Jersey Shore

This is another painting for the Virtual Paintout challenge on the island of Jersey.  This one is a palette knife painting done with oils.

Jersey Shore
Image size 6" x 6"
Oil

Fig Trio

I was so excited this past week to find out that we have a purple fig tree in our back yard!  I know it seems like that's something I should have known.  The back corner of our yard has a lot of trees and shrubs and I rarely go back there.  Of course I knew that there was a fig tree there (it's about 20 feet tall so it's been there a long time and is hard to miss).  It's one of many trees that the local birds decided to plant for us.  I guess they thought our landscaping style could use some help.

We have another fig tree that they planted in the middle of our yard that I really like.  It's got a beautiful shape and I love the way the leaves look (on the tree and in flower arrangements) so that's why it gets to stay.   Unfortunately, I don't like the taste of the fruit.  It is a green fig tree and I thought that I was picking them too early or too late but maybe I just don't like figs.

Seeing that we also have a purple fig tree made me happy because I thought that surely they would taste better.  Everyone has told me how good the purple ones taste.  I always assumed that the tree in the corner was also a green fig tree because I  had never looked at it when the fruit was ripe.  When I saw that they were purple, I couldn't wait to taste them and also paint them.

Well... they were fun to paint and I really like the shapes of the figs but they taste worse than the green ones!  My friend that loves figs was over yesterday and she tasted one and also said it was terrible so it's not just me.  Why couldn't the birds plant a fig tree that makes good tasting fruit?  At least they are pretty for painting although I think I like the look of the contrast between the inside and outside of the green ones better.

This is a palette knife painting on a 6" x 6" panel.  I really like the look of this size and shape of painting and how they look in the floater frames with the painting mounted to the front so that none of it is covered.  I wanted to be a little different with this one so I painted it rotated 45 degrees and it will hang this way.  Here's how it looks in the frame:

 Fig Trio
Image size 6" x 6"
Oil on canvas board

Jersey Cottage - Watercolor

This month's location for the Virtual Paintout is Jersey.  When I first read the post, I thought Bill was just being cool and referring to New Jersey as "Jersey".  I hate to admit my geographical ignorance but I'd never heard of the island of Jersey.  I DO know that New Jersey is NOT an island so I was eager to see where Jersey is located.  It is close to the French coast and is one of the Channel Islands.  It's a very beautiful, charming island and I hope to do one or two more paintings to submit to this month's challenge  before July is over.

Jersey Cottage

Image Size 9" x 12"

Watercolor

Unframed

$110.00 

The Question - Oil Painting

I painted this as a gift for my friend's son and his new bride.  He is also friends with our daughter and he is the first of her high school group to get married.  The wedding was this last Saturday and was so beautiful.  It was held in a vineyard in Temecula.  It felt so strange to see him standing up there getting married.  I still think of him as a kid even though he is now a young adult.  I know that others in their group will be following his lead soon but I wish they would wait because it really makes me feel old.  Geez, what's next....babies????  I'm too young for this next generation business.

On their wedding website, they posted the photo that I used for this painting.  According to the caption on the photo, 'dead ahead' is where he 'popped the question' in Peter's Canyon.  I always hesitate to foist one of my paintings on someone unless I know that they like that specific painting because art is so personal and subjective.  However, I wanted to give them something that would be personal because their entire family is very special to us.  I hope this reminds them of that special day when they committed to becoming husband and wife.

The Question
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil - Palette knife painting

Three Trees

There's nothing like waiting til the last minute to do something.  Procrastinating is one of the things I do best so this makes sense.  This month's virtual paintout location is New Zealand and I did look around through Google Street Maps at the beginning of June but didn't take the time to pick any spots to paint even though I thought it was such a beautiful country.   So today, with one day to go before the deadline, I decided to paint something.

When I first looked around I found a lot of scenes with fog that were really cool but of course I couldn't find them today so I picked this pretty spot.  This was done with a palette knife.

