POBL

POBL Fall Retreat Slideshow

2011-10-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly the best Fall Retreat ever!

Here's my slideshow:

http://www.rebeccabush.com/seattle/Bumping_Lake.html

Drawing on paintings and drawing conclusions!

2011-07-25T20:30:00.001-07:00

After having missed 2 meetings, I was so glad to be back at the Sea Horse Studio in July. The gardens were full of lush vegetation and all the animals were full of energy. Besides finding myself mixed up in the new puppy's game of hide and seek with the grumpy old cat and helping capture a batch of crickets in the kitchen, I also managed to see some artwork over the course of the evening.
Here we have Michelle fearlessly drawing on top of a perfectly lovely wet oil painting with an oil pastel!

Later in the evening, Jo asked for our input on the rough layouts for her new picture book. I enjoyed looking across the table at Jo and Gudrun and imagining that Suzy's beautiful silk wrapped antlers were coming out of their heads!

2011-06-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

And missing, unfortunately, is the photo of the barefoot shoes Rebecca was wearing under her black dress!

Rebecca's Marvelous Show

2011-06-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last night was the opening for Rebecca's marvelous show--it is unbelievable how much work she has done in just the past few short months. From her first tentative exploration of fabric and paint creation, she has created a beautiful collection of vivid, imaginative and gentle works--they are WONDERFUL! Everything is hanging in a perfect high-ceiling light splashed space, displaying them to perfection. Major congratulations on an amazing and beautiful show!

I have another great picture but blogger doesn't seem to want to indulge me at the moment--will post later.

Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book | Video on TED.com

2011-05-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book | Video on TED.com

belated retreat photots

2011-04-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Oh dear--we do seem to sadly defunct. I know Tara has completely (and rightly so) given up on us. BUT, anyway, here are some photos from our marvelous retreat with our special visitor that I came upon as I was belatedly cleaning out my camera.

April Critique Meeting - Part II

2011-04-25T02:09:00.000-07:00

We had a special treat at our meeting this month!

Suzy has been incubating Serama eggs in her studio where we meet - and while we were there we got to watch the last two hatch!

It was fascinating seeing them struggle out of their shells -

And then transforming into bright-eyed and adorable little fluff-balls!

yay - chicks!

April Critique Meeting - Part I

2011-04-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

Lovely meeting - with so many varied projects. Some of us are in early sketching stages, while others-

Michelle continues with her fabulous painting -

Gudrun and her sculpture -

Kathleen and her ongoing cool experiments!

So looking forward to Rebecca's one-woman show in June!!

Suzy, who is teaching far and wide - and doing so many different projects -

Isobel, who is doing some really beautiful collage work out of very creative materials -

And Sarah - who brought this beautiful prayer jar that she designed and help make.....

It was also a month of birthdays, so there was much cake and celebrating -

- with 'favors'! (Lovely antique glass 'Cinderella' slippers filled with spring!)

There was even MORE spring at the meeting - see part II of this post!

Thinking about the Future of Illustration & Publishing

2011-02-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

Another month and another inspiring meeting of our lovely lively critique group. There was wonderful artwork, stories and the most decadent chocolate cake!

At one point our attention turned to the question of the future of illustration with the general decline of print publishing and uncertain future of digital media. (Perhaps spurred by an upcoming local SCBWI meeting topic- if anyone attends this lecture on March 15th, please let us know what you learned)

Tara told us about the Alice in Wonderland for the iPad and later shared this link, which shows a bit of the animated imagery that they've created for this version of the book. Take a peek and let us know what you think - do you think that this the direction in which book illustration is going to go?

Happy Gallery Opening!

2011-01-29T02:32:00.000-08:00

-to dear, lovely and oh-so-hard-working Michelle. The show is fabulous.

(slightly longer report over on Silver Apples).

Elk Bones at Bumping Lake

2010-11-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

I just rediscovered this photo & little digital painting from our fall retreat at Bumping Lake in September.

What a sight it was to see these beautiful white elk bones scattered across the fir needle carpet of the forest floor! I was intrigued by this little sprig of plant, wiggling it's way up through a tiny hole in one of the bones.

We gathered an armful of the most interesting bones and brought them back to town with us to include in still life studies and paintings.

We will return them to the forest after we are done.

November Critique Meeting!

2010-11-18T01:37:00.000-08:00

Another month, another pile of fabulous work happening -

Michelle is chugging right along preparing for her one-woman gallery show in February.

Rebecca continues to produce fabulously charming things - this time combining paintings, fabric and embroidery.

Sarah - who's biggest project of the moment is just turning 6 months old (and was home sleeping) - brought an awe-inspiring baby-scrapbook....

Kathleen showed off her latest book efforts, with wonderfully effective computer-drawn sketches printed on watercolor paper and painted in limited palette oil-washes.

Jo brought a sampling of lovely personal projects she's been able to work on (finally! Yay for down time.)

Suzy is still teaching up a storm, as well as painting Yupo horses for print sales.

And thanks to all you girls for the fixes on my book spreads! It takes a village to illustrate a book, I tell ya...

Retreat 2010 -

2010-09-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

This year I wanted to give a big shout-out to our big, darling mascot -

Love ya, big guy...

Expert advice just when I needed it....

2010-09-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

My retreat time, when not eating, talking or hunting mushrooms, was spent working on the color and technique for the final art for Molly, by Golly. This photo shows my progress so far, it's a bit further along since the weekend. Michelle's expert advice about oil paints was invaluable, as was everyone's eye for color, drawing and composition.

I loved hiking in the Cathedral Forest and finding mushrooms and moss to bring back to share.

Fall retreat 2010

2010-09-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Where to start... A week worth of the smell of the woods, wonderful food, amazing people, books, art making, the gift of a truly bizarre and fantastical sort, tarot reading, searching for lost treasure in the old work camp, holy cow! It doesn't get much better than that. Even after 7 days it was hard to say goodbye until next year. Thank goodness for critique meetings!

sculpture purchase

2010-09-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it--two posts by ME in one day!

But I wanted to share our new sculpture with you--it's the first time we have bought a 3 dimensional work and it was very exciting. I often think that buying a piece of art is even more of a high than selling one.

retreat memories

2010-09-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Thank you all again for a marvelously relaxing and energizing few days. There was an exceptional sense of "flow" I thought--perhaps because I was not being hounded by fairy horses this time. While I was greatly inspired by Kathleen's garden offerings, those pieces will have to wait until our next meeting. I worked on this piece over several nights from a color photograph I love, placed in my Michelle-type notebook, and I enjoyed the process immensely.

Poor Suzy, due to the immense size of her silk paintings,was often relegated to the front room alone. I am glad she was also working on other projects that allowed her to be with the rest of us!

Mushrooms as always. My powers of funghi recognition are pitiful--I've suggested that we need a primer before venturing out next time.

Such exceptional weather and such a beautiful spot in the world.

and our fat little friend bustling about the important things in life.

July Critique Meeting -

2010-07-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's July - and that means Suzy's Birthday!

(Jo made possibly the World's Yummiest Fruity Tiramisu to celebrate).

And while we all had work and art-things to discuss the most entertaining thing was this month's mascot:

(Suzy's rescued baby crow that is being hand -raised and is *very* friendly).

Always an adventure. :-)

I Made a Cafe Press Shop!

2010-06-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

And you can too!
Have you ever wanted to see your artwork or designs on a coffee mug or t-shirt?

After you create a Cafe Press Store, you simply upload a digital file of your artwork and "place" it on a variety of products from cards to aprons. After that, anyone can place an order for any quantity of your products at the click of a mouse!

