Today's Painting

I had a good painting class today - the subject matter was clouds.  The teacher told us to just "make up" a foreground (easy for her to say).  I usually am either painting what I see or using a photograph as reference material.  So . . .  I made up the foreground.  It was not the focal point of the painting so didn't need to contain a lot of detail.  Actually, I paint in a loose style - and the clouds are even a little abstract.  Anyway, had a fun day - good comraderie, a glass of vino and painting!  What could be better than that?!
Linda

Monday at the Mission

I wasn't sure if the weather would cooperate for 4 of us gals to paint plein air at the San Juan Mission today, but it turned out to be the most beautiful day!  Because it was a holiday today, there were lots of people at the Mission, which is the main problem I have with plein air painting - I get so uptight with all the people who stop to look at what I am painting, comment on my painting - even though I have yet to have someone say something negative about my painting!  Two of the gals I painted with today sold their paintings right off of the easel!  It was exciting!  We tried to make them pay for lunch, but they wouldn't go for it!  So, here I am painting at the Mission.

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Saturday's Painting

Had my painting class in Solana Beach today -- I will attach a photo of the painting I did - although I am not happy with it.  It is not finished - but I realized that I don't have as much success with a painting if the subject matter is not something I connect with or really want to paint.  Today's painting is of La Jolla Cove - which is a beautiful spot.  I have to remind myself that I cannot expect to have success every time I paint a painting - and  also try to remember that I am learning more from the challenging paintings.  So, I must be learning a lot!  ha ha.  The big bold strokes you see are the teacher's - she helped me quite a bit today.

I am hoping to paint plein air at the San Juan Mission on Monday with 3 art pals (if it's not raining) - will post if I do!
Linda

Greeting Cards

I love making greeting cards for my friends.  It's so funny because no matter what they look like, I seem to get a good response!  It's lovely.  And, just like with the faces I do, the greeting cards are meant to be funny and silly and whimsical!  I try to carry a sketch book with me at all times - for doodling or jotting down ideas when they come into my head.  Sometimes it's as simple as seeing something somewhere and it sparks an idea.   Or sometimes I just sit down and start drawing a card and see what evolves.  Then you add a little glitter for sparkle and voila!  I have this habit of sitting watching TV and working on my cards.  So, I have attached a couple of examples that I worked on last night.  I am off to Solana Beach tomorrow for my art class - hopefully will have a painting to post tomorrow . . .

Linda

Saturday's painting

I had a very good class today.  There's something about being in a class with other people (as opposed to painting at home alone) - I like the interaction with other painters and I learn from them as well as the teacher.  I am lucky to be in a semi-private class - there are only 3 of us in the class.  Great fun!  I am attaching a photo of today's painting.  We are all painting "alla prima", meaning we finish the entire painting while the paint is wet or all in one session.  I guess I just don't have the patience for going back and working on a painting for months on end.  Although I always look at it for a few days to see if it needs any "fixing".  I see a couple of things in today's painting that I need to do.  This is a painting of the meditation garden at the Mission in San Diego.  I painted it from a photograph.  It is 11x14.
I have an idea for a figure painting - am hoping to work on that this weekend - will post any attempts I make!

Linda

Loosening Up

I have been taking classes from a great teacher in Solana Beach for the last few months.  I have learned so much and feel like i am making some progress with my painting.  As a change of pace, the first week of January, I decided to take a 5-day workshop in Palm Springs from a wild and crazy guy named Bob Burridge - talk about loose!  The class was about abstracting the figure and it was taught in acrylic - a medium that I haven't used in years.  The class was really fun but really "outside the box" for me!  I tried to be abstract in my thinking and painting - really I tried!  And even though I didn't feel like I had great success with my painting during the workshop, I found it fun to work with acrylics - like playing! I feel more "serious" when I paint in oil -- I want to produce a good painting.  So, when I got home from the workshop, I put gesso on the covers of all my sketchbooks and proceeded to paint faces on all of them.  They are silly and fun.  That is the beauty of acrylic - it dries right away.  It is also the thing that I don't like about acrylics.  I am attaching a couple photos of the sketchbook covers.  So, if I feel i am tightening up, I just pull out that acrylic and "play"!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  I have decided to document my artistic journey - but also to offer information on art shows, workshops, new paintings, etc.

I am posting a photo of a painting I did last weekend.  This is a painting of a house in old town Tustin called the McCharles House.  I painted it from a photograph.  I am hoping to enter it into a show at the Chemers Gallery in April.  It is an annual show and the subject matter of any painting submitted has to be something in Tustin.