Morning Page

Bic Cristal pen, Pen & ink, Sktchy September 5, 2019

Every morning I do a page spread like this. I first learned about it from Carla Sonheim when she introduced us to The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Carla showed us how she did a page in her sketchbook and over the years I have tweaked it to fit my needs.

I took my time this morning and wrote a little more legibly so that the format could be understood. As you can see from the “Ideas” column, I am still considering different formats.

I am working my way through the Chihuahuas uploaded to Sktchy so that drawing them from my head becomes 2nd nature. This is already Chihuahua #7. So that I am not spending too much of my day on these sketches, I set a timer for 5 minutes and usually stop, but today I added the shading with another marker.

Enjoy and have a great day!

Paint the Great South Bay

Paint the great South Bay, Pastel, Plein air, Uncategorized August 24, 2019

It’s that time of year again where I am the chairperson for an annual plein air event. I get to participate but I am obviously not eligible for prizes but that’s ok. When my paintings sell, that’s prize enough for me.

As typical with plein air, there are adventures to tell. Several storms this week, one really was a humdinger.

The first painting was not making me happy so I totally reworked it to the one you see below.

The next painting was completed from the rooftop of the Village Walk Assisted Living facility. They are great people and they really participate in community activities.

We had a model on Wednesday, but we had about an hour and 20 min to work and then another storm rolled in and we had to pack it in. I went back yesterday to do the background and I used the photo reference that I took to finish. This isn’t eligible to hang in the gallery but I am glad I finished this one.

I also took pictures of the artists painting the model.

Last but not least, today’s Quick Draw painting where we get three hours to work on a painting. This actually took me less than 2.

I am exhausted.

Infinite Sketch

copic markers, Paint pens, Pen & ink, Sketches, Tombow August 22, 2019

I signed up to participate in the Sketchbook Project’s “Infinite Sketch.” You get a 6×9 postcard with some art supplies and you create a segment of a creature that will connect to another artists’ segment, and so on. One artist gets selected for the head and another gets the butt. I’m somewhere in the middle but that’s ok, less pressure on me.

This is my body segment; a duck footed caterpiller.

It’s August

Acrylic/Mixed Media, Collage, drawing cats for mom August 4, 2019

My show was up for a month and a half but regretfully, it’s over. It was a lot of fun.

It was on exhibit at the Patchogue Theatre for the Arts. We get a lot of great shows at the Patchogue Theatre. For those of you that didn’t see it, it was whimsical and charming.

Now that it is no longer hanging, I will share some photos of the exhibit. This is the lobby when you first walked into the theatre.

The two end cats are portraits of my mom’s cats. They are 24x 30 and the two middle pieces are 30×40.

On the back wall of the theatre, there 9 other pieces. These were along the corridor to the interior seating of the theatre.

Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the one in at Roast. I’ll have to see if hubby took a photo of that one.

Laughing gulls

Acrylic/Mixed Media, Collage, Mixed Media July 30, 2019

These guys nest on the East Coast. They are a summer staple along the New Jersey coastline. Growing up, we went down the Shore every summer and our summer days were filled with laughing gull calls.

Note: people from South Jersey and Philadelphia do not call it the “Jersey Shore.” 😱 We call it “down the Shore.” As soon as we hear the term “Jersey shore,” we have you pegged as not being from the Philly/South Jersey region.

Back to the laughing gulls….they come up early from the southern beaches and in late Spring you can hear them for miles along the Delaware Bay, it’s like one giant gull party. It’s one of the best sounds of the Spring. They nest in the salt marshes and their favorite natural food is horseshoe crab eggs. They’re favorite junk food is the stolen sandwiches from toddlers. It’s hilarious to see a small child running with food and a laughing gull dives and deftly snatches it from their hands. Priceless.

Here are two mixed media laughing gulls.

Enjoy!

Painting au jour

Acrylic/Mixed Media, Bic Cristal pen, Carla Sonheim's 365 class, Collage, drawing cats for mom, Mixed Media, Pen & ink, Sktchy July 29, 2019

Here is another recent painting for your viewing pleasure…..

It’s a collage/mixed media piece. 12×16

Here is a quick sketch I did this morning using the Sktchy app on iPhone.

The young man had a scrunched up face and it made me laugh. He was sketched in a drawing box that I have reserved in my morning pages.