To get started, first check out the specs for the digital file size so that your file will print up well at all sizes. Cafe Press has a page where you can download templates for each of their products that will show you the exact dimensions of the printable image.

I knew that I wanted to make t-shirts, coffee mugs and cards, so I chose the template for the largest product, the t-shirt, and created all my graphics at that size (10" x 10"). You can always shrink your art down for the smaller products without losing any resolution, but you can't blow up small images without them getting all fuzzy!

This was a lot of fun. I have no expectations to that many of these products will sell - there only about 10 million shops on Cafe Press and I don't plan on doing any marketing.

But how fun would it be to be able to order up an original gift and have it shipped directly to a friend or family member?

(Disclaimer: I have not actually ordered one of my products yet, so I'm not positive what the quality is like!)

the beach

2010-06-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

We took off to Cannon Beach for a few days--some much needed R&R. This was the view from our room which was on a quiet corner. It was beautiful and there were actually non-raining stretches of time! I am SO TIRED of all this gray.

This is how it makes me feel:

He was a cute little guy at a petting zoo at the Blue Heron Cheese Company, where Danny made friends with many little goats and an Emu thanks to some bags of oats, and Jo indulged in lethally delicious cheese tasting.

Did only a little in the way of sketching or painting -- I seem to still be in recovery mode from work and life. Let's hope things change soon!

Digital and traditional.

2010-05-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is a first attempt at merging a drawing and painting in Photoshop. I'd like to try another one and go ahead and stay really loose, let the unexpected surprises happen....

A fun day of sketching

2010-05-10T12:51:00.001-07:00

Jo, Tara and I spent a wonderful sunny day sketching models dressed in historical costumes on Whidbey Island. One model looked for all the world just like my Thea Foss character!

May Critique Meeting -

2010-05-10T00:52:00.000-07:00

This month's critique meeting ended up being more party than critique -

Behold the spread of delights to celebrate Sarah's Imminent Birth! :-D

(and also behold the itty-bitty buttonquail eggs!! They looked for all the world like olives! Same color and size. See one hard-boiled and halfed on the right - next to the berry for scale...)

We snacked and tasted and nibbled to our hearts content -while we heard about Michelle's month-long sojourn to Europe, Kathleen's 2 finished book projects, Gudrun's house selling, etc.. etc...

Then we got serious about the Baby Shower part. :-) Being that it was Sarah, we had decided on an aquatic theme (octopuses are an ongoing motif...)

See lovely Sarah and all her booty! A fish aquarium with elements from our retreat and felted sea creatures, an oceanic mini-quilt, and miscellaneous baby-goodness...

Congrats Sarah! We're all looking forward to meeting this lucky little boy!

This is Where We Start

2010-04-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was perusing the Artist Opportunities on Artist Trust website and I saw one for The Fiction Project at the Brooklyn Art Library.
The way it works is that you send them $18 and they send you a blank book and a randomly assigned theme.

My theme is "This is Where We Start" and I just started working on it, stream of consciousness/ diary style not sure where it really was going.

So far my story has followed my return to my old job as a security guard at the art museum and the decision to part with my car. I'm a bit over half way through. Bigfoot, Hammering Man, and Dzunukwa have made appearances woven together with metaphors for travel and the body as vehicle for the soul.

The guidelines for the Fiction Project is to fill your book with 50% pictures and 50% words and send it back by the deadline, May 23rd. Then all the books will be in the Fiction Project Show at the Brooklyn Art Library this summer and then become part of their collection.

I'd love to be able to attend the opening! We'll see if I can swing a vehicle to make it there.

And time passes by...

2010-04-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, since the end of the horse books, I haven't done a thing art-wise other than one lovely life drawing session. I like one leg in one drawing from the three hour period. I did try a new and very satisfying technique of watercolor crayon for the intial drawing and then a water-filled brush after that for shadows and volume. No erasing!

I am afraid I am currently swamped in the labyrinths of health care and house selling paperwork. But I do see things that make me itch to paint or draw and that gives me hope for when this particular treadmill in my life has shut down, or at least been relegated to a more part time position. In the meantime, food-oriented as I am, here is an inspiring picture of home made cinnamon buns (we called them "sticky buns" growing up) baked by my incredible pastry chef brother.

April critique

2010-04-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi Ladies, here's a couple of new sketches for critique. Having fun just wandering around with a sketchbook and pencil.

I'll try and take a look at everyone's stuff and comment soon.

xoxox

WIP - Greensleeves

2010-04-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

Getting back to some of these works in progress on my desk. Here's my sketch as it currently stands. Am blowing it up to refine. Suggestions as I go?

Sample sketch -

2010-04-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketch I just submitted for a possible 12 Days of Christmas book. (They said they'd get back to me on Monday.)

Even if it does not go, it might be fun for my own use to do some more of these 'days'. Could I get away with a small format (like an accordian book) approach - AND without actually showing the multitudes of figures per day? (like this one - a single milk maid?) Or some other way of depicting without having to show all of them...? hmmmm.....

Artist Vs. Engineer - The Roller Derby of Art Installation

2010-04-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Question:
What happens when a quality control engineer and a stubborn artist try to install art in their home together?

Answer:
It's a total smack-down between the aesthetics of eye vs. the laws of geometry. The whole experience reminded me of the roller derby I went to last Saturday at Key Arena...Fouls, time outs, cursing, and skating around each other. (Only we didn't have mini skirts or names like Astro Glide).

It all started at about 10pm on a Monday night when I said to my husband, "Hey, let's hang those painted violins I made in college in our front entry." Sounded like a great idea to me - and should it really take more than two hours? Being patient and supportive, my husband agreed. By midnight, all my violins were spread out across the whole living room floor and we were both cranky. Let's just say that the planning/time management side of a quality engineer won round one...

The next evening, with renewed zeal, we went to work. Since we couldn't really test the pattern we had spread out across the living room floor on the wall, I thought it would be a good idea to cut templates out of grocery bags to see what the overall effect would be before we actually started pounding nails. That turned out to be a good idea. Artist 1, Engineer, 1. By the end of that night, our wall was covered in paper bag violins. We went to bed pleased.

We had a good game plan. We would take one row of paper violins, start measuring, and make sure that they followed an exact geometric pattern up the stairs. You know, kind of take the messy "idea" of the paper violins and firm it up with actual measurements. Each row would follow a line paralleling the banister, and every instrument would be precisely equidistant from the next. Good idea, right?

Wrong. What worked mathematically looked horrible to the eye. What looked aesthetically pleasing was absurdly asymmetrical. You could taste our frustration in the air. Artist and Engineer were on a collision course along the flat track.

So, we took a breather. We ditched the measuring tape and the level. We remembered that the most beautiful violins themselves are completely asymmetrical. And then, we made a compromise. It gave some room to geometry (used a string to keep the bottom lines of each row of instruments parallel), and then eyeballed the rest (the instruments are not evenly spaced and the lines are not parallel to each other.)

We were happy with the result...which strangely looks pretty symmetrical even though it's a total optical illusion since all the lines diverge and none of the spacing is quite even.

But you know what? We are becoming parents soon (my due date is in exactly one month) and so compromise, flexibility, and imperfection seem like a pretty healthy combo right about now.

Tah-dah!

Favorite Spring Retreat Memories

2010-04-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Exploring an abandoned house filled with whimsical paintings, poetry, and wild ivy...

Making room for nature...
Soaking up the creative energy that oozes out of POBLites (Marty and her bug quilt)...

