June news and volunteering

 

Margaret and Justin, photograph

Margaret and Justin oil painting on canvas 16x20"

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico - watercolor

This is the portrait commission I was busy with. Margaret and Justin were very happy with the portrait and that meant a lot to me. You are looking at the picture just before my last day of work, when I put the glaze on and touched up little details here and there. The portrait's final photographs did not turn out good. I suspect because of the glaze I used. I had the same problem with Tess' Landscape which I finished and was unable to take a satisfactory picture of. I really need to learn how to photograph art from Edward Povey.
  Ghost Ranch - New Mexico was started at Ghost Ranch in August 2012 and finished at night in the hotel room in Albuquerque, NM.  It was after visiting the O’Keeffe museum in Santa Fe that we saw Ghost Ranch. While the collection of O’Keeffe’s landscapes at the museum inspired me, the actual landscapes in the area were so fascinating to me that I have been wanting to go back to do more work on location ever since.  If you are local and want to see Ghost Ranch, it is on display in Dr. Robert Rodriguez' new dental office, 

7434 Blanco Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78216
P: 210-341-6824

 The following piece I wrote after volunteering at the Universal City Library this month. I only volunteer organizing the summer art program at the library, I usually teach a class or two and assist other artists when they teach. We usually get elementary school students and a few middle school ones.

  The afternoon of June 10th, 2013 was special at the Universal City Library. Liza Stein was volunteering to teach a collage class. The children enjoyed cutting pictures of animals, food, flowers, landscapes, and Easter eggs out of the stack of magazines provided by Liza. They glued the images onto paperboard that Liza had saved and added colored tissue (sometimes made into flowers) and construction paper. One girl made a picture of a bone out of 30 or 40 dog pictures; a grandma helped her grand-daughter compose a beautiful garden landscape; one of the boys chose to create a colorful display of sweets; and a mother and her daughter made an interesting person out of apples and flowers adding a drink, legs and a hat. All the creations were sealed and protected by a layer of glue. What made the afternoon special was one of the girls was making a picture for her father. He had been absent for Father's Day and they had planned a celebration after his return. (At the summer art program at the Universal City Library we often hear about absent or deployed parents.) And there were the parents and grand-parents spending quality time with their (grand-)children absorbed in a common adventure. There was the boy who had a hard time sitting when his collages were done and who helped to sweep up the small pieces of paper that had fallen on the floor. Then there was the Universal City council member, Adam Salyer, who happened to be at the library, looked in on the class and sent two of his neighbor's children (also at the library) over to join. I remember the two siblings who were carefully rolling their pencils down a table to a teen library volunteer, so that their sister and mom could finish working on the heart of dog and cat pictures that took a lot of time and patience. There was the single mom who started out helping her sons and ended up making a beautiful collage of her dream vacation.
 Certainly volunteering at the library is not creating art ourselves - there usually is too much to do for that. It is, however, deeply satisfying to witness and assist the creative adventures of children, teens and parents and some art classes have an extra dimension and remind us of our common humanity and the struggles and delights of being a family.

May 2013

Welcome to all of you I met through Fiesta last month. The weather was just right, comfortable and not too hot (except for Wednesday when it was cold and rainy). It was truly a good show and your stopping by and taking the time to see my work made it so.

This Saturday, the 18th, I will be in Boerne, TX all day (10 to 5) in the art show of the Boernefest. Kaz, I hope to see you. Anybody who is in the area, please come by. We will be on the square. More information at the Carriage House Gallery or Boerne Chamber of Commerce.

With this blog I am breaking a rule, namely not to put any art on the blog that is not finished. The portrait (in oil) that I am working on presently is a commissioned work that needs done in time to dry before a birthday at the end of the month. It takes priority over everything else. I am painting 6 hours a day. Consequently "Tess' World" has to wait.

"Tess' World" was started last year when I was listening to Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. Under my hands the landscape quickly became as lonely and desolate as the hills Tess roams through, broken-hearted. The mesquite tree in the foreground grows in a playground in my neighborhood; its striking shape has fascinated me for a while. When I next took up the painting, I thought  something was missing in the lower left corner, so I added my faithful companion on walks, our dog, Maya. I had the painting hanging in my studio for a couple of months not knowing what to do with it, was it finished or not? Finally it occurred to me I could ask my friend and art collector, Abbie. She told me right away the dog didn't fit with the landscape. In the "Finishing Paintings" class at Edward Povey's we reviewed the painting and came to the same conclusion and decided it needed some glazes as well. It still needs some little adjustment and one more glaze as soon as I have a quiet moment to give to it.

On a different but related note, I am reading "Get Real" by Rhonda Payne. Master Payne has trained our sons, Misha and Gerald, in Martial Arts and myself in self-defense. It is a thin book, a quick read, with an inspiring life story and some potentially life saving information in it. It can be obtained through Amazon. Master Payne teaches by example how "choosing better over bitter" can change a life. I couldn't help thinking about Edward Povey's Art of Change classes, where the same is taught.

Finally for my local friends and acquaintances Wally Workman in Austin is showing Carol Dawson's watercolors for one more week. I think they are a treat for lovers of plants and watercolor! Shirley would like them!

www.wallyworkmangallery.com

Carol Dawson' s poppy.

Fiesta 2013 is starting this week

The Photograph

 My latest work is a Maple tree from Connecticut in its full autumn glory. Not having been on the East coast ever, much less during fall, I lacked a direct connection to my subject, but Anna told about her trip and showed us her pictures then she gracefully lent me one of them and Jolanda who had ordered the watercolor, assisted me with her experience and counsel. (She is Dutch like myself and has lived in Connecticut.) I wanted to share some of the process with you, sorry I didn't take another picture early on. The watercolors are actually brighter than can be seen here. Jolanda and I are happy with the result and I am looking forward to one day seeing the fall glory for myself.

