Sunstruck - sold

This little original was painted at Paramount Ranch en Plein air, which is my favorite way to work!   I loved the way this tree was back-lit and stood out against the foliage in the back.   A great day of painting, and I felt even more comfortable when I ran into Joseph Mendez and his painting friend on the same road.

  
I'm really excited about two things this week:  I get to go on a 2-day work-shop with Ray Roberts this Friday and Saturday and I found this great place for floater-frames for my little 6x6 paintings and they just arrived in the mail.   I have to give thanks to Nancy Hartley and her blog Nancy Hartley's Art Adventures which is where I found her post on frames from Franken Frames.   The frames are beautiful and very reasonably priced and I followed Nancy's lead and talked to Roger, from Franken Frames  (800 322-5899) and when I mentioned Nancy he was able to easily figure out exactly what I needed.   Sometimes it's so much easier talking to someone on the phone instead of ordering frames online.   I got the all black, the white-washed maple and the clear maple with black interior and I attached the wooden support piece with 2 screws from the back and then glued the canvas board to that (this can also be attached with silicone caulking or velcro which would make it possible to change a painting out).

All Sliced Up

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Man oh man are oranges difficult!...  and I guess good practice for that very reason....   I continue to work on simplifying things, but I have to really fight the urge to stare myself blind on every little nuance of color I see.   My favorite part of this painting is the upper left corner.   Let's see if things improve with the next orange:-)

The Key to Survival

My second still life in my series on mice (or collectibles).   And I really like this little mouse - able to avoid the hungry owl...:)

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

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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.

Hiking Up

Had a great day yesterday as I went out painting with 2 friends in the Santa Monica Mountains. We all looked to find our scene and I decided to hike up the hill a little further to see if there were any nice views and atmosphere beyond the ridge. The fog was clearing, but luckily there was some haziness left and I chose to paint this scene because I was drawn to the dark shapes of a nice clump of trees, the path through and the distance created by the bluish hills behind. Lots of hikers were out, even a whole class of kids came through the opening and hiked up a path next to those trees. (Didn't end up putting any of them in my painting - yet:) This little original will be available for purchase (ready to frame) through Daily Paintworks, but I will also display it at the Mountains Restoration Trust, 9th Annual Art Exhibit where it will be framed.

Open Road

When I first drove on this back road between Westlake and Newbury Park it was a surprise to find this beautiful valley hidden away with farmland and horses. Never knew it was there. I guess it's the nice thing about roads. You never know where they're going to lead. And on this gray rainy day it looked like I was somewhere quite different than Southern California.

Light edge

Had a great time at Paramount Ranch with the kids when I spotted this tree where the light of the sun was creating some really strong contrasts that I liked. I took some pictures and tried to capture that wonderful light. It's hard to go anywhere without being stopped in my tracks by nature's beauty.

In the Know

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BIG DAY TODAY! I'm joining Daily Paintworks Check out my page that will be filling up with work day by day! I will have some of my work available for purchase as well.
First still life I'm attempting is above. I really like the control it affords me in picking exactly what to paint, placing it where I want it and being able to crop it exactly how I want to. I think I made it extra difficult by having my set up by the window where the light inevitably changed and since I didn't have it set up in a box and couldn't find my viewfinder...?.. staying focused on the exact angle was a bit of a challenge:-)
I'm learning more about setting up a shadow box from Carol Marine and James M Coulter. Check out their helpful tips!

Fall 2011- Character Design with Mark McDonell

I have this dream of some day writing/illustrating a children's book. One reason is that it seems like such a great creative outlet and it would give a tangible result, and two, because I have such admiration for Astrid Lindgren and now that I have children myself there's a lot of stories to be told.
So to that end, since I would want to illustrate it myself:-) I keep plugging away at getting better at drawing characters....which is a better idea than just making a story about trees and rocks I think?...so I took this class at LAAFA (Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art) with Mark McDonell this fall.
It was a great class and Mark is so incredibly full of ideas and enthusiastic about this craft. And, it was also incredibly challenging at the same time...I'd spend a good amount of time on our homework to where I felt like "hey this is pretty good...." and then I'd bring my work to class, look around at all the talent in the room and think "Oh cr.. :-) I don't really know what I'm doing...?"...but such is my journey as an artist. There's always someone who's better and someone who's worse and I just have to keep going and focus on what I can do better. Here's some of the sketches from that class.
Sketches for a female lead with some marks to clarify the design by Mark
Creating an additional character for The Neverland Pirates
Some sketches for an assignment where I drew mostly baby gorillas
Creating a female villain with the inspiration of sea creatures

