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)

At the Barre/ At the Sketchbook

Yesterday I went to the art store on Kensington High Street and browsed through a book called The Art of Urban Sketching. I found it inspiring enough that I had to buy yet another sketch book and pen so that I could get back to doing daily sketches again! I must have over 30 sketchbooks, most of which are in storage at the moment, but this one has a soft cover and is small enough for me to carry around in my bag. Sketching daily has been an ever-present, yet continually elusive, goal of mine. Somehow when I find the time to make art, I'm far more eager to start painting than get out the sketchbook. Especially lately when the moments I get are so few and far between.

Yet the sketching is essential. It is the daily stretch and flex of the muscles, the work-out, the practice, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!! that helps to refine one's skill-set. Also, when you're working in a sketchbook, the emphasis can be on exploration and experimentation instead of creating finished work to sell. This is the opportunity to explore new techniques and play with different mediums. To break down one's own personal boundaries and barriers in the mind that make you do the same thing over and over. To find the way to make it work for you.

Having been a professional ballet dancer, I'm very familiar with the discipline required to go to the barre every day and repeat the same exercises (for 20 years!) continuing to refine my movements. Well, the sketchbook is no different than the barre. The question is, being a stay-at-home Mom as my profession of the moment, can I engage the discipline required to sketch daily with a toddler demanding my attention constantly? Surely, there must be a way!

This new sketchbook will most likely be filled with moments such as it's first entry. After all, Liam is my most favorite subject matter at present. I'm hooked, line and sinker, on my baby boy!

Portrait of Liam at 14 months

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Work in progress:
I started this piece on the Isle of Wight while Liam was sleeping about a month ago. When he wakes up from his nap he's always drowsy and stayed still long enough for me to capture his (still in dreamland) expression.  I'm planning on adding watercolor when I can get to it.

Blue Tit Landing

Well, I'm on a roll! Over the Easter holiday my parents-in-law babysat and I had the chance to paint down on the Isle of Wight while visiting them. They have several bird feeders that attract a lot of the lovely little songbirds in the area, including blue tits. The weather warmed up a couple of weeks before and the plants are starting to sprout their leaves and bud blossoms. Spring is becoming my favorite season. After the dull greys and browns of winter, seeing a little color is so wonderful!

Big Baby Cheeks

My son, Liam, turned one year old 12 days ago and I thought that I would put up this sketch that I did of him while he was sleeping 4 months ago to honor his birthday!

I am chagrined to admit that I haven't drawn him recently. Without childcare, I'm finding it very challenging to find the time to draw and paint. I would like to do a series, though, of him as he grows. Perhaps a sketch of him asleep every few months to see how he is growing. He already looks different than he did when he was 8 months old.

I wish I could draw him while he's awake, but he likes to take the pencil out of my hand. I think I'll try to do some really quick life sketches while he is distracted playing and see what happens. They'll have to be 30 second drawings. I'll post the results, good or bad!

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!

LONDON, here I come!!!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but there's good reason for it. I have been BUSY packing! I have exciting news to share...

I'm re-locating to London, England!

As one of the cultural centers of the world, I'll be living amidst a hub of publishing activity and poised in a position to claim my own ground alongside so many amazing cutting edge artists. What inspiration I shall have at my fingertips!

My husband has been offered a prestigious Fellowship to set up his own research facility at Imperial College in London. It is to begin in October, 2010, so off we go! We are planning a month long holiday to Mauritius and South Africa while our home is in transit. I'm bringing my watercolors, so who knows, there may be future posts of African landscapes! (A safari is planned, of course.) The camera will be by my side throughout. I plan to take as much photo reference for future paintings as possible.

Here's a painting that I did inspired from a tiny photo in the back of an old National Geographic a long time ago. I can't wait to see baobab trees in real life!

Dancing Dandelion III

Well I was able to paint another dandelion painting in time for the second weekend of my open studios. Now I just need to frame it. This is another little one, the same size as Dancing Dandelion I. Unframed its 5 1/4" x 8 1/4". I really like this textured background that I've been working with. On the next piece I'm going to try adding another dimension to the texture and see how it looks.

New Painting titled Dancing Dandelion II

I wanted to share this second painting in my Dancing Dandelion series which sold on the first day of my East Bay Open Studio art show this past weekend! It is a brand new piece and I was saving it as a surprise for attendees, but it sold so quickly (within hours of the show opening). I don't think many people even got to see it. I plan on creating more works along this theme as I've had a lot of positive feedback and excitement about the first two works of the series. So stay tuned. I'm going to try to get a new one done for this coming weekend and I'll be listing new works on my Etsy gallery in the future (see "My Links").

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/