Watercolor Marker Bargain and Paris Gray Chalk Paint

Warning!

Do not stop by my 

AnywhereArt Studio in San Diego unless you want to be painted Paris Gray. 

Left to right: My Winsor Newton Marker shopping list, my newly painted hutch in Paris Gray and the culprit, Annie Sloan chalk paint.

It's Monday and I am on a painting binge. Almost everything is being repainted to create a uniform calm environment in my art studio/office. I am covered in Paris Gray chalk paint, which you can paint on almost everything, without sanding!

i am also trying to decide who on my shopping list besides me, needs Winsor Newton watercolor markers. I might just order my 6 most important colors for myself or more, but who knows when they will be on sale again at Jerrysartarama? $3.59 a piece! Normally, they sell for $5.99.  Jerrys just emailed me a coupon code GIVETHANKS. It gives you a dicount and free shipping but read the fine print because it may not cover sale items.....

Winsor Newton Watercolor Marker Road Test

Today I decided to take my new watercolor marker out for a spin.

It wrote like a charm. It has two points you know, a marker tip and a brush tip. After you draw you just brush water on your marker line and push around the puddles of water combined with the ink.

I added some cobalt blue paint so the burnt umber marker would have a friend. I always like the combination of blue and brown together.

i ordered this marker from Cheapjoes.com when he offered free shipping. I used willpower when ordering and only bought one color. I wanted to try it out and see how I liked this new marker before I invested in too many colors.  

This marker does a great job and I definately think it will be better for traveling then my watercolor pencils because I think its more versatile. 

Now I have to decide what additional colors I "need". What colors would you buy? 

Watercolor and Words Star

This is Edie Jordan. She is a student in the new class I am teaching at Escondido Adult School. The class is called Watercolor and Words and we are working with all kinds of ways to add words to our paintings.

Edie has painted some very good paintings. I like her work very much.

Edie's paintings

Edie does homework, has a wonderful attitude and never throws crayons at me. I am going to give her an A++ .

Chalk Paint and Table Setting

Yesterday I decided to repaint my kitchen table. I painted it with 3 different colors of chalk paint. Then Inspiration struck.

In an earlier post, I posted a table setting chart that I thought my family should memorize so they could set the table correctly.  

I drew the diagram on the table top with a marker after the chalk paint dried.  

Please don't think I spelled bon wrong, I was trying to be funny since we have 3 dogs who like bones.

Art and Change

I read this quote this morning in an L. A. Times article about a violin teacher in Beverly Hills teaching a student via Skype in Erbil, Iraq.

"Art never stopped a war...art cannot change events. But it can change people."

Leonard Bernstein

Here is a small art lesson for you. I set up this still life last Thursday for my art class. It had a lemon instead of the squash but the lemon got used for last night's chicken dinner.

Here is the drawing I did. You can trace it, copy it or toss it.

I started the painting by drawing with watercolor colored pencils, then added more colors with my watercolor paints.

Change is my new focus. I am trying to change some of my habits and attitudes that seem to be getting in my way. Autumn always seems like a good time for new changes.  

Useful Guide to the lost ART of Table Setting

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. I am a child of the 1950's who had a very proper mother.  One of my chores was to set the table.  I believe table setting is a lost ART.  No one in my family will set our table correctly, nor will they listen to me when I try to instruct them. Maybe some of them will read my blog and study this diagram. 

Did you notice how many glasses of wine you get in this diagram?  That alone might motivate me to set the table according to this diagram. 

You Can Paint Anywhere

Sunday, I experienced an artistic dilema. I wanted to spend some "quality" time with my husband and I wanted to finish a painting I had started early in the week.

The solution to my artist's dilema was to grab my painting and my trusty bag filled with important painting supplies and ride along with my husband while he completed his errand. I have to admit, he offered to buy me lunch if I came along. 

The car made a pretty good painting studio. My water bottle fit in the space for drinks between the two front seats and so did my artist tissue. I balanced my palette on one knee and my sketchbook on the other. I held one paintbrush in my right hand and stuck my other paintbrush behind my ear. 

