Bernardo Winery SketchCrawl

View of a tiny shop, tucked in the trees. A group of 8 of us sketched all day at this charming 100+ year old winery. oops! forgot to taste the wine!

watercolor moleskine

Bernardo Winery

From our day at Bernardo Winery with San Diego sketchcrawl group. I'm trying to get over my fear of architecture. I'm actually pretty pleased with this. I'd worried the doors would face one way and the purple awnings the other way!

watercolor moleskine

Sweet Cool Baby

A page from my watercolor moleskine, with the same drawing I used in the quilt, and a tiny drawing of Cool Baby when she was a kitten. She's home and feeling soooo much better.

cool baby quilt

This small quilt is just 4x6 inches. It's an painted technique I teach in my art quilt class. My heart is with Cool Baby this week.

phew.

Cool Baby, our 10 year old kitty, was very, very sick last night. We took her to urgent care at 2:30am. This morning, the vet said she was "a hundred times better," and will come home this afternoon.

sketching on the patio

Today is a gorgeous day! Yoga, coffee and bagels, and then a sketch outside on the patio.
watercolor moleskine

farmer's market bouquet

Husb brought me flowers. [Okay, I asked him to bring me flowers and he did.] Makes me happy.
watercolor moleskine

BeBop in the sun

Crepe Myrtle, part 2

It's finally cooled down enough to sit outside and sketch the crepe myrtle tree. I was wearing a red shirt, and as I sketched a tiny, tiny hummingbird came within 12 inches to check me out. I love listening to the sounds of the birds. Squeaks, chirps, whistles & peeps!
watercolor moleskine.

mary oliver poem

A Mary Oliver poem, illustrated. (I used [1992] The Macmilian Visual Dictionary as the image resource.)
color pencil in moleskine sketchbook

Cold Sweet Watermelon

Color pencil and ink on my moleskine sketchbook.

Crepe Myrtle

Flowers from the crepe myrtle tree, in my back yard. It's too hot to go out there and paint, so I brought some flowers in. The little pink petticoat blossoms, burst out of the berries like a group of innocent can-can dancers.
watercolor moleskine

staring into the swimming pool

I swam laps today, for 30 minutes. Afterwards, I tried to channel David Hockney, and painted the colors of the swimming pool. It felt good, to sit by the pool, in my wet bathing suit and actually feel cool. It was 94 today.
The potted plant , on the right, has grown 4 feet in a month! It spent its first two years in the sun, and now is thriving in the shade. I know how it feels.
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lodgepole pine

Another pine tree from my morning walk.

Judy Collins, from her book Singing Lessons "I learned, again and again, the lesson of creativity: the painting I make today, the drawing I do today, the poem I do today, is meant to save my life today."

It's still HOT

The image on the left, is drawn from a photo of my husb and his best friend, on the golf course. The rest, just late evening doodles. It was 102 today!
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It's 107 outside!

Historical (hysterical) record-breaking heat in San Diego. It was 112 in Escondido and Poway yesterday, and 109 here in my community. Thank goodness for air conditioning (and the many other things I'm grateful for...) and Mary Oliver's poetry.

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Painting the living room wall

I was tired when I did this at the end of the day (our bookcase doesn't tilt that that in real life.) Tired because I painted a wall in our living room a lovely shade of 'sunwashed clay.'
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a random selection from my day

A felt ball, from my collection, my husb's orchid plants (nary a blossom to be seen) and the San Diego Padres logo (we went to the game today).
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My sweet kitties

BeBop, 1-1/2 years old, (on the right) was easier to draw, cuz he slept longer. Cool Baby, 10 years old, (on the left) changed positions part way through. And she's harder to paint, cuz she's black and white.
watercolor moleskine

Ponderosa Pine

Inspired by our recent trip to Idyllwild, I decided to learn the trees on my walk. Especially the pines, cedars and firs. THIS is a Ponderosa Pine.
watercolor moleskine

tierra y fuego tiles

Andy and I visited Tierra y Fuego yesterday. A tile store near the Mexican border. They've got great stuff, but I especially like the Santa Barbara tiles.

Buy me on Amazon!

Just realized that Amazon.com is selling the books that feature my art quilts. I'm a featured artist in "Material Visions: A Gallery of Miniature Art Quilts" (published in 2004). I also have my work in "Fabric Art Gallery" (published 2005) and the latest "Beginners Guide to Art Quilts" (just published) will be soon!

Sewing Stuff

I teach Art Quilts, and the new 6 week session starts saturday. I' m getting the syllabus and materials ready. Among other things, we'll be making (small) timtex houses. Stay tuned!
watercolor moleskine

Art Quilts

I created this little quilt in Lesley Riley's class, using her FAMOUS transfer methods. The palm trees are images from my watercolor sketchbook.

