unexpected

 
White gladiolas are blooming in my yard: I have no recollection of planting them, but was happy to see them.
I made a backdrop from two cloths I picked up at the secondhand store: I'm always looking for lace or cut-out patterns that are not too complex for me to paint.
This is on about a 16x20 sheet of paper. I had intended to include the jar (below), but now I'm not sure ... It's still unfinished so I may change my mind.

 
(detail)

 

I'm on my way to DC to paint flowers with my friends for two days: bliss!
Have a wonderful weekend!

hydrangeas and peonies

 
(10x14)

 
(9x12)
I should have titled this post "Things I Can't Grow." They're two of my favorites (actually, it seems whatever's in bloom is my favorite: love the one you're with) but my hydrangeas always wilt and my peonies never bloom.

Friday I'm heading down to DC for a two-day florals workshop ... I'll finish these peonies when I get back!

francisco de asis

 
(8x10)
A statue of St Francis of Assisi in front of a restaurant in Chimayo, New Mexico.
I took a picture of this bronze statue when I was in NM four years ago and I think it may have been made by Marco Oviedo, who is one of the owners of the inn where Robin and I will be staying when we go in October.
I'll have to have another go at it ... I should have stopped last night after the second glass of wine.
I started college as an art history major. The Rogier van der Weyden Crucifixion in the Philadelphia Museum of Art first got me interested in the Northern Renaissance, which was to be my specialty. I'm not a believer, but found myself drawn to iconography, which is a kind of language, and to the lives of the saints, a kind of biography ... So I guess it's not surprising I wound up an English major instead.

 

I made a little watercolor journal to bring to NM and wanted something characteristic for the cover ... it was either pinons, ristras, or vigas: I went for the simplest!

Feliz cumpleaños, Petirrojo, amiga de toda mi vida ... y mucho mas!

"it's a beautiful ride"

 
(7x10)
"It's a beautiful ride" is the slogan of the Cape May - Lewes ferry, and it's true.
I've been accumulating a number of unfinished paintings and decided to try to "finish" this one. I like this subject but there are two, for me, insurmountable mistakes here: I cannot get the glasses right, and the more I try the worse it gets (something a watercolorist should know!) and I regret making the railing so prominent; I have tried to subdue it, in vain.
I do like the nose and lips and will try this one again and see if I learn from my mistakes!

expedius tempus

(10x14)
Found myself with no company and without any (paying) work to do (I could have worked in the yard) ... and with these already-cut lilies: so I made the most of it and spent part of the afternoon painting.

Also spent more time playing around with my palettes: it's such fun. I've had this Winsor & Newton set for more than twenty years, I think  (and good thing since it costs a small fortune now). It's such an ingenious little device--I have the same admiration for its design that I do for boat cabins, which always are so well-thought-out, a place for everything. Every time I attend a boat show I wish I had been a boat designer.
But, I haven't used this kit, which still had the original colors it came with, much of late. To make more use of it, I updated the selection of 12 colors it holds. And then realized I could squeeze in two more using glue dots--cadmium red light and cobalt violet. I had to forgo burnt sienna, which I actually use a lot, but figure I can mix a reasonable approximation of. Or I hope I can.

And here, for Father's Day (and, in the tradition of my father, a day late ...), a picture of my dad from 1975 standing in front of the house he built: he cleared the lot, designed the house, laid the foundation, did the framing, electric, plumbing, the roof ... My brothers and I helped with the drywall on weekends, and we'd sleep on lawn chairs in the house, which had no windows or doors. We got breakfast from Dunkin Donuts and built fires in the front yard and cooked hot dogs on sticks we picked up in the woods for dinner. Coming from NYC, we thought we were the Swiss Family Robinson. If the house is ever torn down, they'll find drawings of the Beatles on the back sides of the wallboard.
This is how I always picture Dad in my mind; he was 43. At 79, though, with pure white hair and well-trimmed Vandyke, he's still a handsome devil.

smilla saves the day

 
(10x14)
I was on my third go round of trying to paint these very delicately pink lilies when my cat, Smilla, left her customary spot in the hammock to obligingly provide a nice contrast (she's watching the bird bath--I need to find a much bigger bell for her collar). I have a bit more to do to bring out the lettering on the Ball jar.
I painted this on a just-opened block of Arches hot press, and even though this was the third sheet in, I found it annoyingly absorbent; it was a struggle to get the paint to flow on the surface.

