Category: Watercolor

Soap: EDM #101

Acrylic in HandBook Journal 5.5 x 5.5″
To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes

The week’s Everyday Matters challenge is to draw a bar of soap. My original idea was to line up all the different soaps in my house, from dish soap to laundry soap to bath soap and make a grid and paint them all. But by the time I did all the errands I’d been putting off, time was short. Also, I wanted to play with the fluid acrylics I’d bought last weekend and hadn’t tried yet. So I settled on one soap, one bowl and tried painting with the acrylics as if they were watercolors.

It was fun and interesting. One thing I learned is that acrylic is basically a glue and if you get any kind of crud or cat hair on the paper it will become permanently glued in place. Also you can’t erase pencil after you’ve painted with acrylic. It’s ridiculous how fast the stuff dries. I guess you have to develop a second sense about spritzing the palette all the time.

I’m ready for some big, juicy, free painting next. After all the lettering and detail in the watercolor I finished and posted yesterday I’m tired of tiny, tight painting. It’s back to work tomorrow but hopefully this weekend I can go a bit wild with paint and loosen up.

Tags Acrylic Painting

Life in general Outdoors/Landscape People Watercolor

(G)OLD Teeth

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold-pressed watercolor paper, 18×14″
(To enlarge, click images, select All Sizes)

This shop near my office in downtown Oakland makes sets of snap-on gold teeth (also known as “grills”) for people who like the idea of walking around with their teeth covered with jewelry. I loved the juxtaposition of the old guy walking by their sign with the missing “G” so I took a photo and finally got it painted.

For those of you who have never heard of people buying and wearing these things, you can see some pictures here (scroll down the page there). I don’t get it. Spending big money to get what looks like really fat shiny braces that make it hard to talk or eat and cause drooling seems like a deeply bizzare perversion. The whole culture of hip-hop/rapper/gangstah bling-bling with the prerequisite ostentatious display of wealth to me just seems like an advertisement saying, “I am an ignorant person with no class, taste, common sense or social conscious.” There are so many better things that could be done with money than wear platinum, jewel-encrusted teeth.

And the trend isn’t just for rappers; here’s an article about suburban teenage girls getting them to wear to the prom. When I was out delivering some flyers for the neighborhood association on my block last week I met a family that moved in a couple of months ago. The teenage son was extremely polite and friendly…and he was wearing a set of big gold teeth.

Tags People

Flower Art Still Life Watercolor

Opinion please?

I need to design a postcard announcement for the show I’ll be having the month of March in the newly rennovated Art Deco Cerrito Theatre‘s cafe called the It Club and their meeting room on the other side of the lobby. I couldn’t decide which of these images to put on the postcard and decided to ask for your help. If you have an opinion please use Comments (above) to vote for the image you think would look good on the postcard.

The opening will be on Friday, March 2 from 6:30 – 9:30 in case you’re in the area and want to come. I’ll post an invitation a couple weeks before but since people have asked I thought I’d include it now. Here’s the images:

Grandma’s Orange Juice Squeezer

Pink Rose

Bearded Iris

Birthday Tulips

Tomato in Green Bowl

Watermelon (not for sale, limited edition print available)

Rose in a Bottle (Just sold, but limited edition print available)

Thanks for your help!

Animals Drawing Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Fridge sitter

Ink & watercolor in Aquabee 6×9 sketchbook

This is Busby’s favorite perch. He sits on top of the stereo speakers that are on top of the fridge, somehow flying up there via a leap onto the counter, then the microwave then the fridge, then the speakers. The speakers are separated so some of his belly is suspended between them. I tried to teach him not to jump on the counter, but teaching cats anything has always seemed pretty hopeless.

Today was another cat fun day. Sometime last night while I was sleeping Fiona (not pictured…this is Busby) stole a package of dried split peas off the kitchen counter, carried them under my bed (where she also stores other booty such as Q-tips and pushpins and my favorite Smart Wool socks) and ripped open the package, scattering piles of those fun little pea pellets everywhere. I vacuumed them up (have to remember to empty the vacuum bag) and the rat-a-tat-bam-bam-bam sound of them being sucked up scared Busby so much he went and hid most of the morning. He’s found a really good new hiding place — I searched the whole house three times and never found him.

I was working on finishing an oil painting today. I don’t know why I force myself to finish things that have no chance of being successful, but I do learn from the process and every now and then I manage to rescue a painting and make it work. In this case I’m getting the chance to learn how to exploit the brushstrokes and thick rich paint that show in oils instead of trying to make oil paintings flat and smooth and detailed like watercolor. It’s amost as hard a transition as starting to use white paint. It’s just really foreign after years of painting with watercolor.

Tags Animals, Cats

Flower Art Still Life Watercolor

2007 Art Plan: Balance

Watercolor on Arches paper, 8 x 10.5″
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

Since I posted my 2006 art accomplishments I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my art plan for 2007. In December I decided my goal would be to have a one-woman show by the end of 2007. But within a couple weeks of saying that, I already had one scheduled for March so I had to come up with something else. I thought about my art plan during a long day and night of matting and framing my paintings from ’06 (including the one above that began as a watercolor class demonstration of painting glass).

