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!

Competition entry & Visual Diary for September 15th

This is the piece I entered for the competition.

I've been busy working on my Visual Diary every day since I started on July 1st. It's been an eye opening experience. My computer's memory is tapped out, and until it's resolved and I can again scan every painting in, I'll have to post only the especially meaningful ones. Stay in touch for a post coming soon showing the last two months' worth of highlights!

Abstract Floral 2   My Visual Diary September 15, 2013

Meanwhile, I've been on the job hunt and decided to enter a competition for a website banner for a wedding floral company on Freelancer.com. Here is my entry and it got me inspired to make one similar for my daily diary. They want something dotted and abstract/ geometric. I tried to adapt to that but still keep in mind that is was for a florist. Though now it looks like they really wanted something much more geometric than I thought they did! Oh well, at least it was fun to paint and has me thinking of pursuing this to see where it leads. A range of greeting cards perhaps?

My Visual Diary - Day 1 & 2

So I have set before me a new goal: My Visual Diary. 

One piece of art a day chronicling an element of my day for a year. I will spend no more than 30 minutes on it. (I've already cheated on this, but at least it is a format for me to strive for!) This will be very hard to do for me, as my life is so chaotic at present. But here goes...

July 1, 2013: The Purple Dress

July 2, 2013: Chocolate Chip Cookies

More new paintings in the "Little Gems" Series

Dragonfly with Dewdrops

Yellow Fairies

Another New "Little Gem" Painting: Dragonfly with Dewdrops

I painted this "little gem" painting, as I like to call them, while I was at the Merton Abbey Mills Art and Craft market last weekend. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to meet new people in London and start to get a little bit of time to myself again. It's been super to double task it. I'm both showing my work and making more at the same time. Right now I'm trying to decide what to work on first when I bring my oils this coming Sunday!

Two New "Little Gems"

Butterfly with Tiger Lily and White Flowers

I have been using the left-over paper from my wedding invitations (on which I did a linoleum block print) to make "little gem" paintings to sell on my Etsy gallery. They are just 4" x 5" and so can be placed into a picture frame one would normally put a 5" x 7" photograph in.

Dancing Dandelion IV

I usually like to paint bigger, but I've been using these as a way of experimenting and playing with my style. They really are studies, but perfect for my goal of the elusive "20 minute" painting. They take much longer than that, but my teacher at CCA, Robert Hunt, set me the goal of producing a 20 minute piece every day and, though I've failed to work that fast so far, I like these as a way of pushing myself a little bit.

East Bay Open Studios - First Weekend a resounding success!

Thank-you to all those of you who made it out to the first weekend of my open studio at Jack London Square this past Saturday and Sunday!

It was a wonderful success for me and I'm looking forward to this coming weekend for the final days of the exhibition.

I'm painting two new works which I hope to get done in time for this upcoming finale. There are vacant spots to fill now! I'll be working on the third painting to my Dancing Dandelion series and an oil painting of my backyard apple tree in springtime bloom.

To find out more about the event and check out all the artists I'm exhibiting with go to: http://artrospection.com/jls/

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:

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?