Here are some of my students showing their favorite journal pages on the last night of our workshop in Durfort. Everyone did a great job painting and drawing in their journals and I know they have brillant artistic futures.
We Visit Suzanne's Farm and See Her Dream
Suzanne L'Hoste was kind enough to invite us to visit her farm Monday afternoon. Suzanne is an amazing artist in many mediums. I love her paintings and decorating skills.
You can learn all about her current project on her blog, Totibleu.wordpress.com. She is building her own horse drawn caravan cart to travel through France. She let us take a peek inside the barn where the cart is being constructed.
on the left is the barn and top right is the newly constructed wagon chasis and the bottom right is the back wall frame of the caravan.
Suzanne and Mark's house.
Everyone felt inspired by our visit with Suzanne, her husband, Mark and her daughter, Dana. It is amazing to meet such creative people with the courage, imagination and skills to pursue their dreams.
Today we went shopping at the local flea market in the town of St. Julia. This type of flea market is called a "vide grenier" in French, which means literally vacuum out the attic.
they serve the most delicious sausage sandwiches at the vide grenier.
We had a delicious lunch on the terrace at La Cascade.
we laid out all the treasures on our beds so everyone could see them. Nese made the most delicious cake for dessert and it just happened to be my birthday
There are wonderful scenes to paint everywhere we look.
Imagine Yourself Sitting At One of The Desks
Could you see yourself seated in one of these spots, perhaps glancing out the window as you write and draw?
I found these desks in the home of my friend where I am staying in South, central France. Can we recreate spots like this in our houses?
Hello From Durfort, France
I'm in France today. It's the second day of our watercolor travel journaling workshop and everyone is doing well. Pictured above from left to right: workshop lovely students, our street in Durfort, our two vans, and the sycamore trees.
The students come from Florida, Albuquerque, Washington state, California and Eileen, my assistant is from Boston.
Some of the travel sketchbooks I have made and purchased in search of the perfect travel sketchbook......
The Perfect Travel Sketchbook
Have you found a sketchbook that works well for sketching while traveling? If you have, run don't walk to your computer keyboard to tell me about your sketchbook so I can get or make one to take with me on my trip next week.
I will describe the sketchbooks pictured above so you can get an idea of what sort of sketchbook almost worked for me in the past.
1. Photo copied an old book, punched 3 holes in sketchbook, raffine paper and Arches 140 lb wc paper. The binder rings are clumsy and get in the way when you turn the pages, but they do allow you to move your pages around.
2. Store bought in Italy Sketchbook, looks good but the pages are too slick for me.
#3. Old book with sketch paper coil bound inside. Sketch paper too thin to paint on and its difficult to find the right size book and paper to fit it without wasting a lot of precious wc paper.
4. Canson mixed media sketchbook, nice paper, but heavy and bulky to carry around and fit inside your suitcase.
5. Old book cover with Arches paper bound inside with a wire coil at the top, almost perfect but a bit heavy and bulky when you are painting on the run.
6. Paper is folded in half and bound to cover with string or rubber bands, ok, good idea in theory but looks tacky.
7. I love this sketchbook, but it does have a few drawbacks. The Cheese-its Cover is a reminder not to take your artwork too seriously. Inside are lots of different kinds of papers, maybe too many, that's why its not perfect. However, the sketchbook is nice and light and travels well.
8. Global Art Handbook, ok, but the paper isn't wonderful for painting and I don't like the portrait orientation, and Global Arts are beautifully bound, but don't stand up to the rigors of my travels.
9. Moleskine large wc sketchbook, wonderful in all ways but too heavy for me to travel with.
10. Newest purchase, a Canson bound sketchbook, full of 90 lb. paper. Doing some tests on the paper to see if this one could make it to France with me.
11., 12, oops I skipped 13. and 14. this is getting boring you've probably stopped reading by now.
15. Moleskine pocket size wc sketchbook, perfect for daily quick sketches, but I need something that is as portable as this one but a little bit bigger......
Treasure Discovered by Me in a Junk Shop
I found this cart in a heap of junk piled in a corner of a thrift shop. It spoke to me. I don't mean I actually heard voices coming from the cart. It was just I kind of had an odd feeling that I needed this cart for my studio when I saw it across the room in the thrift shop. I paid $15 for it. As I pushed it to my car, it lost a wheel somewhere in the parking lot. After some searching the wheel was found and I squeezed my friends into my car around this cart to get it home. Luckily, the friends I was thrift shopping with were artists, so they were totally willing to sit like pretzels around the cart on the ride home.
My cart cleaned up nice and now sits beside my painting desk in my studio.
Not long ago I found the photo below of the studio of painter, Georgia O'Keefe. Study the picture very carefully and see if you notice anything. Look closely at the rolling cart on top of which she stored her cans of brushes and other painting paraphernalia. Notice any similarities? I think Georgia had the same exact cart as my thrift shop cart!
Think about this matter very carefully.....and it's implications.....What does it mean? Probably absolutely nothing. However the possible explanations I can conjure up in my imagination to give meaning to this random cart purchase are keeping me amused on this Saturday night. For instance, could my cart actually have belonged to Georgia? Was there some kind of artist to artist spirit that spoke to me when I walked into the thrift shop and was drawn to buy this cart? Could it mean the vibrations in Georgia's cart will somehow rub off on me and my studio and I will be rich and famous like Georgia? Again, probably not, but it can't hurt to dream........