While doing nothing but art business the past two days, I kept thinking that all I really want to do is paint, draw, explore, play, investigate, dream, learn, experiment, write about art on my blog, read art books, look at pictures, hang out in my studio, visit other artists’ blogs and share the fruits (and challenges) of being an artist.

It reminded me how important balance is. Not enough and you fall over, too much and things are boring and static. So… my art plan for 2007 is:

Continue my explorations, follow my inspirations, investigate, learn, and play all while maintaining enough balance to take good care of myself and the people I love. That means doing enough art business but not so much that it intereferes with doing art. My plans will evolve as the year does. I don’t need to turn my art into a job with rules and deadlines and schedules and business plans. I already have a day job for that.

Art is the center of my life, the thing that brings me joy and meaning (and struggle and challenge), the reason I’m alive, the question that can only be answered with another question, and another. It’s more fun than just about anything else I can think of (or at least anything that can be done for hours at a time). I can’t wait to get started!

Life in general People Watercolor

Reflecting on 2006

Watercolor on Arches paper, 11×8
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I like to spend New Years Eve quietly reflecting on the past year and the new one. This year Michael’s home sick and I’m spending the evening more quietly than usual, alone in the studio thinking about life and art. I decided to make a self-portrait and will plan to do that each New Year. As I get older, it is both fascinating and disconcerting to see the changes gravity and age are leaving on my face.

I took a few photos holding the camera at arms length and then picked this one to paint from. After doing a freehand drawing, painting it, wrecking the painting, and not having enough time left in the evening to start over from scratch, I must admit I used a lightbox to trace the basic shapes for the painting above.

In her post, Celebrate Your Progress in 2006, on her blog Making a Mark, Katherine Tyrrell posted a list of topics for artists to write about. I decided to take the challenge and write about my art accomplishments in 2006:

Blogging: In May 2006 I discovered the wonderful, world-wide community of artist bloggers and started my own blog. In August 2006 a reporter from the Oakland Tribune interviewed me about my blog and the article appeared on the front page of the paper. My blog was also featured on Best Blog on WordPress and Moleskinerie. Some stats: I’ve made 205 posts, received 2,004 generous comments with nearly 47,000 total views. The most views on any one day was 498; the average is between 250-350 a day.

Numbers of art works completed: More than 300 paintings, drawings, sketches, monoprints, and digital illustrations.

Study/Learning:
Drawing: As a result of daily drawing, I’ve seen my ability improve tremendously. I used to draw and paint only from photos that I composed and enlarged in Photoshop and then traced onto watercolor paper. Now I draw most things freehand.
Classes: I’ve taken one weekend painting workshop, signed up for a painting trip to Mexico in February 2007 with watercolor teacher Judy Morris.
Study: I’ve read piles and piles of books on art, design, drawing, painting, digital art, and art history. New Media/Technique: I began doing plein air painting in Summer 2006 and learning about landscape painting. In the past couple months I’ve been exploring monoprinting and other print-making techniques and began studying oil painting. I also purchased and began to use Painter to do digital drawing and painting illustrations.

Art business (always a challenge — I’d rather paint):
Teaching: I’ve had the privilege to teach several sessions of watercolor classes to some very inspiring and talented artists from whom I learned at least as much I taught.
Sales: A buyer in another state found my website via a link to it from the California Watercolor Association’s website and made a major purchase of one of my favorite paintings.
Shows: I was selected for a one-woman show that will be hung in March of 2007. I had slides made and submitted them to the CWA National Show but otherwise have not been focusing on showing in 2006.
Prints: I’ve worked with a local studio to make professional scans and giclee prints of my work.
Framing: I am currently in the process of framing 8 watercolor paintings.

So those are the accomplishments. I’ll write about the challenges tomorrow as part of my Art Plan for 2007.

Tags People

Cartoon art Dreams Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Stage Fright (Dream)

Ink & Watercolor in Aquabee 9×12 sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

I woke this morning at the apex of a terrible anxiety dream…but with a slightly different take than usual. First I should say that I have terrible stage fright and cannot sing to save my life. My family used to slam doors shut and turn on the radio to avoid hearing my awful singing along with my pretty bad guitar playing when I was a teen and it never really improved.

I’ve had this dream many times, where I find myself on stage, about to sing or play guitar or both, and realize I’m completely unprepared. In last night’s dream I’d been selected to perform as “Jana and the BlackAttack” and was supposed to be leading some sort of soul/hip-hop group at a very prestigious and large theatre. I was calm and relaxed about the whole thing, trusting that the event organizers knew what they were doing in selecting me. I took a seat in the theatre, watching the opening acts. Then it was time for me to go on stage and the MC was stalling and worried since I hadn’t yet appeared backstage. I walked out onstage, noticing there was a steaming pot of potato-leek soup available for performers and stage hands. I picked up the mike and then…

I realized I didn’t know what songs I was singing, what the tunes or words were, where my band was….basically I realized I was ME. I didn’t want to let the organizer down or ruin my reputation by walking away. Then I realized I had no reputation to lose: I’m not a singer, I’m an artist and I woke up, heart pounding.

