Dec 2018

I hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season. I wish all of you a Healthy, Happy 2019!

Abbie's Trees, oil on panel, 9x12"

 Abbie's Trees were painted from a photo in the studio. I kept thinking about O'Keeffe while working on them.

Gracie, graphite on Bristol, 9x12"

 Dreamy Gracie was a challenge I enjoyed.

Pond Reflections, oil on panel, 16x20"

 Pond Reflections were painted on location, by an ever changing beautiful pond.

Springtime Canigou, oil on panel, 16x20"

 Springtime Canigou is waiting for me to have time to evaluate it. I am torn between my old detailed way of working and my new carefree approach.

 All the work above was commissioned and I am very grateful for your trust and the challenge and learning that comes with each new piece. 

 However, I am not accepting any new commissions for at least a year as I want to finish current projects and cut out some time to work on paintings of my own.

October 2018

Green Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Green Canigou is the painting I started working on just before the short television segment.  The foreground was the most difficult part of this painting.

Rosie, graphite, 8x10"

Rosie was a commission I was going to do just in graphite, but I could not bring myself not to include some color into it.

Blue Sky Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Mosaic Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Blue Sky Canigou and Mosaic Canigou were started in the SAAC Gallery at Stone Oak, where they looked tiny because of all the big canvases and the size of the room. They are color studies. I so liked the colors and glass or mineral quality of the first impasto brushstrokes of Mosaic Canigou,  that I decided to treat the rest of the mountain as grout. 

The following paintings date from my time as a student of Edwards Povey. I did not show them much. I am needing more room in my studio and so they are for sale. 

Portrait was done from a photograph taken by Edward of a dear friend who died of cancer. I thought she was beautiful and enjoyed working from a photo of such high quality. At the same time, I felt for her and her family because of her untimely passing. 

Portrait, oil, 11x14"

Inspired by Mary was interesting. We first analyzed several paintings by Mary Cassatt including a mother in bed with her baby and a tea party. Then we were introduced to a scene set up in the studio consisting of a bed with a mannequin "asleep" under the covers, a doll, a black hat and coat, old photos on the wall, a coffee pot on the nightstand, clothes on the bed and a tea set. There were a lot of us around the bed painting the scene, only a few got to paint the head of the mannequin and the doll. From my angle they were unfortunately invisible, but I enjoyed painting the rest especially the tea set and the warm and cold light on the drapery on the headboard and the red blanket on the bed. 

  

Inspired by Mary, oil on canvas board, 12x16"

The Green Line, la Ligne Verte, is a copy of Matisse's painting, done from a photograph. We had just seen a Matisse exhibit, where I had been studying his fauve works.

Copy of Matisse's La Ligne Verte, oil, 12x16"

 

September 2018

Twin Falls is ready. It was a learning experience. I like the final painting so well, I was considering not selling it. There is so much movement, it is so different from my usual static art. It looks wonderful from far away and who doesn't like to look at a waterfall in the Texas heat?

Twin Falls, 16x20", oil on canvas board

 After some much needed rain, I am writing to you about my latest Canigou paintings. I decided I needed to consult my old watercolor sketches, in order to get closer to the real Canigou. After several of these more realistic paintings, I am going to paint one more just from memory.
I realize I never explained in my blog how my Canigou series works. People prepay me to paint them a Canigou palette knife painting. September is, probably, the last month of my Canigou paintings this year. I enjoy how different they are...

Amanda's Canigou, 9x12", oil on Raymar panel

Peach Orchard Canigou, 9x12", oil on Raymar panel

I am so happy with the way Hope's portrait was framed that I decided to include it in here.

Two events in September: I will be at the Comfort Art Festival on Saturday September 15th from 10-4 pm. I will be at the 8th Street Market, Vintage and Antique Store.

I will be at Pioneer Day in Dripping Springs at the Dr Pound Historical Farmstead on Saturday September 22nd from 10-4 pm.

August 2018

Hello again. We survived the extreme heat in Texas. Temperatures are more normal now. I hope you survived the heat and are doing well.

My friend wanted a Gauguin inspired painting and I studied the Gauguin paintings I had seen in Paris this summer. I had chosen to listen to Black (a story about a dog) by Alexandre Dumas. I was enjoying the story and was in for a surprise when just as I was painting this painting the story moved to Tahiti... It was a wonderful coincidence!

