One week away from Art at the Source! The above tractor painting is one of two paintings I started last week. I was hoping to go out to the tractor place today to finish them. The weather did not cooperate, remaining cold and foggy all day so I had to work from a photos in my studio.



Lots happened last week. Saturday I found out I was accepted to the San Luis Obispo Paint Out, Tuesday I was accepted into Tiburon's Art Festival and Wednesday was my birthday. During all this I am also finishing up my school year where I teach 3rd through 8th grade art at a private school.


My 3rd and 4th grade students are finishing up an "Art Chair" for the Marin fair. The chair is a "Godzilla" theme since we have two very educated "Godzilla" experts in my third grade class. Their passion for Godzilla is contagious. This is the third year I have done an art chair with my students. We start with a chair, add form using chicken wire, paper mache it and each student creates a small piece to add. Thursday was the last day to paper mache and I am so relieved. Now all we have left is painting and adding the buildings underneath.

Only two weeks left until Art at the Source at my Sebastopol Studio! Time is flying! Yesterday I blocked in the above painting. It is a view leading up to my country studio. The building in the background with the triangle light pattern is my studio. This painting was done from a winter photo. Now the creek has dried up and the grass has turned brown. I find I am so much more inspired to paint in the winter and early spring.

Today was a teaching day. Afterwards I delivered a painting to Tiburon to be judged for an art festival in August. I am also waiting to find out if I got into San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival and will find out early next week.

A 60 minute tractor study.

I spent another glorious day at the studio. It started with teaching in the morning, working on a quick study, finishing the above painting and teaching in the afternoon. My new postcards arrived today. They are an early birthday gift from my husband. This time, I ordered from a new company. Usually I use Modern Postcard and this time I used Overnight Prints which saved about forty dollars. I got a matte finish and would recommend using glossy in the future. Otherwise I am very happy with the new cards.

Todays 30 minute quick study of a picture from Los Osos.

New Class Times, Travel and More

I spent yesterday teaching in my Pepper Road studio. One of my wonderful students bought me a box of natural light florescent tubes. He installed them and what a difference! I have been avoiding turning on the lights in the studio since they would cast a yellow glow. The new lights are awesome!

I am now teaching on Fridays instead of Saturdays. Saturdays seemed to have too many conflicting events. Now, I offer a morning class from 9:30-12:00.

This summer is going to be a busy one with Art at the Source just around the corner and travel. Come check out the show. It runs June 6th-7th and 13th-14th from 10:00 to 5:00. It is at my Sebastopol studio at 7245 Wilton Ave. I have been busy painting and there will be lots of new work to see.

After Art at the Source, I will be traveling to Mexico for two weeks with my son and my mother. I am looking forward to painting the tropics and taking lots of pictures. My husband and I are working on a trip to Hawaii at the end of summer. Both of us have never been and it will be our first real vacation with just the two of us.

I did this study today taking some extra time since it is a donation for Sebastopol's Art Center's annual fundraiser. This years theme is motorcycles and the center is going to have custom built ones being displayed.

This was a very fast quick study of my husband practicing and our dog.

I had this lofty goal of painting everyday a quick study in less than 60 minutes. I have discovered that on the days I teach in Sonoma it's too much to get one in. I did manage to start this one last Monday and realized that this subject matter was too complicated to finish in one sitting. Too many small lines.

May Study #3

Here was my quick study for day three. Another view of the happy red truck from San Luis Obispo. I was trying to say under 60 minutes but went to 90.

It's Day #2 of a painting a day under 60 minutes. This is from a photo I took last year in Santa Cruz.

Today, I silently gave thanks to my grandparents. Both sets of my grandparents chose to settle and raise families in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, Sonoma County. It rained all day and I was quite content to be working in my studio on top of the hill. I had empathy for the soggy sheep huddled outside at the fence.

For the month of May, I decided to commit myself to a daily small painting before working on one of my larger works. I am allowing myself 60 minutes for the warm up. The painting above is a figure study over an abstract background. Below is my red truck warm up from a photo I took down in San Luis Obispo.

I had two good art happenings this week. One was I was chosen to be Blick's Facebook Artist of the month and the other was I was selected to participate in Alameda's Plein Air Competition in July. These daily warm ups will get me in shape for the "quick draw". At the end of a competition, all the artists gather in one area and only have a couple of hours to complete a piece of work to be auctioned.