View the results: 

Finished painting

If you like the finished painting and would like to have it for your very own, you can purchase it in my new Etsy shop, AnywhereArt Shoppe which opens today at Etsey. Com

Home Again and How to Integrate French Culture into Your Life

I feel like I zoomed home in some kind of Harry Potter contraption and landed in San Diego in a matter of minutes after leaving France. In spite of all the anxiety about flights being canceled due to the Air France pilot strike (which I believe is settled for the time being), my flight home was smooth and easy. My new travel method is to book a flight home from France, on Delta's first flight out on a Tuesday morning.  There was no traffic at 5 am on the Paris streets and almost no one at the airport and best of all no lines to wait in at the airline counters, security and passport control.  The food stands were open and I was able to get one last French pastry and cup of espresso for breakfast. The only negative was that the designer duty free shops did not open until 7 am but I actually think that was a positive because it saved me an impulse last euro purchase and I don't wear designer stuff anyways unless it comes from a thrift shop.

Integrating what you learn in France to your home life is always rewarding and challenging.  My family has agreed to letting me feed them my omelette and quiche cooking experiments inspired by the delicious egg dishes I ate in France.  However, they are  refusing to speak French so I can continue to practice and improve my French language skills. My table will be set with new French tableware and place mats.  The family will probably not even notice that.  My husband will be wearing the clothing I purchased in Paris for him but it looks remarkably like the clothing you can buy in the U.S. because if  I had brought him back a French tailored sport jacket I doubt he would have worn it anywhere. I will wear the tops and dress I bought in France around town and when I teach, hopeful that someone will notice my new French chic look or at least observe the fit and the subtle colors of the French garments. I hope they like my new lumberjack shirt as well. Maybe I can set a trend in San Diego.

As far as my artwork, my head is filled with new ideas from all of the museums I visited, paintings I did out of doors in France and new art supplies I purchased in France. I am especially enthusiastic about using gouache, which is opaque watercolor paint and adds vivid color to your watercolor paintings. 

As far as my teaching inspirations gained from this trip, I will continue to value my student's unique, personal style of painting and drawing and continue to guide and nurture their skills in the directions they want to go.  Seeing many diverse styles of painting  in French musuems, galleries and shops confirms my own conviction that there is not one correct way to paint or make art. 

Besides all of the above, I am also contemplating how to cultivate my own garden here, both literally and meta physically. More about that as soon as I figure out how to do this. Probably, buy some top soil, ask my gardener friends for tips, listen more and hope people have read to the end of this post and will comment and advise me.

Paris Photo Shoot

Terrie Ellsworth, our friend, artist, antique dealer and our arbitrateur of style, decided to do a photo shoot in the living room of our Paris apartment.  

Sarah Reid posed in her recently purchased coutier dress.

I was encouraged to join the photo shoot and posed in my new lumberjack look purchased in Paris.

How to Spend Your Last Day in Paris

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation in Paris. I think I have an idea of how I want to spend it.

First thing in the morning I will hop on this tri wheel motorcycle,  

and drive around Paris liberating all the shoes and purses.

After that I might do some painting, visit a museum, eat one last omelette and try to fit everything into my suitcase.

The View From the Bakery

I painted a quick painting of the view from the window of my favorite Paris Bakery and cafe, Eric Kayser.

Speaking of baked goods, pictured below are my favorite desserts I have eaten in the last 3 weeks in France.  

On to Paris

In the photo above on the right: we are all posed with Sandrine, in the middle who is the owner of Les Jardins des Helene where we stayed.

 Then we took the train to Paris and we stopped in at our favorite bakery Eric Kayser for some tea and cookies. 

This is the living room of our apartment in Paris.

An Amazing Visit to Pierre Bonnard's Home

We got to visit the home of Pierre Bonnard, one of the French painters who painted in an impressionistic style and was a member of the Nabi art movement. 

