Blue Marble

oil on RayMar panel, 18x18"

Well. Some weeks just shouldn't be repeated. Lots of problems to resolve, no painting time and by Friday I just pulled the covers over my head and stayed in bed. All day. But its a new week, and the start of a new month, so on to new things!

This marble painting follows the jack - the jack went so easily but with this one I have really struggled, even though it seems less complex. Getting the circle round, the sense of fullness of the sphere, the semi-translucence of the glass, the reflection... lots going on here just on a technical basis. I plan to work with the marbles again, try to get better mastery of them. But tomorrow I'm painting cupcakes!

Jack

oil on RayMar panel, 18x18"

This was So much fun to paint! Shifting to a large, square panel was fresh, and working with bigger brushes forced me to make big decisions, not to noodle around so much. And I love jacks. I don't know why, I never played with them much as a kid, but something about the tactile mix of sharp points and roundnesses. To get the dark reflection I put the jack on a black mirror.

Seth atThe Altered Page is giving a look at artist's favorite works, with comments from the artist about why he or she chose that piece(s). It started today and will go on for a few days at least: more than 40 artists are participating, so take a look! If you enjoy assemblages and/or robots, also take a look at Guy Robot, the work is wonderful and the bios for each guy are too fun.

Where Is Everybody?

oil on RayMar panel, 8x16"

Well, I couldn't let Easter go by without at least one last egg painting! Today is the first day of Spring, and thats something to celebrate for sure. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

*A new link in my favorite painters is Ali Cavanaugh, she does the most fabulous compositions. My personal favorite (at least today) is "Doubtful", which was her Dec. 23 post, but there are many wonderful paintings there. Take a look!

Untitled

oil on canvas, 15x30"

This painting relates to a sad event in my life and I am posting it in response to the Door Event posting done by Neulekirppu. Doors can mean so many things, both opening and closing, beginnings and endings.

No. 13

oil on RayMar Panel, 13.5 x8"

DOOR DAY: Elizabeth from Marrakesh and Frank from Mexico have invited me to participate in a celebration of DOORS. As Frank explained "There is something intriguing about doors. Doors are all over the world. Doors lead somewhere. They keep things in, they keep things out. Doors have histories, stories, mystery. Let's share some."

I am joining artists from the U.K., Canada, Australia, Scotland, the U.S.A. and Finland in celebrating doors in paint, words, drawings, photographs, poems, etc.

My door painting is from a photo I took on our trip to China last year. It was in a tiny village and the only house with a painted door. The title, "No. 13" is the number on the door - perhaps more of a decoration than an address, as no other house was numbered (and in a village of 20 houses do you really need an address?) Its the same village that I painted "Way of Life" from (January 25 post). What is special there isn't so much a sense of going back in time as a timelessness; a sense of purpose and a fitting in with the world.

Faye Christian Phillips said in her "door" entry, "When I first began this blog, my intention was to share what I am doing with friends and family, but I could never have anticipated the many "doors" that would be opened to me as I am welcomed by new friends around the world." I can't say it any better. Thank you to all who have visited my blog and been so supportive; to my new friends let me say how inspiring I find you all, and a very special thank you to Carol Marine for introducing me to this wonderful world!

Here are links to the other artists joining in with their doors, please go and enjoy! (For pure fun make sure to go to the Skophammer's site!


Elizabeth Wix, "The House in Marrakesh", Marrakesh, Morroco

Frank Gardner, "My Paint Box", San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Ambera Wellmann, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Constance, "Rochambeau"

Jennifer Thermes, "Art-Words-Life" - Connecticut , USA

Joanne Giesbrecht,"Thistledown Arts", Alberta, Canada

Eric Orchard, Nova Scotia, Canada

Jack Riddle, Portland, Maine, USA

Christine Mercer-Vernon, "An Artist's Log", Pennsylvania, USA

Faye Christian Phillips , Kentucky, USA

Britt-Arnhild, Norway

Kate and Roger "The Skophammers", Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Terry Rafferty, USA

