EASTER AND BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS

Funny,

 I never thought in a million years I'd be 68, 

but this is what it looks like after a lot of hard work in the gym, Pilates,

Intermittent Fasting and only 2 meals a day,

 one of which is a big vegie/fruit salad.

Seven pds. lost so far and going for at least 25 more.

I feel like I'm never going to make it,

and it's so hard not to give up.

Plus I love food and I live to eat my ex tells me. 

He on the other hands eats to live and has never has a weight problem.

Ugg!

Everyone tells me I hide it well,

but only because of big blousy shirts.

On another note,

I can only remember 2 other times in my life 

when Easter was on my birthday. 

So this year was double the celebration with my beautiful children,

and my bestest buddy Easton.

We celebrated with an Easter egg hunt 

while E was busy tummy timing it with his music and lights.

I love that my kids still want my ex and I to hide eggs for them.  

They continue to be very competitive siblings.

Can't wait for next year when Easton can participate too.

And color Easter eggs!

My ex hosted at his home

 and my husband drove down to be with his daughter and two grandsons.

It was a very rainy day but my son insisted we still do a barbeque.  

Because it was my birthday the kids did all the cooking 

and it was delicious.

Sadly my ex took a bad fall the day before Easter and was laid up in a sling.

He suffered a broken/cracked humorous and a very swollen leg.

He tripped on a polished wood floor while visiting a friend in the hospital.

It's such a shame because he is still recovering from his heart arrest

and has been doing really well in his physical therapy balance classes.

I had so much fun putting together an Easter bucket for E.  

All was thrifted from our local mountain thrift shop except a brush and comb set.

And if you look closely 

you can see two antique baby rattles from the 50's/60's.

 I picked them up for only 75 cents a piece.

It's so strange to handle plastic that old because it's very brittle.

And of course all the thrifted items got a bath including the stuffed bunny.

What was a little more challenging 

was to draw and watercolor Easton's Easter card.

I haven't done representational figures since I stopped teaching 4 years ago,

so I'm really out of practice.

But it turned out being super fun, 

and my kids thought it was store bought.

Hee hee 

I love when I can surprise them with something I've made.

WILL YOU BE MINE?

HANDWOVEN & WATERCOLORED VALENTINE CARDS

Misc. Scrap Yarns, Watercolors and Papers, Pearl Cottons Size 5 or 8, 

Mixed Media Paper, and both Yarn Darner and Tapestry Needles

This project is a standby when I'm in a hurry,

which I always am.

Ha!

I can do it in one night on watercolor paper at least 140 pd weight.

Using 90 pds. will curl too badly and punched holes might rip.

I precut various sizes of watercolor paper that I knew I'd be folding into cards,

 and using a wet into wet technique,

dripped various colors onto the papers

 that I felt might look nice with my scrap yarns.

Underneath me I had some mixed media paper to catch drips and overflow

which I cut up into various size hearts to be glued inside card

 to cover all my pearle cotton holes, warp thread (pearle cotton) and knots.

This first card went to my new Grandson Easton,

and the yarn was leftover from a skein I had dyed

 and demonstrated with food colorfor my students some years back.

I think I used Kool Aide and Wilton's Cake dyes.

I really liked how the watercolors moved along the wetted surface.

And knowing me I probably dropped some water droplets 

into the color on the paper 

to make the pigment move even more.

This next one I gifted to my husband.

To my long legged,

 big hearted,

 guitar pickin' man.

From his big mouth woman.

Hee hee

Love that Johhny and June Carter Cash hit.

The yarn was a leftover ball of chuncky handspun 

which consisted of wool and Angora Mohair goat fleece.

I really like how it wove up and the way the Mohair curls.

This one I gave to my dear daughter-in-law.

I just love her to pieces

 and ever since her mom Mary passed we have grown even closer.

And this last one I kept for myself cuz it was too funky to give away.

I was using it to demonstrate how to go about weaving the heart.

(to a student in my Tuesday Nite Craft Class)

All my watercolor paper was drying up 

yet still too wet to work on, 

so I pulled this envelop out of the trash (hence stamp), 

and wove a heart into it.  

I was really surprised the thin paper didn't rip as I was puncturing holes,

 warping and weaving.

And this envelop was white with no watercolor

 but I see here it photographed a pale pink.

The Pearle cotton you see embroidered around edge 

was done in a blanket stitch and a size 5 string 

just because I had some leftover on my needle.

Note:  The yarn on the last two cards was from a special scrap ball.

