Painting Class

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I’m taking a painting class a Workhouse Art Center called “Painting to Get Loose.” There are five of us in the class and the instructor is one of the artists-in-residence at WAC. We are only two weeks into the nine-week class, but I am having so much fun!

The first week we did an exercise of painting a pitcher and apple six different ways. It was a great warm up exercise and got us experimenting with different techniques.

We also started on our first landscape painting. Below are my charcoal sketch and the work in progress – as far as I could get in the allotted class time. It is a scene from the beach adjacent to my parents’ neighborhood in Rhode Island.

Week two we did two simultaneous paintings of the same landscape. This scene is from a beach in Washington State on the Pacific Ocean.

It was a very interesting exercise to paint two canvases at once. I felt more free to mess up and try something different. We also learned about underpainting, where you paint an opposite color underneath and allow some of that color to shine through the final layer. These are still a work in progress, but I’m pleased with the turnout so far.

Here you can see the progression of the canvases in class:

Painting & Photography – An Art Portfolio

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I studied the work of Georgia O’Keefe when I first started painting. Her unique perspective of flowers always intrigued me. I often stop on walks to take pictures of flowers – I love the color, the shape, and the variety. The photos below are inspired by my love of O’Keefe’s works.

Another love of mine is the beach/ocean. Besides flowers, many of my paintings are of ocean creatures or beach scenes. I’ve taken several painting classes in oil paint and water colors. Water colors are my favorite – I love the way the paint swirls in the water.

I’ve also included travel photography from places that have special meaning to me.

Journey Runners

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journey-runners-logoMy dear friend started a running club and asked me to help her with a design for T-shirts (it’s going to be the reward for ladies who run either six or ten miles).  She wanted a sunset with a scripty font.  I love how this turned out and can’t wait until I work up to a six-mile run so I can get one!

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Cure for Summertime Begging from your Kids

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“Mom, can we watch TV?” I hear this question a lot during the summer months and, I don’t know about you, but it starts to wear me down. Usually I give in and then sometimes the entire day goes by and all we’ve done is watched show after show after show. Don’t get me wrong, we all need a lazy do-nothing-day here and there, but not an entire summer of those kind of days.

So when I saw someone post on Facebook a list of things their kids had to do before screen time, I thought, “brilliant!”  However, my graphic designer side had to make it pretty and I thought the list seemed a little long, I mean, it is summer, right?  I came up with an a la carte menu, so the kids have some autonomy over what they do.

It’s simple: they pick two things from Column A, two from Column B and one from Column C and then they can watch TV or play on the computer/ipad. It eliminates the need for whining (or at least lessens it).

So, I’m sharing it with you, my friends, so that hopefully our summers might be a little less whiny and a little more productive!

Summer Vacation Rules (PDF version)