Glass bead baby

this adorable thing belongs to Marj Bates- the extraordinary glass bead artist of Scituate!

forget -me -not Mosaic - 8"x 10"

I was recently commissioned to make this mosaic window. It took a couple of weeks to do- little bits here and there. Mosaic is very zen like.

Shelby

Leaving Maine...

Winnie is excited to come home !

What a heavenly few days we had-the wildflowers were so pretty. I'm  sure wherever you were these past few gorgeous days it was just beautiful...

Maine watercolors

I'm spending a few days up on Gotts Island in Maine celebrating my husband's and my 27 th anniversary. The lupines are in full bloom!

Material defense

My last post about working on recycled bags brought me this thoughtful response from one my oldest and dearest friends and incredibly gifted artist -Carol Acquilano ...she works as an art preparator at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester NY. She said...

"   Brown paper bags are so excellent for a sketch bag because of the color and and heavy weight. Just remember how acidic they are. After 50 years it will be so brittle. Your paintings are so excellent... I want you to use archival stuff. I've seen what happens to old paper! "

So I've decided to recycle in other ways and save my work for archival materials . Thanks Carol for this . Here is a book handmade by her and given to me a while ago. She used the Coptic technique. I'm filling it with paintings!

Enjoying moments

          

This past Tuesday I spent a blissful morning painting in Irena Romans Back yard.This is her neighbors house with her irises in the foreground  My daughter had just left after a month of being home. It was a good thing to get out and paint. Irena and her husband John , both illustrators, have a beautiful home and Irena has a wonderful generous heart. She gave me this book. It's all about letting your children go and soar on their own. It was the perfect gift to receive, also because that same day was my late  Mother's birthday.

I am trying not to wallow in the empty nest syndrome! 

I am making a sketchbook out of paper grocery bags to paint in. I feel so guilty when I forget my cloth shopping bags so I take paper when I can ! This way I have plenty of  toned paper. I am learning the coptic stitch bookbinding technique from You Tube. 

Winnie is a big help too. Here she is waiting for me to feed the fish.

Angel

What's on my easel

I'm bringing 4 paintings over to Millikin eye center next month

Thought I'd try to paint pretty paintings. The challenge- Scituate lighthouse- a beautiful place I love but -how not to make a bad painting of it! It's been done so many times...

I'm putting modeling paste down first and seeing what acrylics look like with all that texture. It's fun!

The flowers are in my friend Pam's yard.

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Yellow bird- watercolor

I'm taking a two day watercolor workshop with Irena Roman- I coordinated the workshop at the Art Complex and  I am happy to say we have13 participants! Yesterday she showed us her amazing illustration work and had prepared a power point demo where she poured paint on the wet paper. We all played around with that  in the afternoon and the background of this one was mine. I put plastic wrap on top of the paint and let it dry in the sun. Our homework was to paint into the piece after it had dried. When I woke up this morning I knew a bird would go in this as the background suggested soft tree shapes.

Starting with a middle value is a great exercise and my first time done with  watercolor.

"Violet "mixed media on paper 11"x14"

My stepmom Jan in Hawaii asked me to do a painting about Violet- and specifically asked me to be non- literal. Her ewe named Violet was in her final days, one of her original flock. Violet passed a couple of weeks ago. This is what I painted- when I was in Hawaii. I loved doing it- but it was a challenge! I hope to do some more abstract pieces .

Scooter from California

I tweaked this this morning- I didn't think the face was right- the top has a bit more expression now I think.