Indulging in goofy sadness on the sea star walk...(so many blisters, so few echinoderms!)

Awww...Just kidding. Here's how we really felt about taking a walk in good company with the salt breeze on our faces....

Thanks for an amazing spring retreat!
Sarah

2010-04-02T15:57:00.001-07:00

Members of some duck families, such as those of the goldeneyes and mergansers, often display elaborate courtship rituals. In the Pacific Northwest, March is the best time to see this, and we were lucky enough to have the buffleheads and goldeneyes performing in the bay in front of the house. It was quite a show, although one really needed binoculars to see it well.

The male behaviors include: pumping (bobbing their heads up and down), ritual bill-drinking, wing-flapping, and leg-stretching, all designed to entice the female for mounting – an event which typically lasts no more than 10 seconds. He then performs the most amusing behavior of all, known as “PC (post-coital) steaming,” where he swims rapidly around, displaying his raised crest, convinced at that moment that he is indeed king of the world.

Many thanks to Tara and Rebecca for “Juicing 101.” I now have a new juicing machine and a refrigerator full of vegetables and fruits in quantities I never dreamed imaginable. Kevin is a little slow to enthuse, but I am certainly enjoying a new burst of creativity in concocting different combinations of fruit/veggie flavors.

Lastly, a picture of the finished twin quilt on which I got a marvelous head start at the retreat by piecing all 28 blocks. Labeled “Chutney” because of the combination of fruit “Cherry” fabric and vegetable “Purple Onion” fabric, I think it is a fitting cap to a weekend full of creative camaraderie filled with healthy edibles and drinkables. Now onto Chutney #2, its matching pair!

Just Being

2010-03-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well, as you all know, I was competely depleted, so work was not in the cards for me this retreat. But I loved that (little too long) walk on Saturday along the beach of beautiful stones, and even though we were too late to see Suzy's mass of seastars, I did love these single ones with the reflections of the clouds--stars and sky.

Spring Retreat - Celebration!

2010-03-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to wish a big Happy! Birthday!...

...to our favorite POBL mystic. :-)

Hope you got to totally enjoy the day Rebecca-

- both at our early celebration, and on your actual day.

The Creative Habit

2010-03-29T10:30:00.001-07:00

It's been our Creative Habit as a group to plan these long weekend getaways. These trips always provide a needed respite from the workaday world, an opportunity for uninterrupted art time and fodder for future projects.

At the end of our recent spring retreat weekend, Kathleen leant me her copy of the book: "The Creative Habit Learn It and Use it for Life" by the dancer, Twyla Tharp.

I am usually suspect of thinking that other's people's methods can work for me but because I've been looking for a way to channel my creative energy in a more focused way, I thought I'd give it a look-see.

My challenge is that I have a very creative mind and it's hard to decide which of my ideas I should actually follow through with once I walk through the door of my studio. Twyla Tharp has a great practise of assigning a "box" for each of her projects. The physical act of collecting all the bits and pieces of inspiration and research that go into a project into a box appeals to me. It's like a physical manifestation of gathered ideas.

As a person who tends to collect and clutter, I feel that I need to wipe the studio/slate clean so that I'll have the space to work, yet I realize now that all those things often feed my work. If, when I clean up my studio, I am able to sort things into boxes I bet I'll discover in the process what my most important projects are by the amount of research material I have gathered.

I am looking forward to trying it out and I'll be sure to let you know how it works for me.

Amazing seastar congregations at low tide life in Case Inlet

2010-03-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

Clumps and lumps of seastars littered the shore...

The electric blue armed one especially caught my eye.

This seastar was clearly dancing.

A seastar Christmas tree!

We all enjoyed a relaxing and productive Spring Retreat last weekend in a charming waterfront home near Gig Harbor that sat next to not only a stream but a tidal pond and hide away beach.. I encountered this amazing congregation of seastars at low tide when I went on a beach run on Saturday. It was hard to stop taking pictures because each new grouping seemed more beautiful that the last...

Working with colored pencil and design vellum

2010-03-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

My friend Judy sent me an article on illustrator Will Hillenbrand . He works in many different mediums and one of them uses colored pencil and markers on Clearprint Design Vellum. The neat thing about it is that you can print your sketch right onto the paper, here I've printed it on the backside, and you can work both sides of the paper. I created an underpainting on the sketch or back side using complementary colors that provide depth to the front drawing. I also discovered after purchasing several expensive Copic markers, that I could use the clear blender marker to smear the colored pencil, best seen in the blue and gray clouds. Another great thing is that the colored pencil erases pretty easily off the vellum, which helps me to stay loose. One drawback is that whites and light colors can only go so far, so I still have to do those value studies!

Chicks!

2010-02-28T00:18:00.000-08:00

As you probably know, Suzy has been incubating eggs this past month...

A couple of weeks ago, she had a small batch of her trademarked Seramas hatch.

(In case you are unfamiliar, the Seramas are the tiniest little bantam chickens - with those fabulous upright necks and tails...) But if you think those are tiny, wait! and behold!

The Buttonquail!

They are the teeniest, tiniest, fuzzy little stripey things! Rather like bumblebees with beaks.

(Here is the entire clutch of *17* in the palms of Suzy's hands...!)

(And Suzy - please post more pictures of them as they grow).

February Critique Meeting -

2010-02-20T23:07:00.001-08:00

My camera battery ran out during the meeting so I only got a few pictures.

Plus, we very much missed Gudrun and Sarah...

Michelle, of course, has been painting away. She had an opening for her current show this past week (which I hope she will post about. The pieces that I did see looked wonderful).

Rebecca brought this practically perfect self-portrait that she had done for a show...

Kathleen is working on multiple picture books, and we got to see one of her latest in print.

Suzy continues making lovely seaweed prints - and we vote she puts together a show of seaweed, etching and silk with her underwater theme connecting them all. :-)

Jo and I are still working on the last Wind Dancer book and Jo is also squeezing in a lovely little decorative floral gift book in all her 'spare' time.

I also got sung 'Happy Birthday' to - and since I am avoiding flour/sugar (hence, no cake) I was happily treated to chocolate-marshmallow yummies instead. :-)

Thanks girls.

Felty Moose!

2010-01-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

For Christmas gifts this year, I made felty animals for my friends. this moose is the only one I thought to take a photo of. He is wearing his Griffindor sweater!

January's Critique Meeting -

2010-01-22T15:47:00.001-08:00

We missed Rebecca and Jo tonight, but it was great seeing what everyone else is up to -

Michelle, of course, continues to dazzle with progress and productivity. She showed us some samples from her latest 2 week workshop and talks of her upcoming month in Europe and her 2 pending gallery shows. Michelle continues to inspire at such high levels!

Suzy keeps busy with teaching, more silk painting, and incubating new chicken eggs. (Studio cat glowers from behind the printing press during our goings-on...)

Kathleen has two books on the boards (which look awesome) - and kindly showed me samples of her oil-glazing life painting (a thing I needs to try at some point!)

Gudrun, in between sorting *all* of her belongings is busily busily sculpting - both sculpy horses and felted critters of all sorts. Plus pulling out and looking at all of her paintings again. I feel a huge burst of creativity and productivity coming to a peak here.

Sarah is still juggling her many activities - one of which is finishing up this lovely painting...

Jo and I are still slogging through these books (a couple samples of mine are posted on my blog). (Rebecca - feel free to update us on what you're up to).

