Images of Summer from My Visual Diary Project

July 15, 2013 Moths

Well, the Summer has slipped away and I thought I would share some of my favorite pieces from My Visual Diary project that I began on July 1st of this year. The assignment: no more than 30 minutes, with no photo reference, only my memory of the day as my guide.

July 17, 2013 Fireflies

July 19, 2013 Hornets, Wasps, and Bees Everywhere

July 20, 2013 Ashes

July 25, 2013 Hugging Mom

August 5, 2013 First Time Underwater!

August 11, 2013 Our Sandcastle

August 14, 2013 Blackberries Everywhere

August 15, 2013 My Little Friend

Greeting Card Collections

I've been building collections of greeting cards with six different paintings in each. I've been selling them both individually and in sets at my various shows and am thinking about adding them for sale on my Etsy site.

This is the first collection of fruits and vegetables.

I've also done a collection of butterflies and dragonflies as part of my "Little Gem" series with one hummingbird thrown in, but I plan to do another whole series of birds.

My most recent series that I'm still building is my Dancing Dandelions collection. I've got one more to do to have a set of 6 different cards.

 And new on the scene, as of this past week, I started doing abstracted floral watercolors that I showed in my last blog, but I'll add them in again because I'm excited about doing more of these!

My Visual Diary Days 3-12

July 3, 2013   Stars

Well I've managed to get through the first week and a half doing my visual diary. Already it has been really enlightening for me. I've set myself the task of no more than 30 minutes on a piece. I've been able to stay within an hour which is much better than past attempts at this!

July 4, 2013 Roald Dahl Museum

By far the most challenging aspect has been the self-imposed rule of using no photo reference for this project. The images are memories of the day, and therefore I must use only my memory as a guide. This has led to some interesting things! People only vaguely resemble who they are meant to be. This was most especially a struggle for me when I was remembering my grandmother who passed away this week. I wanted to capture her when she was younger, with long hair. I loved her hair. Even the magpies, which at the time I studied closely, were difficult to remember which parts of them were black and which were white.

I realize how far I am from being truly observant of my day.

July 5, 2013  Seagulls in Bath

July 6, 2013  Strawberry Picking

July 7, 2013  Bayswater Road Market?

July 8, 2013  Planting Lavender

July 9, 2013  A Working Printer!

July 10, 2013  Goodbye Grandma

July 11, 2013  Plum Wine

July 12, 2013  Five Magpies Sitting in a Row

Thistles on the Isle of Wight

Thisles on the Isle of Wight

Another painting to be in my Isle of Wight show, which I'm hoping to have in the fall of this year.

This is a very recently completed painting inspired by the beautiful countryside on the Isle of Wight in England where my parents-in-law live. The path is along where an old railroad used to go and is now a lovely lane to walk or bike along that takes you from the center to the edge of the island. This particular winter morning was cold and frosty, but nonetheless enchanting.

Reflections

My newest painting titled Pink Water Lily Reflections

I taught an art class for the first time on Sunday this past weekend at the Merton Abbey Mills art market. It was really fulfilling to be teaching again after this past 2 and half year hiatus! There seemed to be interest in the classes, so I'm hopeful that they will grow into a solid future enterprise.

 This month I'll be focusing on painting with watercolor. Teaching these watercolor basics: how to choose what tools are needed, how to prepare your painting surface, painting light to dark, using the transparency of the paint, what common errors to watch out for and how to correct mistakes, building a painting up layer upon layer versus laying the paint on thickly, and with an emphasis on color mixing and color theory as the situation permits.

In preparing for teaching the course, I've been going over my notes in old sketchbooks from my CCA(California College of the Arts) days. Wow, do I ever miss art school! There is nothing like being surrounded by people who feel as passionately as you do about art and the feedback and interaction are to be treasured.

Etsy Gallery Up and Running Once Again & New Facebook Page!

After a two and a half year hiatus (during which I moved across the world, learned how to drive on the other side of the road, had my firstborn, and bought my first house- a serious fixer-upper which we are still working on) my Etsy Gallery is up and running and finally out of "vacation mode"! I still don't have much of an art studio, but there is enough space to work on small pieces. I'm looking forward to summer weather to enable me to paint larger oils plein-air and work on some other pieces I've had in mind for a long time now which require space to stretch out.

I've completed two more paintings in my Dancing Dandelions series, number V is shown here. This is the first painting I've listed for sale on the gallery. I get more exposure by eeking the listings out one at a time, so it will be a week or more before every new painting is up on the site.

Check it out:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CassandraSeeger

Also, more marketing hoo-haa prompted me to build a new Facebook page. Feel free to take a look:
https://www.facebook.com/CassandraSeegerArt

Getting My Feet Wet

My husband and I have just bought our first house and this week I've been working on setting up my art studio in our new home!
Whenever there's been a break in art-making for me, I find I need to do a quick painting to get back into the swing of things. I painted this piece on December 3rd from a photo I took this summer on the Isle of Wight at the beach.

 Sandown Beachscape I, watercolor and ink on paper 8 1/4" (21cm) x 12" (30.5cm)

Painting Again!!!

Wow, it's been a while. Well I'm back in the swing of painting after a hiatus to move to London, go on our delayed honeymoon, and have a baby!

My little boy is 4 months old now and FINALLY sleeping through the night. Which means, watch out world, I'm now getting enough sleep to be productive again! Of course it's slow going with fewer opportunities for now. Gone are the all-day-long painting marathons, but it is wonderful to be in the studio once more even if it is broken up into short stints at a time.

I've titled this watercolor Santorini Sunset. It is painted using photo reference that I took while on my one year anniversary/ honeymoon. (Our plans changed and we went to Greece instead of South Africa.) The land is quite dry, so I was surprised to see these flowers peeping up out of the rocky terrain. The sunsets lived up to their reputation- every night was a feast for the eyes.

This painting was begun while I was still pregnant, and finished just last week in time to display it in my booth at the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival this weekend. There's nothing like an upcoming show to give you the kick to get going again!

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