Do you love the work of the the painter, Vincent Van Gogh? We visited the town of Auvers Sur Oise yesterday, where he went when he left Paris for some peace and quiet and to be near his doctor. Seeing his room, his grave and a few more landmarks was very interesting and moving.
I plan to all about him. Apparently, they think he may have been shot by someone rather than a suicide...
Van Gogh room where he spent the last 70 days of his life.
The eight of us were able to paint last night during "artist's only" hours in Claude Monet's garden. The tulips were in full bloom and blooming everywhere. It was a magical experience to have the gardens almost to ourselves and to be able to paint where Monet painted.
Monet's house in Giverny
My attempt to capture Monet's home in my watercolor journal.
The landscapes we saw today as we drove through the French countryside were filled with Spring colors. Our workshop lesson today was on controling color in your paintings. Tomorrow I am going to teach a lesson on painting cherry blossom trees and flowers. We need to practice painting flowers because we are going to paint in Monet's garden this week.
We saw an exhibit today in Giverny of the work of the French Impressionist painter, Gustave Caillebotte. He was a friend of Claude Monet. They shared dual passions for gardening and painting
By Gustave Caillebotte
Isn't this the best excuse?
Last night we were invited to dine at a neighboring chateau. I was feeling very tired and almost decided not to go. When I saw the chateau I was glad I changed my mind. The experience was incredible. We entered through beautiful doors and were greeted by the chateau dog. Then we were ushered into our table in the dining room where we were served a delicious meal. It began with cream soup with scallops and radishes and ended with a strawberry and cream dessert. So , I realized that one should never say no when asked to dine at a chateau.
Chateau Perreux, Amboise, France is also a hotel.
What would you think if we pooled our money and bought a little house in France? We could turn our little house into a home for just just tired and retired artists. I visited this property today and it would be just perfect and its vacant. Of course some of the previous owners like the wife of King Henry II and his mistress did leave some furniture behind...
Chateau de Chenonceau, Amboise, Fance
I like to make my own sketchbooks to use for the watercolor paintings and drawings I do when I'm traveling. I like to fill my sketchbooks with Arches watercolor 140 lb. watercolor cold press paper because I get the best results painting on this paper. I also like to throw in some Raffine mixed media paper and maybe a little of some other paper I find around the house. I like having it all sewn and bound in book form to keep the paper from falling out. I harvest the cover from an old book and use it for the covers and spine.
I am not a very patient or experienced book binder. I try to follow the directions in Alisa Golden's book on making books. This morning I took a deep breath and tackled the book binding for 2 books I am taking to France to paint in. At first my attitude was good as I poked holes in my eatercolor paper but as the process got more complicated, my dogs, who were the only ones at home with me may have learned some new words I don't usually utter in front of my husband and child.
The books got done and they are definitely not perfect but they'll be okay.
Do you have a favorite sketchbook for traveling? I'd like to hear about it.
There's been a crayon frenzy at my house. Crayons are everywhere! I am crayoning like crazy. Everything around me has fallen into disaray while I am happily coloring. The other day I thought I had toothpaste on my glasses but when I took my glasses off to clean them, I discovered that my glasses had speckles of all crayon flakes all over them.
Close up of a French Pigeonnier
A little house for pigeons found in the French countryside
Did you give up your crayons a long time ago? I abandoned crayons sometime after third grade.
This set sat on my shelf languishing while I dabbled in watercolor.
I drew and colored this picture the other day and was amazed at how much fun crayons are to use, how vibrant the colors are and how easy it is to find the exact colors you need. Of course I googled crayons to see how many colors were in the biggest set and I am rushing out today to buy the 120 color set which the internet says can be had for $14.99.
Do you have a bakery near you? It's a great place to go to paint. Baked goods are always cooperative subjects and don't squirm when they are posing.
I sketched this in my local bakery.
I just tumbled back into into oil painting. I painted with oil paint 100 years ago in college but stopped when I no longer had access to a studio.
