Different Strokes

I love to keep learning about my chosen medium of watercolor. This book, Different Strokes-Watercolor by Naomi Tydeman, caught my eye not long ago. It is so vivid and colorful. And I liked the title!

The cover shows two interpretations of the same flower by two different artists. The same theme is carried throughout the book. It's fascinating.

I never tire of seeing how other artists interpret their subjects because every artist has a totally different perspective of anything you place in front of him or her. And no one way is right, nor is it wrong. Happily, every interpretation is what art is about: expressing one's own creative viewpoint and passion about a subject. I like this book because it celebrates this inclusiveness, while at the same time providing tons of helpful tips on technique and methods.

There are also several demonstrations of painting progressions - from drawings, initial stages, first washes, finished painting. Demonstrations include still lifes, landscapes, buildings, people, flowers. There are also chapters on basic color theory, composition, and watercolor technique. The book is geared for beginner watercolorists, but I think any artist would find it fun to peruse and learn from.

Happy painting!

Plum Blossoms on Stone

I just finished this new painting I'm calling "Plum Blossoms on Stone." I found these tiny blossoms on a long oval stone in my front yard this spring. They looked so soft and delicate on the hard stone with the long shadows of a late spring afternoon. They inspired me.

Once the painting is scanned, it will appear on my website.

The blossoms, of course, are long gone. Now the plum fruits are half way to ripening - a real treat for the deer who traipse through every day, and for me!

Persimmon Heaven

I absolutely love persimmons of all kinds. They are the best fall fruits, in my opinion.

These three persimmons were ripening on my windowsill with the late fall sun slanting in through the windows - which were not very clean as you can see, but I liked how the sun created patterns on the dust and showed the flaws in the glass. I especially loved how the sun brought out such warm orange-red reflections on the white windowsill; and how the glass reflected the warm reds back.

Anyway, here's my salute to an inspired creation of nature.

The Hawk Has Landed

and is now finished. I'll bring him into Irelock Imaging on Monday, have him scanned, and then he'll fly over to my website as a new addition, along with another painting I finished a couple of weeks ago. (The scanned image will look tons better than this photo, as I don't have the right lighting.)

Whew! That was challenging but a lot of fun. I really grew to like this fellow as he appeared bit by bit. I hope you do too.

Meanwhile, hope you are enjoying your weekend. We had quite a bit of impressive thunder, lightning, and rain last night. I woke up to a world scrubbed clean and very alive with bird calls.

More Spring Finds

On my walk today, I came across numerous clumps of this pretty wild iris. It's called Yellow Flowered Iris (Iris chrysophylla). They were really quite striking amongst the dark green grasses and poison oak.

I took photos of other wildflowers, but they didn't turn out well.

However, how about this weird find? I would guess it's an oak gall in formation. Quite odd.








On the painting front, I've been steadily working away at the hawk painting. I've nearly finished the body. All that's left is the background (sounds trivial, but it's NOT!).

When it's completely done, I take it to Irelock Imaging for scanning and then I'll put it on my website and this blog. (I apologize for the darkness of the image - it's been overcast all the weekends I've worked on it, so the photos aren't very bright.) Then on to the next project....

Hope you all had a great weekend (and hopefully all three days of it, if you're reading this in the US).

Welcome To My Blog

My interests are varied and wide, but always find their way back to my passions: nature, wildlife, sun playing shadow-games with what I see, and my attempts, through my artwork, to capture something of the essence of what catches my eye. There is a lot of joy in discovering something very beautiful and sometimes hidden, then bringing that aspect to light through a painting.After having lived in Los Angeles for over a quarter century (yikes!), I now revel in the countryside near me and never tire of it. Blacktail deer and wild turkeys wander freely and unmolested through the small town I found five years ago. (Of course, lots of other critters also wander through my front yard, but they tend to keep to the shadows and at night. Some, like skunks, find perverse pleasure in living under my house and spraying occasionally, especially in winter when I can’t air out the house without freezing. Phee-uwwwww!!!)




My paintings are inspired by what crosses my path, what I see on my walks and travels – whatever makes my heart beat a bit faster when I get hit with a sense of awe and delight.






Nature has also come to live with me in the form of four beautiful parrot companions: Sam (Jardine’s parrot), Chipper and Charlie No-Toe (cockatiels), and Pippin (lovebird). You will hear more about them in future blogs, but a brief visual acquaintance is in order. This is Sam looking out the window:

Chipper: eldest and in charge -- sensitive, highly interactive, always thinking (and conniving), and literary critic (aka Chipperoo, Roo) after which the blog was named Charlie No-Toe: singing, hanging out, and copying Chipper is his game



Pippin: the smallest and the sweetest and the smartest ball of energy




And Sam again: biggest, cuddliest green eating machine – and very shy.

So you have now met the main cast of characters that influence what and why I paint. I will be happy to share more with you in future postings. Stay tuned!