Summer Pastels - Struve Slough - Class #4 - 7/29/17

Struve Slough, Watsonville, CA

Summer Pastels - Highlands Park - Class #3 - 7/22/17

Highlands Park creek painting

We spent the day painting at Highlands Park in Ben Lomond. We were lucky to find a spot right by the river where we could all set up and sketch. Ann wanted us to focus on the waterfall and try to convey the sense of movement of the water. It was a hot day and several people and dogs came out to paddle and hangout in the water, but I decided not to add them to the scene. I used a dark tan pastel paper by Canson for this one, in future I will try the Sennelier La Carte brand as well, that Ann recommends.

Detail of the above

Summer Pastels - Neary Lagoon - Class #2 - 7/15/17

Neary Lagoon - 7.15.17 - Pastel Class #2

We painted on-site at Neary's Lagoon in Santa Cruz. It was a very hot day and we were in the full sun for 3.5 hours. This study examines how to paint water and tule marsh areas. I plan to work more on this painting and will add in some ducks or a crane. Click on the image to view a larger version. It's a bit out-of-focus.

Summer Pastels - New Brighton Beach - Class #1 - 7/8/17

New Brighton Beach, Capitola, CA

I'm taking a summer pastel class with artist, Ann Thiermann. We will visit various 'water' sites around Santa Cruz County - ocean, rivers, lagoon scenes. In our first class, we visited New Brighton State Beach. It was a typical beautiful day in Capitola. Above is my in-progress painting of that site. The paper color was a medium grey, and I discovered I need a few more light-valued pastels. It was high-tide and there were a few boats and stand-up paddle boarders in the water. Quite a busy day at the beach.

Summer garden with angel

Summer garden with angel

Red rose

Summer Rose

A beautiful red rose to mark the first day of summer.

Bug

Still Life

An acrylic painting from painting class with Ron Milhoan. From 2003.

Another birthday card - 2017

Drawing after Mantenga

My drawing after Mantenga

I drew this from a print at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizie in Florence, Italy. I doubt it's possible nowadays, but in the '90s, you could get a pass to sit in a special room in the museum and draw from originals or limited edition prints. This is a drawing I made from looking at a print. I did have a chance to draw from originals of a few lesser-known florentine renaissance artists. It was a great experience.

House Plant (2015) - acrylic on plywood

Barn at Flume Road, 2014

Bday card 2016

totoros with balloons

Barb's Bday Card

another birthday card

Fantasy Self Portrait - 1993 - Watercolor & Charcoal Pencil

jade plant

Getting back into regular sketching in my sketchbook – this one features a small branch of my sprawling jade plant. Perched on the windowsill, Jade was glowing in the afternoon sunlight, poised for praise. I used a Staedtler, Mars Lumograph B pencil; then a mechanical one for added definition. Staedtler makes very consistent high quality drafting/drawing pencils. I like using the HB, B, 2B for sketching. Some of the softer ones (4B and up) smudge too easily, since I’m inclined to rest my hand on my artwork.

Jade plant

bday card 2014

Birthday card sketch

Assignment 2 - Abstraction and Process Art - Day 1

Here is my underpainting for the abstract painting of my garlic. In this assignment we are researching techniques of notable abstract expressionist artists such as Diebenkorn and Frankenthaler, and applying their techniques and ideas to our paintings. I am working with water-soluble oil paints by Windsor-Newton, Daniel Smith, and Gamblin. These paints take quite a while to dry. I am not mixing with any medium except water. My process involves layering paint, dry-brushing, and transparencies. Canvas size is 20 x 24 inches. Class is Painting II at Cabrillo College with Prof. Tobin Keller.

Assignment 1 - Painting Study

I wanted to create a painting that could be seen from across the room. This work achieved that goal. Many times when I paint and draw, I stand back from my work and realize there is not enough contrast. In this quick study, I painted directly from observation, with the garlic placed outside in the full sun. The intense light allowed me to clearly see the form, and deliniate areas of shadow. This time I used thick oil paint, and painted wet into wet, allowing the colors to mix on the canvas. I think I used zinc white here, as well as french ultramine for the blue, magenta and/or permanent rose, and yellow light hue. The texture of the gessoed paper shows through to give a nice textured feel to the ground. This painting was inspired by the mostly monochromatic Diebenkorn still life paintings I saw at the Palm Springs Art Museum in January 2014. Medium: Water soluble oil paint on watercolor paper prepped with gesso.