Can I?

Politically Charged?  Really...really?  Well I have had many political opinions in my life.

As a woman I remember that women were not allowed to have credit in their own name, alone without a man on the account, until around 1972.  Oldest Daughter was born in '70 and though at that time I was the major breadwinner in the home, I was unable to purchase anything of large consequence without a man.

Blink and here is NOW and on Page 12 of the newspaper is a small article Another Indian woman found hanged from a tree, New Delhi:  19 years old hanging by her scarf from a eucalyptus tree, relatives of the dead woman, filed a report alleging that she was raped and hanged.

It's difficult to believe women still suffer the unholy ugly meanness that we humans do to one another.

8/1 is the deadline for a show desiring art reflecting politically charged issues.  Can I do this?

So long, farewell, arrivederce'...

Gotta say good-bye to the gallery.  I have been showing my art in Sutter Creek for a year now and it's time...time to go in another direction.  A year ago I committed to at least 6 months to a whole year.
With it being 50 miles from my home, I didn't make the decision to join this lovely group of artists lightly.

As the summer begins I am hearing whispers from the Universe to re-prioritize.  I am listening to the whispers before I get seriously bonked on the head for my attention.

SCG is a lucrative place for artists.  I am coming out with more artist friends, more art ideas and a small sample of what living in a small town would be like here in the foothills in NorCal.  If we didn't have our very satisfying life here in SCR, I might try to join a community there and become more in tune with nature.  It would be good to be miles from shopping, really it would.

It's on my drives to and from that I fell in love with the blue-green Oaks, the wheat colored grasses in the summer, the sea green wavy grasses in the winter, the very gray to the bluest of blues skies with puffs of whipped cream clouds, and the little dashes of water, wooden fences, and scenes of cows and horses here and there along my drive.

I am not sad to let go, I am so happy to have expanded my life in this beautiful way.  And now I plan to enjoy the drives even more now that I can stop along the way and explore the little antique shop that compels, the scene that cries out to become a painting, the vegetables and fruit that must be bought from the farmer along the road.

Breathing out there with the horses, cows, and farmers is so much easier at times.  I would never have learned this without my experiences in Sutter Creek.

restful meemees..."Poppies" is a go

So I did some work in my art room today and here is "Poppies" now.

I love it so much more than I did.  It may need just a couple minor tweeks but I think it is done and it is a softer look even though I did not touch the poppies at all, just did some work on the background.

Ok, off to meemees as Dad would say.

Later with the Breaths

It's done and so I liked it however...kept working on it and it now looks like this:

  I was happy with it for a minute, now I am going to redo the whole background.  It's too nit picky and just ugh!

In a tizzy today, not very much correct around here...had to clean out shoe shelves, then had to organize bathroom drawers to accommodate first aid stuff which we all of a sudden need.  And another problem which I am not talking about here, like pimples, warts, etc.  Don't even ask if I am breathing today, cuz I am NOT and don't event want to...lol.

Just kiddin', I do want to but not now...

Splat!? I don't remember doing it, honest.

So today which is Thursday, I woke with a bang ready to shower, get dressed and get over to friend Joan's house for a critique of art.  The only problem is our meet date is Friday...so no shower, no combing of the hair but there is brushing of the teeth.  Brushing of the teeth is the one thing I do before entering my art cave, i.e. the room where I create.

Here is my painting of the poppies, still being worked.  At this point I am thinking pale sky and pale green as the field in which these flowers are growing.  I'm picking out the darks versus the lighter areas, always considering composition.

 As I get to this point, I am confused.  I can see most of the flowers and understand the overall painting but there is the area right in the exact middle where it confuses the hell out of me.  This is because I really don't understand if that is in the background, foreground, or if it's just splat! orange paint splatted there.  I don't remember splatting but I'm the only one here.

Here's a closer look at the splat.  Now that I've had some time to look at it, I can see it's another flower behind the front one.  Ok, so now onto finishing this baby...I am thinking I am either going to take out the splat or make it into an understandable poppy.

Darn it!  Gotta do the Sutter Creek Gallery newsletter before it's May...stop Bobbie, catch your breath Sweetheart and breathe.  Ok, I am breathing...1, 2, 3, breathe...1, 2, 3.  Ok, I'm calm.