We saw the balcony and view that Bonnard painted. 

Bonnard painted many scenes of his wife bathing.  The owners of his home have created recreations of both the basin and the tub his wife posed in.

Chateau Bizy

Today we toured a chateau near Giverny.  It was absolutely wonderful! The chateau has a lineage that involves Napolean Bonaparte's family. Currently one women occupies the chateau.

Marianne walked around the chateau's garden and her socks got a bit wet so she took them off and hung them over her purse strap to dry.  She discovered later that her wet socks had dropped off her purse strap somewhere on the grounds of the chateau.  We all wonder what will be the fate of her missing socks.  The possibilities are endless.  Our workshop ends tomorrow morning when we board the train to Paris.  We are all a bit giddy tonight and full of wonderful, memorable experiences.  This was a wonderful, talented group of artists and it was a pleasure to see all the beautiful paintings they did in their journals during our workshop. Bon chance (good luck) and happy travels everyone.

People and Places

Today found us off to Honfleur, a harbor village on the English channel.  We took the wrong exit on a traffic circle, crossed over a beautful bridge and almost went to Calais, where you can cross the channel on a ferry.  Fortunately our skilled driver and navigator and grumpy gps got us back on course and home to Giverny.  We painted in Monet's Garden during after hours tonight and were inspired by the beauty of the garden.

Top left: Carol and Ruth, top right: Sarah, Debbie and Carol, bottom left Sandrine, the owner of our B and B, Les Jardins des Helene and the most helpful woman in the world, and Debbie.  Bottom right, me painting in Honfleur.

I Painted this Picture When I Was In Monet's Garden

When we entered Monet's Garden to paint it was like being a kid in a candy shoppe. There were so many wonderful scenes to paint.

I decided to paint the above view. Monet was not at home that night so I couldn't show it to him to get his opinion.

We went to dinner tonight and some of the ladies were kind enough to stop and pose on the balcony before going in to dinner.

Annie Hooten finished up our workshop today and left for home.  She shows us the gloves she brought for a dance party that never happened.

Tomorrow we are off to visit Honfleur.   

Monet and His Friends

Giverny, the home of Monets home and garden drew many American painters, who wanted to paint there as well.  They needed a place to stay.  So the local grocer whose name was Baudy started renting rooms. His hotel is now a restaurant with a replica of the painting studio and beautiful gardens where we painted last night.  

The haystacks in the first photo on the left top are in the gardens of the Museum of Impressionism where we went to see a wonderful exhibit of Belgian Impressionist painters. 

La Roche Guyon Chateau

We visited the town of Roche Guyon yesterday and explored a huge chateau.  

We met this guy. He was just hanging around.

Across the road is the garden for the castle. I understand that sometimes at least 300 people stopped by for dinner so they had to have a large garden to feed everyone.

Ruth explained to me alot of interesting facts about estate gardens.  They are called parterre gardens and they contains walls of foliage for privacy so you could plot to overthrow the master or arrange a tryst.

Textures of France

One of the great things about traveling is that your senses are heightened and you notice things you would'nt notice at home.

In the picture above from top left clockwise is: a French manhole cover, a building in Soreze, Jane painting and a doorway vignette.  What textures do you notice? 

Painting During Artist's Hours in Monet's Garden

Tonight we painted in Monet's Garden during after hours when the garden is only open for artists to paint.  There were only 15 or 16 people in the garden painting. Some people were painting the lilly pond and others were scattered throughout the garden.

Beautiful scenery in Giverny. To prepare my students for painting in the garden,  annie Hooten, one of our workshop members showed us how to sit in a lady like fashion.  Then we posed in front of the garden entrance

Monet stopped by to see how our painting was coming along. I painted the view looking down the grand allee path looking toward Monet's house.

We are really lucky to have Ruth Wolfe, a talented garden designer from San Diego in our group. She ably answered all our questions about the flowers we saw in Monet's garden and explained his principles of garden design.

Annie and Jane are still contemplating their flea market finds.