Day 60: Tuesday, April 12

I don't know if any of you have seen this. I think it's one of the more clever YouTube videos that's arrived via email. How long did this couple have to practice? They're called the "Italian Answer to the Irish River Dancers".





Sorry that there's no painting being done by me. I'm working hard "pimping the painters" at the Arlington Garden hoping to get enough wonderful paintings to sell at the event on April 30, Saturday.  Contact me if you've painted in the Garden and have an art piece you'd like to show off that day.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the MidValley League painters will be at the Park and Thursday the plein air group led by Walter McNall and Brenda Swenson will be at the park for their second go-round.

If you are a painter, it's fabulous to go watch people paint but what I find so informative is looking through their eyes: why did they choose that vista, why are they incorporating that piller.........

Day 59: Monday, April 11

The new magazine "Splash 12" has been issued. It's a collection of wonderful paintings by over 115 artists this year.  Local artist Brenda Swenson was one of the winners.  (Earlier in this post I made a huge mistake. I mentioned Splash 13 and published the winners from Splash 13. I've now corrected this.)

The cover painting is by Ted Nuttall, the watercolor portrait artist that I've hired to teach a workshop June 13-17 here in Glendale, California. Thrilled to have him one more time as it's always a wonderful week spent painting with a "master".

See if you recognize the names of any of the other winners?

Day 58: Friday, April 8

Yesterday, Thursday, opened cold, cloudy, chance of rain, but there had been a paint-out sheduled at the Arlington Garden for some time and typical California? Wait 5 minutes and the weather changes........or is that Denver?

martha and walter mcnall

Anyway, I drove to the Garden to see who was painting and what they were painting. It turned into a glorious morning with some wonderful work. The group is led by Martha and Walter McNall and Brenda Swenson. I told them I was "pimping at the Park" in terms of trying to recruit all of the wonderful plein air painters to exhibit their work at our Arlington Garden Party, Saturday, April 30, 9:30-2 p.m.

martha and walter mcnall



brenda swenson



A few vistas of the Garden, a few painters.....

chuck kovacic



lynne fearman

Looking forward to lots of gorgeous art for sale on the 30th of April!!

This same group will be painting, again, on next Thursday, April 14th barring a rain storm.  There is also a group painting there on Wednesdays and there are always one or two people painting, walking, sitting and reading.....

You're never alone in this park.

Day 57: Thursday, April 7

You all know how often I mention Karin Jurick? Of the famous "wanted" mug shots? Of the famous portrait challenge of 2 years ago.  She's been painting up a storm and has a show opening in Hilton Head. Take a look at her wonderful work! 

I'm always amazed that her paintings are 4"x4" or 6"x8"....small jewels with such incredible detail even though they're not detailed, just masterfully crafted . She's a "master" because of the more than 10,000 hours that the book by Malcolm Gladwell, "The OutLiers" says is necessary to create the "genius" that we all think happens all by itself.  If you haven't read one of Malcolm's other books, "Blink", do so. Probably an hour or two to read and it leaves you thinking about so many things. Non fiction, a book about the power of thinking without thinking and what happens.

For those of us close to Pasadena, CA, there's a great show of John Salminen's work at the San Marino Gallery located at 70 N. Raymond in OldTownPasadena. The shows runs through October.  Here's one of his paintings that you might have seen in the watercolor magazines. He's been featured many times in the last year.  Someone said today that supposedly he can turn out 2-3 paintings a week? Whew!

Day 56: Wednesday, April 6

I mention Lee Brown quite often. He's a photographer that does beautiful work as he travels the world and he's a painter and he's a generous poster of a monthly challenge.  This March's challenge was a saxophone player in Central Park and Lee was so excited by the number of submissions to the Challenge that he's going to make a photo book out of the submissions and give it to Ralph, the sax player in Central Park, N.Y. What fun and how astonished Ralph will be.

And then I spent some of this morning wandering the web, looking at other peoples' blogs. Have added a list of challenge sites to the blog since I learned how to do that this morning.  There's a blogging website that has "handy hints".

