Discovering A Beautiful Public Garden

This past Saturday, Mrs. Pom called me and said, 'Let's go to Wave Hill and do some plein aire."  "OK!" was my reply, afterall, I had a couple of hours with nothing to do (never mind all the graduation parties that were scheduled for the weekend).  Well, I did not know how beautiful Wave Hill is.  I have never been there and to this day cannot fathom why.  It is gorgeous!  Flowers, trees, birds, bugs, beautiful vistas of the Hudson...How is it I never knew this gem was here?  Well, I did more photography than painting...enjoy!

 this is a tree believe it or not.  i couldn't find the name, but so cool

lace bark tree

This tree was immense in size.  In hindsight, I should've had Loretta stand over there

so many specimens

my favorite, something about this relaxes me.   I don't know if it is the shape or the hues of greens AND it has been turning up in my intuitive painting...hmmmm....

there is a wonderful water garden complete with carp (although i failed to photo one)

pods!

don't you love the twisty viny wisteria?

love love love

nice little bench to rest

just as we came out of one garden and looked up...ahhhh!

clematis

I want to do all these dish gardens

poppies, poppies, poppies

and poppies

and poppy pods!

I just love this whole setting, from the pot in the center to the little bench including the ppl sitting...

how cool is this?

stunning

oh right, the reason we went there in the first place!

succulents in the gift store

I guess this little guy seeds himself...right in the sidewalk!

and Mrs. Pom with her beautiful journal
(I should've  photographed the finished product, it came out gorgeous)

I have about 90 photos in total.  from herbs to perrenials this place is amazing!  It is truly inspirational and the perfect place to go when I have artist block.  The array of texture, composition, shapes and color!  oh and now of course, I want to replant all my flowers!  

a little something

I've been away for a while.  It's not because I don't enjoy my work, it is more because I'm suffering from carpal tunnel.  Well, after a couple of months of physical therapy, wearing a brace at night and just plain resting, my wrist is MUCH improved.  It was bad.  Real bad.  I could barely write.  All I could do was sew on a machine, and that was limited.  I have not been a happy camper (ask my husband) at all!  I am so happy that I can write and draw again and it is pain free!  I still have some numbness is a couple of my fingers and I do need surgery.  In the meantime however, I am back to drawing in my journal and working!  YAY!  

The first thing I am doing is preparing samples for a summer workshop I do with kids.  Yesterday I played around with a technique I learned from my artist friend, Diana Trout.  

A couple of years back I took a class with Diana in bookbinding and was immediately hooked.  Diana is a fantastic teacher and artist.  She is the author of Journal Spilling which I highly recommend.  Diana posted this video of her drawing doodle game on you tube.  I thought this would be such a fun thing for kids to do, so I've taken it in a different direction and created a project out of it. 

 It sort of reminds me of Miro:

so it starts with a line that doesn't cross draw on watercolor paper with sharpie

and ends up like this:

I added little monstery details.  Then painted it with watercolors.  So, this is a little preview of one of the summer projects.  I've enjoyed the ability to create something again.  Now I'm off to work on a painting...I'm giddy with happiness!  Ahhhh...to paint again :)

how long has it been?

i can't believe how long it has been since my last post!  i've been slacking off, but not really.  i was teaching in a pre-k class, went on vacation, made it through 4 proms, a high school graduation, got two kids moved into their colleges, painted my kitchen, sewed some cute pillows and made a few paintings.  instead of going into details, i'll just post some pics.

pre-k hands of great artists

moo houses for swap over at atcsforall.com

inchies for swap over at atcsforall.com

untitled

nicki's pillow to match her dorm bedding

caitie's pillow to match her dorm bedding

serviceman portrait for faces of america show
show details to come...reception is on veteran's day

I am resolving to blog more regularly, take more pics of my work and in general try to keep everything updated....yeah, right!  LOL  I'll do my best!

taking time to try new things

As a member of the New Rochelle Art Association, I feel as if I should participate in as many shows as held.  The last show was the Jules Bauer Award Show and featured a prize for watercolor.  I didn't win the Jules Bauer award, but I did win Best of Show for this watercolor, titled Waiting for Racetime.  It is a painting of my daughter, Nicki waiting for her turn at a big invitational meet.  I was trying to convey the pre-race jitters she goes through.  The body language portrays that.

 And I also won 3rd prize in the mixed media category for this painting, Nature of Gemini.  

It was a good show, and a good month.

Now I've signed up for Traci Bunkers 30 day Art Challenge (see badge at right).  You make the rules, you just need to create for 30 days consistently, no excuses!  I'm up for that challenge.  I think a better challenge for me would be to see if I could update my blog for 30 days straight!

i'm uber relaxed!

yeah, right!  well, i'm part of a group called "the uber relaxed page traders".  we're a bunch of artists who have traded japanese moleskines in the past, who have decided we can't deal with strick deadlines, so we are trading pages at our leisure.  each artist has a theme, a page size and some media guidelines (which it seems everyone is uber relaxed about this too!).  this is my kind of group.  we are encouraging, grateful and inspired by each other's work.
so, i've completed my first page.  the theme: crows   the size:5"x7"  the media:anything.

for my media i chose watercolor and ink pen. I recently discovered the work or Roz Stendahl.  I think I must have been living under a rock!  I can't believe I never found roz's work before.  it is just stunning!  her blog is a wealth of information for anyone interested in keeping and/or making sketchbooks, using gouache or watercolor or dip pens.  anyhow, I tried to do a page using some of her techniques.  it's hard for me.  first, i really like saturated color and secondly, i tend to be very stiff! But, I did draw this by looking at negative space! :)

I know I need to still work on 'loosening up', but some habits are just hard to break! this is a little crow squawking about this or that for my uber relaxed art friend helene...i hope she likes it!
and the finished page:

winter...it's a wonderland

i'm entering another show. the deadline is this week. this is the piece i made.  the theme is winter wonderland. as i sat thinking about what winter meant to me...the feeling, traditions, the magic and beauty...i kept going back to an earlier piece i did in a journal.  i made it a full size work.  i love my snow tree.  it incorporates the feeling of winter to me with graphics.  do you know the feeling of snow as it lays heavy on a tree?  When everything is covered in white. after a really big snow, when everything is still, silent and quiet?  i love that!  it isn't until the sun comes out that the world awakens from a large snowfall...

...this captures the very beginning of that moment!