Until February!

check out these websites

2010-01-22T06:33:00.000-08:00

Hi Ladies,
Here are some really cool sites to check out:
www.helmantel.nl the amazing still life artist I mentioned at critique night
www.johnmorrapainting.com the artist who taught the workshop I attended
As always, you are such an inspiration. I'll be bummed to miss the spring retreat!
Michelle

Critique Meeting - December

2009-12-17T00:14:00.001-08:00

It was a *treat* of a critique meeting. We're all doing so many things -

From acceptances in published annuals and shows, to being on the Board of Directors of local art galleries, to commissioned paintings,

to classes being taught, workshops taken, European trips planned, books illustrated and storyboards written.

There was also felting happening...

-and birthday celebrating....

...and painting, etching,

collage and printing....

An artistic Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

Temporary Digression....

2009-12-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Over on tor.com, Irene Gallo has been hosting a thread: Show us your tentacles: A Lovecraft art meme which captured my fancy. I really don't have time to be doing anything but painting my current horse book, but due to forces that seemed beyond my control, I was unable to resist the compulsion to draw a Cthulhu of my own... I did a rough sketch of a tediously unoriginal critter trying to be sort of creepy when I realized that I needed to just go with what I've become practiced and adept at doing. Which is, turn *any* kind of thing into a fairy (since I've been doing almost nothing else but sparkly fairy illustration since the middle of 2006). So, I am 'embracing the cuteness' and the result is Fairy Cthulhu:

I am now seriously behind where I had hoped to be today, but it was an incredibly fun digression. Now back to the coal mines.

[Drawn in one of my Utrecht "oatmeal" paper sketchbooks. The paper is so lovely that I bought a small stack of various sizes. Drawn with graphite and white charcoal.]

Drawing on the right brain

2009-11-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

At life drawing yesterday, in complete frustration, I decided to try drawing with my left hand. To my surprise, the drawings came out really well. Even better, I rediscovered that feeling of being 'there' during the drawing process. Not double thinking every stroke, just eye to hand to paper . Faces and hands are quite a bit more challenging left-handed. Last night Brian and I practiced eating with chopsticks with our left hands...a great way to slow down while eating!

diva bunny sketch for Jo

2009-11-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Jo,
Did a quick sketch of a cute bunny for you, don't know if that helps at all.

Bunny Diva promo sketch

2009-11-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

This is a little sketch for a "caroling" promo for my agent. Much to Tara's dismay, I don't seem to be able to do cute and fuzzy easily these days. I am actually not looking for her to be overly cute, but to definitely have some personality, my bunny diva. Comments welcome--this is due Sunday, in between horses!

One question--would you like to see this as a silhouette (with or without the little chain above) or as a definite ornament with Christmas tree needles/branches behind it? Thanks!

Again for Jo -

2009-11-11T13:21:00.001-08:00

Nothing great - but maybe it gives some ideas...?

New Creations

2009-11-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

Here are the two newest creations in my life. One is 30"x24," the other is about 3". Can you guess which is which? The smaller one is much more important to me. :-) A quick update: I'm at the beginning of the second trimester. Yesterday, I got the results back from some genetic testing, and everything looks good. So, I'm considered a "low risk" pregnancy. I'll find out the gender probably a few days before Christmas, which falls plop in the middle of my pregnancy - yay! Looking at this ultrasound picture, I am alternately moved deeply and weirded out that this little person is living inside me. It seems so very, very strange - and yet also a miracle.

I'll be telling my mom this Friday. I've waited so long to share the news because I don't get to see her often, but I've reserved a whole day of mother-daughter time with her this week. I would like to make a little art piece to give to her that somehow reflects this new phase of our mother-daughter-grandmother relationship. So, my question...How did you tell your mothers you were pregnant? Did you have any creative ways of sharing the news that were particularly special? Did you ever make art about it? I'd love to hear your ideas.

About the other piece...It's for a commission, and obviously it's just about half done. Is there anything that leaps out to you that I should change at this point? Any suggestions for the color/value of the night table? (The objects themselves are specific things in someone's house, so I have less freedom to change their color.) I usually like to build the painting up together as a cohesive whole, but I've been working on individual elements in this one because I've only had little bursts of time to work on it. All suggestions welcome!

More Color variations -

2009-11-09T23:33:00.000-08:00

(Click on image for larger view)

A few more variations.... ?

Staying loose

2009-11-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling quite lost since our retreat and am working every day to find where I want, or need, to go. Here are some drawings from a couple of long pose life sessions from this week and last week.

I am trying to stay loose, yet plan ahead.

I am also playing with a limited palette of three colors. Today I had fun 'drawing' with watercolors.

Eric Weigardt Workshop

2009-11-08T22:09:00.001-08:00

I attended a watercolor workshop this weekend right here on Hollywood Hill at Medicine Horse Studio with Eric Weigardt. It was informational and just what I needed to brush up on my watercolor skills which have been sorely neglected the past few years. It was great to work large (half sheet) with relative confidence resulting from Eric's fine instruction. I'll post the result of my efforts once I pull the painting together as it is at its mid-process worst right now!

Coral Reef Etching

2009-11-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

Here's the little etching (3 x 4) that I have been working on and finished in time to enter into the Daniel Smith Printmaking Show. I really enjoyed the ease of intaglio on the acrylic and like the finished look: so old fashioned despite the modern materials. I have started another one so that I have something to stick in my purse and work on when I'm stuck waiting to pick up kids.

Color Options -

2009-11-07T16:55:00.001-08:00

(click on picture for a larger view)

Having my normal struggle with color decisions... So can't decide.

Have any preferences? Alternate suggestions?

Image for critique

2009-11-06T18:12:00.001-08:00

The first painting is in progress. I'm on the second attempt on the background and table. The painting is about 70% there. Any comments/critiques are welcome!

The next is the painting I recently entered in the ARC yearly salon. It's inspired by my Grandpa Ken's shed. I remember going in and smelling lumber and oil. I found the gas can and oil can at an antique shop in eastern WA. The minute I picked up the gas can and smelled it I was six or seven years old exploring his tool bench.

Sketch check -

2009-11-03T21:37:00.001-08:00

(this is for Jo - who can't seem to see this via email...)

An Obama Odyssey

2009-09-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

I think I just couldn't bear to do think about this book for a little while--it really was a tough experience, especially for a summer project. That said, I am very proud of it and I think that both Michelle and I will be thrilled with the results. If she had not drawn all of these characters (and been in such a good mood about doing so!!!), this would not have been possible!
Issues ranged from PERSPECTIVE, sometimes an arch enemy, sometimes a friend. PA from The Night Before Christmas visited the Oval Office for a size study, and I ended up building about nine little sets to determine that in the end, the "wrong" perspective seemed to work best for the stage illusion.

COSTUMES were fun, especially for the women!

Because Michelle did the drawings, the CHARACTERS went pretty smoothly.
And THINGS are always easy!

BUT despite Michelle's fine portrait drawings, PORTRAITS are just really, really difficult. I discovered that you cannot simply wash over an existing drawing with color--you have to understand the subject completely, just like the original portrait artist. I found the women easier--probably because I used to spend hours redrawing illustrations from Nancy Drew books when I was little! But Obama, despite his unique features, was sooooo difficult and I am still not thrilled--but the setting and the title should give everyone a clue as to who he is...I think!

So very glad it is finished!!

September Critique Meeting -

2009-09-18T20:49:00.001-07:00

This month's critique meeting was held at Gudrun's house -

It was cloudy-rainy night that got dark astronomically quickly - yet, we ventured out in the dark to see Gudrun's new waterfall and dry river bed...

...as well as getting a peek at her stone-carving gazebo (complete with wonderful carved polarbear in progress)

We also got to see the score she made at Michelle's garage sale, where many studies and paintings were sold for a mere pittance...