And then I went out to "do my job" as "Art Chairman" for the Arlington Garden's Second Celebration of Its Fifth Anniversary" which is coming up April 30, Saturday, from 9:30 - 2.  By Art Chairman I mean I'm out there recruiting painters, painting groups, plein air painters....anyone and everyone who paints because they're all welcome to exhibit and sell at our Party. The Art has to be painted in or of the Garden (there are no huge pink roses in the Garden for example and I'll know you didn't paint it in/of the Garden ;-))  If you'd like to participate, please email me so that we talk rules and regs which are few but necessary.

And while wandering the Garden I ran into a favorite of mine: Brenda Swenson with her always perpetual smile and wonderful welcoming. Thinking about her I went to her blog and found this wonderful lesson, by Brenda,  about painting shadows.  I think it's something we all have trouble with and I hope Brenda appreciates my pointing you in her direction.  She has some wonderful workshops in negative painting, has a wonderful painting tour of Italy coming up.....take a look at her blog if you have the time.

Day 55: Tuesday, April 5 - the Nancie Johnson Challenge

Hey Nancie Johnson, fellow Sketchbook Project Participant and AnnMarie Thomas, fellow Sketchbook Project Participant:  I just got another email from the Brooklyn Art Library Librarian......My diatribe against smoking has been viewed two!! count 'em, two!! times.

Hello!
We just wanted to let you know that Carissa P. just viewed your sketchbook (#35593) at SPACE Gallery in Portland, ME!
Your book has been viewed 2 times so far.
Sincerely,
The Brooklyn Art Library Librarian



This is now a "throw down" event.  I saw AnnMarie this morning in class and she said her sketchbook had been seen once.  I think the three of us need to find paid participants to view our Sketchbooks in order to make this a true duel!

Day 54: Monday, April 4 Paint Brushes

Got an email from Greg Daniels regarding DaVinci paintbrushes. It had a video attached that showed the brushes being made by hand in the factory in Germany.   I thought it was really informative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YgwEke-RvWE


It reminded me that Da Vinci brushes also make the DaVinci 5080 Cosmotop brush that Brenda Swenson used in a weekend workshop that made us all think that if we only had that brush, we would be able to paint just like Brenda. Hah!  But the brush has turned out to be a wonderful addition to the paint brush collection we all have. I use one of two sizes with great regularity, one's about 1" wide, the other's about 1.5" wide. 

Day 53: Friday, April 1, April Fool's Day

The minute I typed those words - April Fool's Day - memories of tricks being played by 7 year olds, 8 year olds......same tricks year after year and always wondering why no one fell for them.  The wallet with the string attached and you were hoping some fool would pick up the wallet and you'd pull on the string and they'd be so surprised when the wallet went flying.....and you'd yell "April Fool's" and they'd smile with great embarassment.............but it never happened darn it! 

I bought a Groupon Coupon to have a painting transferred from watercolor paper to canvas, a 16x20 reproduction.  I sent in the painting of my cousin. The canvas arrived yesterday. It's hysterical. It's huge! It looks like someone took xerox paper and glued it onto a canvas. I'm sure my cousin's gonna love it! Or he better at least say he loves it. And you're probably asking why I'm not giving him the original painting? I like it too much to part with it quite yet! My painting of him is probably an 11 x 15, a reasonable size, 1/4 sheet in watercolor painting.

Here's the watercolor, 11x15.

Here's the huge, cropped by the company "oil painting" version:

And here's a tiny section of his ear to see how strangely this turned out:

All the pencil marks, little subtle things that don't show in the original painting are "featured" in the re-cropped, blown-up painting. Had to try the process though.

Have a great weekend.

