6x6" watercolor on Arches CP 140lb paper

Pre-Christmas time was very busy for me last year, mostly due to several portrait commissions. One of them was this sleeping baby boy. The unusual thing about this painting is how small it is – 6×6 inches. I don’t even typically offer portraits this small. However, it was requested by a loyal collector and I decided to give it a try. It turned out fairly easy to work on (not too much fiddling with tiny brushes) and looked good when finished.

(If you are interested in a custom painting, go here.)

I am still sort of recuperating from that busy painting period… It allowed me to keep paying off my new Mac and buy some framing equipment. In the absence of art fairs or gallery shows, commissions are my main source of art-related income (that, and classes now). But painting only custom work can be much more exhausting than working on whatever you feel inspired to paint. Ever since Christmas, I found it extremely hard to motivate myself to do pretty much anything. Of course, there are things I have to do and I do them – but anything not-so-mandatory, like being creative and active, just falls through my fingers.

The good thing is, once I realized that what is happening is just a good old burnout (mixed in with pregnancy, sickness, and stay-at-home-mom stuff), I also became interested in getting myself out of it. I restarted work on a few more commissions and checked out art books at the library. I looked through the long-term and short-term goals that I wrote down last year and found out that, for example, some goals that I was skeptical about at the time, I have achieved relatively easily. I also bought The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success by Jennifer Lee, after reading a comment about it on Artists Helping Artists (another good motivational resource). I received it in the mail today and I’m looking forward to ….something. Some kind of a breakthrough, upswing, burst of creative energy.

I’m also considering another painting challenge for myself. Maybe 100 landscapes. Or a month of daily paintings. A Portrait A Day didn’t quite make it to over 200 portraits I  had in mind – but it was a good project nevertheless. I learned a lot, I met new people, I grew. Something like that, maybe not quite as ambitious (especially since I’m about to have another baby) could be good.

How do you get yourself back on an upward curve? I’d love to hear some ideas

Pam's painting

As I promised, here are a couple of paintings by my adult watercolor painting students. Same setup with sunflowers on purple backdrop as the class demo I posted earlier. The color is probably quite a bit off in these shots – I didn’t have the originals to compare to when I was editing the photos – but it should give you an idea of how talented these women really are. Pam (above) has never painted before but has an exceptional gift for bold and exciting color. The various purples and oranges in this painting were all mixed from a 6-color palette of cool and warm primaries. I am glad she decided to try painting.

Sharon (below) is a kindergarten teacher by day (a trade that must mean some superpowerful combination of patience and courage, not unlike watercolor painting ) and and a relentless painting experimenter by night. I think she will keep growing as an artist at very fast pace.

Sharon's painting

I have been using En Plein Air Pro Watercolor Easel for half a year now. I still love it almost as much as I did on the day it arrived but I have a bit more perspective on its advantages, disadvantages and uses. So here we go:

Pros:

• Very lightweight (the easel proper, not counting tripod and shelf, is 1lb. 5oz)
• Extremely quick and easy to set up
• Fits onto any tripod via a standard tripod mount
• Thanks to that, you can manipulate the angle of the board any way you like
• You can buy the whole package with the easel, tripod, palette shelf, and carrying bag, or pick and choose among any of these. Since I already had a decent tripod (Slik Heavy-Duty Tripod with 3-Way Fluid-Effect Head and Built-In Bubble Level), I bought the easel attachment and the shelf.

• Fits into most backpacks, which means that your entire plein air setup can be carried in one backpack (the tripod can either go inside the backpack or be attached with straps outside).
• Both the easel and the shelf have holes for holding your brushes

• Despite being so thin and lightweight, the easel is actually relatively sturdy. It is made out of ABS plastic, which you can bend a little – but so far, it has stayed flat and straight.
• Has a lip on the bottom, so you can just prop up a sketchbook or sheet of paper against it without attaching it to the board
• Has a hook for hanging a water container – nice idea, but this is also going to the “cons” section below
• Compared to the heavy french easels with all of their paraphernalia, En Plein Air Pro just looks cool. Anytime I paint outside with some new people, somebody asks me about the easel.