First Quick Sketch

 Starting this Friday April 19th, I will be on Alamo Plaza for 6 days, Friday through Wednesday, with the Randolph Art League, provided there is no heavy rain. Fiesta is a joyful happening in San Antonio and usually we meet nice visitors from all over the United States, Canada, South and Central America and Europe. This year, I will be selling cards and prints of my work. Look for my table under the trees.

Almost There

Finished

 















  Some of my original watercolor work can be seen in Seguin, TX at the Seguin Oakwood Art League, www.seguinoakwoodartleague.com has pictures of the watercolor reception. In San Antonio my Native American art is for sale at the Viva Bookstore (www. vivabooks.com), in the library of the Emily Morgan Hotel downtown www.emilymorganhotel.com, at Arthritis Associates at 4511 Horizon Hill 78229 and soon at the River Art Group Gallery in La Villita.

Little Boxes all the same?

This song brings back memories. Robert was driving in Germany with 2 year-old Misha and myself in the car. We listened to songs of the 70's. Two songs stood out. "Where have all the Flowers  gone?" "Put in Boxes, little Boxes all the same..." I vowed right there and then that my kids (we were expecting Gabriel) would not be put in boxes. Now, many years later, I believe, we succeeded: homeschooling, going to Japan, a diverse background to begin with and parents who encouraged them to think for themselves... But still Misha, Gabriel and Gerald went and are going to the universities, where we expect them to be exposed to a multitude of ideas and knowledge instead of being put into boxes. On the other hand, even I acknowledge that a little conformity is not so bad. I am not a revolutionary myself - far from it.

It was at a class at Edward Povey's about painting cardboard boxes that I first tried my hand at it and started seeing colors and shapes I liked. It made me think about Braque's abstract work, wondering if he was painting boxes as well.

I have a little series now and enjoy painting them. Of course, they can't all look the same!

Robert likes them; he sees more depth in them than in my usual work and likes the angles.

What do you think?

March 2013

Some how I can't get the text where I want it today. Anyway the first watercolor is Cap d'Ail on the French Riviera again. This time the whole view from the house. I want to paint this scene on a big canvas in oil. This study was done for my cousin's 70th birthday.

The little red horse was inspired by seeing the horses from Chauvet Cave, which I first saw in the Cave of the Forgotten Dreams.

Spring is certainly coming: I saw wildflowers incl. bluebonnets already in Feb! 

The two wildflowers and rockart watercolors will be on display at the Seguin Oakwood Art League in Seguin,TX for their watercolor show this month. For those in the area the opening is this Thursday March 7th from 5 till 7pm. I will be there.

January 2013 news

"A little Piece of Heaven" is at Vegeria. It is a field of wildflowers not far from my home last spring.
I have just sent the twin of this painting off to its new home in France. "Paradise" (see below) is going to a dear friend from long ago at art school in Perpignan. We met on the first day of classes - she, a mother of a toddler and a baby, and I, a teenager. Annie's friendship made me feel at home in the "big city" and  we enjoyed studying with Germain Bonel (www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/bonel_germain/artist/57751/) whose love of Japanese woodblock prints and cheerful spirit still warm my heart when I think of him. His favorite artist was Bonard.

"Tulips" has an unusual story. Last year at the Fiesta show on Alamo Plaza, I was told by a nice lady from Mexico City (who was also a tour guide) that I needed to paint tulips (not bluebonnets), because I was from Holland. That didn't seem to be necessary to me. Windmills, wooden shoes, fields of tulips... I thought about it a few times, but decided against it. Last December I saw red and yellow tulips at the grocery store and remembered helping someone who was painting a large bouquet of flowers and praising her for the very same tulips. Then it occurred to me that I had not helped anyone but had had a recurring dream. I understood I needed to paint those tulips and not the peonies (always reminding me of Japan) that I was tempted to buy instead... I started them while one of my tom cats was very sick and I had only an hour, so I painted fast and big, wanting to show the strength of the flowers opening.

This little still life was started at Edward Povey's studio in Wimberley and was supposed to be a study in tonal value. We were only allowed 4 colors (white, blue, brown and yellow) and the plate I had chosen was bright red... I still went off working on color instead of tonal value and Edward graciously let me get away with it this time... The changing shadows and lights brought out shapes in the plate that reminded me of native American pottery I saw in New Mexico last summer.

"Roses" has a long history, it was started after Aunt Katya's Icon in 2011 and was supposed to have an icon (angel Gabriel or Virgin Mary with child) in the middle. My husband liked the roses for their own sake and was convinced it would become too busy.  The roses were painted in our backyard. The classical armature was a topic we studied with Edward when I took up this painting again last summer and it helped to make it more powerful.

This version of "our Lady of Vladimir" and "Paradise" found new homes at the end of last year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Paradise is one of the wildflower paintings on sale at Vegeria

The art Reception at Vegeria was such a relaxed event; thank you all for coming! We had poets, artists and mothers, family, old time friends and new ones, animal activists and animal lovers, English as a Second Language teachers and Peace Corps volunteers; as a group we had lived in and traveled to so many countries. The food was delicious! Two paintings and one print were sold. Thank you for your nice reactions and for thinking about us, friends who are far away!

The following paintings found a new home in the last 2 months.

Petroglyph Parrot

Egyptian Don Juan

Aunt Katya's Icon

Enjoying Lost Maples

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy 2013! Happy Holidays!