Day 52, Thursday, March 31

Whoopee!! I got an email today from the Brooklyn Art Library Librarian that: 

We just wanted to let you know that Autumn N. just viewed your sketchbook (#35593) at Brooklyn Art Library in Brooklyn, NY!
Your book has been viewed 1 time so far.
Sincerely,
The Brooklyn Art Library Librarian

This is all about the national Sketchbook Project.  Go to the website and see what interesting other projects are available. (I'm actually sponsoring 4 teenagers in the camera project as a favor to a friend who teaches photography to Los Angeles area teens.)

I signed up for and chose a topic to "sketch".  I chose Coffee and Cigarettes as my theme and last fall when we were in France, I photographed and sketched all those french people smoking and coffeeing, picturing this romantic version of life with wisps of smoke, coffee filters, photographs of well dressed folk..........

and then I started the actual project.

I made the mistake of reading up on cigarettes, their chemicals, the fake tobacco shreds...........and instead of romance, I went on a diatribe against cigarettes and my sketchbook was the deconstruction of tobacco, filters, cigarette boxes.........not a wonderful sketchbook at all so I'm pretty sure that the person who viewed it had no idea what to expect.

But I'm thrilled that someone, just one, has looked at it.  The sketchbooks are now travelling the United States and will be available for viewing in San Francisco in June of 2011.

Day 51, Wednesday, March 30

Another set of "Conversations" has been going on between Gail and AnnMarie.  They have completed both of their Conversations and brought them to class yesterday.  Here is the first one. It started with someone in a patterned sweater painting a picture. There's an apple on the desk.  The final frame has the woman with the patterned sweater reappearing with a baked apple pie in her hands and a completed painting hanging on the wall. Clever!

Day 50: Tuesday, March 29

My painting class has had a two week hiatus. People came back to class this a.m. with all kinds of works in progress, works finished, works with questions. 

The projects that came back to class that were of the most interest to me were the "Conversations" - those sequential paintings that pairs of people have been working on these past 6-8 weeks. 

There's a conversation between Gail Storti and AnnMarie Thomas that came to a conclusion today. I'll post their incredible "conversation tomorrow". 

I've been working on a "Conversation" (see earlier posts for what/where this term came from) with the teacher, Peggy Reid, and it just gets more and more exciting to see where we're both going with this.  It's a sequential book - I've photographed two "pages" at a time to show the sequence of the "conversation":

 jill left - peggy right

 peggy left - jill right

 jill left - peggy right

 peggy left - jill right

jill left - peggy right

And we decided today that we're not quite done........a few more panels to be painted before we call and end to "This Conversation".

Day 49: Monday, March 28

Someone sent me a link to a website that deals with "home" and the luxuries therein.  One of their blog entries was about String Gardening. I think it's gorgeous, can't imagine doing it myself, but find myself looking at the plantings time and time again...........all so that I won't have enough time to paint? 

Started a painting of John Lennon.....Put down a couple of washes and left it to dry last Friday. Worked on it over the weekend and here's the result. Don't know what happened to his nose in the first version. I drew him in about 32 seconds flat rather than spend ages and ages perfecting the drawing and I didn't think my version was all that bad. Painting left something to be desired, but at least I was "working".  I should always post the reference photo.

And then I found in my picture taking, I had taken a picture of my source:

Day 48: Friday, March 25 - For Opera and Classical Music Lovers

I've talked about it before, but I continue to be amazed at the incredible opportunity to see operas and symphonies "up close and personal" through the N.Y. Metropolitan Opera's "Live at the Met" performances and now, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's broadcasts in local HD theaters.

When you go to either of the websites, type in your zip code and it will tell you which theaters in your neighborhood are broadcasting the operas/concerts. You go to a regular movie theater (stadium seating with incredible sound), tickets are about $20, and you feel like you're front row in New York City. Performances start at 10 a.m. here in California and I get there about 9 a.m. because I like to choose certain seating.

There are 3 more operas in this season and one more fabulous Dudamel performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on June 5.

Le Comte Ory, April 9

Capriccio, April 23



Il Trovatore, April 30



Dudamel playing Brahms on June 5

Day 47: Thursday, March 24, DailyPaintworks.com

The Daily Paintworks, a group of artists committed to painting daily and posting daily, mount a challenge a week.  A challenge that caught my eye was the Zippo Lighter Challenge.  I remember using Zippo lighters when we were all Marlboro smokers - and thought we were so cool. 