Cons:

• The above mentioned hook for the water container is on the bottom right, which makes the easel board bend and lean that way whenever a normal size water bucket (like the popular collapsible water jar) is hanging from it. I usually just put the water container in the middle of my John Pike Watercolor Palette – 15 x 10.5 which sits on the shelf. It looks like the Original Series easel has the hook in the middle. I’m guessing, the hanging water container was interfering with the user’s ability to reach into the back of the shelf/palette, so they moved the hook to the side. The new Advanced Series Plein Air Pro palette shelf lets you put the water under the shelf, so you don’t have to worry about those hooks at all.
• Since this is a portable easel, you should probably expect to be limited in your choice of painting surface sizes. In the case of this easel, anything taller than 16-17 inches feels too big. It is definitely awkward to work on something like a vertical 16×20 piece.
• Because of the angle of the tripod legs, the shelf is tilted back, towards the center of the tripod, when all three legs are extended the same amount. To correct that, I make the rear leg longer, so that the whole tripod is leaning forward. This makes the shelf level but at the expense of shifting the tripod balance. I have had it topple over at the slightest touch of my 2-year-old. (Tip. Keep those toddlers away from your easels…especially if there is something on the easels that you care about). It looks like the Advanced Series palette shelf also fixes the tilting issue by introducing adjustable tabs.
• Umbrellas for plein air are not likely to work with this kind of setup. It would just be too heavy and throw the balance to the wind. But then, I don’t even own an umbrella.

Product of one of my plein air painting sessions - in Victorville, California

As with most portable setups, you have to watch out for that wind I just mentioned and weigh the tripod down. You also need to tighten the tripod mount screw quite well before attaching the easel to the tripod – otherwise, the board develops the tendency to slowly but surely rotate counterclockwise.

Because of the portability and flexibility, I use En Plein Air Pro more than my studio easel. I take it outside, I bring it to my classes, and I paint on it at home. If I didn’t already have a large palette, I would likely get the Advanced palette shelf.

Watercolor and wax crayon on Yupo

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me and my growing belly family! In 2012, I wish you inspiration, motivation, and success! And lots and lots of amazing art that you had no idea you were capable of making

12x12" Watercolor on Arches CP 140lb

This painting was done from life as a demo for my watercolor class. I loved the contrast of light, thick sunflower stems against the purple draping – hence the unusual cropping of the composition to show only the stems and the bottom few of the flowers. I’ll be posting my students’ versions of the same setup soon!

12x12" Watercolor batik on rice paper

For now, I’ll just say that it was a very labor intensive, albeit interesting, process. Step-by-step tutorial is coming soon. Don’t forget to check out all the other submissions to November Virtual Paintout!

Oh, and it smells nice…I used a stump of a very smelly white candle

Me doing something very serious - in reality, I'm showing basic wash techniques

I love teaching art. That is my revelation of the year. I get all excited and happy talking about complimentary colors and granulating pigments (O Cobalt! O mysteriously French Ultramarine!) I get blissfully carried away and don’t notice that it’s time to go home.

My Intro to Watercolor classes started here in the California high desert (Town of Apple Valley, to be precise) in September. Since then, I’ve had two 6-week sessions, and four out of five students in the first session carried on to the second (the fifth student couldn’t make it because of a surgery). It was great. I’m adding two more classes (intermediate watercolor and plein air) and, hopefully, at least one more location, in January. I’ll have to take a break when the baby comes (due date is April 5) but I plan on continuing with the classes in summer.

the mandatory geometric bodies still life in five values - painting by Valeria

Teaching art to somebody who is eager to learn is less like teaching and more like sharing something you really love. Most of my students are enthusiastic about painting (at least once they realize that watercolor isn’t as horrible and scary as they’ve always heard) and, although not very young, absorb new knowledge like children. I find myself being excited about their little discoveries and revelations – because I remember discovering them and I myself keep learning new things every day, including from my students…

Edie doing an exercise on Day 1 of Intro to Watercolor.