Every year when I taught hand spinning to my young ones, 

at the end of the class period I would go row by row 

and collect all the unspun pieces of wool

 the kids had accidently dropped onto the floor.

At the end of the unit I would load it onto my drum carder 

and make a huge rolag that I would then spin into yarn.

And you would never know what the end product would look like

 until it was spun.

So much fun!!

A LONG TIME COMING

SELF-PORTRAITS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

mixed media

Haven't posted artwork from my ex-students in a while,

but these pieces have been on my mind since 2017-2018.

These works are by 3 of the most talented kiddos I ever worked with.

All High School seniors in 2018.

The assignment was to do a Self-Portrait 

in any 2-D medium they felt most comfortable in.

Each final work is truly remarkable

and I'm thrilled I finally got around to showcasing them.

This was their last assignment of the year for me.

We begin with Sarah Oh,

a young woman headed off to art school

 (she might have graduated by now),

accepted into Art Center in Pasadena.

Over the years and even after she graduated from Whitney,

we kept in touch and I continued to show off her pieces.

Sarah excelled in both the 2-D and 3-D realms.

Sadly over Covid we lost touch.

If you put Sarah's name in my search engine you can she most all her pieces 

for me and beyond.

First of all,

I love where Sarah chose to work from,

the classroom floor.

Here she was able to prop up a piece of mirror as well as her canvas.

She created her portrait in Acrylics.

What I just noticed for the first time in this photo below

 is she has reversed her image from what she is seeing in the mirror.

Or maybe it just seems so in the photograph.

Not sure??

When Sarah was in my classes,

she frequently brought over top her main subjects images of animals,

a secondary content for the viewer to ponder.

What I find so visually appealing about her Portrait 

are the harsh cast shadows she put in.

I love that she chose to use violet and blue/gray tones.

And that she chose a canvas that was more vertically inclined than most.

An exceptional work Sarah.

I miss you and hope you are doing amazing things!

One of my favorite things about all 3 of these works are the close-ups.

I love to see the brushstrokes, color mixing & blending, plus the fine details.

Here are Tiffany Chen and Mary Kim.

Just look at the concentrated focus one needs 

to pull off something this difficult.

Both girls worked from current photographs.

Interesting that Mary chose to prop hers up 

while Tiffany laid hers on the table.

What do I recommend?

Usually by propping up your photo helps the image from distorting

and keeps it looking more 3-D.

By laying it down sometime shapes can become distorted.

But I've always believed in letting the kids choose what works best for them.

I only did 2 self-portraits in my lifetime,

one in Pencil (from a mirror in college) and one in Acrylic 

(from my High School photograph).

I hated the subject matter,

ha ha,

and completing them was like pulling teeth.

But I did because I was being graded on both.

Mary,

like Sarah,

 chose to deepen her shadows with warm tones that are so rich.

And I adore her color choices for the background blanket.

The aqua compliments her warm skin tones.

Mary is also working in Acrylic, 

but you can see her style is so much different than Sarah's.

Mary has watered down her paint so that it almost comes off as Watercolor.

Acrylic can be a very versatile medium.

Just lovely Mary!

And we end with Tiffany.

In her photo,

the lens of the camera caught an additional image in its refection.

Tiffany could have left it out,

but I'm so glad she chose to keep it.

Like Sarah,

she has chosen to give the viewer a real treat.

But I know it had to be killer hard to deal with.

But in most all Tiffany's works she does love to challenge herself,

always pushing to be her very best.

Tiffany has an incredible work ethic and headed to Art Center as well.

Couldn't be prouder!!

Of course the close up is amazing to see.

If you look closely you will note that she has chosen to bring Colored Pencils 

over top the Watercolor to help with the cast shadows.

This also brings delicious texture to her portrait.

Another superb piece!

As I look back at these girls and their Portraits,

I know I was very blessed to work with such incredible talent.

What a wonderful job I had,

to love going to work everyday to this.

I still miss it so much.

Special Note:

I looked for all 3 girls on LinkedIn and found 2.

Both Tiffany and Sarah graduated with top honors from Art Center in 2022,

and are now Illustrators and Motion Designers.

Wow!!!

One proud teacher!

A RETURN TO MY STUDENTS

So, ok, it's March and I need to get busy on another of my resolutions,

and the reason I started this blog,

to feature the art works of my students.

I start with sophomore Madison Plotkin.

Even though I've retired she has kept in touch with what she is learning and making

at her after school art program called Ryman Arts in Fullerton.

Madison was so artistically gifted in the 7th and 8th grade when I worked with her 

that I recommended her to this program at the end of her 8th grade year. 