So trying to follow their instructions of painting the image using only burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and titanium white (except using white to blend a new color is for oil painters), here's my submission.

Their challenge this week is to help Japan by painting and selling a picture. This link will take you to the challenge itself. 

The rules:  For this Challenge, it could be anything - your mom, your child, your house, your childhood pet, a view from your room, a street scene of your old neighborhood, flowers in your backyard... The possibilities are endless and it's up to your imagination. After you enter, tell all your friends and collectors about this event and encourage them to bid. The more money we raise as a group, the better.

If you sell your work, please agree to donate the proceeds to an organization who collects donations for disaster relief efforts in Japan. Also, please indicate where you will donate to in the description for your painting.
So if you're in a painting mood, take a look at the DailyPaintworks.Com and join in on one of their challenges.

Day 46: Wednesday, March 23

I follow Myrna Wacknov's Creative Journey blog. She loves portrait work and is always experimenting with different surfaces, different paints, different styles.  She has an IPad and has downloaded the Sketch Club App from the App Store. She enthuses daily about how much fun she's having drawing with this App and has now purchased a stylus to make the drawing process easier. I'm downloading the App "as we speak" even though I know for a fact that my drawings won't even come close to the near perfection of Myrna's.  Here's Myrna's latest drawing from her IPad using the Sketch Club application. 

While looking around the web for where you could buy a stylus (I'm going to have to ask Myrna), I came across another artist's blog, Mia Robinson,  who talked all about how to use the Sketch Club, how the various tools worked, etc.  Feel free to read up on this App.

And then I heard from Myrna:  Hi Jill,

The stylus is by Targus and I bought it at Best Buy for $20.  It appears to be solidly built and should hold up.  It is the second one I have purchased.  The first one was crap!  So now we all know.

.

Day 45: Tuesday, March 22

I worked on My Purple Felon a bit more.  Think I either need to redraw it and start all over or?   If you have any suggestions, speak up!  Actually, he's not all that purple. It's cobalt blue that's showing up as purple in the photos.

Day 44: Monday, March 21

Painted away yesterday and today on Lee Brown's challenge at A Day Not Wasted. This photo of the sax player is the challenge photograph. 

I painted two different versions for the heck of it. I liked cropping way down into the hands. 

Sunday, March 13 - A Special Event

In Los Angeles, we have a fantabulous new orchestra conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, from Venezuela,  of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra which performs in the glorious Walt Disney Hall designed by Frank Gehry.  He is about 28 years old but started conducting when he was 13 as part of Venezuela's youth musical program.


There is a wonderful cultural happening that started about 2 years ago when the Metropolitan Opera of New York started presenting "Live At The Met" - a Saturday matinee performance in New York is presented live via satellite feed to movie theaters around the world.  It is unbelievable. You are front seat, center at the Opera, you are interviewing the singers, you are touring backstage and you are getting to see world class opera for $20.00.  An incredible steal of a deal.

The Philharmonic Orchestra, which is where I was going with this, decided to make Dudamel more available to the public, ergo: Dudamel Live With the Philharmonic.  Today I was lucky enough to attend Dudamel playing Tchaikovsky's suites from Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest, Shakespearean plays.  Besides the beautiful music we were treated to 5 professional actors who acted out the well known soliloquies from these plays.  Absolutely stunning.

I think we are so darn lucky to have these incredible performances available to us and not everyone has heard about them.  The next Dudamel is Sunday, June 5 with an all Brahms program.  You have to get to the HD Movie theaters early in order to get a good seat, and in many cases to get a seat at all.  Some of the operas are so sold out that the theaters are opening up a second theater to handle the overflow. It's only $20.  A heck of a deal!!

Type in Philharmonic Live in a google search and find a theater in your city. You won't be sorry!