Gauguin Canigou, palette knife on panel, 9x12"

Hope, graphite on Bristol paper, 11x14"

Hope, was drawn from a photograph of a beautiful, little girl I met at La Villita.

New Zealand Memory, oil on linen, 11x14"

I finished my very first palette knife from memory painting, started last fall after our trip to New Zealand. It is a subject I want to re-visit.

July 1st 2018

Canigou 1, oil on panel, 9x12", detail

Canigou 2, oil on panel, 9x12"

After a great trip, I am glad to be back with my husband and Gabriel. Misha and Kylie came to visit this weekend which was a treat!
I started a series of palette knife paintings from memory of Mount Canigou, the mountain, for us when we lived in the South of France.

Canigou 3, oil on canvas board, 10x14"

 My first attempts were to put as much information on the canvas as possible. I was filming the process, as the paintings 2 and 3 were pre-sold with their video. With Canigou 3, the computer ran out of charge and there was no way to continue filming, even after I plugged it in. My schedule was busy, I had just an hour or two to work, in order for the painting to be dry in time for my departure. I got frustrated and decided to sit back and see what this painting still needed. The more I looked, the more I became convinced that Canigou 3 was finished.

Canigou 6, oil on panel, 9x12", in progress

 Canigou 6 is a result of too much linseed oil and gamsol on the panel at the start. I had the intention of painting an image that captured just the essence, "a poem instead of a novel" as Jim McDonald calls it. I will just keep trying...

Walking in the forests around Nijmegen

 It was so relaxing to walk for hours in the forests we used to walk in with our parents, when we were little, my brother and I. My real brother was at work, but I had my "adopted brother and sister" and/or their dog with me.

Madame de Pompadour, by  M. Quentin de La Tour, pastel, detail

In the Louvre I saw an impressive pastel exhibit, it helped me realize that there are way more historic pastel portraits than I had any idea of. This beautiful, huge portrait, which I had always assumed was in oil, is one of them.

May-June 2018

Statue from the Wild Souls exhibit from the Baltics in the Orsay 

 One of the beautiful paintings and statues I saw in the Orsay in Paris.

Study of a poppy field close to Aix-en-Provence, watercolor

 I knew poppy fields only from Monet's paintings. This year there are poppies everywhere.
It was a wonderful surprise arriving in the area of Aix.

A study of Serrabonne, oil

 Serrabonne was a favorite spot of my father. I had not returned there in many years. I used waterbased oil paint for the study.

Karine's Cat, watercolor

Spring 2018

Barbara's Huey, watercolor on arches,  8 x 10"

This pet portrait was painted for my friend, Barbara. We both have a cat named Huey. The decorations are from a favorite rug.

Mission San Jose Cat 1, watercolor and marker, 6 x 8"

Mission San Jose Cat found a home during the Say Si Silent Auction.

Impression, oil on canvas, 9 x 12"

Impressions and Cool Morning at the River were painted during my lesson using palette knife and paint brush.

Cool morning at the River, 9 x 12"

The Starving Artist's Show in La Villita, (San Antonio) was well attended this year in spite of the cold weather. I had a good show and enjoyed meeting new customers.

In April my cat art is on display at South Alamode,
my pencil portraits are at Four Kings together with landscapes by Maren Philips.
The large tree paintings are at FLOAT.

I hope you have some time to enjoy spring.

January 2018

I started taking lessons in oil painting using a palette knife with Jim McDonald. I have had two lessons so far and what is interesting to me is that Jim paints landscapes from memory. It is very relaxing to me to learn to create art in a very different way. Jim has a zen way of approaching painting. I look forward to my lesson each month as a treat.

My first attempt turned out a little dark. I consider that I painted it by myself. Jim did show me how he works on another canvas and he gave me advice along the way. I made the decisions, however, and did the painting. My favorite part is the green sky. (I remember that Edward Povey once advised me to paint a sky green and at the time, I just could not bring myself to do it. It is a few years later and I can see the benefit.) I believe, there is something more I can do on this and I will keep you posted...

Coming into View

The second attempt is a painting where we took turns painting, discussing what was happening along the way. It was fun!
Now, I am usually not comfortable with anybody working in my painting. Somehow this was a cooperative project from the beginning with each of us coming up with what we could to help bring this landscape into the world.

Morning Mist