I had two concerns when I started the class. One, is that California High Desert is not exactly the center of civilization. Art, if it exists, hides from the daylight, heat, cold, and wind. Nothing happens here – with one exception, the Eclipse gallery. I was worried that my classes would just not generate enough interest and nobody would sign up. The second concern appeared when I realized that the majority of my students are somewhere around twice my age and might not take too well to being taught by someone who looks like she is, at best, fresh out of college. I think I saw some of that on the very first day of the class – but it didn’t linger. At the end of the first session, I asked my students to fill out a course review and the papers I got back from them turned out to be a major confidence booster . They loved the class and the instructor and were looking forward to the future classes.

Sharon painting a still life.

Sharon's abstract creation, one of many

Intro to Watercolor will restart on Friday, January 6, and the other two classes will begin on the day after. If you are interested in taking a class, click the “CLASSES” tab on the left. I will be adding information on the Intermediate and Plein Air classes soon.

10 x 7" Watercolor on Arches rough 140lb

Moody, quite unlike most of my happy and colorful watercolor paintings, but I like it. We went to Niagara Falls back when we could go places, in September 2008. It was rainy and stormy and foggy and misty most of our stay – which, coming from California, we did not mind too much

The painting was born out of a couple of exercises and concepts from Powerful Watercolor Landscapes (which turned out to be a very well structured, clear, useful, and overall worthy addition to my library).

Sue with a staff - 12x9" Sanguine and watercolor

I think it’s about time I started posting sketches and paintings from my occasional trips to a plein-air figure drawing group. They meet every other Saturday and so far, I’ve only been able to attend four times. It’s a drive for me..Over an hour drive, but it’s worth it.

The group has all kinds of people in it: professional artists, amateurs, interior designers, graphic designers, students, an archeologist, an orthotics/prosthetics specialist, and, of course, architects. The sessions are usually three hours, without a whole lot of structure – other than the general idea that the shorter poses come first, the longer ones last. The models range from professionals to total first-timers (I still remember one of them doing a cart-wheel for a dynamic pose ). The whole thing takes place outside, in the organizer’s backyard. It’s fun

These sketches are of Sue, a professional model who endured direct midday sun, ants, and an occasional lizard.

Sue 2 - 11x14" Nupastel and watercolor on watercolor paper

7 x 9" Watercolor on cold press Watercolor paper. $50

I think painting wet-into-wet is relaxing…This is pretty much what watercolor is all about

20x16" Watercolor and Acrylic Gesso on 140lb rough Lanaquarelle.

After a few months long break, I managed to create another painting for the Virtual Paintout project. It was one of those instant inspiration cases, which is a bit surprising given my reference image. Somehow, it really resonated with me – the high horizon, the birches, the grasses, the isolated little building…

Here is what it looks like on my living room wall:

The other news is that I’m 9.5 weeks pregnant and that I started teaching adult group watercolor classes. Being pregnant sucks, while teaching…I like it quite a lot so far I’m working on offering the basic class in other locations and I’m also developing an intermediate class.

6x6" watercolor on cradled Aquabord

Ampersand Aquabord is nice. 2″ deep cradled Aquabord is even nicer! You don’t need to mat it, just spray it with a fixative and varnish. You don’t even need to frame it. Stain the sides any color you want and it’s ready to be put on a wall. The painting above was born partly of the client’s wish for a smaller size and partly out of my desire to try the cradled Aquabord.

Reference photo: their very attractive corner of the yard. I love the windmill but I also felt that it would compete for attention with the pot. And, since we decided on a square format Aquabord, I would have been difficult to squeeze it into the composition.

As in most of my commissions, I spent some time doing preliminary sketches.

We went with this one.

I skipped the drawing – I typically don’t feel the need for pencil lines unless the subject is complex. For the first time ever, I noticed that on the Aquabord packaging, they recommend washing it with clean water before painting. So I did. It bubbled a bit (which it is supposed to do) and behaved much more wet-into-wet than I expected. If this last phrase sounds odd to you, I just mean that the paint spread and mingled better.