Gee, do you think I might be having a little performance anxiety about my painting…(I was struggling with oil painting before I went to bed) or even more likely, about the one-woman show of my watercolors in March that will be held in the lobby cafe of a newly restored art deco THEATRE?!!!! I thought I wasn’t worried about the show but the sleeping mind never lies….or does it?

Tags Pen and Ink, People

Monoprint Watercolor

From Sea Turtle to Swan

Monotype 2: Swan. Ink & watercolor on Arches 88 printmaking paper
(To enlarge, click images, select “All Sizes”)

Monotype 2: Sea Turtle, Ink on Arches 88
(Same monotype as above but in original orientation and scanned before painting)

Monotype 1 – Massage Dream. Ink & watercolor on Arches 88
(Click to enlarge)

I was working without too much of a plan for these monotypes. I started with the image directly above (Monotype 1) with an idea from a dream I had about a massage. I rolled the ink onto a plexiglass plate, removed it in places, and then printed onto paper. Then I started over with Monotype 2 with no image in mind, just making marks, until a swimming sea turtle appeared, which soon had long flowing hair. (No I wasn’t high, just being playful, not attached to the outcome. It was sort of like watching clouds float by, seeing shapes appear in the clouds.)

Today the prints were dry so I added watercolor, using the same playful, “see what happens” attitude. I’d never painted on Arches 88 printing paper before and it was really interesting. The smooth, unsized paper immediately absorbs the paint — there’s no moving it, blotting it or changing it, except to add more color. I painted #1 (the massage picture) first and was thrilled with the colors that appeared and how it seemed to turn into an underwater scene. When I prepared to paint #2, I turned the paper around a few times to see which direction worked best. Turned 180 degrees I saw a swan-like creature so that’s what I painted.

A note on printing ink. I’ve been testing printing inks to determine which I like best for “reductive” monotypes. I used Graphic Chemicals Bone Black Etching Ink for these, and liked it a lot. It’s easy to apply and wipe off, and prints a rich, dark black. I also experimented with Daniel Smith oil-based relief ink and a sample that Gamblin sent me of their Portland Black oil-based ink. The prints I made with those inks are still wet so I can’t scan them yet. The Daniel Smith was the stickiest and hardest to wipe (though it can be thinned with burnt plate oil to make it easier to work with) and the Gamblin ink was somewhere inbetween the GC and DS. So far I like the Graphic Chemical ink best.

Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Peace on Earth

Watercolor in Moleskine watercolor notebook (plus a little salt)
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

For most people, today was all about celebrating Christmas. For me it was a luxuriously quiet and spacious day. I did this little painting of a glass dove candle holder that my mother gave me as a first year anniversary present many years ago. I didn’t like it at the time as I felt it had too many pointy edges, though I don’t understand that thought now.

A crystal dove, the symbol of peace seemed a good subject for Christmas day. Spending the afternoon at my drawing table, sipping a cup of sweet pomegranite-flavored green tea while listening to a good book and painting as the sky darkened and the candle glowed was very peaceful.

As the days begin to lengthen, I wish you, and all the world, Peace.

Dreams Outdoors/Landscape People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Watery dream

Ink & watercolor in HandBook Co square sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

For years I used to get up every morning and sketch my dreams before I did anything else. I have volumes of dream journals full of weird, amusing or x-rated drawings, depending on what the night had in store for me. I often painted the images too. I’m not sure when or why I stopped but I recently discovered an artist who works primarily from her dreams in monotype, Denise Kester, and got inspired to explore my dreams again.

My dreams are often humorous (to me anyway, but then I’m easily amused) or insightful — sometimes I wake up having invented something important and funny, as I illustrated here (one of my very favorite posts) or just quirky, like this one.

In the quickly sketched image above from last night, I dreamt that Sharon and I were canooeing down a pretty river when I realized that we had sunk up to our necks and that I was still wearing my fanny pack containing all my electronic gadgets (cell phone, digital camera, PDA) and they were all ruined. There was more about trying to put on ill-fitting overalls after nude sunbathing but I always hate it in novels when writers go on and on about a character’s dreams so I won’t bore you further with this one.

One last thing, this image of a river with tall banks is the same one I tried to make when I was 10 and convinced my father to let me paint with his oil paints. Unfortunately he gave me a piece of waxy palette paper to paint on and I remember it being so terribly frustrating to not be able to capture the image or anything at all, really, on that horrid paper. It kept me from trying to paint again for another 20 years.

Tags Pen and Ink, People