Candy Season is beginning!

Is this candy? Or Soap? It's a 4X6 Watercolor of a guest soap my Sister-in-law put in my Christmas stocking last Christmas. She does great Christmas stockings, it's always a surprise. I hadn't done anything miniature for a while and the delicate colors and cellophane appealed to me. How about you?

Well, it's time for the next challenge over on Paint and Draw Together. It's lemons this time. I spent the summer painting the lemons that fell off the tree, now we shall see if I learned anything.

Autumn is here!

As the trees start to turn, and the apples start to ripen, it's time to paint those things! I've thrown in an extra. It's a palette I rarely use, I remember an art teacher at the Academy of Art University who was working in pastel that time, he said to look at your pastels and see which ones are longest. Then make yourself use them because you are probably avoiding that part of the spectrum. Excellent advice. What a school!

Out in the garden again

Oleanders are all over here in Northern California they are all along some of the freeways. This one, however is in my garden. It was supposed to be a dwarf, but like the lemon tree in the back garden, it got out of hand. After many truly awful attempts at painting them, this one came out more presentable. The answer seemed to be in simplifying, not only the background, but the flowers as well. I left 3 or 4 blossoms, in various stages of bloom, out. In some cases things come out too light, but lately I had been trying to pour in too much color. Some of the watercolor books, after reviewing, gave me some pointers.

Quelle Surprise! Well, anyway, I found an old sketchbook!

The Quelle Surprise was because when I started typing it was converting to Hindi. I finally found how to get it to stop. I thought I was enabling people to translate my blog into their language, but it was translating my typing only into languages in India.
Now to the Anyway part. I found an old sketch book from last fall and winter. It was full, but I thought I'd see what could scan.

This first one was a commission from late last winter. As I've said, I record books at recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic and they were having a Record-a-thon to get more readers and directors. They asked if I could do a picture of a child reading a book with earphones on. They record for all levels, but it's really good if they can start with the very young so the kids are never left behind in their education. This was a sort of final preliminary sketch. I did a 16X24 watercolor for the office and I am delighted to say it's still hanging there.

Next: are two friends from southern California modeling period caps I made. This is why I don't do portraits. I modify things. I changed them so radically they would not recognize themselves. The idea was to create characters that would be wearing this sort of cap. The one below was supposed to be my idea of Jane Austen, the other I made older, trying for a lot of character. I probably should have used older models, but how do you ask that? Friends are willing and put up with a lot. They understand, or just sigh and are patient. God love them!

I am currently working on Challenge 12 from Rookie Painter and the apple picture from Paint and Draw Together. The apple is fighting back.

OK, if I ever get control of that apple and finish the leaf circle, I'll upload those, and wait for suggestions!
Love to all!

Practice, Practice, Practice

It's interesting how things turn out. Some people think you just get out there and sing a song, or paint a picture, or play a scene, or the violin. OR write a symphony? No. There are times when it seems to "happen." But behind that over-night success is years of preparation. Often people who are not in the arts think their own profession takes study, practice, and experience but the arts don't. I remember a noted stage actor on a chat show saying that it's the only field where everybody else thinks you just get up and do it. He said he could be sitting in the dentist's chair and the dentist says he's thought of being an actor. Picture that in reverse. Would you just decide one day that you're going to open a dental practice? It's easy too.




Yes, inspiration comes and you have wonderful results. But no one should attempt to dance Odette without training and practice. Yes, first it must be something within us, that truly is given to us each, but then we must exercise that talent, train it, direct it and polish it. That is a form of gratitude.
So you are faced with re-inventing the wheel yourself, or finding a way to get training. Believe me, training saves time, even years. I speak from experience. I spent years getting training in a specific field (theater), I was focused, but it was not easy to turn away from other phases of that gift. Fortunately along the way I had theatrical professors that had us draw in class and sing and build sets. That was very fulfilling. My thanks to all the true teachers out there who prepare us and guide us, however stubborn and one tracked we may be at the time. It all gathers in our basket and does us good.
I do love acting and the stage, but I found real delight when in the 1980's I found Recordings for the Blind (now Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic). I started volunteering there after work and did so for years. However, some things are just not Dickens! They are not meant to be read out loud, not exactly music to the ears. The people who work there are dedicated and they are sensitive to making it a good experience for the volunteers. They often delighted me by reserving books of poetry for me, and other literature.
I am so happy to say that they are still that way today. I think I've mentioned before that I started reading there again last year. I'll read anything for them, no problem, I love doing it. A couple of weeks ago I read about ten pages of bibliography, last week I read "Oedipus the King." It all levels out, I never get bored. This keeps that part of my life going! Now I've sent out a couple of demos because, well, wouldn't it be wonderful to do what you love and get paid too! (but I won't leave RFBD until the turn out the lights)

Note: the waterlily is because it's beautiful, the puppy is for Paint and Draw Together.

My Mic finally works!!!

