Two More

This is Kitty-Catkin in the bowl. It is a family tradition to photograph babies in a bowl - now maybe I can start one of painting them.
Back in March, my sister, Dad, and I visited a farm near the end of the day. We took a lot of pictures and I was loving the way the low down sun made the cows ears glow. This paining is from one of the pictures that Innes took that day.

The Reader

I was happy to sneak my vintage suitcase into this painting. The model is Julia and the book is The House at Pooh Corner. The hay barn is at Hard Bargain Farm. Below is what my palette looked like at the end.

My First Painting of Littlest Granddaughter: Freyja "Kitty"-Catkin

Now I am caught up and have painted every grandkid. More paintings to follow, I'm sure.

Roses

This painting was inspired by a photo I took of Andelle at Kathleen Carlson's art show, which was a tribute to her mother Rose.

Lorelai in Happy Baby Pose

Again I am getting ready for an art show! This one will be at the New Deal in Greenbelt around March of 2016. This painting is a start on producing some work for that show. In yoga we have a pose called "Happy Baby". I thought it was neat when I caught Lorelai spontaneously doing that pose!

Sweeping the Sidewalk at 21 G

Apparently I am on the schedule for an art show at the New Deal in Greenbelt in March of 2016. I want to include some Greenbelt themed paintings so this is a start.

Lynnis as Glamour-Puss with Tribute to the Child Lynnis

Lynnis always wanted a portrait like the one Alice Ferguson painted of herself lounging on a couch. I finally completed it. The Alice Ferguson portrait hangs in the living room at the Hard Bargain Farm farmhouse.

Snow on Apple Valley Road

Snow storm plus President's Day holiday gave me five days off in a row! Thought I should at least complete one painting.

Princess

Another pose by Linnea. I like the way her profile is a little reminiscent of Sargent's Madame X.

Linnea in Sleep Pose

This painting was inspired by a painting my friend Holly has in her living room. It is of a young girl in the 'Gibson girl' era that Holly said was her grandmother, painted by her artist ancestor. I thought it would be nice for a descendant of Linneas', way off in the future, to be able to point to a painting and say 'that is my grandmother'.

California Trip Travel Journal, July 2013

I flew out a couples of days early to see local national parks, then spent time on the California Specialty Crops Tour.

Say No to Gun Violence

I felt I needed to do this since my friend, John Massey, is working on a great 'Say No to Gun Violence' sculpture and that made me think I should try to make a statement on the theme. The message here is that good will prevail and that guns belong to the dark side. The model for the girl is my six year old granddaughter, in some ways representing the Newtown victims.

Study in Whites

When Julia and I were looking at the Mary Cassatt painting in the book below she insisted that the subjects were a big sister and a little sister. That gave me the idea of dressing Julia and Willow in white and recreating the painting. I tried to get some feet in the painting but Willow was not into fully cooperating.

Strawberries

I was feeling guilty because the painting I entered last year in the "Nutrition" category of the USDA employee art show featured Linnea eating a cupcake! For this year's show I wanted to enter something more nutritious! These painting hang on the walls of USDA's South Building for about a year. The photo reference was snapped at a family gathering where we suddenly noticed that Linnea was taking a bite out of every strawberry then moving on to the next from a big bowl.

Cousins Playing Dress Up

I've been doing more sketching than painting but over a three day weekend was able to complete a "real" painting of my 2 oldest granddaughters playing dress up.

Self Portrait

I'm not really much for self-portraits but if you want to practice improving your technique you are the one who is always there. What I am still doing is art journaling, where the entries are pencil, pen, ink, watercolor or any combination of these. Trying to get the watercolors a little looser, with more interesting colors - still a ways to go!

Art Journal

I'm having a lot of fun with the Art Journal thing. Early dismissal from work today means I got to sketch around the National Mall and try out a little travel watercolor set I made from a mints tin.

To make the watercolor set, I filled the tin with a layer of white sculpy and made depressions for the colors and for mixing spaces. You bake scuply at 275 for 15 minutes and you're done. I also had to trim a paintbrush handle so it would fit.

Africa Travel Art Journal

One of the funnest things I did in Africa was to create an Art Travel Journal of the things I saw. My pages are below:

Watercolor Portraits

For fun I am trying to paint some watercolor portraits. I find this much trickier than doing it in oil. The one was painted of Willow the day before her third birthday.