She is currently in her 3rd Semester there and learning all about Acrylics.

But before that she was focusing on watercolor,

one of her favorite mediums in the 8th grade.

She recently sent these examples of some of her watercolor work,

and I wanted to share them with all of you.

She told me this is her last semester there

and is looking to move on to a summer program to further her skills.

Can't wait to see what this very gifted young one will do next.

I'm thrilled that Madison and her parents are looking

to further her studies in Art outside of her high school.

Our top art colleges in the nation have become extremely competitive,

 so these days the kids need to do everything they can to get additional instruction 

from a variety of exceptional teachers and programs in the Art community.

Sadly this is a very costly venture for the parents 

because many of these programs are expensive.

Good Luck Madison!

We are cheering you on.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Pinterest is an amazing way to meet and chat with artists all over the world.

Recently I had the pleasure of talking with an incredibly talented young watercolor artist in Russia 

by the name of Ekaterina Pytina.

I first saw a piece of hers on Pinterest called Eucalyptus

 and I was completely taken aback by her unique use of color and her asymmetrical compositions.

It was love a first site. 

So I put her name in my Google search engine and found her sight and I was off to the races.

I wrote to her telling her how much I admired her style and use of color 

and asked if Eucalyptus was sold.

Sadly it was but she had another marvelous piece called Denhamia

that had a similar feel to it.

Sold!

It took a good 3 weeks to arrive from Russia but was worth the wait.

And she had packaged it so professionally I almost didn't want to open it.

I'm so excited to share it with you here,

especially to sophomore Madison Plotkin and freshman Itzel Huerta,

ex students of mine who already possess this kind of potential.

One of these days I'd love to share it with you two in person.

I fell in love with watercolors in high school,

and have been playing and trying to master them ever since.

I'm currently enrolled in an online class with Danielle Donaldson,

an American favorite of mine.

I adore her work as well even though it's completely different then Ekaterinas.

One of these days I hope to find my own style.

So much to do,

so little time.

Hot-cha-cha cha

FOR ONE SO YOUNG...

these are truly remarkable pieces of art.

All three pieces were done by young artster extraordinaire 9th grader Madison Plotkin,

an up and coming superstar.

She created these works for admission to the Ryman School of the Arts,

an off shot of USC's Art Dept. for High School students.

I'm sure they will take one look at these incredible pieces and reel her in.

Good Luck sweet girl!

ALUMNI ART

A special request was made by our library tech Jennifer Castillo- Hernandez 

at the beginning of the school year.

She asked me if I had any students who would be able to paint a watercolor of her daughter

from a photo she had taken over the summer.

I immediately thought of both 2018 alums Tiffany Chen and Sarah Oh

Both can watercolor beautifully.

Sarah was too busy with the start of her new school but Tiffany was able to do it.

So here is her interpretation of Jen's daughter.

Lovely Tiff!

I believe this was taken in the Long Beach Marina Harbor at Mother's Beach.

I think Jen and her kids were there watching our JAWS Dragon Boat team practice.

Jen is a huge supporter of our students,

and the kids here at Whitney adore her.

I really love how Tiffany handles the sand,

brilliant job woman!

And I also really like the delicate transparency and feel of the work as well.

The implied ink lines help to pop the subjects.

SCALEY THE TURTLE

JUNK MAIL BOOK

INSPIRED BY ILLUSTRATOR CARLA SONHEIM

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

junk mail, gesso, watercolor, marking pens, charcoal

This is such a great assignment;

part bookmaking, part written story, part illustration and part interactive.

It requires huge critical thinking on the part of each student,

and is fairly difficult to finish on time.

It is their First Quarter Final and a bit of a challenge.

This year I'm only featuring one finished book.

It was done by former senior Sarah Oh.

She writes about a true story in her life,

a big life lesson for her and her younger brother.

And it's sad, poignant & funny all at once.

It's brilliant!

Take a gander.

And please enlarge to be able to read the text.

To build these books we start with recycled junk mail that I save all year long.

I ask the kids to pick out their favorite pieces visually and try to organize them within a color scheme.

I also have them pick out a couple of envelops.

They gesso lightly over all these pieces of junk (both sides)

so that you can just see thru to the visual/text underneath.

When the gesso is dry then they pick a color scheme 

and watercolor those colors over both sides of junk mail.

This whole time they are thinking and about and writing out a story to tell based on a theme.

I really enjoyed this glimpse into Sarah's childhood and her traumatic event with her turtle,

and the lesson learned.

