Category: Watercolor

Categories
Oil Painting Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

What is a Persimmon?

What is a Persimmon #2 (oils)

Oil on panel, 6″x8″ (Larger)
(painted on top of a small plein air landscape that didn’t work)

At my favorite little produce market, Colusa Foods in Kensington, I asked one of the expert produce guys which fruits were good right now. He recommended Satsuma tangerines and Persimmons. I’d never eaten either of these fruits and decided to give them a try. The tangerine was amazingly delicious, tasting like childhood favorites Creamsicles (orange popsicles filled with vanilla ice cream) and Orange Julius (an orange-flavored milkshake). But the persimmon perplexed me.

What is a Persimmon #1 (watercolor)

Watercolor on cold pressed paper, 5″x7″ (Larger)

I’d never eaten a persimmon before, didn’t know how to spell it let alone how it should be eaten or what it would taste like. Of course I checked the internet and learned that one peels it and then eats the inside. From what I read it sounded like the inside might be mushy, which didn’t sound too appealing but it felt pretty hard from the outside. I had no idea what I’d find when I cut into it. I decided to make it an adventure, first doing some paintings of the persimmon whole (above in oils and watercolor) and then painting the cut open fruit.

What is a Persimmon #3 (watercolor)

Watercolor on cold pressed paper, 5″x7″ (Larger)

I cut the top off, per the instructions I found and then cut it down the middle, hoping for a pretty seed pattern. Unfortunately I cut it on the wrong middle and the only thing visible was a faint line down the center. So I cut it in half the other way and discovered a beautiful sand dollar sort of design. But since I’d cut it the other way first I didn’t think it would make a great composition so I decided to eat one of the quarters. YUM!!!! It was sweet and crunchy and different — a new taste entirely! The only way I can describe is that it tastes happy and bright. I just ate the last quarter, leaving the skin on, and that was OK too–more like eating an apple only better. Wowee.

Categories
Flower Art Painting Published work Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

My art in the book!

I'm in the book!

The Watercolor Flower Artist’s Bible: An essential reference for the practicing artist (link to Amazon for more info)

Last December I received an invitation from an editor at Quarto Publishing in London to submit photos of my watercolor flower paintings for publication in an upcoming book. At first I ignored the message because I assumed it was the kind of spam email I get regularly inviting the artist [to pay] to be in a show or a book. Just before the submission deadline I did some investigation and discovered they are a good publisher and that I actually owned another of their books. I submitted files of my photos and scans of five paintings.

That editor’s editor approved the photos for inclusion and they asked me to write about my process, goals, focus, techniques, etc. for each painting which I did. Then I waited. I was promised only a copy of the book and good publicity in exchange for their right to publish the art in their book.

I got the book this week and was so excited! Not only did they do a really nice job with my artwork and the descriptions, but it’s a really good and comprehensive book on flower painting in watercolor. The most exciting part for me is that I’m sharing the pages of a book with some truly amazing artists, including one of my favorites, Lucy Willis, who has published several wonderful books (that I own and treasure) on watercolor painting, seeing and painting light, and travel painting.

My artwork can be found on pages 72, 85, 86, 101, and 152. Here are my chunks of those pages:

My tulips in the Watercolor Flower Artist's Bible
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My rose in the Watercolor Flower Artist's Bible
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My rose and bottle in the Watercolor Flower Artist's Bible
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My poppies in the Watercolor Flower Artist's Bible
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My irises in the Watercolor Flower Artist's Bible
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Categories
Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Organic Bananas, The FURminator & Blindness

Organic Bananas

Watercolor on Arches Cold-Pressed paper in 5.5 x 7.5 sketchbook
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After working half the day I decided to finally vacuum my house since I was feeling sleepy and not particular creative and the house and studio sorely needed cleaning. I’ve been contentedly choosing painting over housecleaning for too long, and the cat hair was piling up. So I dusted, vacuumed, washed the throw rugs, brushed the kitties with a great new cat and dog brush, the FURminator, that thoroughly removes the undercoat and ends shedding for weeks (the pictures on their website don’t lie–it’s amazing how much fur comes off the first time).

After dinner I was still sleepy but knew I’d be sad if I just turned on the TV and had no fun in the studio at all today. So I grabbed the only produce left in the kitchen (I’ve also been putting off the grocery shopping) and painted these bananas.

While I painted I was listening to a fascinating book, Crashing Through, about a man who was blinded at the age of 3, became a downhill speed skier, an entrepeneur, married, had kids, and a great life. Then he was given the historical opportunity to try an experimental surgery and become one of only 20 people in the history of the world who, after a lifetime of total blindness, had his sight restored, via a stem cell and corneal transplant. The book provides really interesting information about vision and how we make sense of what we see, from distance perception, to 3-dimensionality, to recognizing faces and expressions. It turns out it actually has to do with parts of the brain rather than the eyes and is learned in infancy.

