The Reader

The Reader

I recently became a grandmother for the first time (at last!!) and the book club I belong to decided that they would provide me with books for our granddaughter.  Shortly after I received the wonderful windfall of books, I decided to create an illustration of a young enthustiastic reader.  

Mary's Little Lamb

                                                             Mary's Little Lamb

I've recently been visiting some old passions and creating what I call my "Doodle Babies".   I am a former elementary school teacher and have always loved children's books.  At one time I had serious thoughts of writing and illustrating a children's book.  Most of my "babies" have been created while sitting in front of the TV with a fine line Sharpie in hand.  The ideas for each character usually comes about as a result of some family photo or memory that I have of children in our family. There is endless possibilities and while I am creating one baby, another idea pops into my mind. I don't have a specific plan for these little gems at the moment, but as I sat here drawing, I have thought about the importance that art and education have played in my life.  There is a connection there.                                   

A Fire       Pastel     6.5" x 11"

It is nice to be back in the studio today.  The last couple weeks I have not been able to put my time in at studio.  Recently I have been painting abstract paintings and the time spent on these pieces have been rewarding and  learning experiences.  You apply the same principles as you would a still life; however the abstracts feel more intuitive.  As I apply the colors, I find that I am thinking more about how the colors and shapes play and lead you different directions.  The time that I have put into them has been very beneficial.  There is always new challenges and things to learn.

Pear and Orange

Pear and Orange      Pastel   6" x 6"

I had set this small piece aside and decided to revisit it.  I am pleased with the end result.  Originally the structure of the painting was accurate, but I needed to work on the edges.  I also added additional color to the fruit, which tied the composition more together.

Silverton

Silverton   5" x 7"  Pastel

I don't think there is ever a bad day at the studio.  I don't always create a master piece, but sometimes the discussions and experiments are as important as the master piece I strive for.  Today Cindy and I had a discussion about the difference between rendering a painting and expressing ourselves.  I have created a number of paintings inwhich I have painted what I observed rather than what I feel about the subject matter.  Lately I have been experimenting with my pastels, laying down shapes of color and creating  more tonal paintings.  I feel that these pieces have been more expressive and fresh. Silverton is one of my newest pieces.

Saturday Market

Saturday Market      6" x 8"    Pastel

A few years ago I was in Portland and had the opportunity to walk around the Saturday Farmers' Market.  It was an ideal time of day for capturing people at the market.  I've always enjoyed painting people. This painting was done with broad strokes of  pastel color  I did minimal amount of blending and concentrated on portraying the people with shapes and color. This was painted on brown art spectrum paper. 

Out West

Out West      pastel     8" x 8"

I have been studying paintings by a couple of artists that I have admired and I've really been impressed with their ability to work with color and shapes.  They paint with  limited color pallets and they keep their shapes large and simple.  I did this landscape in the studio this morning.  It is my attempt to work with a somewhat limited pallet. The piece was done on black art spectrum paper and with soft pastels.  

Snack Time      6" x 6"   Pastel

We had a visitor to the studio this morning.  Our friend Linda came be to paint with us.  Linda spent a number of hours in another studio with us and we all studied with Deborah Bays for an extended period.

There was lots to catch up on, but we did get a few strokes of pastel onto the paper.  I chose to work from a previously photographed picture that I had taken.  I was taken with the color of the fruit and the dark shadows in the photo.   

Green Apple

Green Apple      pastel    6 x 6

It was a good day in the studio this morning.  I arrived around 9 and put in a few hours of work.  I have a large piece that I am working on and it involves a lot of patterning and dramatic lighting.  It is close to being completed, but needs some fine tuning.  After an hour and a half of working on it I decided I needed to do a smaller piece that was less involved.  The green apple was done in a matter of an hour.  Sometimes you wish that they all went that quickly!  (The larger piece will be posted when I have completed the fine tuning.)

Work in progress     oil      6" x 6"

Today was one of those days where I didn't know what I really wanted to do when I walked into the studio.  There are days like that and it is hard to get started.  I went for simple.  I had a photo of a pear and decided to work from that.  This is the first step in creating this painting.  

      

Once I have loosely drawn in the image I begin to lay in the dark values.

                                            At this point I begin adding color to the painting.

Finished painting

The last touch to the painting is to add the highlights and adjust the colors.  Not bad for someone who felt clueless when she walked into the studio two hours earlier.