Another, small art quilt, created in Lesley Riley's class. It was a two day workshop in Idyllwild, called "Fabric Collage." This is about 9x12" and all hand sewn. The flowers are from a painting in my watercolor moleskine.

Me & Lesley Riley

Me and Lesley! She's as nice as she is talented.

Moleskine in Idyllwild!

Early morning, on the porch of our little rented cabin. My sketching stuff. This photo was also featured on Moleskinerie! Thanks Armand.

Idyllwild

Husb and I spent the weekend in Idyllwild. I took a weekend workshop. We had a wonderful time! We rented a small cabin, and sketched every morning and evening. Here's the room, and the view from the room.
watercolor moleskine

Moonlight Chronicles...

Looking at Dan Price's moonlight chronicles inspired me to do this of my living room. He's an inspiration.
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TRUMPET Vine on Independence Day

I pass this lovely flowering vine every day on my walk. The colors are brilliant. Didn't have my sketchbook at the parade (3 year old baton twirlers, real estate agents, and war veterans) or at the fireworks (a lovely man dressed as a civil war soldier), so this is my 4th of July painting.
watercolor moleskine.

Cool Baby and buttons

Supervising the button selection for the "Ralph's Letters Project."

Spanish Village

San Diego SketchCrawlers first official sketch crawl. Spent a lovely Sunday in Balboa Park, with fellow artists. I drew the scene, below, like Irina encouraged me in class this week. ("Why go on a trip, and sketch the flowers," she said, "you can do that at home." Why sketch a tree at the Parthenon?) Still challenged by perspective...

#8. Ralph's Letters

I'm playing with the layout of the letters, on my dining room table. I think I'll sew them on to a larger backing of organza, that I patterned by laying it on a rusty old screen. I've been working on these dozen or so letters (and envelopes) for nearly 3 months. It's been an amazing process. And it's been so cool to reconnect with Ralph, through email.

thursday's walk

It's tooo hot in San Diego! Here's the progress of the pomegrante tree, and my experience with fava beans...
San Diego SketchCrawl this Sunday at Spanish Village, in Balboa Park. This is my week for drawing in the park!
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Balboa Park Wednesday

The last day of Irina's class. We sketched at the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages in Balboa Park. it was shady and quiet with lots to draw. I had to draw the Norway House, for my husb. The little images are the different chimneys of the hospitality houses.
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Balboa Park Sketching continued

Some of my sketches from Tuesday's "Keeping a Travel Sketchbook" class with Irina Gronborg.
Perspective is a real challenge, but with a lot of practice, I think I can get better at it. The last little image is from The Prado restaurant...salt shaker, candle, sugar and napkins.
And here we are, listening intently to Irina:

Sketching in Balboa Park for 3 days!!

I'm taking a 3 day class "Keeping a Travel Sketchbook" with Irina Gronborg [through the Athenaeum Library Art School in LaJolla.] We are spending everday, from 10-4 sketching in Balboa Park. Irina's a wonderful teacher and keeps us moving every 20 minutes to simulate the travel experience. I'm learning a lot from Irina, how to be concise, yet detailed where neccessary. And she reminds us, that when you're sketching, you really are THERE and really SEEING. It's great. HOT, though. Like 90 degrees!

balboa park palm

3 pair of sandals

Two pairs of red sandals and one pair of black sandals. San Diego summer wear (and spring and fall too!) I thought it would be cute to print my toes, using a inkpad. It wasn't.
watercolor moleskine

tools of the trade.

these tools and a moleskine, are all I need!
watercolor moleskine.

farmer's market purchase

Gerber daisies from today's farmer's market. watercolor moleskine.

Bullfrog oboe concert while woodpeckers play percussion.

Husb and I walked down to the Doane's pond about 9am, and sat on a picnic table to sketch. No bugs this morning, and such a beautiful spot. I've never seen or heard so many bullfrogs! (We looked at them with our binoculars, and they are soooo green!) The painting didn't turn out so great, water is hard to paint. I fooled with it when I got home, but decided to just let it be a record of the day, as it should be, and not a great painting. I cheated, by adding GLOSS matt medium to the pond, cuz I couldn't get it to shine with my painting skill! in my watercolor moleskine.

Doanes Pond, Palomar State Park

June 22

mt palomar campsite

Wonderful campground, but when I painted this, there were soooo many bugs, my left arm was flailing the whole time! Husb and I had a mini-vacaish in the mountains, camping overnite in our tent. It took about 40 minutes, in my watercolor moleskine.

Campsite #26, Doanes Valley, Palomar State Park

June 20