Cezanne said....

"Don't be an art critic. Paint. There lies salvation."
---Paul Cezanne

Sketchbook Skyscapes

Work and chores have left no real time for painting lately. However, I have been noticing the beautiful sky as I drive home each day. I decided that even when I don't have time to work on a canvas at my easel, I still have time to do some quick watercolors of the dramatic Sonoma County skies in my sketchbook. 

Pablo Picasso said...

"If only we could pull out our brain & use only our eyes."

Lola paints!

My friend Lola, who lives in Madrid, came to spend the week of Thanksgiving with me. We hadn't seen each other in 20 years! I gave her a travel watercolor box, not knowing if she would be excited or would have no interest. She was excited. We spent two days that week in San Francisco, and while there decided to take a boat tour of the bay. Before the tour, we stopped at a bar near Pier 45 that had an amazing view of the bay. We had a beer, and Lola completed her first painting. 

Matisse said....

"I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me."
                                                               -- Henri Matisse

Sketchbook practice

This is a small, practice painting (in my sketchbook) for a larger painting I'm planning. It is still very rough, but that is okay---I just wanted to get an idea of composition & color. Color needs altering, as well as value differences. This image is from a photo taken by my good friend Lola, who lives in Madrid. She sometimes travels to Lanzarote (one of the Canary Islands). This year she went there again, and this was the view from her room. Lola is coming to visit me the week of Thanksgiving and I am beside myself with joy over this. We haven't seen each other in around 17 years, and she was one of my closest friends when I lived in Madrid. I want to paint this image for her as a Thanksgiving gift.

Joyce Carol Oates said....

"We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once it's gone----its value is incontestable."
----Joyce Carol Oates

Finished

I lightened up some areas to increase contrast, darkened some of the yellow in front of the vines in the foreground, and played with the sky some more. I believe I've done all I can for this image, so on to the next!

David Bales & Ted Orland said...

"...if making art gives substance to your sense of self, the corresponding fear is that you're not up to the task---that you can't do it, or can't do it well, or can't do it again; or that you're not a real artist, or not a good artist, or have no talent, or have nothing to say. The line between an artist and his/her work is a fine one at best...making art can feel dangerous & revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be."
---from Art & Fear

Golden light

Started this painting yesterday & worked on it a bit more today. I don't think it's finished, but I'm not sure what else to do or to modify so I will take a break from it for awhile and look at it with fresh eyes later this week. I painted it from a photograph I took in the late afternoon at Williams Selyem Winery's new tasting room on Westside Road. The sky was kind of foreboding, but the late afternoon sun was shining on the top of one hill of golden vines. 

Sophocles said....

"Look and you will find---what is unsought will go undetected." --Sophocles

Finally, a day to paint

Yesterday, I set aside time to paint. I completed this canvas, a study of a work by Santa Rosa artist Brooks Anderson entitled "Terra Lumina no.3." His work can be seen on the cover of the latest Art Trails catalogue. I've been to his studio in Santa Rosa; it's a lovely space and I love his landscapes. My version of his composition has brighter colors than his. I was excited to do this study because I have taken photos around the Russian River Valley in the fall that have these same colors and I have been wanting to paint them. Yesterday, rather than spend time digging through my photos to find one, I decided to just use his composition as a practice. It was blissful to be painting again!

Georgia O'Keefe said.....

"To see takes time." ---Georgia O'Keefe


...yes, and to paint takes time too. I haven't had any time lately. I'm hoping to paint again soon. 

Picasso said....

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."
-Pablo Picasso

When there's no time to paint....

....sketch in a Moleskin calendar.

William James said....

"Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit."   ----William James

Buddha said....

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."   ----Buddha

From Art and Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland

"Making art means working in the face of uncertainty; it means living with doubt & contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Making the work you want to make means setting aside these doubts so that you may see clearly what you have done, and thereby see where to go next. Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself."

Sweet Sheila

My friend Steve adopted Sheila, who is a total sweetheart. Her coat is like gray velvet, and I really struggled to try to capture that in paint. I think this is the best I can get it.

Lillian Hellman said....

"Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called 'pentimento' because the painter 'repented,' changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again."
                        -from the introduction to Lillian Hellman's Pentimento

Watercolor sketch

Two days ago, I experimented with painting in watercolor in my sketchbook after first putting down a layer of white gesso. I did this in order to smooth out the surface of the handmade paper a bit. I used my small travel watercolor kit while at the library to paint this picture of Armstrong Woods Park. I had been there with my wife the previous evening to watch the sunset. As we drove away, we saw the moon in the distance.

New medium

I went to the art supply store (FLAX) in San Francisco the other day and bought myself this watercolor sketchbook with beautiful handmade paper. I also bought some watercolor pencils. I like the idea of them for having painting materials while traveling. The concept seems simple enough---draw with them, then add water and presto! What looked like drawing with colored pencil now turns into watercolor! I'm finding, however, that they need to be used in layers, just like watercolors. Of course they don't work in quite the same way as regular watercolors, so I'm struggling with them at the moment. Much more practice ahead of me!

Dinner!

Tonight's dinner will include freshly harvested turnips from Foggy River Farm in Healdsburg. They are so beautiful that I decided to paint them before they are gone!

Rizzo

Even though it's gorgeous outside, I'm stuck at home waiting for the plumber. Therefore, I decided to paint my friend Dar's dog, Rizzo. Not sure if it's done or not; have to look at it for a while....

Fern Kagan said....

"The hardest thing about art is letting it be easy."