In Full Bloom

 For sale at Daily Paintworks

Painting of the trees in full bloom at King Gilette's.   A  paint out day that provided us with a few obstacles before we settled down to paint.   We started out at a different location (Rocky Park), but turns out they were spraying plants there that day(something poisonous?...) so we decided to drive to King Gilette's.  Well there, the road to the blossoms were being paved so we couldn't get in...We then figured out there was another entrance to get in and got our easels out to paint, just in time for the park maintenance crew to set up right in our line of view to trim the trees you see in the back of my painting.
Just a typical day in the life of a plein air painter:-)  Thanks to Pam and Jan for sticking it out!

Of Mice and Snowmen - Sold

Sold

So, I'm starting this new still life series exploring all the toys and collectibles I can find around the house.    It helps that my husband is a collector of many things and I'm getting help from both him and my son to add to my collection of owls...not sure that is the ultimate thing I'd want to collect?, but it is it for now.   I had a lot of fun painting this first one and I got to incorporate one of my favorite pieces of art - my son Ben's drawing of a snowman.

On a different note - The most successful part of the exhibit I was a part of last Sunday was probably how fast the refreshing cucumber drink I brought seem to go...lol   So, I thought I'd share the recipe that I found on this blog.   These are the ingrediences:
1 to 1.5 large cucumbers
1 whole bag of crushed ice
1 can (12 oz.) frozen/slightly thawed limeade
2 liter bottle of 7up/Sprite/Fresca (choose your favorite, or the one that’s on sale )
A bowl/pitcher (or both) large enough to fit a whole bag of crushed ice + the other ingredients. (As you can probably tell, this makes way over 2 liters of drink, especially after the ice melts some. Makes this drink perfect for any party!)
You can go to Caley's site  http://www.howdoesshe.com to get the "step by step" with picture.
I usually double or triple the recipe and put it in this handy drink dispenser I have from Bed Bath and Beyond.

Follow Me

 Click here to bid on this painting

This was painted at Malibu Lagoon this spring.  We were several artists painting with the California Art Club and I had a hard time making up my mind on what to paint til I found this spot below the bridge where I zeroed in on the reflections and cropping the picture in a way I liked.

 Yesterday I spent the day with about 20 other artists at Randy Higbee's Gallery in Costa Mesa listening to some great on-line marketing tips from Palette Knife Artist and Radio Blog Host Leslie Saeta.   It was very helpful and I'm still trying to sort out all that I can do as an artist to reach more people, improve my online presence as well as sell more work.   Visit Leslie's website here and check out all the interesting segments you can listen to on her blog radio show Artists Helping Artists.   I'm hoping she'll be able to come and do one of her marketing seminars for the Art guild I'm a member of - Westlake Village Art Guild - Anyone interested in participating send me an email at anettepow@gmail.com and I will keep you up-dated.

The Three Amigos - Sold

Sold

Working frenetically to get ready for the exhibit on the 22nd, trying to not drive my family too crazy and keep some sort of balance...Very important:-) but I had some time Friday to play around with a still-life again. This one is my second attempt with the same set-up and it was interesting to find that the second time around when I didn't focus as much on the drawing and just wanted to get it down quickly...it actually ended up being more accurate. That seems to be what I keep learning..work fast and intuitively and don't think too much. This will be my first attempt at doing an auction with Dailypaintworks.

Las Virgenes Barn

I wonder how many artists and others have noticed this old barn that can be seen on the right side of Las Virgines road when you drive down to the beach? I so wish there was a way I could figure out who owns it to see if they'd allow some painters to paint it, stepping on to their property. Maybe some day I'll be brave enough to just drive over there:-) In the meantime I snapped some photos of it from the road one afternoon and used it as reference for this little painting.

Standout

This was painted on location and what I liked about what I saw was the yellowish green bush and how it was complimented by the slightly violet grasses in the back so I tried to push that. And I had fun working on being looser with my brushwork on the foliage of the bush/tree. The color of the back hill was a little difficult to capture...

Peek-a-Booh Light

This was painted on location and I learned a few things. It was a good practice in simplifying things, although I could have done more...as always lol, and softening an edge of the rocks made a huge difference in making them look better than before.

Tree Sketch

I worked on several pieces today but none that got finished and ready to photograph so here's a recent sketch where I tried to leave some of it less detailed.