a year of painting 2015

paperwhites

new print in the shop

5" x 7"
This is the painting I did for my personal Christmas cards this year.  

We are all Paris today

today is my birthday

On Facebook I'm participating in #30DaysOfThanks.

That's so easy to do.  I have many blessings in my life.

Today, especially, I am thankful for another birthday

and for my many wonderful family and friends.

Our first exhibit!

I have been matting and framing for weeks!

Rocky and Buster

Now, how cute is this?

We've been trying to promote peace and harmony among the three cats.

I slowly introduced Rocky to the big boys.  Jack (not in this picture) has

warmed up to Rocky, touching noses when they see each other.  

There's a lot of chasing and playing, but most of the hissing has stopped (from Jack)

 and only cries (from Jack) when Rocky gets too aggressive.  

Yes, the almost 4 lb kitten is the aggressive one.

Buster is the 25 pound baby on the left.  He and Rocky are so similar in marking,

except for the face and sides.  Buster is still hissing and growling when touched by Rocky.

Rocky, of course, is on a mission to touch Buster, bounce on Buster and bite Buster's tail.

new kitten

We have two adored male cats, Jack & Buster. Last Monday this little one was in my garden.

I put food and water out for him and a cage to trap him.

Every day he ate the food but didn't set off the trap door.

Finally on Sunday morning, we found a scared little baby in the trap.

 

We brought him inside, keeping him in one of our bathrooms.

He was frantic and scared.  Eventually he let us pet him and then turned

into the most cuddly love bug!  He purrs constantly and loves being held.

This took one afternoon of cuddling him.  Poor baby was starved for food and attention.

To the vet today for his checkup.  He's happy and healthy and kitty boy #3.

We love our Rocky!

9/11

wisteria

Where did this week go?

busy busy busy

Cape May House

8" x 10" in the shop

I painted this one 5 years ago at a workshop with Marge Chavooshian.

What a wonderful teacher and artist!  I was terrified to paint a building and had tried several times in the past workshops with little success.  Plus, it's hard to sit next to my architect daughter and draw a building while she just whips one onto her paper.

This time I got it..I painted a house!

I was so pleased (and relieved) with myself, but when Marge looked at it, eyebrows up,

 and then looked at me and said "Wow!", I could have floated off the ground!

It's my husband's favorite painting and one of my favorite moments on my journey as an artist.

 Just took it out of the frame to change the mat and take a better picture.  

Better camera now than I had then.

 

Have a great week!  We're having a heat wave in NJ.

Pinned!

197 times on Pinterest!

Finished commission for happy customer!

Is it just me?

This is a screenshot I took of this company's webpage in The Netherlands.

Yes, that's my black butterfly.

In about an hour, I found this image used, without my permission, on six different sites. 

 There were actually 10 pages where this image was found.  

With 10 hits per page, you can see how time consuming this is to check just one image.

I understand if it's on Pinterest or Etsy treasury pages. 

What I don't understand is how frequently I find my art used for Twitter pages, Tumblr accounts, poems, stories, etc.  To be used by a company is just appalling.

Yes, I sent them an email.

cards

Our card collections are now on gorgeous glossy paper!

(matte on the inside for writing)

in the shop

Artist Appreciation Month

 

I was recently reminded by the Patience Brewster Co.

that August is Artist Appreciation Month and was invited
to join in a conversation of artists about the artists who inspired our work.

Click here see Patience's wonderful ornament collection.

What a joy to see her whimsical creations every year!

I have always enjoyed art history and made that a vital part of my curriculum when I taught.  

I loved sharing the beautiful works of  Van Gogh, Cassatt, Vermeer, Rousseau, Cezanne,

and Monet, among many others, with my young students.

 

Summer's Dream of Spring by Joseph Raffael

As a watercolor artist, I am constantly amazed by the beauty of our contemporary artists.

I am especially inspired by Joseph Raffael, whose huge watercolor flowers are incredible,

and Lucy Willis, who fills her watercolor paintings with beautiful light. 

I treasure Lucy's books on her technique and style.

I have seen Joseph Raffael's work in person and they are breathtaking.

Cows in the Orchard by Lucy Willis
  

I'm glad I had this chance to share some of my favorites.

I hope you find the time to explore the works of Willis and Raffael.

You will get lost in their beauty, I'm sure!

new print in the shop

8" x 10"

Print of Amanda's beautiful still life

6" x 8" acrylic on canvas panel

in the shop

Every so often I have to urge to switch gears and paint in acrylics.

So different than watercolors & SO forgiving.

Make a mistake & wipe it up or paint over it.

Painted this little arrangement from my imagination.

two more

11" x 14" in the shop

5" x 7" in the shop

This one has an iridescent sheen on the wings.

new paintings

5" x 7"

in the shop

Back from a two week stay at the Jersey shore.

First week was rainy, but I was in a workshop so that was OK.

Second week was beautiful!

I painted in the morning and evenings, so relaxing

without my usual distractions of the phone, laundry, etc.

(Doing a lot of laundry now. lol!)

hydrangea bouquet in glass vase

8" x 10" 

in the shop 

Two more paintings to post.  Four paintings in a week!

That's a new record for me.

Belgian Waffle

5" x 7" print

in the Etsy shop

My daughter and I ate lunch in Bruges during our trip last year.

Two waiters were loudly arguing over who was serving us.

It was quite a spectacle, ending with the one calling the other a "gypsy" as he walked away.

Amanda took a picture of this memorable lunch and just painted it in pastels.

A beautiful painting and now a print in our shop.

