November

This was a fun project that I had my students do in class. We took tissue paper and glued to watercolor paper using a 50/50 water/mod podge solution for a nice texture. After it was dry we painted leaves and I chose a dark background. Spray to seal and then ink over it.
It sure does feel like November to me.

Sunset at Montage Resort

The beach and rocks at Montage near Laguna Beach is one of my favorite places. It does not matter if it is cloudy or sunny. It is just beautiful at any time. These paintings were inspired by a visit at sunset. Oil Painting on 5 x 7 panel.

New thoughts on buy local, paint local

I took a long break from the buy local, paint local series. I was doing these large watercolor paintings and they took a lot of time and framing... With teaching taking most of my time, 

I could not work on the larger projects. 

So I tried this small 5x7 inch oil painting yesterday and like this new format. 

I can continue to paint these stories 

and work in a manageable size and timeframe.

Josh invested in a local opera house and surrounding buildings 

and created the Center of Harmony, a friendly group of collaborating businesses 

promoting music, the arts, education and a better community for all.

Check the link to see shops, food, wellness providers and music events. 

Wonderful, unique places where you can support your "buy local" businesses. 

See you there!

Josh is number 3 of my Buy Local, Paint Local series.

Day 5 of 3/5 art challenge

Day 5 of my 3/5 day challenge and want to thank Diane and Wanda for nominating me. It has been fun to go back and revisit some of my work. I spend much of my time at the studio teaching and preparing for classes. I have many demonstration paintings that I do for the classes but not many recent finished paintings.  These are two from a series I started called "buy local, paint local" that feature people and local small business. I hope to continue this series as time permits.

Day 4 of the 3/5 day art challenge

For Day 4 of my 3/5 day art challenge I thought I would post some small 8x10 inch watercolor images.

Day 3 of 3/5 day art challenge

For the third day of my 3/5 day art challenge, I thought I would share some pastel portraits I have done through the years. These are some of my favorite people.

Day 2 of 3/5 art challenge

Day 2 of the 3/5 day art challenge has me going back to 2007 to find some paintings I did inspired by vintage photographs. I used white to make some of the colors to layer over others. These were done after a workshop I took by Jeannie McGuire.

3/5 Day Facebook Challenge

My first of the 3/5 day Facebook challenge. I am posting three paintings from when I started full time as an artist in 2005. I was exploring watercolor surfaces, still learning color, technique and painting subjects that are close to me. 
Picnic Conversation- Watercolor on Gessoed paper was fun and easy to lift but hard to layer. Kind of like painting on Yupo but with texture. This is of my grandfathers who dressed in a suit for most occasions. Kind of miss those days...
Elizabetha, Watercolor on coldpress is a story of my Grandmother's life. So sorry I sold this but happy that so many connected to this.and 
John's Dad, Watercolor on Coldpress done for my sister's father-in-law who loved to share his music.