Speaking of Michelle, she continues to teach and teach and teach and paint and paint and paint (selling a couple every month at the gallery). We also got to enjoy an amazing ginger-with strawberries-cake by Jo. Happy Birthday Michelle!

Kathleen showed us samples from her summer-long human anatomy project, as well as her latest experiments in media - this watercolor/colored pencil approach is a total win.

Rebecca made a welcome appearance. We got to see samples of her digital tarot deck on her computer.

Jo showed us sketches from our latest horse book -

I showed some of the WIPs horsey covers...

Sarah... What can we say about Sarah? She brought in a series of 2 minute edits of some of the radio stories she's been working on, catered to the working styles of each of us... Only Sarah...

She also shared a 'favorite things' drawing from her recent adventure in Greece...

And Suzy, who has also been teaching up a storm. This particular project looks particularly fun - etched plexiglass used in her press. Wanna try me some!

Nice meeting girls.

Golden Delicious goes to Washington!

2009-09-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Golden Delicious will be featured at the 2009 National Book Festival, held at the National Mall by the Library of Congress. It was selected to represent West Virginia in the "Pavillion of States". I wish I could be there!

Field trip -

2009-09-06T21:22:00.001-07:00

A bunch of us headed down to Seattle (picking up Rebecca, in front of her very cute building in the process) -

And we went to the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co.!

Much luscious food and good talking happened...

Oh yeah... We also went to see a gallery....

Travis Louie's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Monster". Victorian gothic painting fun!
(More photos are posted on my blog).

Thanks girls for a lovely day.

Dream Studio

2009-08-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

As a teenager, just figuring out that I wanted to be an artist, I came up with my dream studio. It was going to be in a big barn. There would be areas for pottery, metalsmithing, and sculpture downstairs, up would be the drawing and painting area. Lots of light, lots of space and the ability to move from project to project, never having to put things away. HEAVEN!

Now as an adult I would add the dream home and gardens...

What would your dream studio be?

Annie the Cow

2009-08-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Annie the cow again! Here she is about to take a dunk in the water. I really had fun with this, using oil pastels layered with acrylic medium and finished with a little colored pencil. Instead of watercolor paper I used illustration board, it has a nice surface, smooth but not slick. Any comments? I think I should push the value a little bit more.

Fantastical Work at Roc la Rue

2009-08-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

It was inspirational to pay a visit to the Roc la Rue Gallery to view in the work of Nicoletta Ceccoli and Eric Fortune last weekend.
Nicoletta, whose reproduced work I was familiar with, creates incredibly perfect little surrealistic scenarios, which fall somewhere between Medieval art and what if Salvadore Dali was a children's book illustrator. Her subjects are painstakingly rendered in acrylic on paper but often float within the most dreamy gauze backgrounds, a nice contrast between detail and atmosphere.
Eric Fortune's work is just as carefully crafted in a multitude of layers of acrylic wash in a technique that is so subtle and fantastic that I don't believe that reproduction does it justice. Ethereal, haunting and lovely are words that come to mind in describing his work.
The show ends August 15th, unfortunately, but you can catch a glimpse of the works on the gallery's website.

Fun with Painted Violins

2009-07-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

What happens when Cuban music collides with Haydn's London Trio and a bunch of painted instruments? A lot of hip-swinging fun. Thanks to everyone who came out to be a part of the First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square. This was a great opportunity for me to recycle a ten painted violins and a cello that I made in college and create a new performance piece out of them. Hearing Baroque music sparkle out of one of my paintings always reminds me of why I make art. I how visual art has a tactile permanence to it, and I love how music evaporates the second it is born. It's so much fun to put them together!

Critique Meeting - June

2009-06-26T18:21:00.001-07:00

Had a nice, relaxed meeting. Complete with 'studio kitty'.

Michelle remains busy as always - she's running the kid's table at Bothell's Art Fair this weekend, she's working on dozens and dozens of paper doll figures (in conjunction with Jo) and finishing up this beautiful house 'portrait' commission.

Here's one of Jo's incredible and elaborate White House sets. She is one hard working girl!

Also busy Suzy - she's teaching classes out of her studio. Here's her new sign.

And here's one of the silk paintings of one of her students.

And here is her finished wax-sculpted octopus. Awaiting its reincarnation into bronze.

I'm trying to finish up the piece I worked on at the Illustrators Master Class.

Sarah is having multiple exciting adventures (as per her usual). She also finished her wax octopus, awaiting its next stage....

Gudrun shared her expert input all about. What would we do without her?

And Marty! This time around she brought examples of her bout with Japanese tie-die -

-so many beautiful examples!

My favorite being the Leech Socks! heh.

(Kathleen, we totally missed you).

Richard Jesse Watson - (relatively) New Blog

2009-06-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

Since our visit with him, Richard Jesse Watson has started a blog. Unsurprisingly, it is lively and lovely. You should check it out and leave him a note.

[Added later: His latest blog entry is about our visit to his place. It is lovely - do check it out.]

The Vendor-Client Relationship in Real Life:

2009-06-03T15:39:00.001-07:00

I know this has been making the rounds lately, but in case you haven't seen it, it is worth viewing:

It amazes me what business practices are accepted in some arenas when you would never consider them in others. I've lost count of the number of 'offers' I've had for the luxurious remuneration of 'exposure' or 'it'd be good for your portfolio'.... You know, steak/beef - it's all 'cow'...

Friday figure drawing

2009-05-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is a 20 minute sketch from the arts umbrella friday figure drawing session. Very cool to see the subtle changes in the planes of the body as the light hits them.

This Green & Pleasant Land

2009-05-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

We are back from a wonderful week in London where even the weather cooperated. The first thing I noticed on the ride into town was how everything was BLOOMING--they were about 10 days ahead of us with our wet and chilly half-spring.

In about two days I noticed that my walking shoes only coped well for about 7 hours in our 12 hour days, but fortunately we had a nice tub to soak my poor feet in each night. We WALKED and WALKED through narrow lanes, across bustling roads, over heath, over dale (not really sure what that is, but I am sure we did it), across the bridges and through the parks. It was GREAT!

We went to three plays, one which involved AMAZING life-size puppets (totally inadequate word) of horses manned by three people each. Danny balked at seeing a bollywood production of Wuthering Heights (I thought the conceptual daring alone deserved our attendance!). Oh well, another time. If the weather had not been so nice, I would have seen another two at least.

The manuscript illuminator in me went crazy over the abundance of carvings and reliefs on the buildings, from small row houses to gorgeous buildings to museum pieces.

I fell in love with chimneys!

Of course, we managed to have tea and pastry at all times!

And Anne Mortimer's and Leslie Anne Ivory's cats were just

waiting for us.

There was beautiful birdsong everywhere and so many gardens on tiny plots, in squares and of course the big parks. Both wild and manicured, so lovely in this huge urban setting.

It was a lovely and inspiring break!

Charles the Cat "Formerly Know As..."

2009-05-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

This is my second story about Charles the Cat. Charles is a fascinating animal who came to live with my little sister Rachel. These first 2 stories have to do with the origins of Charles, his childhood living under the porch in the wilds of the backyard and also how he came to be called Charles.

You'll have to click on the image to see a larger version. Visit my blog for the first Charles story, posted in 3 pages, called "Cat Dreams."

