Mother's Day in Santa Fe & I have the best husband in the world

Today is Mother's Day. I arrived in Albuquerque and picked up a rental car to drive to Santa Fe. The minute I saw the orange HHR I knew it was meant to be!



I doubt that I could lose that in a parking lot or forget what I was driving with that. Actually - I pretty much loved it - the color has a lot to do with it though, but the seat is kind of hard. Anyway, I drove the hour or so to my hotel and checked in. As soon as the clerk saw my name he brought over this big box from Pro Flowers and said they had been there waiting for me and everyone was wondering who they were for. Rick had planned ahead and sent tulips - my favorite flower - with a little box of candy to the hotel to be there for me on Mother's day. He is so sweet and thoughtful. They really help this room feel nicer. The Garrett's Desert Inn was built in the 50's and looks the part. But it is neat and clean and smells pretty good. It's everything I need - a bed and a shower. Tomorrow is the first workshop day, I am exhausted. These pictures are up but not organized and I am going to bed and try to get some sleep. I'll straighten all of these out tomorrow. My throat is still on fire but other than that I am not feeling too awful - already I can tell that I should have planned to stay an extra day or two as there is a lot to see here.

Bonfire Chili and laundry

Here is my newest hair color - a combination of Bonfire and Chili -those were the names of the color that my hairdresser Jessie used - and I love it - love-love-love it! This is in bright sunlight - so it really looks a bit darker than that most of the time - but wow - I love it. There are some blondish steaks and other stuff going on in there too. This special little color combo took a little over 3 hours to get, that is a very very long time for me. I spend practically zero time on my hair, I normally don't even brush, comb or blow dry my hair - I wash it, scrunch it and walk away. This color feels like life to me, and joy, and fun. YAY!

I am not a big fan of plastic surgery, but not a big critic of it either. Inside I am a pretty happy joyful person - even though I have been having a hard time since I moved to CA - it is getting better and deep inside I really am a happy joyful carefree person. But my family is constantly asking me if I am angry or sad or something - when I am not. Not at all. Actually - I have tried to catch glimpses of myself in mirrors and reflections to see what the heck - why are they saying that all the time. And you know what? they are right! My face does not match up with the real me anymore! Who is that unpleasant, dour looking grump I see glancing back at me from that window reflection? Certainly it can't be me - but it is! So I have been studying this phenomena a little bit and have determined that gravity has pulled all of my facial features downward giving me an unhappy, sour, mad and generally unpleasant expression all the time. No bueno. Seriously - this is not good. I decided to do some self portraits and in taking photos of myself, see what I can do about this, short of a face lift.

When I was in high school and working at a grocery store we had a regular customer who I thought was beautiful and very interesting looking. Her face was lined and wrinkled and full of character - or so I thought then. Now I realize - since she was a golfer and sun worshiper - she wasn't nearly as old or wise as she looked - nor was it wisdom and character that gave her all those lines and wrinkles. Seriously - I was particularly fond of her wrinkled brow and at night I would practice wrinkling my brow and sometimes trying to tape the wrinkles in place with band aids so I could be as wise and wonderful looking as she was. In spite of what I now recognize as severe sun damage and premature aging - I never remember her looking mad or unpleasant.

Now I just need to get the rest of my life - and my face - to line up with my hair color. Does that sound dumb? Makes perfect sense to me. Maybe makeup....in the meantime I will go start the laundry and do some housework - and then my face and my life will actually match up - I hate laundry and housework. I have to get busy - but first I think I will go band aid a smile on my face...

Andrea & Gina and some thoughts

So here it is - all in one place, probably the only time, after this I will only put up the painting progress. These are my nieces Andrea and Gina, and the portrait is for my brother in law for Fathers day. So here is the photo I am working from, since they are in Ohio and I am in California, there will be no sittings or working from life on this one. It makes me very nervous to paint this way as I have to rely on my memory - which is very badly broken, and color from a photograph which is so much less than real life as far as color goes. And color is one of my biggest weaknesses, at least in my mind. So once again I am painting scared. It was so darn hard to get started! I worked mostly on Andrea - the beauty on the right - and I feel like the likeness is starting to develop but the color is awful. While with Gina I had a good likeness and lost it but the color is better. Michele - if you are watching - don't freak - this is just the beginning - much, much, much more to come. However today I have to do laundry and pack for my trip to Santa Fe, and tomorrow Nathalie and Rica are celebrating Mothers Day with me, so I won't get to work on this portrait for another week or so, unless I can cram in a few little sessions between laundry loads today.