I've been painting happily with watercolor ever since. My motivation to try another type of paint came about when I wanted to paint larger paintings on canvas. I've been using acrylic paint but saw a class on water souable oil paints and was curious about trying them so I signed up and discovered I love painting with them!
Here is my first painting with the water souable oil paint.
Who knew mixed media could be so much fun to do? Probably almost everyone but me. I love old books, don't you? I have tried painting in old books but I hear the librarian shouting in my ear, "we do not write in books! I am going to call your mother."
Draw first, paint, add neo crayon details.
When I pasted the old book pages onto a canvas using Modpodge for glue and got out my brushes and paint, the librarian stopped shouting.
I've painted on these canvas+pages with acrylic paint, gouache, watercolor and neo color crayon. Acrylic paint comes out the brightest and thickest, but the other paints do work too.
Drawing with Caran d'Ache Neo Crayons on the pages works really well especially for the fine details.
The best thing of all about this project was when I taught it this past Sat. at the community college, everyone enjoyed the process and made something unique to them.
Definitely try this at home!
I am working on a painting using old book pages pasted on a canvas. I will be teaching how to create on old book pages next Sat. At Miracosta College in Encinitas. From 9-12.
I encourage you to try this, its a lot of fun.
We had summertime like weather here in San Diego this past weekend. I was in my studio instead of at the beach. I did find time to make a watercolor painting on a pad of watercolor paper I found tucked away in a corner of my studio "for a sunny day".
Is this a sunrise or a sunset?
Nice size block of hot pressed wc paper
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
Have you thought about using polymerclay to make palettes in Altoids tins to hold watercolor paint? It's easy to do and there are tons of instructions online to teach you how. I bought white polymer clay, stuck it in the bottom of the tin and pressed a pencil end into it to make wells to fill with paint. You cook it in the oven for 30 minutes on 275. Then I painted it with some acrylic glaze and let it dry. Then I filled it with paint.
The palette worked well! I am now thinking of more ideas for containers to hold portable palette. Do you have any suggestions?
Have you heard the old joke line, "Enough about me, what do you think of me? In order for me to be a diminished person in 2016, I need to diminish my self centered tendencies and focus on you and your needs.
So what do you need from me and this blog? What would help you make art happily and successfully? If you can send me your needs in the comment section at the bottom of this page than I can study them and figure out how to teach you what you need.
This is a painting I did for a book I wrote about animals who will decorate your house for you. I am thinking of self publishing it, would you buy it?
I found this device on an Koosjekoene's Instagram site this morning . She even shows a diagram of how its made.
n the course of my research for my upcoming Springtime workshop in the Dordogne region of France, I came upon an article on the National Geographic website that made my mind boggle.
It was widely believed and accepted that no one really knows the reason why prehistoric man painted in the cool underground caves discovered in certain regions of France and Spain. As I have mentioned before, the cave walls are full of images of horses, bisons, deer as well as handprints. Yes, stenciled handprints! I visited Peche Merle and was amazed that you can walk right up to the painted walls and study them while standing only 2 feet in front of them. I have always wanted to go back and see more of these cave paintings. That is part of the reason I am traveling to teach a workshop in the Dordogne region this April 25th-May 9th.
Speculations as to reasons why the prehistoric people painted these paintings included magic, spiritual practices, to insure a good hunting season and I reasoned that they might have been graffiti painted on the walls by the local teenage boys on Saturday nights.
It turns out I wasn't too far off. Some researchers do believe adolescences may have painted some of these paintings. More shocking than the theory of the teenage painters is the new theory that the hands probably belonged to and were painted by women! Here is the link to the article with the new theories about the cave painters. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131008-women-handprints-oldest-neolithic-cave-art/
I still have a few spots left open on my Spring trip in case you are interested in seeing the cave paintings, exploring the Dordogne and painting in Normandy and Monet's Garden. email me for info at anywhereart4u@gmail.com or check out the Europe Trips Page/France on this website.