Happy New Year!! 2010..Lots of new hope!

This New Year is full of expectations and hopes.

Tonight we will be joining my daughter's family and celebrating the new year at 9PM with New York. That is our midnight! It works out great, the older grandkids are in on the secret and the younger ones think they stayed up till midnight... and we get to celebrate AND go to bed early! Have to go out and get some hats, poppers and streamers and sparkling cider (our champagne!)

Update on the Slice of America trip: We have possibly picked up 2 more "wagons" to our wagontrain for the Grand Canyon part of the trip. Only one more reservation to make to complete the 30 nights of the trip.
The itinerary is now in stone, the menus and grocery lists are in progress. Packing lists and how to fit it all into the cars are in progress.

We will be painting a map on the van (with removable car paint, of course)and the kids will be adding our progress as we go. The stencil of the map is ready to go, but still have to get the paint at Kreagen's.

Great programs on "how the earth was made" have been taped and will be videos for the kids on the trip. The film on asteroids was filmed at the meteor crater where we will be visiting. The iron ore that came from that asteroid is spattered over a huge area and is magnetic. We are hoping to be able to find some and will be able to know by the changes on the compasses we are bringing.

We will be trying a lot of new campfire recepies and that should be exciting. We will either put on weight or starve! The starving part is very unlikely since we will alway have backup food.

The kids will be doing some different projects too, as well as posting their daily observations. That should be interesting.

140 to go! Rosehips!

The rose hips are so pretty in the winter. I need to prune the roses pretty soon so thought I would paint them first.

By the way these paintings are on canvas 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

141 to go...Narcissis are blooming!

They always mean spring to me so when they are blooming two days before the year 2010 it is like a glimpse of spring to come. And the days are getting longer too!

Rainstorm approaching - 142 to go!

Today a rainstorm is trying to work its way into the Bay Area. It has be working at it all day long... but no rain. I should have gone painting.

Well, I instead I decided to paint the sky and clouds from my studio window. I was working on the subtle value and temp changes.

Memories of Murphys' colors

I did this little study the morning we were leaving. The fall colors were so beautiful. Now this scene is quite possibly a white winter wonderland with the storm that just came through yesterday.

Pre Christmas and only 6 months to go!!

Only six months to go before we leave on our month long Slice of America trip.

The kids are getting excited and are learning about the places we will see. And we are now working on the menus. We don't want to spend a lot of time in grocery stores so we figure if we have our menus figured out and grocery lists ready to go we can just send an "assult team" in and get out before they know what hit them. In the meantime, the rest of the crew will be watching the kids at a nearby park. We are also planning to hit quite a few Subway Sandwiches for variety and ease.

I've been busy getting wetboxes ready for the trip so I can put them in my "holding" area and know they are done and I don't have to worry about them. I still have canvases yet to tone but that will be done after Christmas.

I made the wetboxes within "Priority Mail" boxes from the US Postal Service so when each one is full I can just mail them home and I won't have to worry about keeping them safe while traveling. They are nice and sturdy and I think they will work out perfectly. For me, I made 2 for 11x14s and 6 for 6x8s and for my sister I made one for 9x12s and one for 6x8s. Needless to say, after making all those I am glad to have that out of the way.

Yes, I have been painting some during this holiday time....but mostly copy work to study values. Because they are copies I will not post them. It is a very valuable study though. The masters learned by copying and art students in Paris still take advantage of it at the Louvre.

Have a wonderful holiday season and Merry Christmas to all!

The Slice of America Trip - June 2010

Thought I would let everyone know how the trip planning is going. Well, we have 3 adults and 4 children ready, willing and able to travel...And we have one more adult, and possibly a 5th child, joining us in Sioux Falls, SD. And my sister has just decided to join us in Yellowstone for 5 days of adventure and painting!!

We have planned out our route, and itinerary, and had lots of fun doing it! We have all our reservations made except those it is still too soon to make. We will be going from California to the Grand Canyon to Sioux City, Iowa, where we have relatives, then head back west by way of places like Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone and Mt Saint Helen, then south down to home in California. Let me tell you, the internet is wonderful for a project like this. We have found that Mapquest, Google and Rand Mcnally all have different travel times and miles between places, so we have averaged them.

We are starting to study about geology and and history of the places we visit so we can all share our information with each other and get a lot more out of what we will see.