You know - there is something very helpful and therapeutic for me about posting paintings, pictures and thoughts on this blog. It's almost as if I become totally detached in a way that I could never do "in real life" and I can see these pictures and paintings in a whole new light, as an almost casual observer, completely unattached. So I would tell a stranger to start over - the placement of the figures could be better and you are not so far into it that it would be any great loss. So I may just do that. I am very concerned about time though - drying and shipping - I really want it there in time for Father's Day.

Michele - if you are reading this - I know this is going in Kim's office - so what colors are in his office? email me Okay?

Pretty Big Changes: Rick's Painting

This is how it started last January






This is what it looked like in March.


And this is what it has developed into as of yesterday. I am liking it! This is nearing completion I think, but I am eager to see how it will continue to change and develop. It 4' x 5' and acrylic on canvas.

Works in Progress

Here is Portrait of Sophia 16" x 20" oil on canvas
Not quite finished but almost. It needs a couple of tweaks here and there, but over all I'm happy with it. I really like experimenting with the pattern and will do that again. In the mean time here is Andrea & Gina - about 10 minutes into the start. Rick called from where ever he is right now - Baltimore maybe? and that was just enough of a distraction to make me stop and play on the computer and take photos and putter around a bit. So back to work for me. This is a commissioned portrait for my sister-in-law who is in Ohio, it's a gift for her husband for fathers day. I thought I would attempt to keep a running progress report on this portrait so my S.I.L. could watch it progress if she wants to. Back to work for me....

What I did on my Zelda vacation...

Gone Adventuring with Zelda

I am taking a break - not so much because I want to - but because I HAVE to! I got a Nintendo DS as a gift along with several games, one of which is Zelda and the Phantom Hourglass. I have a thing for Zelda - a HUGE thing. No, an ENORMOUS thing. An ENORMOUSLY HUGE GIGANTIC out of control thing. I get completely obsessed with this game. It is difficult for me to eat or sleep or do anything until I solve the puzzles and complete this game. So I am giving into my compulsion and taking some time out until I get this game over and out of my system - because there is absolutely no point in doing anything else. Be back in a few days! I am going on vacation - with Zelda! YAY!

Natalie Progress Report

Okay - I pretty much am hating this - but here it is anyway. This is as far as I got in class so IF I decide to finish it now it will have to be from the photo. However - all is not lost, I do feel like I finally "got" the glazing bit and the part about not doing an impasto painting OVER the under painting. Yes, I believe learning has occurred. Vanessa has only been repeating this and talking about it showing me for about 2 or 3 years now...DUH. What was the title of my last post? So true, so true. I am also posting a couple of new journal pages today. I will try to get links up later - or just use the same ones from yesterday.

Geesh - whata dummy!

On April 4th I mentioned that I spent 6 hours photographing and posting the pages from the journals I've been working in. And DUH! - I didn't even give the links for you to go look at them if you wanted to. These are artist/visual journals - sort of like sketch books combined with journaling and altered books - sort of. Any way -if you'd like to see pages from this project - I believe there are 8 of us involved in this , from the US, Canada and UK. They are on Picasa, go here to see Seren's Journal (click on the picture)



and here to see Suess's Cat journal

Journal Swap: Suess's Cat Journal

Here are some pages - a sample of what you will see...