That’s what the 2″ deep cradle looks like with a 6×6″ board. I like it.

Next layer: trying to keep the flow and spontaneity of the first wash while adding a lot of detail. Not easy!

And the end result Like it? I do have prints and greeting cards

14x11" Watercolor on Kilimanjaro cold press 140lb paper

Here is another fruit of our trip to Lake Arrowhead. The model in this painting is yours truly and the the flowers are the same prickly mountain beauties that I painted in a vase. Originally, there was a window on the top left, but halfway through the painting, I decided I didn’t like it there and just filled the space with darkish but colorful background to make the lights on the figure pop.

More on what’s going on in my life in the next post. Meanwhile, hang in there and make art!

Oh yeah. If you are interested in buying this painting or a print of it, click on the image or go here! After all, this is a once-in-a-life time opportunity to own a nude version of me.

Remember my blirthday photo competition? Well, out of the four paintings I intended to make as a result of the competition, two are now done! Meet Athena:

I enjoyed working on this painting, even though it took me forever. I’m pretty pleased with myself for not overdoing and overdetailing it too much. I think I managed to keep the original exciting colors and amplify them a bit. Elza, the dog’s owner, will be getting this original painting for free Read about how you can order your own custom portrait here.

Fontana Art Festival that I posted about last time apparently turned out well. We didn’t make it there. Due to a number of little reasons, we left home running a bit late, stopped for food to save the starving husband from certain death, and then ran into a major traffic jam on the freeway. While wasting the precious time in traffic, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t make it there in time to set up and turned around. We went for a dinner, movie, and even a 15-minute massage date instead. Beats working (which art fairs surprisingly are) but I feel bad about flaking out on the show organizers

Otherwise, I am feeling swamped…(insert a long rant about not having time to paint anything other than commissions, not having time to answer emails and comments, and in general not having time; being exhausted by my own kid and occasional marriage drama; not having a single soul to go have a cup of tea with; and an overall state of blues).  Yeah.

On a good note, I started giving private art lessons and it’s been interesting so far. Tomorrow is our fourth lesson.

I’m telling you about it because yes, I will be there, too, with all of my stuff and probably sitting painting something. And while you’re there, go check out my show at the Fontana Senior Center!

14 x 11" Watercolor on Kilimanjaro cold press 140lb paper

Here is an unusually logical continuation to my previous post about Lake Arrowhead! Remember those prickly flowers that my husband heroically picked for me (five years in the military have not been for nothing)? Well, I brought them home, of course, and painted a couple of still lives with them. This is the only one of them that I liked enough to show to the world.

As you can see, I used quite a few different watercolor painting techniques here:

wet on dry

wet into wet

dropped-in water spots

backruns/blooms

palette knife lines

layering/glazing of transparent watercolor

a couple of layers of splatter and wet on dry. The light blue is Verditer and is almost opaque.

"Andrea" 20x16" Watercolor on Arches 140lb cold press paper.

Hi! Just so you are forewarned, this post has quite a few images. I have not been blogging very often but it was not due to the lack of content

I’m happy to share with you one of my latest custom works – the portrait of Andrea. The way that this painting came to existence is pretty sweet and romantic. Inspired by my painting of Brooke, Andrea’s husband walked straight into my booth at the art & wine festival and told me about his idea for a painting of his wife for her birthday. That was during the Lake Arrowhead Rotary Art&Wine Festival at the end of June and her birthday was on July 12. So, a few days later I was already working on this painting. I fell in love with the reference photo. The light was perfect, the pose natural and beautiful. Since it is a generous 20×16″ size, I could work in life size and not worry too much about insignificant details. I finished it in about a week, which is probably my record for commissions. Not having my son at the time (he was with grandparents in Sacramento) definitely helped with that.

Lake Arrowhead

As I promised in the last post, a few words (and pictures) about the Lake Arrowhead Art & Wine Festival. First of all, Lake Arrowhead is a jewel that I had no idea about and it is relatively close to where I live. It is hidden in the mountains, so you have to go through some winding roads and scenic vistas just to get there. Next time, we will take a motorcycle!