Because this book is interactive where one page must flow into the next

 from top to bottom and side to side,

the kids must pick where to begin their drawing.

Most start with the front cover then work their way inside.

They use a marker for this.

Then they go back into each page's drawing and paint in additional gesso

to make part of each drawing pop.

I also ask them to bring some Zentangling into the drawings,

as well as a bit of charcoal for value and shading.

It's a heck of a lot of work, 

but usually the kids rise to it.

But there is always usually one child who doesn't quite finish on time.

Yet it's a valuable learning experience on so many levels.

As you can see in Sarah's book,

she is a gifted storyteller as well as illustrator.

I was laughing out loud reading her book for the first time.

We've reached the end.

Thank you Sarah for sharing your story with us!

WHAT'S YOUR POINT?

POINTILLISM  WITH WATERCOLOR & FRAMING

ADVANCED 2-D ART

assorted colored felt tip markers w/ both large & small nibs, watercolor & brushes on mixed media paper or bristol, matt board & matt cutters

During the last several years,

a few of my 3rd year 2-D students have asked if they could bring in a bit of watercolor

 to their Pointillism piece.

Absolutely,

great idea!

So I believe it was last year that I changed up this assignment by adding watercolor 

as an additional requirement.

I asked then senior Samantha Tun to do several small samples before she began her original piece.

First she tried the markers all by themselves in Pointillism,

then she tried another by putting down her watercolor first,

letting it dry, 

then bringing the markers over top that.

But it was her third sample that she liked the most.  

She laid down the markers first then watercolored over them for a very cool effect.

Since the markers are water-based they smeared slightly as the watercolor went down 

which soften the pointillism look. 

And that's what we are seeing below in her finished original piece.

Her subject,

 a photograph she took of herself (self-portrait) amongst the leaves on the sidewalk.

I loved the composition the moment she showed me her photo. 

And with the watercolor skills already in place from 2nd level art class,

she was able to make a stunning piece.

In fact,

 I liked it so much, 

I bought it at Open House to teach with this year.

If you look closely below you can see several areas where the points of marker went down, 

then the water smeared them a bit into a value change.

So subtle and lovely Sam!

Also note how she framed it out.

That was an additional assignment,

her final actually for 1st Quarter.

She had to build and design a pleasing matt for her piece.

First she chose a piece of black poster board and flicked white paint on it.

Then she thought to place pieces of aluminum foil over several sections.

Unusual idea but it works.

I adore this piece, 

and it fits the season so well with all our falling leaves right now.

JOBS FOR ARTISTS

Check out this fabulous watercolor on the Lazy Dog Restaurant menu.

As soon as I saw this I thought of so many of my students whose parents discourage them 

from going on in the arts because they are scared there aren't enough high paying jobs out there,

or that they won't be able to make a living in the arts.

There used to be more truth in that, 

but now more then ever,

 companies need designers for so much of their products and advertising.

And this is a great example

as well as a wonderfully vivid watercolor.

MIXING YOUR MEDIA

WATERCOLOR W/ COLORED POINTILLISM

ADVANCED 2-D ART

watercolor. water-based felt tip makers in various colors & pen & ink

This assignment for 3rd year 2-D student & senior Samantha Tun was part review of watercolor 

and part learning to work in color pointillism.

The pen & ink was brought in at the end to define & make edges pop a bit more.

Sam has always enjoyed and done well with watercolor in the first and second year class,

so this time I wanted her to pick her own subject matter (she chose herself),

and put in the foundation in watercolor but to up the values with colored pointillism.

I hope I was able to get close enough for you to see the dots.

You can see it in the green leaves...

and in the sand.

At the end she brought in a fine marking pen and used implied line to make everything pop.

For her final for 1st Quarter,

 Sam was required to take her favorite piece from this quarter,

and mount in in a creative, pleasing and crafty way.

Here is her final.

Super cool,

right??

FIRST TIMERS

Recently I had too much fun giving my son and his fiance their first watercolor lesson.

It was something they both wanted to learn how to do,

so I was thrilled to be able to do this for them.

Day 1 I took them thru an 11 hour lesson plan that I take my own students thru,

but I was able to get them thru it in 2 hours.

Then they both chose a subject on their phone and spent another hour and a half 

testing out their new skills.

They did pretty darn good for their first time.

And enjoyed it so much that they asked for a follow-up lesson

over the Thanksgiving weekend.

How about that?

We were thinking of tackling this still life below, 

but ended up eating the poms instead.

ha ha