sketch of my niece who was here this week visiting with us and going to cooking camp with my daughter.  

A favorite subject: grapefruit…. capturing that odd shade of pink orange.

oil on birch panel 

Breakfast: a flower shape

Philly Farmer's Market Signs

We painted signs this week just in time for Urban Tree Connection's first day.

(a wonderful organization that grows fruits and vegetables in vacant lots in Philadelphia) 

http://urbantreeconnection.org/

"Draw me! I am a knight on a horse about to slay a dragon!"

Ummm... okay sure.  That was one of the drawing requests I got at my daughter's elementary school.  One little boy asked me to draw his whole family (who I had never seen before) and all his pets (who I had never seen before either, even though he gave me detailed descriptions of where the black and white spots were on his cat) and they should all be playing basketball together.  That one I approached in a very impressionistic way with a lot of motion lines! 

 The easy ones were, "Can you write my name in pink and purple and draw three kittens?"   

Mother and daughter

 Mother and daughter with a touch of mystery. 

A painting commissioned for a girls bedroom. 

Watercolor

Marion in NYC - early 1900's

 Marion, my grandmother, when she was a girl.  She lost her parents when she was five (one to a fire and one to an illness) and she went to live with an aunt.  Years later, she met my grandfather at the A& P where he worked.  He said he was touched she would take time to chat with him when she came in to shop, because he was an immigrant and she was a native New Yorker.  All my grandparents lived in NYC and I loved to visit them and hear (and imagine) their stories.  

Good advice

© Wordboner all rights reserved

Now that I have the hang of blogging, I think I will tell more than 3 people 

that I actually have a blog (and website)!

collage

Paint paper, 

rip into shapes,

move shapes around 

see what happens

(or sometimes the wind blows the shapes into places on the paper-  

more beautiful- less forced than the hand can do).  

It cures any perfectionist tendencies.  

More like making mosaics than painting with a brush.

1.paint 2. rip 3. paste 4.play

Greens             24 x 24" 

Plums            24 x 24" 

Paint paper - dry paper on clothes line- stack according to color on shelves in studio - then dip into - Think: play! - Think: try new color combinations- tear paper and paste-  Collage is a freeing approach 

Art Supplies

Doesn't this make you want to dive in and get messy?
It makes me think of an art teacher I had when I was little and took painting lessons in her barn.  She told the group of 5 or so of us:  It is nice to look at your brand new box of colors all lined up perfectly, but never make them too precious.  Use them, get messy, loose yourself in the process and you'll do your best work.

She was the same woman who taught me some tricks to save a painting.  "Have you tried more yucky yellow?"  she would ask.  (She had a lot of faith in yellow ochre to pull a painting together.)  If some of her other tricks didn't work and we still weren't happy with a painting, she would take the piece of masonite to the sink and rinse it off so we could start fresh.  There was a lot of experimenting going on in that barn and not letting art supplies or whatever we were creating become too precious was one of the biggest lesson I learned. 

Charming Rooster

Saw this little rooster made out of plastic grocery bags sitting on a windowsill with antiques .

Listening to the flutists

Enjoyed listening to my daughter and some other flutists play and, of course, am always sketching on whatever paper is available.  

Holiday Wrapping Paper

Most years we like to make Chef party mix to deliver to neighbors and friends doors, but this year, pressed for time, we decided to wrap bars of dark chocolate and make the hand-made part be the wrapping.

Sheets of brown kraft paper, jars of tempera and acrylic paint and brushes were left on the kitchen table and the kids painted dashes and dabs to the papers as they passed through the kitchen.  (Always good to get them picking up a brush since it seems they do less and less as they leave elementary school.)

Another good way to stay comfortable with the brush is this- love the Buddha Board.