Our shop is humming along nicely.  Just 5 sales to go to reach 700!

now I want to see the painting

We went to see this movie last night and really enjoyed it.

Helen Mirren is, as usual, just wonderful in the part of  Maria Altmann,

a Jewish woman trying to recover art stolen from her family by the Nazis during WWII.

source: http://www.neuegalerie.org/content/gustav-klimt-and-adele-bloch-bauer-woman-gold

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I  1907

The artist Gustav Klimt painted the portrait during his "Golden Phase" when he applied gold leaf to his work.  It was eventually purchased by Ronald Lauder for $135 million.

The portrait is stunning and the movie is a gem.

Now I'm looking forward to a trip to the Neue Galerie in NYC to see the art in person.
A great site for viewing Klimt paintings : https://www.artsy.net/artist/gustav-klimt

white dahlia

white dahlia

This is my donation to this year's

Pine Shores Art Association Patron Show.

.... and what was I thinking?

A zillion petals to paint!

I worked from the outside in and got lost several times.

The original photo was a bright pink dahlia, but I 

changed the image to black and white to see the values.

finished the hydrangea bouquet

In a previous post, I said this was a new (old ) painting.

(In person, the background is lighter.  I always have that problem on the blog)

I had painted this bouquet from a photo back in 2001.

When I was updated the living room, I was going to 

re-frame my painting until I looked at it very closely.

It had hung there for years and I had been so proud of it.

Now I wanted to paint it all over again and make improvements.

The format was changed to portrait and the flowers changed to blue.

Much more attention was given to the glass, leaves and blossoms.

Interesting to look at old work and see the path I have taken.

I'm proud of the new painting and it's perfect for my room.

It was a joy to paint, just as it was 14 years ago

hydrangea bouquet progress

(I figured out how to make a circular watermark!)

slow progress on my newest painting.

That's just the way I paint.

I photographed it against the wall that it's going on in my living room.

The blossoms are all in cobalt, cerulean & a mix of the two.

I think I'm going to be happy with the finished painting.  Still a way to go, though.

 I never paint on an easel, always flat or on a slight incline on my table. 

This is a full sheet of watercolor paper stapled onto Gatorboard...bulky to deal with.

I was tired of wrestling with it on my painting table so I brought 

everything into the sun room to work on the bigger table.

Still not right until I propped it on the cat tower.

Perfect.

Jack meowed at me several times but then settled into a chair.

I still don't like standing up to paint.

Maybe this will hurry me along.

hydrangea bouquet

Started a new (old) painting.  I'll explain later.

African violets print

in the shop

The original sold very quickly!

This is a much better photo than the last post.

Have a great weekend!

African violets on blue and white plate

original watercolor
sold

I'll make prints for the shop.

All finished and onto a vase of hydrangeas for my living room.

fun with Photoshop

My daughter and I had a fun day out on Thursday.

We found this great chest at an antique store at a bargain price.

Perfect for storage in her home office.

It needs sanding, painting and new hardware,

but oh!  the possibilities!

I played with the image in Photoshop.  Love this bold choice of red!

 

Green would be interesting, too, and very striking.

 

Oh, I love the cabinet in blue

 

and, of course, turquoise. But it is not my choice.

 

She really wants to paint it black and it will be just beautiful!

lavender fields

Amanda's latest lavender field pastel painting.

What a beautiful reminder of our afternoon in the Provence

lavender fields.

 

I matted and framed the three originals for her house.

It's a different procedure for matting pastels than watercolors.

You have to create a space between the mat and painting

in case pastel dust becomes loose and falls.

You don't want that on your mat.

 

I think the three grouped together are really lovely.

using Pinterest

I'm tweaking my living room...just a bit.

This is an old photo.  I have already painted all the woodwork white

and the floor is now hardwood.

I love the wall color, a soft aqua, but I think the room needs more of an update.

This is where I use my Pinterest boards.

I have 37 boards (just love Pinterest!) and two of them I use to collect 

ideas, products and fabrics for specific rooms.

The picture above is from my "Living Room" board.

I found a photo with a similar sofa and chair and immediately saw that I should 

use bigger pillows for more design impact.  I then searched for pillow fabric that I liked.

I had many more fabric pins then I do now because I could eliminate some once

I saw them grouped together.  I also deleted some after the samples came and saw they wouldn't work.  I've learned the hard way in the past to order samples BEFORE I order yardage.  

The Eaton Dark Teal and the Duralee Pavo Peacock are samples that

already came and are perfect.  I just love that peacock sunburst design!

The other samples are on their way and then I'll eliminate the ones that don't work.

The drapes are purchased and hung.  It's just so easy seeing the choices on the 

design board and easy to make, too.

The other design board is here.

I redid my son's room, several years after he moved to his own condo.

I got rid of an old clunky sofa bed that we put in at first and went with a day bed.

Again, I was able to narrow down fabric choices for pillows and paint colors for the walls.

I'll share photos of the living room when I'm done.  Meanwhile, check out my Pinterest & have fun!

progress on the African violets

Progress on my painting. 

 The light green leaves are just blocked in.  More work on those tomorrow.

I also need to lift the green from the lowest leaf.
(Sorry for all the watermarks, but lesson learned)

Cloudy here today.  We have snow in the forecast.

a new work in progress

African violets on  blue and white transferware

 Started a new watercolor.

The lighting is bad.  This is on a white background.

I really enjoy painting blue and white dishes.
It's like working on a puzzle.

I recommend

Really enjoyed The Imitation Game

my thoughts are of Paris

the news is so sad this week