ago. Well here

is my work on display there now. Mine

are the two pieces on the right, a pastel

portrait (for commission requests) and my

giclee called "Daydreaming".

Checking it out

What, you may wonder, is this? Well it is the result of the program I am doing for which I wrote the poem. I went to check out a possible place (that is not a formal gallery) to show some work. I liked the idea of this coffee/cafe, and also that this place is surrounded by LOTS of new homes that must have LOTS of blank walls. I am also VERY glad to have seen that it is an orange wall! So later in the week I will take a couple of paintings there and hang them up!

Work in progress

This is how I transfer my work to a canvas.

Color Chart - extreme detail!

So am I in love with this chart? Probably!

Here is the close up which shows my

key for each brand that I have in my

arsenal of paints. So now I'm done

showing off with this. Hope it has some

interest for others of you who have

bought so many tubes of paint that you

barely know what you have collected

over the years. Much less donations

made to your collection from the inventory

of expired painters whose offspring know

you are an artist and would like to have

them. Then there is Craig's list where

I had the good fortune to find a great

deal on Old Holland paints and well,

OK. The end.

Color Chart detail

Come up closer now and look at this

delicious set of colors! The pleasure of

taking color after color straight out of

the tube is really quite a different matter

than painting and mixing colors. Just

the pure stuff!

Be SURE to click on the image because

the color and detail is really neat to see!

Color Chart #2

So today I photographed my latest chart

outdoors so it would be a clearer and more

accurate representation. I spent about

12 hours on this and it is really satisfying

to work with the pure color right out of

the tube. As I said, I did this for someone

who wants to trade for a wonderful chair!

Sharing with other artists

Last night I got to share various successful

actions and points of view I have developed over the

years. This was for an art association in our county who

invited me to speak. What a lively and interested

group! It was a great pleasure for me to meet them.

There are a few pieces of my work around me and

my studio assistant can also be seen. She decided to

video it. In addition, my son is visiting and he was a

great help as well!

Ambiance

The warmth of a wonderful restaurant

at the holidays is always pleasing. If the

food is also great, then all the better.

I like taking shots of such scenes and

then see if I can conjure up a painting

that captures what attracted me to it in

the first place. I am also attracted to

the pristine look of glassware and utensils

before anyone has begun their meal...

There is a sort of expectation about the

whole thing. Good title: "Expectation".

Stay tuned.