A lot of that information is useful for painting. When the author explains how the brain uses visual clues to judge distance, these are the same things artists use to create the illusion of depth and distance in paintings. These include objects getting smaller the further away they are, closeness to the horizon (the further away or taller something is, the closer to the horizon it is), aerial perspective (the effect of moisture and particles in the air between the distant object and the viewer that causes distant objects to appear grayer, cooler, paler than closer objects), linear perspective, and occlusion (one thing in front of another).

Categories
Every Day Matters Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

A shiny, new hour for free (& EDM #144- Something Square)

EDM #144 - Something Square

Watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper in sketchbook, 5.5 x 7.5″
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This week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to draw something square. I searched my house and office and found nothing square until I started thinking about time.Then I remembered this kitchen timer that I’m going to use to make the timed paintings I wrote about yesterday. It was sitting next to these tea bags which are also (nearly) square.

I’ve been having a hard time making the transition back to ordinary time after the end of Daylight Savings. The actual day of “falling back” is my favorite day of the year because it means getting an extra hour.  Instead of resetting my clocks on Saturday night and wasting the fresh new hour sleeping, I pick an hour that I want to experience fully as my new hour. I use it for something extra special, or for something that in my usual driven way I don’t allow time for—like relaxing in a bubble bath or other such luxuries. This year I stretched it out through Monday, actually giving myself the hour several times, and then each time deciding that it wasn’t the one, and giving myself another. It was such fun!

But by Tuesday when I returned to the office, I still hadn’t settled on the perfect hour or reset my clocks and it was getting confusing. Instead of getting to say, “Oh goodie, it’s not really 3:00, it’s only 2:00! Whoopie! Another free hour!” I was looking at my watch and saying, “Oh drat, it’s not really 3:00, it’s only 2:00 — three more hours until I can take my headache home and put it to bed.”

And then today (Wednesday), even though I went to bed early and woke on time, I ended up arriving at work really late—exactly opposite what should be happening, given the extra hour in the morning. So now I’ve finally reset all my clocks and joined the world in ordinary time.

I wonder if it’s possible to give myself a special “free” hour every day, without having to wait for the annual end of Daylight Savings. Maybe I could just declare one hour each day a special hour to enjoy as I see fit. Why not? What do you think?

Categories
Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Halloween Candy & Earthquakes

Halloween Candy

Watercolor on Arches Hot Press paper in 5.5 x 7.5″ sketchbook
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Last night was Cody’s birthday party at Hunan Villa in Pinole.  There were 10 of us sitting around the table celebrating, with good food and good company. Halfway through dinner we all noticed the table seemed to be rocking back and forth and so did my chair. Everyone looked at each other trying to make sense of it.  At first we all thought it was someone bumping the table, but the floor seemed to be moving in a strange wavelike manner as well. Suddenly a painting flew off the wall two feet away from us and smashed to the floor, scattering glass everywhere. That’s when we realized it was a fairly good-sized earthquake. Fortunately that was the end of it (for now) and we all went back to celebrating, considerably more alert than before.

These candies are called “Gruesome Gummy Candy” (and one Hersheys Nugget) — all that was left at 6:00 P.M. at Longs on my way home.  I think they’re supposed to be spiders or tarantulas. I like to wait until the last minute to buy Halloween candy so I don’t eat it all, long before the trick-or-treaters arrive. Sadly only three groups came to my door tonight. In my old neighborhood where I lived on a main street, streams of cute little ones came by all night long, which I relished. Now what to do with all the extra candy? Hmmmm…..

Categories
Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Last of the Summer Tomatoes

Last of the tomatoes

Watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper in sketchbook, 7×5.5″
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I was so tired tonight after all day meetings at work (and staying up painting very late last night) that all I wanted to do was go to bed as soon as I got home. But my painting group was coming over and I was looking forward to seeing everyone so I tidied up the studio to make room for them to paint after my marathon painting sessions this weekend.

Seeing everyone painting got me energized so I grabbed these tomatoes from my garden, set them up under a light and got to work. I regret the last shadow I put in (between the the two groups of tomatoes). I thought it might help the composition by bridging the two groups, but I think it just added to the confusion of all the competing shapes and colors (which is made worse by the scan–in the original the shadows aren’t so bright).

Categories
Art theory Faces Life in general Painting People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Squinting to See the Light (funny story)

Squinting to see the light

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Watercolor in large Moleskine notebook

Today at work, 10 of us were sitting around the table in the lunchroom eating and chatting. I sat across from our director, facing the picture window and our 27th-story view of Oakland, the San Francisco Bay, Mt. Tamalpais and the huge, cloudy sky. I was thinking about what I learned in my painting class last Sunday about the importance of learning to see color temperatures and value. A good way to do that is to close one eye and squint, which helps to blur the details, so that you can see shapes and values. I decided to practice on a blue house and a large brick building that I could see in the distance. I tried one eye and then the other, curious if it made a difference between my left and right eyes.

