Garden Party

Today the wind was howling, but the sun was glorious and we had a lovely day for the garden party. Everyone brought great food and it was just a fun day of friendship and art and garden talk. Here are some pics.

SICL Spring luncheon

This is the first time I've gone to the luncheon. It was very nice. The hospitality chair did a great job putting it together, and everyone had a good time. Here's the pic.

New paintings

Here are two recent paintings. The one of the bird I did before Asilomar. The other collage/painting was the exercise in using random pieces of text on black paper in Ann Baldwin's class. When I got home I painted it and added the tree, thanks to the idea from Marcia. It's my "thinking green" themed work in honor of Earth Day and John Muir's birthday.

Artist friends

This is Marcia P. who is a wonderful artist I know on the coast. I got a personal guided tour of her galleria (her whole house). She lives with art and is a consummate artist. She has more talent in her little finger.......... well, I'm envious. She like my art too. She recently finished her first altered book. Here she is showing me a collaged box which had been a class challenge.

Art and Soul

Here are some pics from Art and Soul at Asilomar. One is class with Albie Smith who taught the techniques to construct the bound books. Another is the photo with Ann Baldwin in our collage class.
The two decorated fish dishes are by Nancy (the blue fish) and Sally (the fish sandwich). What fun pieces. These gals are the best!

Sunday in Concord

Group will meet at Sue's house where I will teach the little box houses I taught in Sacramento in Feb. For those who want the pattern and directions, go back to my Feb posts.

Small Collage

Here is a quick little collage.

Home again

While I was gone to the coast, we had a heat wave at home and then a really windy day. My lilacs are gone now. I'm so sad to see them dried up and will miss their freshness. The tomatoes liked the heat and grew a few inches while I was gone, and the strawberries are forming, and will ripen in a few days if all goes well. But the freshness of the early spring blooms are a thing of the past now. I'm going to give everything a good soak today and see if I can revive anything. I'll post pics of the trip and my new works soon.

Tuesday Art Class at LSB

Jane's challenge for the day was to paint a black and white study of some props that she brought. Painting with acrylics. Since I was just sitting in and didn't have all my familiar materials with me, Marcia loaned me some of hers. I'm not the least adept at using thick acrylics - but this is the quick study I did. I cheated and used some newspaper transfers to make the grey areas more interesting. I'll fine tune this one later, with my own paints. It was a lot of fun being with the La Selva group again. I did a presentation of my new altered books and also the book I had constructed at Art and Soul the previous day. I'll post pics of it later.

Art and Soul

Here are the two things I made in preparation for Art and Soul at Asilomar. The fish was our challenge piece. The second item, the crown, is just for fun. Some of us decided to make them to take and wear there. After all, how many occasions do we have to wear our crowns?

By the way, that painting in the background is by an art pal, Virginia Keith from Santa Cruz. It's one of my treasures.

Favorite flowers

Here are a couple. Don't you love the glory of Spring?

A rose for Rosie

Rose has left this world after a long brave losing battle with lung cancer. She will be missed. She will be buried in the family plot alongside her son Paul, whose grave she has tended with such care since he passed 5 years ago.

Rose's were her favorite flowers. This is one my aunt Verna Mae grew. Farewell Rosie.

New paintings

Here are the new paintings I finished off today. It turned cooler outside and breezy, so I spent the afternoon in the studio. I've been playing with using caulking for texture and then adding the paints and collage. Here they are.

Altered Garden

I've been altering my garden instead of art. California temperatures are in the 70's this week and everything is growing so fast I can hardly believe it. Take a walk down my garden paths and enjoy the California Springtime.