I have a fairly expensive mic, Samson G-track. After WEEKS of fiddling and going on line to try and get it fixed, and trying everything under the sun, it works!! The last suggestion from a tech was to try a different cord or cable. Well, it's kind of strange looking cable, where am I going to find another one? BINGO, yesterday at the washer I looked down at the box of electronic flotsom and saw an unused cable from something-or-other that looked like it had the right weird end on it. Short story: it did and I spent yesterday evening re-recording all my demo pieces without having to yell over the loud buzzy sound. Oh, you don't know how good it was to look at that wave and see a smooth line except when I was talking! And then to play it back and hear just me. I am truly grateful for this. I had been praying a lot and trying to open up and be a receiver for all those angel-messages that are always coming our way. Well, duh, of course you hear when you listen, Dianne. Sheesh. Another thing that takes practice.
Today a friend at the sound studio burnt the CD for me from a flash drive (my laptop refuses to acknowledge anything round and flat), so, in a minute or so I am off to the post office to mail my new demo out! THIS is the voice part of voice-painter.
When I get home I think I will continue recording a book I love that isn't available in audio form. YeeHaa!

Patience and persistence with myself

While trying to get up to speed on supporting yourself with things you love to do, it seems sometimes you have to do other things too. Like housework and looking for other kinds of work that have an actual income. Never lose sight of the value of what you do. That's the first step toward others valuing it also. What we do is not just an expression of who we are, but where we come from, who created us. We reflect all those good qualities, and express them in our lives. That's our main job. Our employment.
Sometimes that takes practice, and continuing to learn and expand our expression is absolutely necessary. That's living.
Lately I've been wrestling with these ideas and trying to open my thought to the new, while keeping in practice on the familiar. Aside from looking for a paying job before the money runs out, trying new things continues. I've taken three beginning/intermediate watercolor classes with Ron Pratt and he taught us how wonderfully intense color can be in the medium. It was great! I also enjoy the Artist Challenges that are available in blogs like Rookie Painter , and Paint and Draw Together. Having a challenge set by someone entirely different from yourself makes you stretch yourself in directions you might not have taken. Not just in subject matter, but palette and style. Some results are not all you hoped they could be: see the lemons above. But you learn a LOT. It can lead you in new directions, it's worth trying it again. In this case these colors provided a challenge, especially their lighter values. This resulted in the Japanese scroll vignette (I think it's up in the right corner, I can't seem to get the pictures to go where I want them within the blog).
I didn't try to duplicate the script on the scroll, that felt too much like plagiarism, so I did an "impression" of it. In a scroll like this the calligrapher's hand is as much a part of the poetry as the words, and it wasn't my poem. The picture is 8X12 inches.
The daises are a rather European touch, a peony would have been more appropriate, but this is the way it turned out! The purpose was the paler palette, perhaps I will do it again with a more strongly colored flower later. The contrast could be very interesting.
Well, it's going to be a short day today, I have to get up about 4:30AM to get to Sacramento by 8AM for a placement test, the next step in trying to find some income.

I entered a competition!

Ok, here is a picture of me back in my 30's, it's an old headshot.
No, I'm not saying what year it was. Sometime in the 1980's.
The important stuff:
Well, I finally did it, I entered the monthly BoldBrush competition online. It is through FIneArtViews. The basket of lemons picture is the entry, and I titled it "Lemonade-to-be".
This is a juried competition, but aside from that, visitors to the site can vote for the pictures they like (yeah, here it comes) Up on the right side of this page is the picture, you can (pretty please) click there and it will take you to the competition and you could (wheedling tone) vote for me? It won't give me any prizes, but it would feel wonderful! My picture is a watercolor and the judges tend to be oil painters and select the same to win, but it still is exciting to be entered in a competition!

Last Sunday Florence, a friend from church gave me the most beautiful tomatoes! I started the painting that afternoon, after eating the smallest one in a salade, That's why I call this one "Vine Ripened Tomatoes." MMMM!




Then there is "Greek Offering," A challenge set by RookiePainter. That was a real challenge. Because of the smooth texture of the black vase I pulled out some Arches 140lb hot press paper. It is really smooth and I seldom use it because it doesn't absorb very fast. I found I need to practice with that paper more! Then the poor vase. It's lines are so smooth and I'd have little bobbles on the edges. I had to stop correcting because the vase was going to start getting bigger!









Then the boats. I remembered some time as a kid sitting in a boat on a pier or dock and pretending I was sailing off to adventure. (Except that other boat sitting across my bows!) It doesn't look very colorful, but I was thinking the adventure, the color, was all in my mind. I think I'll try it again, it intrigues me. I used to dream of sailing the South Pacific on a copra boat. Later, when I could read, I found out what copra was. Not very romantic stuff.

This picture makes me long for color. Back to the studio. I'm out of tomatoes, I think it will have to be apples!

Catching up on Challenges or never too late to learn how

A lot of painting has been going on since my mic went on the blink! It's been great though, I had a back log of challenges that, although too late to send in, were well worth doing. Here is one from "Paint and Draw Together," three figs (8X11), which was in time, and two from "Rookie Painter." I now need to do the current one from "Rookie Painter" and get it sent in (both are 8X11). They really do fulfill the term "Still Life" don't they. They are things that are alive, and yet they sit so nice and still while you paint them. Since these came to me as photos, I don't get to eat them, but I'll live.

Right now I have a still life set up that I've been wanting to do for a bit. It's a couple of old kitchen crocks from my grandmother, the shell I did a few days ago and this interesting square bottle I rescued from the kitchen of the office where I used to work. It was in the back of a cupboard and no one could remember what the stuff had been. Bingo, now it's posing for a portrait! I have it all sketched in, so now I'm off to the studio to mix colors.

Love to all!