butterflies and roses

I am honored to have been asked by Ann Kullberg to jury her annual online members colored pencil show. Please take a looksee at it on her site:

It was REALLY hard to pick winners!!

I thought my vase was way too big for the next still-life I am doing so I played a bit in photoshop. Of course I'll fix things when I draw it, but above are the two reference photos to compare. I plan on starting it tonight as I just got a bunch of my beloved Fisher 400 paper mounted to some gatorboard from Creative Encounters (my favorite frame shop). 

Anyway I can't wait to start - it will be 8 x 10" only, so it will be a sweet little piece, I hope. 

this week...

It is the last week of school (teaching) and unfortuntely I will be very busy so artwork will be put off again. I've got grading... getting assignments back to kids, etc so I envision some overtime on my part.

but I do have some florals in the works... I am on the lookout for fresh from the garden flowers that I want to do some still-lifes with. You know the last one I did (and cut!) and I think I will do it over but with the wood gone and on fisher 400 instead of Pastelbord. It was a bear to get all the spiky detail on the Pastelbord and I don't think I can do it again! & then here I am playing with some spray roses. I think the vase needs to be a little shorter and not so tall. I also think I need something small to place next to the vases... I'm thinking some old marbles.

Anyway things are getting ready for some serious art making - just another week away. In the meantime I just found this pic of me. Its my senior picture nd since it is my 20th reunion I thought I would share it. Some things do get better with age! Although the hair is an artform!

Uh-Oh!

hmmmm... I was trying to crop that still-life, which is on Pastelbord, when the blade skipped and sliced into the drawing. Sigh. After shedding a few tears, since it was actually a rather difficult drawing to do, I have decided to give it away. It can't be sold as is but it can still have a good life on someone's wall.

So the first person to email me their address gets to have it.

Weird Purple Flowers

Oh you don't want to know how busy I've been lately, so I won't bore you. I'll just say I brought my studio home so I can sneak in more work here and there.

Here's the newest, some strange purple flowers from Lina's house. I don't know what they are. :-)

The framing on this one will be difficult to get the illusion right so I will be taking it to the framer instead of doing it myself. I have a couple of others I need to frame too.

Google Streetview

Google Streetview for Artists

Like most technology on the internet my husband shows me, I initially shrugged off Google Streetview and later came back and became obsessed with it. 

If you haven't used Google Streetview... its much more than the fuzzy satellite pics that Google gave us a while back. This is how it is explained on Wikipedia: "Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world.^{[1]"  That I don't think is the best description... basically you can go to various cities around the globe and virtually walk down the streets. You can see the view from every angle from every step you are at: you can look up, look down, and turn to see the view to the right or left.} 

My new obsession  with Google Streetview started when I was visiting the blog of the talented artist Leslie Hawes who often uses Google Streetview to find landscape compositions in far off places. Here is a drawing she did of a home in France. 

  "France is beautiful. 

As I travel, virtually, using Google Street View, I discover that so many places look like somewhere else.  This could be Ireland or Bucks County, Pennsylvania. But no matter where I find a stone building, I will likely stop to draw." Leslie Hawes

Check out Leslie's blog for more of her gorgeous artwork!

Leslie also takes part in a blog called the Virtual Paint Out  that blogger Bill Guffey started. "The Virtual Paint Out:  VIRTUAL PAINTOUTS USING GOOGLE STREET VIEW AS A RESOURCE FOR TRAVELING THE WORLD TO FIND INTERESTING LOCATIONS AND SUBJECTS TO PAINT." 

Basically Guffey posts a location that is available on Google Streetview and viewers of the blog travel there on their computer, find a good composition and create an artwork of that place which he then posts on the blog. Its amazing to see them all together and the different things people find in his posted destinations. Here is a recent Paint Out of Norway.

My head is swimming with possible ways to use this  technology... art history lessons, compositions for artwork... how about an illustrator being able to find the perfect background in a faraway land without leaving his home. Or let's say you need a reference of someone walking across a road or on a bike... just go to a major city on Google Streetview you will most likely find one (with the face blurred out of course). I even know where to find a nice shot of a man bending over gardening (thanks to my friend Barbara). 

Here I am in Taipei,  on a little sidestreet just steps off of a major road with huge large buildings... because its  not just the major roads with the landmarks... its small roads, roads with houses... surrounding country roads... 

Taipei,  side street

Taipei,  on a major road

Although I have many plans for Streetview, including a virtual tour somewhere with my students and maybe a landscape, I have for now just amassed an album on my facebook account of significant places from my past present and future; a sample of which I will end this post with. 

My current studio... in Keene, NH

Northern Illinois University where I spent 4 college years and think I graduated from (I still have those nightmares where they take the diploma from my hands)

Across the Kankakee River from my mom's house in Illinois

My favorite coffee shop in Seattle where I lived for a short 2 years. 

Take a virtual tour yourself! Here is a map of the current coverage of Google Streetview!