Summer of 2011

The summer of 2011 was a great one for painting! I got to take a workshop with Peggi Kroll-Roberts in San Clemente in July, where besides having the opportunity to do some great exercises on values, learning to simplify what I see and use a loaded brush, I also had the best burger I've ever had!! at http://www.ridersclubcafe.com/ Can't stop thinking about it....
But back to the workshop - I really enjoy Peggi's deliberate yet spontaneous brush work and I got this adorable piece of her's to take home and be inspired by.
As a mother myself, it was great to hear her talk about finding opportunities to paint even when her children were small, having them model for short stints by their pool. I also appreciated her telling us about the importance of finding what subject matters call us personally. Finding what we're drawn to as opposed to just painting what everyone else is painting on location is definitely part of the journey as an artist. More information on her work and workshops can be found at
http://www.krollroberts.com
I left the workshop inspired and the first painting I did on location after Peggi's workshop I really focused on painting what I was drawn to and laying down the paint with confidence which made the whole process flow more easily. We painted on Channels Islands and there was this little burger joint/bar next to an art gallery that I was drawn to. I wanted to capture the bluish-grey-green of the building and the splash of complimentary color orange in the umbrellas that really made it pop. On top of that, the place was named Manda's Galley and Manda is the name of my beloved niece Manda whom I miss dearly and who inspires me to paint and do what I love in her honor.
In August our family traveled to Ireland and Sweden and I was determined to bring my gear and do a little painting when possible:-) Ireland was green and luscious and with a lot of wonderful time with family and sick children this was the only sketch I attempted. It does bring back to me the feeling of that last sunlight hitting the fields outside our window and the very still water of the creek even though it's not finished.
In Sweden we stayed at a small island in the archipelago of Stockholm and got to experience some beautiful sunsets together as a family, my mom and sister's awesome cooking and treasure hunts and lingonberry picking with the kids. My dear husband tried to study some and I would steal away to paint, with this one being my best attempt at capturing the colors of the island with it's shrubs and moss.

Paramount Ranch

I absolutely love painting on location and on this particular day I was drawn to the atmospheric effects of a warm California morning. I've realized that there's a particular advantage to working on location for me as well. Besides enjoying nature and learning how to capture what I see I can't work on the painting too long....I have a set amount of time to work, which prevents me(hopefully) from over working it...Still want to get better at making loose, painterly brushstrokes to describe the foliage though.

Painting on location - Plein Air

These are some sketches done on location over the last few months. In the sketch right above, I tried this technique that I learned about in Nathan Fowkes workshop last year.
http://nathanfowkes-sketch.blogspot.com/
It seemed so appealing, since it's such a light way to travel. He uses watercolor and white gouache, and he makes it look so easy in his beautiful sketches, but I got a little frustrated by how the colors dry lighter and darker than expected so I've gone back to oil again. I'm really enjoying painting outdoors again and just enjoying the serenity of being in nature.

Printmaking class

I really love the work of David Weidman
http://weidmansart.com/prints.htm
so I was excited to take a printmaking class at Moorpark College this spring. Wanting to see if I could create some work inspired by Weidman's great shapes and design it took me quite a long time to figure out how to use the medium to it's advantage, so the fact that our teacher Sexton Stewart was very patient and gave us the creative freedom to take it where we wanted was so helpful. I figured out a few things along the way and the prints below were part of my final project. I like working monochromatically at times but found that with printmaking it almost works better the more contrasting colors you use. And I definitely want to play around making more abstract prints.