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This week’s theme for Illustration Friday is “Quiet” and I can think of nothing quieter than the serenity of meditation, so I chose an antique statue of the Buddha to represent that idea. As I painted it, slowly and quietly on a 4″ x 6″ piece of smooth gessoed wood panel, I felt […]

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Oil on canvasboard … 9″ x 12″
In September, Santa Barbara wears a cloak of gold that can only make me wonder how beautiful this state must have appeared before it was aggressively developed. Thankfully there are still some preserves where the native plants don’t have to compete with imported species. The California fuchsia is […]

A watercolor sketchbook study in preparation for an oil painting. This sketch is 10″ x 7.25″
I bought the mango last week, attracted by its shape and color, but it wasn’t quite ripe yet. As it aged, it changed in wonderful ways, developing new speckles and coloration.
My patient husband looks at it longingly.
Are we […]

15 x 9″ watercolor on 140 # paper.
This sketch was done at Eaton Canyon today, where an early morning haze softened some of the sharper edges seen last week.
The little white house at the top of the ridge attracted my attention - the challenge was to capture some of the look and feel of […]

Watercolor on 140# cold pressed paper. Image size: Approx. 10.25 x 9.5 inches.
We live not far from the arroyo that extends from the San Gabriel Mountains down through Pasadena and which eventually merges with the LA River. If you are a regular visitor to this blog you’ve seen me paint it in the […]

Watercolor - 11 x 15 cold press paper - plein air at the Santa Barbara CA Botanic Garden for Native Plants
Today we took a drive up to Santa Barbara to scout a location for a work project, and my dear husband suggested I turn it into a painting day as well. I had never visited […]

Another fast and rough sketch in the 9 x 12″ Raffine… in preparation for doing another painting in watercolor or oils. This one was painted with a half inch flat and a #12 round. Late afternoon on a tropical California side street.
In fact, it’s right next door to this house Capistrano Fence which I […]

Yesterday I got my first Raffine sketchbook by Lana, recommended by Lin Frye, so I decided to give it a test drive. The 9 x 12″ paper is very thick and slightly absorbent, and I’d say it takes a wet wash pretty well without bleeding through the back side of the paper. There was only […]

This was one of the other watercolor sketches that I did on our paint out day last Tuesday. (Compare with the other sketch - scroll down.) It was toward the end of the morning and I just grabbed a smaller piece of Fabriano to experiment on with more calligraphic brushwork. I had no expectations […]

This small portrait is 8.25″ x 2.75″ and was created around the theme of “eyes.” And what culture is better known for their focus on the eyes than the ancient Egyptians?
In doing some background research for the painting (because I didn’t have a painted up model handy) I learned that eye makeup was […]