Howdy!

Hi there! I've been a bit quiet over the past few weeks, due to being really busy. On top of that, I got sick for a couple weeks, which I'm realizing now may be an allergy to our precious little kitten! I'll be taking a cat allergy test soon to be sure. Either way, we'll definitely keep her, as there is plenty of land and other rooms for her to roam and sleep in. I also had arefreshing little vacation at a small beach along the Mediterranean, which was nice. The water was way too cold for swimming though!

In art news, I've been keeping busy with my usual work, as well as a few commissions. My Rejoicing Quietus 2 drawing (pictured below) will be exhibited at the annual Dia de los Muertos exhibit at Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene, OR.

An amazing artist and wonderful person

Awhile ago I made the online acquaintance of Mr. John A. Kurtz, a fellow artist from Chicago. I took an immediate liking to his colorful and intricate artwork, sensing an immediate kinship with my own. His drawings and paintings are multi-layered and multi-dimensional, imbued with a mysterious sense of meaning. His sculptures are whimsical, vibrant and fun.

Not long ago we agreed to do an art swap: one of my 4" x 4"s for one of his. Well I can say I was absolutely thrilled with the painting that I received! It was up on the wall within minutes. Here is a photo of the painting, followed by a close-up:




Detail:



I am very pleased to have met John and wanted to share his art and spirit with all of you!

Feel free to check out more of his art on his website:

www.jakurtz.com

Inside the Art Hut

Here are some more pics of the inside of my little art hideaway! This is what you see as you look through one of the windows:

My paint collection:

My palette, cup of water, and paint on small easel in background:

I've decorated my hut with lots of little odds and ends that I've colleted and that people have given me over the years. Here is a close-up of lovely pinecone found in northern France and given to me by a friend:

Hello Kitty object given to me by a friend:

My ever-present jar of clean water:

That's about it for now. Still more pics to come! I've decorated my hut even more since these last photos were taken, so I've got to take some fresh photos.

My Art Hut

So here are some photos of my little art hut! Over the next few days I'll be posting more photos of the inside and the view out the windows. For now I thought I'd give an idea of how and where the hut is situated in the countryside. First a quick peek in through the front door...

Below is the front porch with a lovely vine and raffia roofing. View of terraced hills in the distance...

Here is the front of the structure:

Side view:

Here is a side view showing the nearby ruin:

My hut is near some trees:

Writing

Hello! I've been busy trying to gather my thoughts about myself, life and art for some articles and interviews I've been asked to participate in. I'll be a featured artist in an upcoming issue of the online World Artist Network Magazine. I was also asked to write an article on myself, my art and travels for a new publication that is aimed at encouraging young women to be creative and seek beauty within. I'll send you links of the articles once they're published!

Decision-Making

So here's how the psychedelic ink tree is going... I'm quite happy with it so far, but can't decide if I should stop now and say it's finished, or to keep going... For this drawing my original intention was to have a line of grass just above the roots, with some flowers, some butterflies, and a deer looking off to the right... But then I got this far and wondered "does it even need that?" I lightly pencilled in the grass etc, you can barely see it in this scan, but maybe it gives you an idea of how it could be...you see the problem with pen and ink is that once it's down, it's down! No take-backs, no do-overs! I just have this nagging feeling that I want to finish it with my original intention, and see what happens. If I don't, I'll always wonder how it would have looked!

Arc en Ciel

Well my art hut is just about finished, which is exciting! I've started moving my stuff in and decorating, and soon I'll be set up fully in there. Pictures to come!

The weather here in southern France never ceases to amaze me. Last year I remember boiling days of 100+ degrees. This year has been very mild in comparison - cooler, windy and rainy. I never could have fathomed wearing a sweater in July! On Wednesday we had a light sprinkle, accompanied by the most amazing rainbow over the town. I managed to snap some photos before the sprinking increased -


The blotches in the above pic were caused by raindrops on the lens. Can you see the house in the lower left corner? That is our nearest neighbor! We really are out in nature here.


And here's a closer view showing the end of the rainbow and the town. It looks far, but it only takes about 30 minutes to walk there. It's lucky we were out to see the rainbow - less than 10 minutes later it was gone! Perhaps that is a good omen...

New Photorealist Candy Still Life

I started a new photorealistic still life, featuring a bunch of brightly-colored Tootsie Roll candies in a glass tumbler. So far I've completed the underpainting, which you can see here:

New Ink Series

I received a set of really nice art pens for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with them. So far I've only ventured to use the black ones, so I've been playing around with monochromatic designs and compositions. My first finished ink drawing (The Mystery of Meaning) is available for purchase this week, and provides an idea of what this new series will be like... a bit fun and a bit psychedelic, and full of tiny intricate details as usual! I've started on the next one in this series; you can see the work in progress below.

