Well, as my stories go, ‘now you see it, now you don’t,’ this is one in that collection.  I found that  this tree was down and it no longer exists!

 I just sold the painting of Tea for Kitty!  Since it is in someones home now, I’ll share it here for you to see.  Kitty was just painted last month so she hasn’t been around very long. She was created out of no where!  I had the flowers and the teapot all set in this painting and didn’t know what to do with all the empty space to the left of the vase, and so, here came Kitty! I kind of just made her up.  I’ll miss her.  I love cats, but am allergic to them.

On the way up the hill on Hwy. 163 to Hillcrest I could see this old two-story house that looked so much like the one I grew up in. I was determined to do a painting of it somehow, but there was no way to pull over and get a shot of it with the camera. I drove up the hill every Sunday on the way to church and took note of just how the lighting would be during certain times of the year and how the landscape was different in each season.

After observing this particular house for over a year, I knew just when it had the best lighting on it to make it a nice painting. So, with my digital camera all set and ready to go, I clicked while I was driving! Hooray! I got a good shot! No, I don’t ever text while I’m driving and it is against the law to even be on a cell phone while driving, but after a year of observation, I knew exactly when and where I could get a good shot of that view that I wanted. I was glad the traffic was light while I drove up that hill on Sunday mornings.

When I painted this scene I chose one of the palettes and methods that I learned in art school, using pastel like colors for the underpainting and then glazing it later with colors that were transparent. I loved the effect and so did someone else who bought it!

I decided to post this story because it is  evidence of what I paint, something happens!  Well, not only did the flower cart disappear, but my photo of it in color has disappeared. I have gone through my stash of photos and such in my studio and albums and cannot find anything but the original photo I took of Fritz and the photo of the painting in black and white, which is rather odd because I usually don’t take b and w photos and then I found a polaroid of the beginning of the painting as it was  on my easel. It shows that I started the work on a red canvas and sketched in charcoal.

This is one of my favorite ways to paint in oils.  I was taught 20 some methods on how to do an oil painting while I was in art school in Louisiana.  It is very interesting that many things that I have painting have a history of disappearing or changing drastically.  Or, even the painting itself might disappear!  I have had paintings stolen from where they were displayed and will share some of those stories in a future post.

Lo and behold, one day I was browsing through some magazines and there it was, that very scene!  Eureka!  I don’t recall the name of the magazine,  or any information where that scene was of,  just that, there it was, my chosen scene to paint.
I loved the colors, and I just knew in my heart that somewhere, sometime in my life I might have seen that very scene myself where ever it was, some kind of old California landscape.

So, back to the Secret Garden. There is a birdbath in there and I found a darling little girl trying to touch the bird statue that was in that birdbath. I asked her mom if I could take her picture. In my heart I said to myself,”God, I want to have a cute little grand-daughter some day.” Well, a year later, I got one, and she is a blonde, named Hannah, who just turned 13 this month!  Boy, is she ever a cutie!  Not only that, she’s very smart too.
I did a large oil painting of this little girl by the birdbath, and then later did a watercolor of it. How odd it is, this birdbath has never looked as nice as when I captured it that day.  It has been covered with lush geraniums since then and I never saw a cute little girl in that garden like I did the day I got the photo taken. I forgot to ask that mother what her little girl’s name was, so was not able to contact her to show her this painting.

In this photo you can’t see the girl’s face, that’s because I can’t find the very photo that I painted from, but you get the idea here.  I have been painting at Summers Past Farm for over 10 years now.  They sell my cards and paintings in their gift shop. What a privilege I have, I will tell you more in the following stories.

The event of this scene was the day of my dad’s funeral. So the title of this story should be about relatives, and not just a relative.

This scene made a nice composition for a painting and I rarely do paintings of people, but I like the shapes in this painting because the curve of the umbrella was repeated in the curve of the sidewalk and then echoed in the purse Janie is holding. The shape of the sidewalk leads right into what the focus of this painting is.  The colors in this painting were all harmonized to make a pleasing atmosphere.  One of my favorite painters, Eric Wiegardt said, “Art is what something could be rather than what it is.”  This was a sad day, but I made it into something warm and interesting.

I am going to miss Janie especially because she lived near me and the other relatives live in Missouri.  This painting is an oil on canvas and is 16 x 20 inches, and is for sale.  If  it doesn’t sell then it will look charming in the ladies’ room at our church.

By the way, Janie was married to my brother, Jim.  He was killed at age 37 several years ago.  One thing nice about funerals is that you get to see all your friends from long ago and some of the relatives, too.

It was fun to capture all the detail in this simple photograph which was taken at a company picnic many years ago, probably in the early 1980’s.  It is an oil painting, 16 x 20 canvas.  Of course, the photograph is old and not as colorful, but you can see where I am coming from with the subject. I have learned not to buy art books that want to teach you something, and then show you how a painting was painted, but never give a reference of what the artist was looking at to make that painting.  I like to see how they were seeing and know what they were looking at.  That way you can see what was eliminated from the scene,  or what was emphasised in the painting.

Well, there was this particular place I so badly wanted to go to and paint, and it wasn’t a safe place to be at all by myself, so my husband was so sweet and willing to go with me.  I had to go to this place down in Mission Valley and paint from a large parking lot on a Saturday when it was vacant, and no one in my way.  The towering resident up above this place was my chosen subject.

Oh, no! we drove all the way to this place and I forgot my palette!  Well, I at least had my basket of all my painting gear and in there I always keep a tube of black watercolor.  I never use black on my palette because I would rather mix a black from the colors that I am using in a painting, but if I need the black like the black in the tube I can use it if I wanted to.  It was too far to drive all the way back home to get my palette, so I made do with what I had and loved the way the painting turned out, and I knew I could come back another time and be sure I had my palette with me!  And here is the painting that I did when I had my palette with me, so thrilled about that, I went wild!

When I got home (with the black and white painting), I used just a little bit of red to paint on the roof of this particular resident in this painting and that just finished it to a T! As you can see, I also used an ‘echo’ of the red here and there. My dentist, Dr. Fleming in Ocean Beach owns this painting and it looks very nice in his clinic.  I have more stories to tell later about this particular view in the painting.

I loved those prescription sunglasses!  I don’t have them anymore because my sight has changed since then, which was around 1993.  Now a days I put on a large size pair of sunglasses that fit over my regular glasses and that suits me just fine.  And, I don’t use them while I paint.  I have learned to use a sun-visor while I paint on location.  And, the word for that means, en plein-air. Some one caught a pic of me wearing the visor with my hat! I don’t like the look but it sure does help me get a good painting to look at!  I have an easier time focusing with the visor on.  If your eyes are like mine, they are strongly compelled to the strongest light, which is using the sunlight above me, then it is best to wear the sun-visor to keep my eyes looking ahead and not being compelled to the light above me. The sun-visor fits down lower than my hat does, so that works very well for my eyes.  I am so thankful to God for my eyes.  And for my ability to paint, and to see like an artist!