Progress Report: Linda Portrait

I haven't worked on this portrait - mostly because it scares me to death. I have quite a ways to go - but at least I have gotten it back out and on the easel. I had the nicest day hanging out with Vanessa and painting at her studio with her. The time just flew by! I found myself mixing paint and shuffling it around on my palette from one spot to another, and then when I did start to paint - I painted like I was painting with nitroglycerin or something. I barely touched the paint - barely touched the surface - barely painted! I was paintin' scairt -- and yet I am not entirely unhappy with what I have done, really. I chose this photo to work from because I think Linda is an awesome person, and I thought it really captured a part of her....and I loved her hands extending toward the viewer, and yet closed. Oh - those hands! One of the things I loved about the photo and one of the challenges I wanted to try - but now I am tip toeing around them like they might blow up in my face. What a coward I've become! OK - I have to go dig out my copy of Art and Fear now - and maybe even paint a little tiny something or other. (See Jan 30 post for photo and the start of this portrait)

Underpainting for Natalie

Natalie 18" x 24" Oil on Canvas Not much to say about today or today's painting. It's the under painting for next week. I hope to make something more interesting of it than just another head, anther routine, mundane portrait. What that might be I have no idea - time will tell I guess, we'll have to wait and see...Here is a photo of Natalie - I am not painting from the photo - I am painting from life -

Tiny Shondra

Shondra 2.5" x 3.5" Oil on Masonite

I took this photo about 10 times. Every time I put it on my screen I thought what is the matter here? - why is it so blurry? Then I'd re-shoot it and the same thing - blurry! What is wrong with me? What is wrong with my camera? So I went and actually taped the tiny painting ON my screen - next to what I thought was the best image I had...and darned if they didn't look identical, except for a little color adjustment. At this point I think I say - "Hey, it's supposed to look like that!" Actually it sort of is...I was trying to avoid detail, and go for the big shapes - (well, as big as a 2.5" x 3.5" shape can get) and even at that I over worked it - this will be getting fixed.

Swan Lake?

OK - here is an amazing sight! Sort of like Cirque du Soleil goes uptown and gets formal. Wow - prepare to be amazed...but Oh My Gosh - I love those frogs!!

So - What is art anyway?

This is just cute!

Shondra Portrait in Red

Shondra 8" x 10" Oil on canvas
Remember the under-paintings I did and posted on Friday, March 28th? Well, this is what one of them turned into and is my painting contribution for today. I have to say, I might like the photo a bit better than the actual painting! I have a heck of a time photographing these things - especially when the paint is still wet. The light lavender looking lights in her hair is actually very dark - but it is wet and reflecting light. I actually think I might like it light! This was a disaster! In fact in class, after working on it for 2 hours and it kept getting worse and worse I took a paper towel to it and wiped it back to the beginning stage. Funny thing is, both people on each side of me did the same thing and I think there was at least one more student that scraped hers back too. It was April Fools day - and everyone seemed to be having a tough time.
Other things in the works - we bought a portable table saw so I could cut Masonite to paint on. I now have a bunch of ATC sized (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") pieces to play with. I have been gessoing them and getting ready for a binge of teeny tiny paintings. Also, I spent 6 hours today photographing the Journals I have been working in from the Journal Swap, and setting them up on Flickr. Some of the participants want to enter their pages in some kind of event - for a book I think, so every one's pages need to be online somewhere so they can grab them and enter them. So that is done, learned a few things, but mostly felt like more avoidance behavior. I have been thinking a lot about my Bio and Artist Statement. I know I have my old ones around here somewhere - which would help with the Bio part - but the artists statement would probably have no relevance to me now, or what I am doing. I am a totally different person. I knew then what I was doing and trying to accomplish - now, who knows?
Geesh - and I have to do my taxes too! I was so determined to keep up with them for this year and I haven't done a thing! So I have all of last year and this year to catch up on. Even more avoidance behavior - on so many levels.....

Hmmmm...now that I've looked at this for a bit online, it seems that the shoulder and dress strap is a little too distracting, I may have to go tone that down...

A Pear Repair and a Little Robin

Remember this pear from a few days ago? (see March 13 post) Remember that the horizon line didn't quite match up? Well I fixed it the other day and so here it is again, only better. The color is not as good in this photo as the other I think - the blue is looking too rich here. I don't know, I have so very much to learn! Yesterday I did the little robin. Both of these are 2.5" x 3.5" and oil on Masonite. I think I will try them on eBay as ACEO's maybe.