Erotic Art

2009-05-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, my friend Angie sent me a postcard. It showed a briefcase poised vertically on its side. The leather folds were parted suggestively to mirror the sensuous anatomy of a woman. It takes you a few seconds to connect the dots, letting your mind wander from “hmmm…a briefcase” to “Oh! It’s a briefcase that looks just like THAT!” I think it’s a brilliant. The sculpture by Deborah Alma Wheeler was one of the works featured at the 2009 Seattle Erotic Art Festival. My friend Angie is a professional ballroom dancer who performed at the festival. In her card she wrote: “I could think of no other people I would rather share this with!” Then added, “I mean that as a compliment.”

So, after work last Friday, Mika and I met at the Seattle Center and stepped into a world of purple light, DJ music, and erotic art. Not everything was as subtle as the briefcase. There was a couch made completely out of blow up dolls, a table crafted from glowing dildos, and graphic images representing all colors and stripes of sexual taste.

Live performance pieces were also taking place. There was a bondage demonstration, artfully lit so that it cast interesting shadows against a backdrop. Elsewhere, an artist was painting completely believable “clothing” onto the body of a nude model using latex paint and fabric scraps (Suzy, a new outlet for your silk)? A culinary artist was arranging food across the back and hips of another nude model. The crowd was completely eclectic, from business people in suits to people in body paint being led around by a leash.

Seeing this kind of art scene takes the same kind of adjustment your eyes must make when stepping out of the bright light into a dark room. You have to wait a moment for your eyes to adapt, but once they do, everything looks right again. So, it was with the festival. Once my eyes adjusted, I was astounded by the amazing quality of erotic art that was hanging on the gallery walls. It ranged from highly figurative to abstract. The pieces were beautiful and professional enough to be in a museum.

But, the best part was the live performances. It started with Angie’s dance, which of course was amazing (she was a doll being brought to life by a magician). The next act was performed by a member of Seattle’s Aerialistas (www.aerialistas.com), a fabulous group of female acrobats. She spun herself into the air, by ascending two long streamers of purple silk. She would wrap the silk around her body, and then use it as support for climbing higher and higher and higher to where the silk was held near the ceiling of the convention center. Then, she would spin downwards, dancing, swirling, dangling. Beautiful! The evening went on like this. Just think liquid honey, “The Gaytrix,” candles, and incredibly talented acrobatic couples portraying the tension of emotional partnership.

I had to work the next morning, left before the party really got started around midnight. But, I may be going back next year. There is definitely something to be said for provocative, high-quality erotic art that challenges your perceptions and invites you to enter into a whole new world of art never really appreciated before.

Progress...sort of!

2009-05-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'm halfway through my latest project. One month and six more to go!!! Thank goodness for coffee and chocolate....

April Critique Meeting -

2009-04-24T23:06:00.001-07:00

Good work everyone! (I'm trying to get painting - so if anyone would like to add commentary, feel free!

Life Drawing -

2009-04-12T18:32:00.001-07:00

- is still trucking along at Arts Umbrella (thanks not in small part to my 'assistant' Michelle! Who manages all the physical aspects of putting this on.) 'First three Fridays of the month. You're all welcome. :-)

I generally post my (mixed) results of our sessions on Friday evenings over at Silver Apples.

2009-03-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in style at the Secret Garden Bookshop with an event to introduce the book Shannon and the World's Tallest Leprechaun (written by Sean Callahan and illustrated by me). There was green punch, cookies and a four leaf clover hunt.

But best of all was the performance by Irish dancers from the Tara Academy, who danced many different reels and jigs in both soft and hard shoes. They were amazing! The dances were not only incredibly intricate and tricky to do but they had to navigate in between bookcases, mobiles overhead and very tiny children in the front row.

Lots of friends and family came, including POBL members Jo, Sarah, Michelle and Tara.

Paintings Up

2009-03-18T11:03:00.001-07:00

I have nine paintings hanging in The Hi Life restaurant in Ballard for the next three months--SO much better than sitting wrapped in a closet!

It's really the perfect setting for small still lifes--a smaller dining room with old brick walls. When you haven''t seen you work hanging in awhile, it's like revisiting old friends to see them up and about in public again.

Photos from our Spring Retreat

2009-03-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some glimpses of a lovely weekend filled with laughter and beauty. Thank you POBL friends for a much needed break and creative inspiration!

Congrats to Kathleen!

2009-03-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

I hadn't read my weekly Chinook before we left this weekend
(and Kathleen! Why do you not let us know these things!!!)

GOOD NEWS FOR KATHLEEN KEMLY

You Can't Do That, Amelia! has been selected as a winner for the 2009 Amelia Bloomer Project, if you are interested here is a link explaining all about the project.

Kathleen has also launched a new Web site: kathleenkemly.com

(And of course, the same Chinook had this announcement. Kathleen! Everywhere!):

THE WORLD'S TALLEST LEPRECHAUN?

March 17, 7 p.m.
Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with illustrator Kathleen Kemly at Secret Garden Books in Ballard. Kathleen illustrated the wonderful SHANNON AND THE WORLD'S TALLEST LEPRECHAUN. )

Congratulations Kathleen!
*

it mattered little that it was far away

2009-02-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

Hello, POBLites! I just wanted to check in and say "Hi"! Congratulations to Michelle on her opening. I wanted to let you know that I'm getting more active in online activities and invite you all to join me in a variety of places: Check out the Out & About page on my website for the list. I've also created a blogger page for my picture of the day, so that you can subscribe. I'll add it to the list. Take care! xo Rebecca

Michelle's Open!!

2009-02-27T23:39:00.001-08:00

Lovely evening! (Congrats again Michelle).

A very brief overview is posted over on Silver Apples.

A Word on Collaboration

2009-02-27T18:45:00.001-08:00

There is no single way to collaborate. A few months ago, I met a pair of acrobats from Seattle. They are a husband-wife team who fell in love on the flying trapeze. I asked the wife how their partnering in the circus arts has influenced their marriage. “Well,” she said, “After all the swinging and catching, I have my husband’s thumbprints permanently imprinted on my wrist.” That’s what I find to be so incredibly exciting and challenging about collaboration. Like acrobats, it takes trust with another person and leaves an indelible imprint on you.

This year, one of my goals is to collaborate with a number of artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers. One of the most fertile and collaborations so far has been with Chris Jordan. He’s a photographer and digital artist with a deep social conscience and a keen eye for translating unimaginably large numbers (like the number of plastic bags we throw out ever 15 minutes) into stunning visual art. This month, we finished two new pieces together about two unsustainable fishing industries.

Chris had the idea for one work that would depict the number of sharks killed daily (270,000) for the shark fin soup industry. The second piece shows the number tuna (20,500) caught every 15 minutes to satisfy the world’s tuna craving. For each piece, I created original watercolor images, and Chris scanned and manipulated them in various ways to create the final image. The process was one of painting and statistic sleuthing, of scanning and emailing, of nudging and negotiating. Maybe the best part of a good collaboration is that you get to celebrate with a new friend at the end of the journey.

So, I may not have imprints on my wrists, but working with Chris has certainly made an imprint on me. I think about numbers differently. I learned to trust artistic impulses that come out of a different sensibility than my own. I’ve even stopped eating tuna sandwiches…
-Sarah

A very interesting evening...

2009-02-17T09:26:00.001-08:00

Jo, Sarah and I took a walk on the wild side last night when armed with sketchbooks we attended BOYlesque Life Drawing by Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. It was just like any other life drawing class, except this one was held in a haunted theater and our model was the performer Ultra, complete with music, couch and shrinking costume. Our MC for the night was Ernie Von Schmaltz...he really liked Jo's drawing.