Barbara,"Ramblings from an English Garden", London, United Kingdom

Pam Aries,"Art and Soul", Charleston, S.C. ,USA

Mary Sheehan Winn," Just Painting", Florida, USA

"Some Pink Flowers", St. Augustine, Florida, USA

Rima, "The Hermitage", Scotland

Merisi,"Merisi's Vienna for Beginners", Austria

Paz, "Paz's New York Minute", New York

"Down Under Dale", Australia

The Aesthete, "Aesthete's Lament", USA

Mari/ Kameravena, Finland

Maryam, "My Marrakech", Morocco

Willow from "Willow's Cottage", California, USA

Ari, "Typo Blog", Finland

Lea,"Tales from the Labyrinth",USA

Stephanie, "Rodrigvitzstyle"

Madelyn,"Persisting Stars", Vancouver, Canada

Leslie,"Snips and Snails and Puppy Dogs Tales", Pennsylvania, USA

Karen Cole,"Artsortments", Pennsylvania, USA

Barrie, San Diego, California, USA

Sherry/Cherie, Toronto, Canada

Claudia Schmid, London, United Kingdom

Sue, "The Magic Armchair Traveller", Congresbury, Bristol, United Kingdom

Gemma Wiseman, "Greyscaale Territory", Australia

Neulekirppu, Finland

Laura Fortune, "Amongst The Oaks",California, USA

Sara Lorayne, "Come Away With Me", California, USA

Caroyln

oil on panel, 11x14"

Carolyn is another new model for me; she is a dancer and a very modern woman who has a wonderful sense of costume. (Her shoes were particularly fabulous, a cross between 18th century European and Chinese!) Painting her was a great deal of fun; maybe next time I can get to those shoes :-)

Morning Tea

oil on RayMar panel, 8x8"

This was a joy to paint - watching reflective surfaces come to life on the easel is just magical. I found the teapot in some junk (there is a hole in the bottom!) and I found the spoon laying in the street on a walk in January. When I set them on my stand, which already had the blue drape on it, a pink rose seemed like the perfect addition to this "found" still life.
My mother was an endless tea drinker; she would have been 80 this week, so this painting is for her.

One Eggcup, Two Eggs

oil on RayMar panel, 4x4"

What more can I say about eggs? Just that they are really fun to do and there will probably be more! Here the challenge was to get the brass cup to stand out - it caught so much of the navy blue drape in reflection that it had a tendency to disappear.

Jug & Egg

oil on panel, 8x8"

This was an experiment in going back to a very limited palette: yellow ochre, terrra rossa, ivory black, and titanium white. Quite a change from the usual 25- 30 colors I lay out. Artists argue all the time about the "correctness" of a limited versus extended palette of colors, but I think ideally we can be flexible enough to use each. By going between the two concepts it helps keep work from getting into a rut and lets me discover new ways of doing things.

Balance

graphite on Strathmore paper, approx. 8x10" image; 14x17 sheet

This is another Monday night drawing - one of my friends, Kell Black has challenged his students to do a drawing of a hand with an egg, so I decided to play too, seeing as hands and eggs have been a theme for me this month. Kell is an amazing artist, drawing, creating paper sculptures and a musician - and his students seem to love him too! Go, Kell!

Brown Pelican: Pelecanus occidentalis

oil on RayMar panel, 9x14

When I was growing up in Santa Barbara in the 60's seeing pelicans was a rare and special event. At that point they were at risk for extinction because of the widespread use of DDT. With Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" and the subsequent banning of DDT the pelicans made an amazing recovery and can be seen cruising ocean waves on both coasts of the Americas. No longer rare, watching these pteryldactyl-like birds is still special.

This particular bird was quite calm, settled into his feathers on a chilly, rainy day in January, letting me take a number of photos.

For more information on these wonderful creatures, check out Cornell's bird web site - they have a great recording of the young squawking for food that really got my dog's attention!