Portrait Underpaintings and E.M. Forster

8" x 10" and 11 x 14"

Portrait Painting classes at Studio 2nd Street started back up Tuesday. Whew - just in time too. Seems like if I don't stay connected and in class discouragement sets in really fast. I went to class without passion or ideas or desire or much of anything other than my supplies. I wasn't even very happy with those. I had a small 8 x 10 canvas which I thought - fine no point in wasting a big canvas when I've been away so long and am uninspired, but I also grabbed an 11 x 14 canvas base coated in bright red - from a brief Carolyn Jasper and Bob Burridge binge I was on for a while. So what the heck - and then class started. Vanessa set up this great pose with a nice bright red back drop - how convenient. I started with the little 8 x 10 and got warmed up and then tackled the red 11 x 14. I am kind of excited about them now and looking forward to seeing how they develop in class next week. I hope the inspiration sticks around! I have no real preconceived ideas, and I find that is how I generally work. It's sort of the visual equivalent of "How do I know what I think until I see what I say." (E. M. Forster)

Name Game

Anything to keep from working right? Well, a friend emailed this to me and I thought it interesting enough to include it here. Supposedly - there are 36 people in the US with my name - but I think what they really mean is that there are 36 people in THEIR data bank, which probably does NOT include absolutely everybody - but I could be wrong. Any way - here it is if you want to play along...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 36 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

TED Talk

This is a book by Dr Jill Taylor, a brain researcher.

Go here and spend 20 minutes listening to her.

Rick's Painting Progress

For some reason today has been a crappy day. I have no explanation for it. I knitted a bit and worked in Suess's journal, and worked on Rick's painting. This is a really bad photo of course - but in my commitment to self-discipline and will power I forced myself to work on this a bit. Mostly I am baffled by it - I feel like I have lost focus. I did a bunch of value drawings of it and that didn't seem to help. I painted out my favorite parts as I felt I was too "married" to them too early in the game, and played with light and dark. Basically I pretty much hate it - but I will not quit. I will try to work it out some more on paper before I paint on it again - I think.

Getting Back On Track

Pear Practice 3" x 4" Oil on Masonite


I am trying to get back on track with daily painting and posting as well as re-focusing on the theme of the year - "The Year of Self-Discipline and Will Power". Last year - "The Year of Trips and Prizes" was a heck of a lot easier and more fun! Any way - I painted this last night, to force myself back into routine, took the picture while still wet - thus the annoying reflection. I also work a little bit on Linda and another old portrait. So - technically this is yesterdays post and I owe myself one more today. I also need to get busy on those Egypt photos and get them posted.

I am back from Egypt

PANORAMIC VIEW OF CAIRO from our hotel window when we first arrived. It is a HUGE BUSY city. It was built for 5 million people. At night 17 million are there, during the day 22 million are there, as 5 million come into the city to work each day. It is growing by about 1 million per year.

Physically I arrived home Wednesday March 27Th, mostly. Mentally and emotionally I may have finished arriving today. Since I got back, today is the first time I have felt anywhere near normal. Egypt was awesome. I will be writing about it and posting photos soon. I have so much going through my head, I have done a lot of thinking - well, that's really nothing new - I always do a lot of that anyway. But I am determined that this year - the Year of Self-Discipline and Will Power - that I will make some progress, decisions and commitments. I have known this all along - but I absolutely need to set some boundaries and rules for myself, some limitations. No , seriously, I mean it, really. I absolutely detest the thought of this and every molecule within is screaming in protestation and organizing a rebellion. I know without a doubt this will be painful and difficult but I am determined to give it a serious try. I just want to do everything and try everything. Nearly every darn thing under the sun is interesting to me and I want to know and do it all. OK - I have been distracted by household stuff and Rick - to be continued....

Hey - where's the toilet?

