Serendipity Artist

Blog Migration

2007-05-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

I am migrating my blog to a new place. Please visit the new site at http://serendipityartist.wordpress.com. The new site offers tagging and some other nifty features I hope readers will find useful. The new site is still under construction, but that is where I will be posting from now on.

The Power of the Indian Stray Dog

2007-05-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to my online book:

The Power of the Indian Stray Dog

Food Gatherers

2007-05-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have a few items on auction at the Saline Picture Frame Co. to benefit the Food Gatherers. Here are a couple of photos and links to the auction. In addition I have a small book up for auction that is not on their website yet. I plan to put an online version of the book soon. The print is based on a drawing from the book which is entitled: The Power of the Indian Stray Dog.

I'm back

2007-05-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe I haven't journaled since January. I just got back from the Art Librarians conference in Atlanta. I'm exhausted, yet too over-stimulated to sleep. Feels good to be home knowing that normalcy has returned and that my body will soon recognize that and relax.

When I went to my studio to retrieve this journal I spotted the wood I had purchased for P's meditation stool.
I'm looking forward to making that and to finishing my Zen shrine. I saw a few inspirational pieced in Atlanta including books by Maryann Riker . I also saw some Jospeh Cornell pieces at the High Museum.

New Year

2007-01-02T07:27:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to say that I haven't done much artwork over the holidays. Nothing like getting out of my routine to squelch my productivity. In the creative vein, however, I did paint my bathroom bright blue and did lots of knitting.

On a more somber note, my husband gave me "An Inconvenient Truth" for Christmas. I have wanted to see this move for a long time as I consider Al Gore one of my heroes. It was like watching a science fiction movie about a doomed civilization and you want to tell these people, "Don't you see what's happening? Why are you killing yourselves!"

Being the eternal optimist I have to believe that we as a people are waking up. So along this line I have decided to focus my energy on the positive changes that are taking place now to help solve these terrible problems. My new year's resolution is to collect evidence of these hopeful events.

Here is today's good news:

A Century Later, Los Angeles Atones for Water Sins by RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

New Congress Holds Big Changes for Attitudes on Global Warming by Nick Aster

Hot press poppies study

2006-12-19T18:49:00.000-08:00

I've been working on studies for the poppies painting. After finishing this first study on cold press, I decided to try hot press (not a surface I usually paint on).

I enjoyed painting on the hot press and liked the way the colors pooled and gave a painterly feel. It seemed to free up my mind and hand.

Vanity and Scams

2006-12-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

I spent much of the week experiencing agitation and not doing artwork.

Early in the week I got an out-of-the-blue email from a guy in England interested in purchasing a couple of my paintings. I was, of course, flattered and spent one of my morning art sessions trying to locate these paintings and another trying to rework my poppies painting in acrylic (because this English man was interested in acrylic paiting and so I thought that I should get back to working in this medium, blah, blah, blah).

Then later in the week I thought about doing a little Internet checking to see if I could find out more about this mysterious patron. It didn't take long to discover that he was a scamer! Boy, did that take the wind out of my sails.

Here is this guy's letter - in case you ever get one from him.

I did get a small amount of painting done on my poppies study. Hopefully there will be more to show later this week.

Beanster's show is up

2006-12-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

The show is up at last. Hope you enjoy it!

Drawing Poppies

2006-11-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

I finished the poppies drawing over the Thanksgiving weekend. I fell in love with the round shapes of the seedpods - not something that I really expected. That's the great thing about drawing. It gets another part of your brain to notice things. What grabs your non-drawing brain immediately when it looks at poppies are the brilliant flowers. Your drawing brain requires slowing down and delights in unexpected gaiety and rhythm. I'm excited to begin painting, but will need to spend time this week getting my Beanster show paintings framed and packed up.

Color studies for poppies

2006-11-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

I'm starting work on my next watercolor painting of poppies. It's based on a photograph that I took in my back yard several years ago when I was living in Mt. P. of my poppy patch. These dark days leave me yearning for some spring light and color.

Here are some color studies. I feel like the painting needs cad. orange and indigo blue, but I'm a little unsure about using these rather opaque colors. Perhaps if I only use them a little?

I also want to confess to using grids to construct my drawing. I can draw without a grid, but I end up wasting a lot of time reworking. My main concern and reason for using the grid is to accurately capture the shape of the flowers. To justify my cheating let me say that it's still a lot of work and I don't trace. I also use my own photographs and I manipulate the photo in photoshop - so there is a lot of creativity happening. Here is my grid. I prefer to use newsprint and folding the grid is a lot quicker than drawing it and it also doesn't interfere with my drawing.

This is a painting I worked on yesterday. I think I improved it a lot by darkening the background, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to include in the beanster show.

Beanster Preview

2006-11-19T06:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of paintings from my upcoming show at Beansters in December.

This Blog

2006-11-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

I created this blog in order to post information about my artwork and to get feedback from people. I'm hoping for some real critique and not just a pat on the back from my friends. My goal is to post regularly on the progress of my artwork. More to come soon.