Heart Art Studio Tour

2009-02-17T09:09:00.001-08:00

Here I am with some of the fun artists who visited my studio as part of SCBWI's Heart Art Day. The tour also visited Julie Paschkis' and Nina Laden's studios. We all wound up at Laura McGee Kvasnosky's home and studio for a demo of Laura's gouache resist technique and a Valentine making party. An all around wonderful day!

Down Time Blues

2009-02-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

I’ve been floundering a bit, well-disguised by my many lists of catching up on things to do. And there were (still are) a surprising number of things that I let go of while finishing up the final month of the Wind Dancer books. So catching up is valid and the “finishing up an intense feverish sugar-filled deadline push and then suddenly cut loose” blues are understandable. I have figured out over the years that it is just something I have to swim through at the end of a project with the time duration of these blues seemingly directly proportionate to the intensity of the final push. Do most artists experience this crash after the initial euphoria of ...FINISHING?

Ah, but it seems to be a little more than that this time. I have a list of “should” projects but I find myself cleaning my studio to avoid them, feeling too tired to tackle projects once begun that need an update or a boost. Normally I set about these lists with renewed determination and excitement. And (now notice my guilty need to justify here) I‘ve submitted some work to a couple of publishers, checked in with my agent about a manuscript of mine they are shopping, attended weekly drawing classes, filed away tons of reference photos that have been collecting in a huge pile, worked on drawing horse eyes to get that elusive shape just right, worked on a design of a large piece for our bedroom and actually finished one half of it etc. etc.

So anyway, now that I have definitively assured you that I am NOT a sloth (and boy was that something I just needed to do!) two days ago I pulled out a beautiful magazine photo of waves crashing against a cliff, and set about creating a piece more focused on design than realistic rendering, although I hope it will be recognizable in the end. And the first transfer of the piece is, believe it or not, on Yupo—one of my usual arch enemies! So that shows you how seriously I am trying to just have FUN and maybe even be a little abstract with a piece. (I think there may be a bunch of contradictions in that last sentence—just shows you where I am, sigh.)

Wish me luck as I embark on a little Art for Art’s sake. Not totally though, because this might be helpful in some piece with water, you just never know…..arrrrrrrgh!

Port Townsend Fieldtrip-

2009-02-05T16:13:00.001-08:00

I've been posting reports on our outing over at Silver Apples if you are interested.

Drawing from Life -

2009-01-16T21:24:00.001-08:00

We had 'long pose' week at Arts Umbrella's figure drawing this last week. Michelle was great fun to watch (of course) - as she did mini-oil-paintings on tiny pieces of Masonite:

She took down her tiny vertical palette of neutral paints (so cool) before I could get a picture, but here are her cute paintings.

And *today* at Arts Umbrella, I began a three day Figure Drawing workshop with Ned Mueller.

The model didn't show up today (much to Ned's consternation), so we ended up going over portraiture instead. A very nice review of basic principles -

-and it was great to watch Ned demonstrate his lovely approach to drawing heads. You can see what I ended up doing today after watching him over on my blog.

Giving oils another try...

2009-01-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

After investing in yet more art supplies, a set of Pan Pastels, I was still not getting everything I wanted from the materials. In frustration I got out my oils and began painting over a failed pastel painting. To my surprise I found that the acrylic pastel ground had a very nice tooth to paint on AND my pastels worked on it too! This gives me a comfortable mix of drawing and painting...now I need to experiment on painting in very thin layers so the paintings dry quickly.

This is from a long pose figure session, oil on the pastel ground with charcoal pencil.

Let it Snow!

2008-12-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas eve morning and I sit with my laptop by the front window watching the snow fall. As an artist each season brings change to my studio. In winter I want to paint warm intimate images that celebrate home and family. Being inside the studio where it's cozy while outside it's dark and cold reminds me of what a hibernating creature must feel. There are two more months of this to come so it will be important to choose subjects for painting that are beautiful and captivating like the amaryllis. Something to keep me occupied until the the crocus make their appearance in the spring.

Some resources -

2008-12-15T17:18:00.001-08:00

Most of you have heard me wax rhapsodic about James Gurney's amazing, daily art blog. An ongoing resource of art theory, art history and life as an illustrator.

He recently posted about another very interesting art blog, especially for those more prone to fine art and landscapes called Art and Influence. Beautifully put together, and with loads of info both procedural and historical (some culled from the blogger's site: Outdoor Painting).

At any rate, it's worth checking out and having bookmarked.

Love and Appreciation

2008-12-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

Hello Ladies,

Just a note to say how much you all mean to me.

What a wonderful gift to be a part of such a amazing group of women, who, each in your own way, continue to awe and inspire me. I can't imagine what the future will bring but one thing is for certain it will be an honor to evolve with you all.

XXOXOO

Michelle

December Critique Meeting -

2008-12-12T01:19:00.001-08:00

Festive meeting tonight - many lovely projects in the making...

Suzy - busy as always - had another silk scarf session with friends, and has four very gorgeous horse drawings in process...

Michelle continues to paint the socks off the rest of us, as her work becomes more and more accomplished, and she continues to uncover deeper levels of artistic self-discovery and proficiency.

Kathleen is one of an elite few offering their studios up for an SCBWI tour in February (here is her 'invitation' illustration). She is also doing completely engaging drawings of cow adventures.

Sarah - again continues to dazzle with her top-notch collaborations. Now with bugs! And more painted instruments who are going to be involved in multidimensional journeys when they grow up.

(Here she is posing with our POBL mascot - Matisse)

(The other mini-mascot, B(eatrice), is growing up quickly to be a high-energy, feisty kitty.

It was Jo's birthday this month, and we were graced with not one, but *two* luscious, chocolate themed cakes to celebrate the occasion. (Yum, and thanks Suzy).

Jo and Tara are both about done with the remaining horse sketches. And are awaiting approvals at this point before getting on to the last big push to finish up books #7 and #8.

Gudrun is sketching up a storm - both chimps (which she is mentally working out a book project around, hopefully for when she goes to Africa in 6 months) and horses.

Isobel visited tonight, and showed us her progression in her 'carved' abstracts, now with even more color! (beautiful, complex and effective).

And we held our annual holiday card exchange - this time with *books*, recipes and caricatures in addition to all the art. I'm acquiring a beautiful and impressive collection of these!

Happy holidays all.

My Brain on Vacation

2008-12-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hi again everyone. We are back from a wonderful two week vacation back East, visiting family and friends. (A new friend appears above.) I managed to squeeze in a quick morning visit to the Metropolitan Museum, an overwhelming source of inspiration everywhere you turn. I am constantly distracted as I supposedly make a straight path through various rooms to get to my destination. I was completely lost in a beautiful Spanish courtyard, hundreds of years old, for 30 minutes, looking at the intricate carvings and trying to imagine how in the world someone could have actually brought this courtyard back to the U.S. and installed it in their HOUSE, before it finally came to the Met.

I spent some time at a special exhibit on a 20th century artist named Murandi, but found his paint application and the actual still lifes became more and more unpleasant to me as I stayed there (hence, no pix!) so I went off to a wonderful exhibit of British prints from before, during and after WWI and was totally satisfied except for, sigh, a lack of time, time, time. (Does this ever change in life?) I gobbled a pastry and ran across Central Park (regretting that I didn’t have my camera to photograph the beautiful carvings along the way) to meet a dear friend in our series of many, many meeting and eating dates.