We are starting to make our lists and check them twice. Next step figuring out the food, menus, grocery lists!

I am ordering canvases for painting on the way!! ...and doing things like figuring how to use wifi along the way!! A great project for winter days!

Thanksgiving is Past, Getting Caught Up

Halloween is over, Workshops done, Thanksgiving is past, and I am getting caught up with everything. This has been such a busy Fall. Mostly when I have had a chance I have just been going over notes from the workshops I have just taken. It takes awhile to have new things sink in and actually come out in painting. In the mean time, the paintings don't look like much until it all actually clicks.... so frustrating sometimes, trying to apply a new way of doing something and the old way keeps getting in the way.

I haven't gotten a chance to get out and paint since our encounter with about 150 students coming in waves asking all kinds of questions. Great to see they are so interested in painting but not helpful when you are trying to concentrate!!

We are going to paint Nov. 11 if the weather cooperates....may be windy and rainy. Haven't decided yet where we are going to paint.

That evening I will be at Ardenwood for one of our Christmas open house evenings. It is a free flow tour which means guests can go through the house at their own pace with docents stationed in every room. The house is all decked out in Christmas again, a Christmas tree in every room. Join us if you can!

Canyon de Chelly

I wanted to practice my new limited palette so decided to paint from a photo. It is not quite finished yet but wanted to post for my dear sis to see what is done so far.

It is so wet and of course, there is a glare on it! Darn, glare!

Hope she will be able to join us in Yellowstone on our Slice of America trip!!

Wow, I'm back!

It's been a long time since I've posted. Lots has been happening to keep me busy.
Several of us went up to Murphys, CA to attend a workshop by Kathleen Dunphy. The mountains are so beautiful in mid October, lots of red and yellow leaves to go with the green. The workshop was wonderful and lots of information to digest. She does such beautiful work and is a very good teacher as well.

Kathleen's palette is very limited - lemon yellow, cad red light, ultramarine blue, naples yellow, cold gray and white. I am in the learning curve on mixing colors, but I've been practicing. Lovely greens from this palette,and great shadow colors;
and for plein air you don't have to carry as many paints.

After the workshop we stayed 3 more days and painted away. It rained one day and we painted indoors - a lesson learned - Bring extra lightinging with us next time. All of our paintings looked pretty good in the lack of sufficient light but the next morning in full light all the colors were really off. But it was practice anyhow.

We drove up to beautiful Alpine Lake. While it was raining in Arnold where we were staying, it snowed up at Alpine Lake. So we stood in snow and painted! Actually the snow that was left was very little but anyhow, it sounded good, toughing it out in the snow!! We had a great time and learned a lot and before we knew it, it was time to go back home.

Then there was catching up on everything at home! Funny how that always happens. And now thing are taken care of and I can paint again. I will take pictures of a couple paintings I did at the workshop and post them later today. The photo above is a painting I did for my daughter of the children at the pumpkin patch. The photo has lots of glare, hate that!

A slice of America!

Oh, dear, life has gotten in my way. I have not had much time to do any painting and that passion is building up!!! I need to paint! Well, tomorrow is painting day!!

I have also been gathered up in planning our June trip we call "A slice of America" trip. We are having so much fun planning it! It will last about 20 some days. So far we will go from the San Francisco Bay Area down to Calico, CA and on to the Grand Canyon. Lots more to come. And think of the beautiful landscapes!!!

Back to Work!!!!

Well, time to take a breath!

The Fine Art Show is up, the reception was yesterday and very nice. Lots of visitors to see all the work. And my fans showed up! I was proud I had 4 paintings accepted to the show. My first show so it was very exciting. It will be up for several weeks.

And my daughter and I took a quick trip up to Port Townsend, Washington to visit my sister and her husband. . . . The trip was sooo quick I didn't even pack my paints! It was hard to go to such a paintable place for any length of time with out even one tube of paint!

I enjoyed seeing Diane Ainsworth's paintings the the T's Restaurant and the Upstage! Love her work!

And now, I have to catch up on some housework and washing, then to the easel! I have a few tiny ones to do and others pulling at me. Tomorrow, Plein Air! Just have to decide where!

Jurying for the Fine Art Show

This morning all 225 art pieces were on display to be juried. The judge looked around and studied all the oil/acrylics, Watercolor, mixed media, ceramics and sculpture. Then she started eliminating. As each piece was eliminated it was recorded and the piece was removed. Many times she explained why a piece was eliminated. After many times around the gallery and many rounds of elimination we were finally left with 140 pieces.