My booth at Lake Arrohead Rotary Art & Wine Festival

I was fairly pleased with the range and quality of art and high end craft that was represented at the festival and with the quality of the visitors. For such a tiny mountain community, the event drew quite a crowd.

Me at Lake Arrowhead

At most festivals, I offer 30-minute portrait studies, and this time, someone even decided to get one. Here is the result:

Crystal holding her 30-minute portrait study

It actually looks more colorful and the values are a bit darker in real life…Of course, I wished I had more time to work on it, especially since the model was doing such a good job sitting there.

On our way back from the festival, we stopped to take some pictures and I somehow succeeded in making my husband pick me some flowers. It was my idea and not a random romantic gesture on his part, but it was still cute. Especially when I learned that the flowers were very prickly…Love hurts, and there’s nothing you can do about it

Terry picking the prickly desert flowers

And then I posed for some pictures that were also supposed to be cute…I did my best, even though cuteness has never been my forte. Even in kindergarten, I wanted people to take me seriously

Me, despite the forced smile, being happy

On the 4th of July, we went to Ventura for the 4th of July Street Fair – which turned out to be a total waste of time and money. I’m not sure what happened, but it shouldn’t have been advertised to artists as anything having to do with fine art. There was a lot of nice clothes and trinkets, which, I’m sure, sold quite well. There was good music and tasty food. However, it just wasn’t made for fine art. So…I feel at best misinformed and overall very disappointed.

On a good note, my video interpretation of the Vase with Twelve Sunflowers has been featured on Watercolorpainting.com, which is a very informative website on, yes, watercolor painting. If you haven’t been there before, go check it out!

9x12" Watercolor on Arches cold press 140lb paper

The sleeping beauty here is, once again, from my life drawing session at the Sacramento Fine Art Center. It was a 15 or 20 minute pose and I decided to focus on her face instead of trying to capture the whole figure. It was a tradeoff, as the pose looked quite nice  – Sandra, who sat next to me, managed to get it all right in such a short time! See her version here.

I promise I didn’t mean for Julie’s arm to look amputated…Err…I think might have to go back and fix that.

The figure drawing was on Friday, and Saturday was my favorite Sacramento 2nd Saturday Art Walk. Where to begin…How about the Steampunk Arts & Crafts Show at the Brick Alley Art Studios (which is becoming one of my favorite places to visit during the art walks)? Fun, and lots of good art, like the regular Tracy Lewis and an occasional mechanical bug.

I was sad to see the 20th Street Art Gallery closed, as it used to be another one of my favorites.

Then the usual stop at the Alfa Romeo place to listen to the band I still don’t know the name of…This time, I pulled out my sketchbook and did some doodling. It is challenging and engaging, to try to capture a person while they are constantly moving. The trick is, of course, to look for patters and repeating movements – but it is still pretty difficult. Here are some sketches from that night:

On monday the 4th, we are getting up disgustingly early and driving to Ventura for the 4th of July Street Fair. I’m really hoping it’s going to be worth it. Or else! Right after that, if I am able, I am driving back to Sacramento to pick up the kid, who is currently enjoying a relaxing stay at the grandparents’.

Lake Arrowhead Art & Wine festival was a blast! I’ll post some pictures next time

12x9" Watercolor and Nupastel on Canson Montval cold press 140lb paper.

Julie is the beautiful model that I had the pleasure painting at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center during my trip to Sacramento. The watercolor above is a 15 or 20 minute painting. I did a very simple drawing with a yellow Nupastel and completed it with watercolor.

This one is a 5 minute pose. I wish I had more time and a steadier hand!

Julie sitting. Again, watercolor with Nupastel – this time, I did the drawing with light green. Unusual color as far as figure paintings go, but I like the way it softens the Quinacridone Red I used for the skin tones and in the background. 20 or 25 minute pose, which, on the whole, I’m pretty happy with.

That’s all for now. In the next post, I’ll share some of the sketches I did at the Sacramento Second Saturday Art Walk and the wonderful artists I’ve met there. Stay tuned