I can't wait to see where we will be virtually traveling next month.

Three Trees
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Sold

Succulent sketching

This has been a busy, very fun week with house guests but not much time for artwork.  I used the little time I had to do a colored pencil and ink sketch for the inside of the Tustin Garden Club yearbook.  I do the artwork each year for the cover and also 2 simplistic sketches for the inside.  So now I only have one more sketch to do and that one is almost finished.  The cover will be "Graptoveria" from a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to do different succulents for the inside.

It was fun working with colored pencil again with some ink but I really prefer doing more realistic pieces with colored pencil. Unfortunately I find that I really don't have the patience to spend the time that is required to do that.  I'm always in awe of artists that do such detailed colored pencil art.  If you want to see some incredible examples of realism in colored pencil, visit the Colored Pencil Society of America website.  So many beautiful art pieces make me both frustrated and inspired.

Copala - Watercolor

Copala is a small, quaint town in Mexico not too far from Mazatlan.  I loved this scene with the strange windows and mix of architectural details.    Of course, the colors are great too.  Each building in the town is a different color and most of them are bright.  The bougainvillea are growing everywhere which adds more shocks of color.   There are donkeys roaming through the town, each with a human attached waiting to charge tourists for a chance to take their picture with the donkey.  I resisted the temptation.

Copala

Image Size 12" x 16"

Watercolor

Graptoveria - Watercolor

I'm not really sure what this plant is named but  I do know that it is a succulent.  : )  In my succulents book, the graptoveria looked similar to this and was described as having the variety of colors in one plant that this one does.  That's what drew me to it.  The combination of colors almost make it look iridescent.
This is a large painting and I think I will enter it in the Watercolor West competition coming up.

Speaking of competitions, today I got the news that my painting Fish and Flotsam has been accepted into the San Diego Watercolor Society's International Exhibit.  I am so thrilled!  This is a prestigious exhibit and I feel honored to have one of my paintings included.  This is the time of year that many of the big shows deadlines come around.  There are two other international watercolor shows (Watercolor West and National Watercolor Society) and a couple of local shows, all with deadlines within the next month. Now I'm wishing I had worked more in watercolor the past few months.  Since my paintings have been all over the place (every medium imaginable), now I'm feeling the crunch.  Sometimes I am more focused when my time is limited so we'll see what happens.

Graptoveria
Image Size 22" x 30"
Watercolor
Framed

Bird of Paradise Murals

Here are two murals that I recently finished.  They are painted in niches on either side of a door in Mexico.  They are very similar because of their symmetrical architectural placement but I didn't want them to be identical.

This week is the anniversary of my posting a painting each week for the past 3 years.  I think my art has progressed throughout this process and it's really been a lot of fun.  I plan to keep it up and hopefully, I will post more than one each week in the coming year.  My self-imposed deadline every Monday has kept me on track and some weeks it's been a real challenge getting a painting done but compared to the many daily painters, I look like a slacker.  Of course, many of my paintings are much larger and more involved than most of the daily paintings but I should be able to do some smaller paintings each week along with my larger paintings, right?

Both murals are:

Image Size 26" x 48"
Acrylic

Irvine Park

Last weekend I participated in a plein air class at Irvine Park.  That park is beautiful and has many rural areas as well as a zoo, train rides, and pond.  This tree was at the edge of the pond and has a wonderful sculptural look.  Did I enjoy the day?  Noooo, but I didn't hate it as much as the last time I tried plein air painting even though it was cloudy, cold and windy.  Where's the warm So Cal weather when you need it?  I actually lasted two and a half hours.  That's a long time with my short attention span.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out even though it's a lot of green.

I've always been afraid to paint plein air with watercolor because it's harder to cover mistakes but this wasn't painful at all.  I may go back and re-paint this tree in oils as some point in the future and try to get more color into it.

Irvine Park
Image Size 12" x 16"
Watercolor
Unframed