Then the judge had to choose the Best of Show, the gold, silver, and honorable mentions of each of the categories.

It was all very interesting. All the work was so good.

I ended up with 4 still in the show so I was very happy. Hope to take some pictures of the prize winners when I come back from Port Townsend. The Reception for the Fremont Art Association Fine Art Show is on Sunday, Sept. 27, 1-4 at 37659 Niles Blvd., Fremont, CA 94536

Please join us!

A Slice of America!

This is exciting!

My eldest daughter (she is going to just love THAT term!) and I have talked about taking a road trip for a couple of years now. Things kept coming up that put it off. We are back on again, we will see if it happens this time!

The initial plan is to go up the coast from the San Francisco Bay Area up to Port Townsend, WA (beautiful little Victorian town and my sister lives there). From there head west by way of Yellowstone to Sioux City, Iowa (we have lots of relatives in that area). Then head back by way of the Grand Canyon to home. Drawn on the map it looks like a slice of American pie, thus the name! We are planing taking time and seeing lots of things and have lots of adventures, as well as, painting lots of pictures on the way!

We will start this American Pie trip in June 2010 and we are having lots of fun planning it. We may be quite a sight with a little caravan going down the road. At this point, we will have one car, one van, 3 adults, 3 children. But we are starting to gather others for parts of the trip. Can't wait.

I plan to journal our travels on this blog so you will be hearing more as time goes on!

The first night we know for sure at this point we will be camping at Humbolt State Park along the Avenue of the Giants. The Giants are Coastal Redwoods creating a beautiful forest along the California coast all the way up to Oregon.

Update on the Lake Elizabeth Paint Out

I sold my painting I did at the paint out. Patty was visiting with me as I was painting just about the time the sun popped out from the clouds and kissed the hills! She was as thrilled with the view as I was and bought the painting to remember the moment.

Thank you, Patty!

We are so lucky to live in a world with such beauty!

Recieving for Fine Art Show

Today I helped at the fix-it table at the Fine Art Show Recieving. Not much to fix though. Sheryl was worried a week ago that there would not be many entrants. Well, did everyone fool her! Over 220 pieces of beautiful art were recieved today! We have them hanging from the ceiling to the floor (well, almost). There can only be 140 pieces accepted to hang for the show, so the "Show - down" is tomorrow.

The Juror is Claire Verbiest, signature member of several national art societies, watercolor and pastel class instructor, workshop instructor in US, Canada, Europe, and art show juror for 10+ years, has art work in “Splash 4”, The Best of Watercolor Painting, The Best of Portrait Painting, and The Best of Pastel. She will be making the decisions on who stays up and who goes home.... all the art is beautiful so I would hate to be the juror. It will be interesting how she makes the decisions.

I am not hopeful of keeping anything in the show, but who knows.

The whole thing is a big job and my kudos go to Sheryl and Valery for all their work!

And it was Wicked!

We did it! All 30 women attended the wonderful play Wicked. It is the story behind the relationship between the Good Witch Glenna and the Wicked Witch of the West of Wizard of OZ fame. There is always another side of the story.

We had a great day!

Off to "Wicked" today!

Can you imagine, 30 women coordinated enough to get on the BART at the same time, same train and head up to San Francisco to enjoy a wonderful play!

We are going to DO IT!

Painting Day!

I'm heading for Don Edward Wildlife Refuge along the San Francisco Bay. Beautiful wetland and a few hills that where once billions of years ago volcanos and have left red rock in rounded hills along the bay. The Penninsula Outdoor Painters are meeting there for their Tuesday paint out. Hope to meet them in person and hope they enjoy the scenes!

Next event for me - the Fremont Art Association Fine Art Show. This will be my first so I am like a kindergardener, worried I may miss a step in the system. I've paid my entrance fee. Sunday, I will take down the 2 paintings I have hanging in the gallery now, Monday, I take in my paintings. Tuesday, they are juried, those that don't make it I take home...and if any make it they are hung.

Then, Wednesday, Jen and I fly off to Port Townsend for the wonderful people and views there.
And back Saturday for Sunday's Fine Art Show Reception! Hope to see you there!

143 to go!