Quick Sketch of Cello Momma

This is a VERY quick sketch I did in iridescent oil sticks on dark paper.  It probably took me five minutes.  At orchestra the other night, my friend was playing her cello with her son on her lap.  It was such a perfect picture, I just had to snap it.  Darling.  Sometime I'm going to do a full painting of this.

Chamber of Commerce Show Upcoming; Rangoon Creeper Painting

Below is a collage I just did that I'm going to put in my upcoming show for sale.  Outside I planted a Rangoon Creeper on our arbor, and it's growing great guns!  Gorgeous pink flowers, they're also fragrant, which is very important to me.  Not only fragrant, they're headily fragrant.  Yum.

This one I painted in happy, bright colors, a combination of liquid acrylics and watercolor.  After that, I found varying papers with the colors, textures and message I wanted to add in, and slowly built up the collage to heighten interest and give more depth and mystery.  Of course flowers make me sing, and there are so many things in life to sing about, so I had to sneak some music in, too!  This particular music is from a musical theater show I performed in, so it's special to me.

Knowing the acrylic medium provides a barrier to paint, I painted the music before I laid it in, wanting to bring out the leafy, cool colors.  Once finished, I gave it another layer of gel medium and of course a layer of UV protectant varnish.  It measures 11x14 unframed.

I like it!  My show will be at the Woodlands Chamber of Commerce starting March 31.  I plan on selling this piece for $300.00.

A Nod to Picasso, and Our Owls

Well, it took me all my life, I guess, to find that Picasso had a pet owl.  Who da' thunk?  Just goes to show you never stop learning.

Several months ago I went down to Picasso's Black and White exhibit at the MFAH.  Wow!  I was expecting drawings on paper and was amazed at the pieces he had.  I actually had scheduled a spot in a workshop at Texas Art Supply, and totally lost myself in the art.  Wandered out about four hours later to have found that I totally missed the workshop!  Oh, well!

A couple pictures, and at the end some quotes by Picasso.  First, here's one by Steve Jobs:

"Picasso had a saying. He said, 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. Part of what made the Macintosh great was the people who were working on it were musicians, poets, artists, historians, zoologists, who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."   Very true.  Very nice.

So, here's the man with his owl.  And, a little owl that I carved.  It's pretty impossible for me to sit still in front of a TV, so if I want to sit down with my family and actually watch something, I have to have busy hands.  So, I carved this little guy.  Since I finished him during the Olympics, I'm calling him my Olympic Owl. :)

Among other things, I collect quotes.  I LOVE quotes!  Here are a bunch of my favs from Pablo himself:

 (to Matisse)   I’ve mastered drawing and am looking for color: you’ve mastered color and are looking for drawing.

“Art is theft.”

People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.

What do you think an artist is?  An imbecile who has only eyes, if he is a painter? …No, painting is not done to decorate apartments.  It is an instrument of war.

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

Drawing is not form, it is a way of seeing form.

“To my distress and perhaps to my delight, I order things in accordance with my passions.  What a sad thing for a painter who loves blondes but denies himself the pleasure of putting them in his picture because they don’t go well with the basket of fruit!  What a misery for a painter who detests apples to have to use them all the time because they harmonize with the tablecloth!  I put in my pictures everything I like.  So much the worse for the things – they have to get along with each other.”

I have always believed, and still believe, that artists who live and work with spiritual values cannot and should not remain indifferent to a conflict in which the highest values of humanity and civilization are at stake.

I’m always saying to myself: ‘That is not right yet.  You can do better.’  It’s rare when I can prevent myself from taking a thing up again… Sometimes it becomes an obsession.

There is nothing more interesting than people.  One paints and one draws to learn to see people, to see oneself.

To know what you want to draw, you have to begin drawing it.

No, painting is not made to decorate apartments.  It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.

One never knows what one is going to do.  One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite different.

How awful for a painter who loathes apples to have to use them all the time because they go so well with the cloth.  I put all the things I like in my pictures.

The Beginnings of my Illustrations for Ribbons of Rainbows

It's been almost a month since I finished illustrating Ribbons of Rainbows, by Kimberly Vogel.  At this stage, a second editor has been called in and is working together with the team and the graphic designer.  The pictures and responsibility are out of my hands now.

When I was hired for this project, my charge was to come up with characters for the Stone family.  This is a family of four, Mom, Dad, Jeweley and her brother Jem, and then Grandma.  The closer to Jesus they were, the more jewel-like they became, emitting ribbons of rainbows.  When they were angry or far from Jesus, they became downright stoney and did not reflect at all.

It was a challenge to come up with the characters, and in the beginning I had a hard time, creating them to be far too 'stoney.'  Finally, I went to the library and poured through 'coffee table' books of gorgeous illustrations of jewels.  This resulted in me drawing jewels, likes the one in this picture.

I've got pages of these.  I just had to set aside the characters and concentrate on cut, color and clarity for a while.

After this, and after learning a lot about jewels, it was fairly easy!  I'll be posting the characters after this, so you can see what I created.  The jewels also inspired the color choices made for each character.

So, I guess it all began right here, sketching jewels!

Chamber of Commerce Show, Dragon Paintings Series

My art show will be at the Woodlands Chamber of Commerce beginning March 31, and I'll be displaying a number of paintings for sale. 

Here I have some photographs I took of some of my friends whom I decided I wanted to paint.  These are the fine fellows over on the East Shore of Lake Woodlands. I like to visit them from time to time and hold private little conversations with them.  They're very good listeners!

At one point, I decided to cut a woodblock based on my friends, so these are the shots I took to use as inspiration and information.  I did several completely different paintings in a series using this woodblock and they all turned out serene and thoughtful... peaceful. 

Soon I'll show you my finished woodblock, and some of the paintings.  I'm having a show at The Chamber of Commerce soon, and will be exhibiting and selling them.

Oil Paintsticks

 I got a new toy - new art supplies!  Paintsticks.  Oil Paintsticks.  I've never used them before, and I admit, they sat for a long time because I didn't know what to do with them.  I finally decided it was time to dig them out and figure them out.

Here's my first picture.  Okay, let's get this out right away - I know there are all kinds of proportions issues going on here.  It's not very good, and that's okay with me because I was playing - practicing, to see what these oilsticks would do!

What I found was that they are a PLEASURE to use!  I tried them on YUPO, which has absolutely no tooth, so wouldn't hold the layers, but nonetheless, I liked them.  They're buttery and rich - smooth and heavily pigmented.  You can wipe out entire areas if you mess up and start again, and you can scratch out designs for texture and highlighting.  The gleams in his eyes were simply where I lifted paint by scraping with my fingernails.
I originally purchased them because I understand that you can use them on cloth, and I'm hoping to do a     cloth painting project with my high schoolers.

As for myself, I think the next time I use them I'm going to try them on something with a nice tooth.  My next step will probably be a heavy pastel paper.  After that, maybe a nice canvas board or some framed canvas.  I'll give you my report!  In the meantime, if you've used them, give me YOUR report! :)

Book Illustrations Finished!!!!!

YAY! YAY! YAY!  I'm finished illustrating the book!  It's now undergoing final editing and it in the capable hands of the graphic designer/printer.  Publishing soon!  I'm going to start putting out the pictures, so stay tuned!