Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Problems

O.k., so I sent out a lot of emails inviting just about everyone I've ever known to my art show coming up in just two weeks. I put a link to this blog in the emails and used a gmail address. Well, did I ever mess up! Now this blog cite has been marked as potentially spam- to the reviewer: that's an error, if you haven't already figured it out.

I apologize to anyone who has been bugged by this whole fiasco.

I guess I'm signing up for one of those mass email online marketing companies like Constant Contact.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Yellow and Red Polka Dot Fairy illustration


A while back I was asked if I had any butterfly paintings in my repertoire. At the time, I didn't really. Ever since then I've been thinking, why on earth not? It certainly is up my alley (I do love beautiful things and I do love to paint creatures who fly). So, I started painting butterflies.

This piece was inspired by a job that never panned out. The assignment was to create paintings for the walls at a new work-out center for women called Butterfly Life. Originally I had in mind to paint real womanly figures in all stages of age and fitness. I still might do that someday. I took some photo reference at the time, which I decided to put to use.

I've been working on this yellow and red polka dot fairy illustration for my portfolio on and off for a while now. I got stuck at one point, having let it get too precious, I realized that I needed to put in the shadows from her form onto the background behind her as well as the shadows from the petals onto her. I was afraid of ruining the piece. Working with watercolor is always so tricky that way. I had one chance to lay in the shadow wash correctly. If I messed up, there wasn't anything I could do about it. (Well, actually in this modern age, I did have a back-up. I photographed it before laying in the wash. If I ruined it, I could have always put in a shadow in Photoshop. Not the best result, but better than nothing, I guess.)

In order to have the best chance at success, I decided to build a little model (a very crude sculpture), light it, and photograph it to approximate what the shadow would look like so that I would have some reference to give it authenticity.

I'm pretty pleased with the result. In the end, I think it worked out relatively successfully. She definitely looks like she is sitting in the water lily now.
Here's how it looked before the shadows were added:

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Dancing Dandelion I


Just a little preview of what I'm working on for the Open Studios in June. This piece can be viewed two ways. Which way do you like better?

Monday, May 3, 2010

ProArts East Bay Open Studios


I just finished this painting to hang at ProArts in downtown Oakland. It's a plein air piece begun last Fall at apple harvest time in my backyard. It's up for their group exhibition highlighting the artists participating in the East Bay Open Studios.

This will be my first time doing Open Studios and I'm really excited to be joining in with 36 other artists in a huge space (formerly a Barnes and Noble) in Jack London Square. I'll have a nice wall space allocated to show my work. I'm madly painting new works, all inspired in some way by nature and it's myriad of forces. Some will be motion studies of dancers, some plein-air homages to nature's beauty, and some illustrative pieces based in pure fantasy. I'll also be offering prints of some of my most popular paintings for the first time. I like the idea of accessibility to everyone. There should be work available for any budget.

Come check it out if you're in the neighborhood!
Two weekends: June 5 &6, 12 & 13, 2010
Pavilion Building @ Jack London Square
98 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607
http://artrospection.com/jls/
http://www.proartsgallery.org/ebos/index.php