 
Mineke Reinders and I had a discussion not too long ago about the best way to respond to the comments our Kind Readers leave for us. Long ago I stopped responding in my own comments section and instead would respond on the commenter's blog if the comment seemed to call for a response. As you know, sometimes it all gets so time-consuming and yet reciprocity is the heart of blogging. I've decided to adapt the policy of the Painter's Loft, where when you post a picture you are asked to comment on one. Whenever I post I will commit myself to comment on 5 other blogs, those on my blog roll or those I find in others' blog rolls, which is always a great way to be introduced to new artists. (I could browse blogs all day, really, but I have to work--I get paid by the hour!)
Also, in the past, if someone asked me a question in their comment, I would email them an answer. I think, in future, I will answer any questions in my next post, in case the answer may be of interest to others.
That's the plan ... for now.

upcoming workshop

Next weekend I'll be in Washington DC with my friends Shelby and Lori to take a two-day "gestural florals" workshop with Jackie Saunders at the Torpedo Factory.
Today I put together this palette with the colors she recommends and a couple I can't do without, cobalt violet and ultramarine violet. I always make a little diagram of the colors to tape to the lid:

These are a few additional colors that I think I may want (the little tubs sold for the Possum Palette are perfect for colors that won't fit on your palette; the snap-on lids keep most paints moist indefinitely):

And I'm out of Antwerp blue, which Jackie recommended, so I tried out these dark blues looking for a substitute and decided on the W&N indanthene blue (on the far left).

 
Now to try out my new palette on some pale pink lilies.

WsIP

 
(detail)

(11x15)

 There are a lot of white lilies in bloom in my yard right now and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to paint them! I decided to use the pattern from a pair of capri pants for the background (yes, I love to wear flowered pants). First I drew the lilies in lead pencil; then I realized I'd be very confused if I also drew the fabric pattern in pencil and drew it instead with an ochre watercolor pencil ... I still got confused, but not so much!

In my house everything is blue--blue and white, blue and beige, blue and brown--but I really like the black-white-green color scheme here.

And, below, I began to try out a photo I took at the Ocean City Arts Center--a little girl waiting for her music lesson. This WIP, I think, points up the problems inherent in taking not-so-good photos: without a strong source of light, even though the subject appeals to me so much, I feel adrift. I should do it again after rethinking and re-creating the light.

playing with food

 
(5x6)

A little (as-much-as-I-can-manage) unself-conscious playing with paint: shapes, colors ... not overthinking.

 
(4x6)

 
(9x12)

little practice

 
(3x5 Strathmore journal)

A view from a window in Pennsylvania. These evergreens, with branches that grow straight out from the trunk, break up the space nicely.

 
(3x5 handmade journal)

I'm going to be practicing with my little travel kit more in preparation for a return visit to New Mexico in October. Four years ago I met my friend Shelby in Jan Hart's workshop; this fall we're going back, and my bff from high school who just started watercolor painting, Robin, will be coming too!
Robin and I plan to stay in Chimayo, a center of weaving, and to stay for a few days after the workshop to visit pueblos and hike Ghost Ranch. Finally taking a trip together. Next year: Victoria, BC?

labors intensive and not

First the "not": a little book I made of Arches 90lb. paper, with a scrap from an unfinished painting as the cover/accordian binding that holds the signatures in place.
The directions for this "Flat-Style Australian Reversed Piano Hinge" book are in Gwen Diehn's excellent Real Life Journals: Designing & Using Handmade Books. 
You make an incision in the fold of your signature, then slip the accordian pleat through. Glue down the covers and voila.
This a small test-run, 3 x 5 inches; I'd like to make a larger one.

This book appealed to me because it doesn't require sewing and because individual pages can be removed and/or replaced simply by removing the "hinge pin" (a strip of paper slipped through the accordian fold, below).

For intensive labor I have a wheelbarrow full of plants that I bought on impulse--I cannot resist, no matter how many times I end up regretting it later--to plant ... but first I have to make a bed for them. Oh, and it's been 100 degrees here for two days. Luckily for me, and the plants, that doesn't stop my mother, who was over here yesterday and today, bright and early, shovel and hoe in hand!

stand aside

(7x11)
I love this woman's nautical-themed sweater. I feel I put too much in the eyeglass lenses--it's not too bad, if you don't look close! And, now that I see the photo, I intend to soften the shapes and tone down the sienna on the right. I had planned to do more in the hair ... but why muck it up?
On the other hand, this poor lady looks like she's convalescing from a fall down the stairs. I may be able to save her though.

 
(7x11)

And here's a painting I just began, based on a photo by my friend and teacher, Marie. This is my point of mental exhaustion. I've noticed that lately I often stop rather than painting right on through to the end.

 
Sue and I had a brief email exchange today in which I verbalized something that has been poking around the periphery for awhile: I was thinking in relation to three of my teachers whose paintings, even when they "fail" on some level, still "succeed," that if you 1) get the paint:water ratio right and 2) go at it with a lack of anxiety or fear, you are bound to produce something pleasing because you are not getting in the way of the watercolor itself.

That's my new goal: to stand aside!

faces on the ferry

 
(7x10)
I have had these two photos since last October when I took them on Cape May - Lewes ferry, still in the thrall of September's Ted Nuttall workshop, which was so great that you came away wondering why you ever bothered to paint anything but faces.
No doubt I've forgotten a lot, but these two photos continued to appeal to me, so today I made a start on them.

 
(7x10)

kitchen table still lifes, lewes

 
(7x11)

Unfinished roses.

 
(5x7)
Shelby's little yellow cream pitcher.