Suddenly I realized the conversation had stopped, our director was asking me if I was OK, and everyone was staring at me. I burst out laughing realizing that I was sitting there making weird squinty faces and they were all thinking I had an excruciating headache or had suddenly gone mad. I started trying to explain what I was doing and they looked at me perplexed. They finally realized it was an “art thing” and went back to chatting about work and TV shows and travel.

When I got home tonight, I looked in the mirror to see just how funny I looked and had to do this quickie self-portrait in my sketchbook. Amazingly it actually looks like me!

Categories
Animals Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Cat Attack, Bomb Threat & Happy Birthday

90th Birthday Party

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Ink and watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

My mom’s visit started with a cat attack and ended with a bomb threat at the airport (which extended her stay an extra day). My sister picked her up at the airport and as they walked in her door, Marcy started to tell my mom not to touch her grouchy, unpredictable cat. She was a moment too late: mom reached out to pet him and Bob the Cat sunk his claws into her hand. Next stop was a visit to the hospital where the nurse there washed her finger and put a band-aid on it and gave my mom a tetanus shot. After that she proudly showed off her band-aid and told the story to anyone who would listen.

Today, my poor sister again did airport duty, since she lives near the airport. When they arrived at the airport it was shut down due to a bomb scare. Marcy brought Mom back home, where she decided to stay another night. Now she’ll have lots of exciting stories to tell when she gets home.

In between, we attended the 90th birthday party(pictured above) of my great aunt in a country club. There were about 75 people people who came to show their love and respect to this feisty, vivacious 90 year old. It was nice seeing my cousins for the first time in years and their grown kids and their 2 year old twin boys and all the lovely old ladies dressed to the teeth for this special day. I drew this surreptitiously at the table while people were making speeches about my aunt. The perspective is a little confusing as the man on the left was at my table and the ladies behind him were at the next table.

Reading this was probably about as interesting as watching someone else’s vacation slides. I’ve got lots of exciting art stuff to share too, but most of my energy the past week has been devoted to family. Now it’s back to regularly scheduled programming: painting!

Categories
Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Cat Toys and Endings

Cat toys

Ink and watercolor in Aquabee sketchbook
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To preserve my sanity I squeezed in a quick sketch in the half hour before I had to leave for my great aunt’s 90th birthday party at her club. I should be primping and trying to make myself look like I belong at a fancy country club in an expensive suburb but this was more important.

I’m a pretty solitary person, needing at least as much alone time (if not more) than social time. Days of family events and spending time with extended family during my mom’s visit can get me pretty overwhelmed so I have to carve out moments like this one. I grabbed the first thing I could find to draw, put on a CD, and got to work.

Now I have to decide whether to wear my white pants since it looks like a summer day today (which no doubt will horrify all the ladies as it’s after the official deadline for white) or be nice and wear something more seasonally appropriate. And now I only have ten minutes to shower, makeup and dress before the hour-long drive so wish me luck.

Meanwhile, here’s a link to Ronell’s blog post, “Endings” where she writes exactly what I’m feeling about the end of summer, the end of peaches, and time marching on, made even more poignant by mother’s approaching 84th birthday and my great aunt’s 90th. I wish I could have written her beautiful post but instead I’ll just say, “What she said….”

Categories
Art theory Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Working on Cars in My Driveway

Car Repair 2
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Sharpie pen and watercolor in Aquabee sketchbook

Cody Car Repair 2
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Just as I finally was ready to start painting today, both my sons came over to work on their cars in my driveway (right outside the studio). It was a beautiful Indian summer day and I wanted the door open. But Cody was running a compressor and a power tool that made horrible noise as he removed the bolts holding all the wheels on the car. I made lemonade out of the lemon by drawing them (very quickly — they kept moving) and then turning up the stereo really loud.

I spent a lot of the weekend preparing for a new series of paintings  — sketching, making notes and digging up reference material and also thinking about next steps for a painting in progress. I’m trying to wait until I have a plan of action before I put brush to canvas so that I don’t spend half of my painting time dabbling and the other half wiping off the dabbles.

When I’m in that “between paintings” stage I can get very grumpy and frustrated. But for once I took advantage of the lull and cleaned up the studio; organized my cabinet full of glassware, fabrics and still life objects; and cleared off the studio kitchen counter which had been piled with random stuff waiting for a home. When I finished I was ready to start the sketch of the first of the new series and finally knew what I needed to do to the paint in progress (more about that tomorrow).