Adventures in Oil Painting

I have been taking oil painting classes for a while now. My motivation to learn to use oil paint came about when I learned about water mixable oil paint. When you use water mixable oil paint you don’t need to use turpentine oil linseed oil and can clean your brushes with soap and water. Also, there’s no toxic fumes wafting around.   

It took a while to find teachers that helped me “get” the ins and outs of oil painting. Trying out teachers helped me be more understanding of my students too and I found I liked the teachers best who didn't paint all over my picture to show me a concept but instead they explained what I needed to learn. Here are two paintings I finished recently.

Provence Tunics for Sale

Cottage in Chipping Campden

Learning to Make Cantucci

Sorry I can’t show you our painting right now. We are very busy learning to make Italian cookies from Ilaria, the cook at Villa Marsili. 

Ilaria is a very good teacher, showing us all the steps we need to learn in order to create cantucci at home. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Italian cookies, cantucci are small size biscotti. Ilaria taught us many variations of things you can add to your cantucci dough; chocolate pieces and orange peel are going to be my choice for my homemade cantucci. 

Its important to slice the cookies after the first 10 minutes of cooking while they are still warm and NOT slicing with a sawing motion but with one firm slice with a sharp non serrated knife. Then you bake the cookies for 2nd time for 2-3 minutes. 

Lunch Time Watercolor

Here are directions I made for a painting you can complete on your lunchtime break. 

Anywhere Artists Visit Oxford, England

Monday, the Anywhere Artists boarded the bus for one last day of exploring.  Our destination was Oxford and it did not disappoint. 

Our bus fit all 12 of us comfortably and was small enough to navigate narrow English country roads.

We were guided around Oxford by a wonderfully knowledgeable guide named Bella. She walked us around to Trinity College and we were fortunate enough to be able to go inside  to see the inner workings.  We were familiar with some of the scenery from Harry Potter movies and the Inspector Morse BBC tv series.

Debbie Allen shows her painting of Oxford in the bottom row.

We parted at 2pm with some of the group returning home, some (including me) staying on and 2 of the members going off to Paris.

Parting is always bittersweet since we enjoyed each others company for 10 days, shared meals, conversations  and art making. Friendships are formed because of our like mindedness and shared interests. This trip, Katherine named us the Traveling Baggallini Sisters because almost all of us were carrying versions of Baggallini travel purses. 

The very good news is, we did not get enough of England and Wales and have decided to plan another Anywhere Art trip to see more of South Wales, the Lake district and the Cotswolds next year! 

Thoughtful Travelers

Recently at a board meeting of Anywhere Art LLC (which consisted of Rick and I, Becky and the beagles, the other members live out of town and Max was working), we decided the word that best describes who we are when we travel is “thoughtful”.  We strive to be thoughtful about the the country we are visiting.  We want to learn about new places first hand.  Otherwise, we would stay home and not have to pack and unpack. 

We try to understand and speak with as many of the local people as we can.

Yesterday, we followed Lindsey, a certified walking guide around Bath.  Lindsay explained a lot about the past and present and helped us appreciate and be knowledgeable about what we were seeing. 

As we stood in front of the Bath Abbey, Lindsay explained that the sculpture angels climbing the ladders up to the top of the church and beyond were designed by the architect to make the bulding appear taller by directing your eye upward. 

One of the thoughtful members of our Anywhere Art group was listening and thing about the climbing angel.   She asked, “Why do the angels need a ladder if they have wings?”

Isn’t that a “thoughtful question?” 

Look just above the blue flag to see the ladder, then upward to see the climbing angels.

How to Choose Your Sketchbook

I wasn't looking for a new portable sketchbook when I found the one pictured in the photo below at San Clemente Art Supply Store.   I have been content using Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks that I carry with me to sketch anywhere. 

What made me stray from the Moleskine and buy this new sketchbook? I liked the sketchbooks size, it's light weight cover, its paper quality (strong enough for watercolor painting), and it's stitched binding so you can paint across the pages.

Ollie and my new favorite sketchbook