Coffee Break in Campbell

I decided to do some local street scenes and started with this one in downtown Campbell. It was a quiet day for the city and the locals were out looking for cafes and coffee houses as the weather has been so warm.

This is painted on canvas with acrylic and is gallery wrapped which means the edges are painted with the scene as well instead of a frame.

"In the Lime Light" new work

I have had time today to work on my mixed media. I love to see what can be built. Now that I have a dremel and can drill holes and sand I can create interesting objects hanging from the art piece.

Also the last time we were up in San Francisco, we went to SCRAP which is like a candy store for me. It is a recycle center for artists (or anyone interested) in the salvaged items that can be used in art. It is located on Newcomb between Toland and Selby Streets. The hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm. It is a great find and the items are so reasonable that many things tempt me. I will be going back soon. I wish San Jose had this kind of center.

Altered Book

The book in its readable form has been "altered" to show a personal account of how to make "Yorkshire Pudding". Our family loves Yorkshire Pudding when we have roast beef, often at Christmas. I decided to alter a children's book to personalize the recipes and the images. First,, I sanded off all of the images that were on the children's book. Then I collaged, glued, and sewed on various items to my book. the result is a fanciful recipe book. What is so amusing, is that the Yorkshire Pudding only has 4 ingredients in it...flour, milk, eggs and FAT.

I have a special box that has been decorated for me to keep the book within. This may be the beginning of more altered books.

Something to paint on

I visited my framer who was listening to me tell how I paint on translucent paper and put colored papers behind for effect. He reached into a pile of discarded Plexiglas and gave me one saying," why don't you try and paint on Plexiglas and see how that turns out.

Well, it is tricky and without a backing the Plexiglas painting looks unfinished and odd. This image of the women in my family shows how the Plexiglas experiment turned out. This is definitely practice and I shall try my hand at a landscape next.

Do you recognize Sabrina, Jennifer, Sloan and Kim?

An Artist's Odyssey

A new mixed media is about to be shown. It is called the "Artist's Odyssey" and has various silhouettes depicting the major events in my life. It is a sculpture with various found materials used to build the "Odyssey".

Coming soon to West Valley Presbyterian Church is a members' art show which will begin on the evening of January 28, 2012. There are artists who have never shown their work before and other artists who are very experienced and professional. it will be very pleasing to all who come to the art show.

I also include another image of "Odyssey" as it is hard to show a sculpture without showing many views.

Collage Workshop-really open my eyes

This past weekend and another Saturday included, I worked in a collage workshop with three others in Marianne Lettieri and Julia Nelson-Gal's studios. This was truly for those of us who want to explore "Mixed Media". Marianne does wonderful sculptures with found materials. Julia is more into 2D work with objects of interest.

I love the pieces I was able to finish. the first is a very simple, understate piece called "Asian_I". How many items can you see on the paper?

This is definitely where I'm headed in my art. I will never abandon watercolors, but the mixed media is so exciting to create. My second piece is a sculpture called Odyssey. It will be featured in another blog.

Our grand daughter, Sarah

Next weekend we are picking up our grand daughter for a brief stay overnight at our house. It is fun to have her so close as she generally is living with her parents in southern California. We are fortunate she now goes to college near us.

Sarah is a very big person on "cats". Her family has two,and she is always eager to take another one into the home. This painting was a recent one I did after one of her cats. Charlie, got out into the backyard. He is a house cat. So the painting is called, "We'll bell the cat".