Be back tomorrow, hopefully to finish this painting before Spring ends!

Poppies, again

It seems every year when we get the first bit of sunshine in the Valley, I think of poppies and begin to see them at the sides of the road and in the fields of grasses that we still have in some of the fields that are left surrounding us.

So what happens when I get that feeling and I have a new canvas sitting in the corner, I begin to draw.  I do a small drawing on my sketch pad, just a roundabout kind of image of what is in my mind and then I think about the colors I will use and kind of get my paint ready on my palette.  Then I transfer the drawing onto my canvas and voila!

 Now I have a beginning, whew! Time to take a nap or a walk around the neighborhood.

After resting and deciding that I need more color onto the thing, I begin with light oil paint washes to kind of give me a chance to change my palette if I so desire at this point.

Alrighty, I'm thinking the palette is good-- kinda light and airy and the flowers can stand out without worrying about the background.

The Loverly Mickayla, and Perfectly Wound Yarn Balls

The loverly Mickayla is so much more than this photo shows, and my intention was to catch that in my painting.  She is super-smart, all A's practically all the time; she is so animated when she talks, and so quiet when she is listening; she has a lot of red and blond in her brownish hair but doesn't believe me about that; she has great opinions and is becoming such a wonderful woman incorporating all of her experiences and past mistakes right along with her successes.

So here we have my first attempt at painting Granddaughter, I'm her extra G-ma and so proud and happy about that.  Now looking at the images side by side, I see that her eyes and eyebrows are too small, and maybe my skin is a tad too pink...in the background I have collaged in her astrological sign and some other things that I know about her...BUT it's still not catching Mickayla's essence, or maybe my essence in explaining her.

I am going to put this aside for a second and do some poppies to get out of this far too serious mode.  I need to come back to Mickayla with a free spirited vibe, like hers.

Not breathing any too well right now.  Just feeling kinda up tight and wound up in a yarn ball, a perfectly wound yarn ball!

Oh no, Realism?

Here's Zak and Eric, Zak playing and Eric watching hoping to get his turn.  This photo was taken at Younger Daughter's home on Christmas Day, 2013.  I immediately love the way the light catches the boys faces and hands.  There's shadow areas which are not so easy to define and there is a golden reflection of light on the keyboard which is a matt black color underneath the glow.

So here's my interpretation so far.  I cleaned up the background to give full focus on the playing of the music.  In life there is lotsa texture and paint on this canvas.  Looks like I need more highlights on Zak's face and shirt and also on Eric.  I didn't want to do too much highlighting on Eric as I felt he would become a white blob but as I see it now, a lighter value of his skin color would work only using a small bit of white where the lightest light is.  This is an oil so I am going to let the paint settle for a few days before attempting more.

Gosh, I just don't breathe correctly when doing these...too close to realism I think.

My Most Recent Series: Joyful People

So been off the grid since Christmas!  Whoa!  It is February and finally I am back in the blogging mood.  I have been very busy with my new series of paintings and it's people, mostly children doing fun things.  I am using oil now, have set my acrylics aside wanting to use big pieces of paint again.

Here is my art space, the little area where I work.  There is my palette, brushes, medium and on the easel is the piece On which I am working.  It's three kids marching in their paper hats to launch a paper boat in a stream, very cute.  I've got a long way to go on it.

This is of a girl sitting waiting for her Mama in Thailand.  It's almost finished.

Another painting done from a pic of interesting happenings which I snapped, but this time in Laguna.

And this is Blue Lady.  A woman standing looking out at her child who was getting a little too deep out in the surf.

This little girl was playing and dancing in the water while I watched from a vantage from where she could not see me.  She was playing alone even though there were so many others around her.  I was enchanted by her moves and the joy that was so obvious.

Here is Blue Lady again snapping a photo of her own.

My grandkids, DJ and Leilani.  This still needs some highlights.  One day when I become really brave I'll go back and do the finishing touches.

Here is Papa and Zachary and Levi.  We were hiking in the foothills a while back, and  I purposely was in the rear to enjoy the antics of these three boys in my life.  I snapped a shot as we were on this ridge, the trees and trail continues below.  Papa came out younger in my painting, I guess because that's the way I see him.