I was able to meet our two lovely editors from the Wind Dancers series and discovered that the Flat Iron Building is somewhat more charming on the outside than in the cramped offices inside. However, their new office has gently rounded glass windows at the triangle point and a beautiful city view down below. After traveling 3000 miles, I almost didn’t make to my appointment as the guard absolutely refused to let me up unless he could call the person I was visiting—only Barb’s name just happened to NOT be in his book; and he refused to let me use his phone to call her. Fortunately I kept the cell phone that day and could call up to get her extension number. Then the guard had to call her on his phone and have some five minute long discussion before Jo was finally allowed UP. I met lots of people whose names have been on emails and who work behind the scenes producing these lovely little books. And Barb and Susan took me out for a delicious Thai lunch –I had a great time!

For Thanksgiving, we went to the Jersey Shore –there is no place like it!—to my brother’s. Danny and I took a long morning walk on the Ocean City boardwalk, which is kind of sweet and tacky-nice out of season. It was a glorious morning.

While I took some photos of things that inspired me and made me want to paint, especially still life material, I had a lot of trouble making myself do the actual work that I had brought with me. I guess we all need a clean break occasionally. So, there were a few hours here and there, and some sketching on the plane, but otherwise I was a sloth, I must admit.

It was truly wonderful to catch up with old friends whom we see far too little, and the holiday with my family was precious, as it is rare that all of us are together, being so spread out across the country. But now, I am sliding back into the swing of work, work, work. I think I feel refreshed—I had a great time, but real life has a way of bearing down immediately when you get back with all of its imperative shoulds and musts.

However, I find myself very happy to be drawing and painting horses again, although I am already thinking about how I want to use my precious time in between sets of books, thinking carefully about what I might really want to paint during that period.

The Banana Slug of Time Management

2008-12-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? That’s a question Mary Oliver poses in her wonderful poem “The Summer Day.” Even in the depths of winter, I often turn to that question for insight. I find it especially resonant as it relates to art and that sticky thing called “time management”.

Should I work on the tattoo, the bugs, the book dummy, the instruments, or the wine label today? It’s a wonderful conundrum to have on a cloudy December morning. Today is Wednesday – my one wild and precious day devoted exclusively to art-making. It means for the next eight hours, I will get to work furiously on whatever creative project interests me most. It also means that at the end of the day, I will have to clean up my mess (ha!), shut my studio door, and put art-making on hold until this time next week. As a result, I’ve noticed an ever-widening gap between my ambitions in art and that tight square on my calendar that hems them in.

At this pace, a project that should only take four days gets spread out over a month. It reminds me of something I recently learned about banana slugs – one of the Northwest’s amazing native mollusks. (The banana slug, it’s worth noting, is bright yellow, can weigh a quarter pound, and has mind-blowing mating rituals.) It’s also been observed that banana slugs travel through old growth forests in big, slimy circuits. That means the same slug has been seen sliding across the same patch of moss at the same time each week.

Well, sometimes I feel like my artistic journey mirrors the path of a banana slug: We’re both crawling along sluggishly only to arrive at exactly same spot each week. Only, I’m not hermaphroditic.

So, like the banana slug, here I am at the end of this entry back at the same question I started with: What to do with my one wild and precious day of art-making? Should I try oil pastels, a medium I’ve been hungering to dabble in? Should I finish up the book dummy and research publishers? Should I start sketching out designs for the tattoo and wine label I’ve agreed to do? I’m not sure, but I better get the slime rolling and get on my way…
-Sarah

Visiting Susan Bennerstrom's studio in Bellingham over Thanksgiving

Scatter Brain Too...

2008-11-29T10:06:00.000-08:00

Everywhere I look there is an unfinished 'something' piled up. This week has been dedicated to cows- drawing them, turkeys- eating them, and technology-cursing and pleading with my computer, scanner etc. in an effort to finish up my website. Rae and I visited her brother-in-law's wonderful cow farm where I got to get up close and personal with 'the girls'...

Following Michelle's lead I've starting cutting out images I like : I found this portrait by Elizabeth Peyton. It makes me want to spend some time with paints, working loosely and intuitively. I want to have the confidence to break some rules- perspective or realistic color.

Scatter Brained

2008-11-27T06:14:00.000-08:00

Considering my assignment was to post on our POBL blog last week and as you can see I have missed the deadline; there will now be two posts on the week of Thanksgiving. On the subject of scatter brained I can speak with authority. The topic of juggling responsibilities and keeping focus has come up many times in the past in my discussions with friends, I now believe it is just a matter of temperament. We are all born with strengths and weaknesses, we must be thankful for the first and forgiving of the latter, as every human being comes equipped with both.

On the topic of Thanksgiving; thanks to all of you lovely ladies who are a constant source of inspiration and camaraderie, you make my world a more beautiful place.

November Critique Meeting -

2008-11-15T00:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks ladies for a nice, relaxing meeting full of lovely talent -

Michelle, of course, is busy juggling many projects - teaching four days a week, working on some seasonal things for sale as well as up to 40 pieces for a personal show at Kaiwyn Gallery in the spring and planning for the kid's art project for the Bothell Fair...

Gudrun (who is recovering from eye surgery only *yesterday*) is saying goodbye to her daughter who is going back to Africa for a year. Luckily, it sounds like Gudrun will get to go visit her there!

Kathleen is working on a *large* poster - still playing with media, searching for that perfect balance! (and discovered a new clear, plastic covering that does not pick up pastel - what was it called again Kathleen?)

Jo and Tara - both still working on horses - and showing the first four books now in print.

Suzy just had a silk scarf painting event for Tom's office. Amazingly beautiful stuff, as always.

Sarah came with large stack of startlingly beautiful (and accurate) paintings of blue tuna - along with fascinating and impressive tuna factoids. :-)

But then, the star of the night was the new studio mascot - B(eatrice).

- who spent the first hour or so snuggling and sleeping on my chest.

She's a honey! :-)

Thank You Tara

2008-10-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

Drawing over at Gage this afternoon, Kathleen and I decided that a big "THANK YOU" is owed to Tara--we all now do color comps, value comps (well, most of the time) and now we are almost all doing life drawing as well, thanks to her pushing and prodding. All I can say, is what's next?????

This Month's Critique Meeting -

2008-10-20T01:51:00.001-07:00

For this month's meeting, we returned to our old stomping grounds at the Barnes and Noble Cafe, since our normal hostess, Suzy, was not available this evening.

Michelle continues to stay busy-busy painting and teaching. Her stuff gets more beautiful all the time.

I am still waiting approvals on the latest batch of covers, so I had them to show in person to the group.

Jo brought her latest batch of horse interior drawings for critiques -

Kathleen finished up the painting she started (and was inspired to paint) at the retreat. This one in watercolor, gouache and pastels.

Gudrun and Sarah updated us on their latest adventures (Gudrun's plans to visit her daughter in Africa), (Sarah's adventures in radio producing, and being *on air*).

Treats and drinks were consumed. Books were bought. Schedules set.

Good meeting all.

Happy Halloween (almost)!

2008-10-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

I just received a lovely (well, actually goofy!) Halloween card

from you guys and I wanted to tell you just how much I appreciate all your sentiments!

Mr. Jack O Lantern and I wish you all a wonderful Halloween!

Hugs,

Rebecca

Great meeting...

2008-10-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

Fun topics last night... trip to Africa, haunted Seattle sites, cool new painting techniques, field trip to excellent artist's studio...

Inspiration abounds!

The Inside Story -

2008-10-07T22:43:00.001-07:00

Sorry Sarah, I'm stealing your picture. :-) My review of our Inside Story evening is over at Silver Apples. Any of the rest of you that took pictures feel free to post more images and *your* thoughts as well!