Lily

I have a new art assistant that I'd like you to meet! She's tiny, warm, furry, and purrs a lot. She likes to sit in my lap while I paint and draw:



We found this tiny creature one evening as we were walking home from dinner in the village. She was all alone on the edge of town, so cute and vulnerable, so we decided to take her home with us. Her name is Lily, and she's very quickly become the Queen of the household!

This n that

Not long ago I was approached by the assistant art director for the e-zine Moondance for permission to use my art piece "Mythic Self Portrait" to illustrate one of their stories. You can check it out and read a lot of interesting articles here.

In other news, I recently donated my painting Supposedly Aerial to a benefit auction hosted in July by Street Haven, a women's shelter in Toronto. Here's to hoping it will help raise some money for their worthy cause!

Here's a photo of me in my temporary studio here in France. This pic was taken in the beginning of May, when it was pouring for days!

After the rain

Last week we had the most rain I have ever seen in my life! It even beat my experiences of Florida during hurricanes. For about 4 days it rained pretty much non-stop, with heavy winds. It was quite a shock to my Floridian senses to be huddled near an evening fire in the middle of May. Here are some pictures taken during the brief spells of non-rain...

This is the view from the front of the property.

Here is a lovely rainbow over the fields of one of our neighbors.

My soon-to-be studio

I'm excited about my new little studio. It will be in this cozy little ramshackle shack, which we are piecing back together. Basically it needs a new roof and a floor, and we'll be cutting in a new window to overlook the expansive scenery which you can see behind the hut. It's in a nice, quiet, lovely location which will be perfect for creating art. I'll share some more pictures once we've got it fixed up and I am settled inside!

Bonjour!

Well I'm delighted to say that the weather has since warmed since my last post. I still have limited computer access, so I haven't been able to spend as much time updating this blog. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the beautiful surrounding countryside:

La France

Bonjour! We arrived in France about a week and a half ago, taking the train from England all the way down to the south of France. It was surprisingly cold when we got here... an interesting experience considering the house doesn't have central heating, or electric heaters! All we had was a good old fashioned fireplace to keep up warm during dinner in the evenings. I spent many nights wearing 2-3 pairs of socks to bed. I am thankful to say that the weather has since warmed up and we are starting to get back into the routine of being here. I've set up a makeshift indoor art studio, while we work on the little cabin which will be my workspace during the summer. I picked up this cute little canvas and easel from a store the other day, on which I plan to paint a mini abstract. The canvas is only 7cm square. Tiny!

'Ello!

Well I'm back in blustery old Brighton at the moment! Quite a shock from Florida... why just last week I was sunning at the beach and now I'm wearing heavy jackets and scarves. I heard rumors that it was warm up until I arrived, but I'm sure their opinion of 'warm' differs from mine. Yesterday we had a light flurry of snow that lasted about 2 minutes. Although I hadn't seen snow in 8 years and was enchanted to see it, I must admit I'm glad it didn't last longer as surely that would have meant my Floridian bones would have wound up even more frozen than they already are.

I've started working on a new Deep Thinkers drawing, this one featuring a lovely green parrot, the Thai language, and old typewriter keys. By the end of the month I'll be in France and resume my normal posting habits then!

Busy Busy!

I've been super busy lately getting ready to leave for Europe. I'm winding down my business here in Florida, by finishing up paintings and organizing my art and art supplies to be taken overseas. For example, in preparation for doing more landscape paintings in France, I've cut to size thirty 4" x 6" pieces of heavy 300lb hot-pressed watercolor paper with an X-acto knife, which I then triple-gessoed. That was a task!

Recently I took a walk in downtown Tarpon Springs with my camera, photographing some of the neat old buildings. Later I played around with some of the photos in Photoshop, to make them look aged and interesting. Here's what I came up with!

Candy Colors

Here is an update of the candy and marbles painting, which I recently finished. I'm pretty happy with it! You can see a larger version, showing more of the detail in this piece, here.

This painting is available for purchase here.

Our view

Here's the French landscape painting I started a couple days ago. This is my first attempt at an Impressionist landscape painting, and also at creating a landscape at such a small scale (4" x 6"). I mixed a gel medium with the acrylics to thicken the paints, creating a texture similar to oil paints. The technique was pretty fun, and resulted in a surface in which the brushstrokes were more visible than they usually are in my paintings. Working in this manner was a nice contrast from my usual smooth, photorealistic style of painting in realism. I look forward to trying a few more and seeing what happens!

New landscape underpainting

Here is the underpainting for the landscape I've just started (as inspired by the aforementioned landscape show!). This is the view to the northwest, as viewed from our veranda in France. I'm trying this painting in a small, postcard size of 4" x 6", with acrylic on 300 lb paper. So far this is just the absolute bare bones of the painting, a quick sketch to lay out the composition...