We are having new hardwood floors installed. I've never done this before. Any work that needed to be done or renovation that were needed I pretty much did my self, and conned Rick into getting involved. This time we are having the entire first floor of the house redone. That entails ripping up tile and carpet and my painted floors. Let me just say right now - I did not think this through. In the last house I ripped about about 6' x 8-10' of tile with a hammer and chisel. It was a horrible job and Rick and I both swore we would never EVER do that again - so we hired out the demo this time, thankfully. Apparently that was such a traumatic experience that I just shoved it out of my memory and happily plod right on into this project with out much thought at all! So in the morning I let the crew in and left to run errands and go to painting class. On my way home I had to go to the bathroom REALLY a lot - so I hurried home ran in the house and saw this!

OK - SHOCK! - First indication that I didn't think about this or plan well enough - no problem - I ran to the powder room and saw this!




What??? Where's the toilet??? Second indicator that I really have not planned well ... so I opened the coat closet to hang up my coat before I ran upstairs to the bathroom and look what I found!!!



I didn't dare laugh as hard as I wanted to or would've wet my pants for sure. I headed up stairs only to find all access thoroughly taped off and sealed with plastic, plus an extreme amount of dust and crud stuck to the plastic just waiting to apply itself to the first available sucker that even tried to pry it from it's guard post protecting the stairs and upstairs rooms - so back to the "toilet closet" - grab my coat and SPEED to Rick's office! I did not plan well at all - but this will be so cool when it is done!

No Art For Me....

The last 2 days have been spent entirely on the computer. I enjoy doing this but since I am completely unschooled in computers the learning curve is steep and slow. I compare it to working a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle, only a little more fun and rewarding. When I am done with a jigsaw puzzle - (an annual family Christmas tradition)- all I have is a puzzle put together. When I am done with my computer adventures I have actually learned stuff I can use again - much better. SO what have I learned? I learned how to get my paintings on eBay and link to them from my blog, learned about widgets, blog rolling, sort of learned what chicklets are but I'm still not sure of the difference between widgets and chicklets for certain. I learned about feed burning and put a feed burner on my site and a feed reader on my computer and transferred all of my favorite blogs from my bookmark folder to the feed burner and figured out how to work it - WOW - does that make things easier and FAST too! This is all working toward driving traffic to my site since I can't really be successful at selling my work online if no one can find it. I looked at a tone of other artists sites to try to learn how seemingly more successful artists are doing it. I compared a dozen or so "on line gallery" sites, like ArtSpan and Yessy and Imagekind etc. I have decided to get accounts on Yessy and also one other one whose name escapes me at this moment. I think I will try them for a year or so and see what kind of response I get.

I reviewed the first month of "2008-The Year of Self Discipline and Will Power" and made some good discoveries. This is a little of what I learned: I have made a few small improvements. I forgot most of what I was trying to accomplish. I need to review at least weekly and not monthly. I need to set measurable and definable goals. I can't know progress in anything if I don't have start and finish lines. I still have a lot of work to do but I am encouraged. And yes - I am proud of myself for taking on this task for this year and for trying to make some improvements. No self-condemnation allowed this year. One of my goals is to become more interesting...uh, can someone tell me where is the start and finish line for that one is?

I am seriously in need of some painting time - but there is so much going on this month - I am down to 2 weeks to get new hardwoods installed on the first floor, new carpeting upstairs, paint the house inside-the entire first floor and stairwell and upstairs hall, get moldings installed, pack and prepare for 2 weeks in Egypt and return home to guests staying with us, who will arrive the day before we get back! Then it will be into March! This is all fun stuff too - but I am really feeling the NEED to make some art, and as Martha Stewart would say - "that's a good thing."