More About Gouache
I am using the travel easel I bought to take to Vermont in my San Diego dining room. It works quite well.
Gouache can be diluted and painted in thin layers like watercolor paint and can also be applied in thicker layers. You can get wonderful results with thick white gouache. I like it's versatility.
the more or less finished painting
Gouache Week Continues
Gouache week painting # 2
I think I am in love with gouache.
Gouache Experiments
Gouache is opaque watercolor paint. Somehow I aquired 41 tubes of it. "Who bought it? Oh, I did." I took all the qouache out of the closet and organized it on my desk. Then I made a color sample chart to see how each brand and color looked. I made some interesting discoveries. The Giotto brand of gouache I bought in France two years ago was dry and didn't have much pigment. The cheap Reeves brand gouache I bought at Michaels 5 years ago was fine. Both the Winsor Newton brand and the Holbein brand were excellent.
I am declaring this week, Gouache Week. To observe Gouache Week I plan to paint a picture in my sketchbook every day with gouache. Want to join me?
Applying New Painting Techniques to Old Subject Matter
I had to say good-bye to Vermont and return to California.
It was very sad to leave some new friends I made while staying at Hollister Hill Farm
I am applying some of the new painting techniques I learned from Susan Abbott to my old subject matter, the beach.
Vermont Workshop Finishes Up
Here are some of the beautiful places Susan Abbott took us to paint.
We finished the workshop today with a final critique. We pinned our paintings on her studio wall to study them.
i am so glad I came to Vermont to attend this workshop. I learned so much about painting outdoors using an easel. I had no idea how beautiful rural Vermont was going to be and how special it would be for a city girl like me to stay on a farm. The other day I sat down under an apple tree to sit in the shade and paint. I was so surprised when the apples spontaneously fell from the tree. I moved out from under the tree to avoid getting smacked in the head by a falling apple. I should have known about this apple falling phenomena much earlier in my life I think.
Vermont Subject Matter
Hollister Hill Farm And Dog
Farm women on porch
New Baby Pigs
Lots of Inspiring Scenes Are Everywhere in Vermont. Who knew? Why didn't you tell me sooner?
A Californian in Vermont
On the drive from Boston to Vermont today I realized several important deficits in my life experience.
1. Never visited an L. L. Bean store in New England.
2. Never owned a pair of boat shoes.
3. Never seen a road sign that says "Moose Crossing".
4. Never saw 12 shades of different greens in one landscape.
5, Never seen a red barn with cows in front of it.
6. Never knew a rooster crows at any time of the day.
7. Never saw trees that produce pancake syrup.
Traveling is an eye opening experience...
Paint Surgeon
I sometimes think I should have gone to medical school and become a doctor. I think it would be wonderful to be a healer.
However, let's get real. I chose to go to art school over medical school and I was never very good in science class.
This morning I did get to perform surgery on my watercolor paint tubes and the operation was a success.
I needed to make up a new palette because I am taking a workshop in Vermont this week with Susan Abbott and I wanted to try out all the colors shes uses in her paintings. I found I had many of the colors she suggested but some were old and hardened in their tubes. So I performed "paint ectomies" and removed the dry paint and put it in pans in my palette.
Surgery Tools
Patient
Messy process
Paint transplant recipient
Painting Revealed Here
I completed this painting last night. The subject is dear to my heart and one I feel strongly about.
Beagles are used to test a wide range of products from cosmetics to cigarettes. They are used because of their docile, sweet demeanors and I have heard because their DNA is similiar to that of humans.
I am sending this painting to the Beagle Freedom Project in Los Angeles. The painting will be auctioned off at their fund raiser this weekend to raise more money to convince labs who use beagles for research to release the beagles for adoption after they have finished their research.
I adopted a beagle after she was released from a lab five years ago. It has been a joyful journey to watch her change from a meek, timid animal, who couldn't walk on a leash without flipping herself over every minute, to a lively dog full of vigor who loves everyone and enjoys a full life.
Check out the Beagle Freedom's website, www.beaglefreedomproject.org
Surprize Painting to Be Unveiled Shortly
I have been working on a new painting that I am very excited about. I can't reveal what the subject is just yet. I will show it to you as soon as its finished
My mystery painting. Want to guess what the subject might be?
I've Been Out and About Doing This and That
First I packed up my suitcase. Ollie, the beagle lost suitcase sleeping access when she started chewing the sides of the suitcase.
Then I went to Myrtle Creek Nursery in Fallbrook last Sunday to participate in an art fair.
This is the sign I had in front of my table on which I had paintings, cards and a flyer with my upcoming at classes I am teaching at Fallbrook School of the Arts starting this July.
My friend, Mark Jurecki, who is an awesome sculptor, had the table next to me. Can you see his polar bear sculpture on his table? The title on the polar bear sculpture read "Bi-polar". A good time was had by all.
My Discovery Which Completes My Art Studio
Your art studio and office should be a room you enjoy spending time in. I found you can't function in a big messy room with piles of paper and art supplies haphazardly placed anywhere. So I put on my big girl pants and hat and threw away the junk, got rid of the clutter, found a home for each catagory of art supply and filed the papers.
Still something was missing from my art studio. A spot for my little rescued from a lab, beagle dog, Ollie. I brought in her dog bed but she didn't want it. Today I found the perfect thing already in my studio to make her feel at home.