Rubber Ducky eBay Day

Rubber Ducky and Easter Eggs #1 ; Oil on Canvas ; 6" x 8" Go To eBay


Well, I have been threatening - er, make that promising - myself to try to sell my artwork on line. I have spent the entire day trying to figure out all of this stuff. OK - MOST of the day. I kept losing all of my material because I don't seem very adept at following instructions today, or finding that little "Save" button before I close out of a page, thus losing everything I did and therefore repeating the same work several times over. I have had these two little paintings for a few months and I really, really like them. I do - really. However, I have chosen them as my first sacrificial lambs on the eBay alter. OK - so sacrificial DUCKS -wait, can you have sacrificial ducks? I don't remember ducks being specified as acceptable in the Bible - are they clean or unclean? I know about doves - but what about ducks? I guess I'll have to go look that up now too. I digress - or depart actually - get back on track Nathalie! OK - I am back, I think. ANYWAY - here are the 2 paintings that I listed on eBay. It seems like these little paintings would be perfect for someone - for a new mom or grandmother, or for a nursery or something. I think my biggest issue is going to be getting "found" - can't sell anything if nobody knows about me, or can find me. I have so much to learn!! Right now I will go figure out how to put a link to my paintings on eBay so you can get there from here...be right back...


Rubber Ducky and Easter Eggs #2; Oil on Canvas; 8" x 10" go to eBay

YAY - I did it!!!

Linda - Under painting started

Here is today's painting practice. It took me a while to find something to paint today, just not feeling very inspired. Then I ran across this photo of my friend Linda which I took a while back while we were hanging out at Starbucks. I liked the photo when I took it and seeing it again was just the spark of inspiration I needed. Linda is an extraordinary woman. I hope I can do her justice. This is just a start of the underpainting. I was so happy with the start on Jasmine yesterday that I wanted to give it another try - hoping I am still "in the groove"...at any rate, I am feeling pretty good about this one too -even though I am out of time now and have to go - before I feel like I am really finished with the underpainting yet. I suppose it will work though...I hope.

Under-painting of Jasmine

Jasmine 12" x 24" oil on canvas

This is a 3 hour under-painting from life done today. What a beautiful model and a joy to paint. I'll finish it next week - but right now I am darn happy with this start!

BIG Daily Painting

Here is the START of the painting I am doing for Rick's office. It is basically huge...well, at least quite large. 4 feet x 5 feet. I am spelling the word feet so you won't mistake a ' for a " since I have been working so small lately. You might think that I think that 4" x 5" might be huge at this point. after all it would be twice as large as I've been painting. I've been working on it most of the morning and decided to take a lunch break and post my progress. I have no idea where it is going, but it seems very biographical at this point, like "The Story of Rick." - I am just painting on instinct and developing what ever I see in the painting as I go. Does that make sense?
Off for a quick nap and then I hope I will have time to play with a little 2"x 3" painting before Rick comes home.

Catching up on the daily thing...

I actually have been painting - I am just behind in posting and well painting too. I am not giving up on the Year of Self Discipline and Will Power - but it sure is hard!
Rick called me on hi sway to work and said to look out the window - and this is what I saw - well, sort of what I saw - by the time I ran to get the camera it had faded quite a bit.Still always a remarkable sight though isn't it?



Then here is today's little painting, a lemon and green plastic glass. YELLOW AND GREEN 2.75" X 3.5" OIL ON MASONITE








There is a little self portrait also about 2.5" x 3.5" oil on Masonite. I did this little portrait with paint that was left over on my palette. Maybe not such a good idea... I am happy with the Onions and Grapes 2.5" x 3.5" Oil on Masonite though, that turned out OK. The red in the shadow seem to be quite a bit brighter looking on the computer that in real life though - the red seems to really pop out here and is pretty distracting I think.

Portrait from Class

ROBERT 12" X 16" OIL ON CANVASBOARD

I did this portrait of Robert in my Tuesday portrait class at Studio 2nd Street It is about a 6 hour portrait. It has an unfortunate accident on the way home from class. I had it laying flat in the back of the 4Runners and when I turned a corner a box of art supplies slid right across the the top of it, smearing the face quite badly. That was pretty frustrating and disappointing because I was feeling quite pleased with this painting. It looks like progress to me - I am still not where I want to be, but at least I have turned enough of a corner that I no longer feel like quitting altogether. I tried to fix it up when I got home, I guess it's OK now. OF course I can still see damage, but I don't think any one else will be able to find it...at least I hope. Actually - the repairing process was a learning experience too, so I guess i will be thankful for it.