borrego springs

This is where we were last weekend, the desert town that hosted the art show. It's about 1.5 hours from San Diego, with a population of 3,000.

more grapefruit

Gorgeous days in San Diego. Spring is everywhere.
Still eating our Borrego Springs grapefruit from last weekend's art show.
On my walk, I spied 3 trees all full of these bright yellow blooms. Haven't a clue what kind of tree it is, but I'll now watch it through the seasons for more info.
watercolor moleskine.

Borrego Grapefruit

I created this today for the Art Quilt class I teach--the next assignment is a food theme, using recycled stuff. This was made with fabric and the plastic bag the grapefruits came in!

Buddy in my studio

I went out of my studio for a moment and guess who claimed a seat.

the quilt in progress

Sewing through the fabric and plastic, making my grapefruit quilt. Notice the real grapefruit, for inspiration.

Batter-dipped deep fried oreo cookies

My weekend at the Borrego Springs art show was great fun. The crowds were less than in years past, so I didn't make much money. I did have a wonderful time with husb and pal Helen and her husb. Our booths were next to each other, so we chatted and drew all weekend. The weather was perfect!!

My booth was located about 50 yards from this food vendor. They made batter-dipped deep fried oreo cookies! Of course, in the interest of art research, I finally bought some on Sunday. Four for 2 dollars. They were surprisingly delicious! Just like a new orleans beignets, but with a soft oreo cookie inside. I only ate one, and shared the other three. We also ate wonderful breakfast burritos, but I ate mine instead of drawing it. As Helen said, it wasn't exactly a diet weekend.

palms

Lots of time to draw on saturday since customers were in short supply, I drew 3 pages in my moleskine.

art at the art show

From where I was sitting in my booth at the art show, I captured other artist's works, including my own. This was a very fun exercise.

olive tree

The highlight of the weekend was saturday night at was Carlee's. Keep in mind that the population of Borrego Springs is 3,000. It's a very small desert town...Saturday night is Karaoke night and all the locals make an evening of it. They were GREAT! We stayed till nearly midnight watching and singing along. Helen's husb even sang! (I did not!)

borrego spring

Small art quilt ~8x11" Can you tell the burlap is sand and that this is the desert in the spring? I'm going to the desert this weekend to do the Circle of Art art show, so I was inspired to do this. Wish me luck!

Demo at the Escondido Art Association last week

I told them my 'creative' life story, and they laughed in most of the right places. I showed them my quilts and my journals too.

ethnic tree of life (nearly finished)

My nearly finished watercolor mixed media. I showed the art association group the techniques I used to created this piece.

the throng

I did a watercolor/mixed media demonstration for a local art association on March 14th. I think there were about 60 people there. [No, it's not in some barn, the wall behind me is being remodeled.]

prang watercolor set

I gave these (Prang Watercolor Set) to all my students last week, at my "Illustrating your Journal in Watercolor" workshop and everyone was very pleased, and surprised, at what good paints they are. And very inexpensive. I suggest getting a better brush though--the Niji Waterbrush is my fave.

San Carlos Fire Station

I did this from a photo. It's where the memorial service for my stepfather will be held in April. He was a fireman for more than 20 years. I think my sister is going to put this in the program.
I grew up in San Carlos, California.

Ellen's Garden

This was one of my demos for the workshop I taught on Saturday.

almond blossoms

Abundance and Synchronicity

Sunday, March 17, I taught an all day workshop "Illustrating your journal with watercolor" at California Center for Creative Renewal. Twenty five people attended and it was a very fulfilling day. It was the first time I've taught something like this, and I believe I inspired the participants to start their own visual journals, if they hadn't already. Of course, I had many other books to inspire them, like Danny Gregory, Dan Price, and Kate Williamson. Thanks to Ellen, the workshop will be an annual event!

In the past 2 weeks, I've bought four pieces of art. A fabric masterpiece from Sara, a watercolor cat from Janey, a commission of BeBop & Buddy's portraits from Marna and a landscape from Whitney. I am an artist who loves art and buys art, always have. Somehow I feel that my support of these artists has come back to me. Yesterday, I received an abundance of money! Payments from teaching my classes and workshops and a tax refund (the first in many years!) It feels great to earn substantial (to me anyway) money for doing what I love. Thanks everyone!

from march 2006

A year ago, a group of us met up with Danny Gregory in Los Angeles for a sketchcrawl. Here's the photo with Danny on the left. I'm next to him, in back, with my eyes closed. Also in the pic are Hashi, Wendee, Jill, Robin, Shelley, Karen and of course Andy. Since then, I've filled 8 or 9 moleskines...Thanks Danny!

rock, river, trees

Remember that sketch I did in my sketchbook. And then I created a quilt from the sketch. Well I made monoprint from the sketch onto fabric and stitched it. Stitched a ridiculous amount. I should scan the back of this, but it's so messy. I'm planning on adding a frame/border, but not until I teach the lesson to my art quilt class next week. This is 8.5x11"

La Jolla Sketchcrawl

The san diego sketchcrawl group met at the coast to sketch. It was gorgeous day, about 75 degrees on the beach. There were 10 of us at the crawl, with 4 new members. It was great to spend the day outside! (No, the beach was not empty of people, I just left them out of my drawing!)

La Jolla gardens

After lunch in a small park, we strolled over to another beautiful garden. Set up our chairs on the sidewalk, chatted and sketched in the sunlight.

The winery

When I got home from the sketchcrawl, husb wanted to go the the free jazz concert at the winery. A lovely way to end a full day of sketching.

rock, water, trees

Small journal size quilt. Here is the drawing. I'm working on the sllyabus for upcoming Art Quilt class. I usually never plan quilts, but wanted to challenge myself. The prompt is "What view would you like to see out your window?" Mine would be a rock-filled stream, surrounded by tall trees. My fave part of this quilt is the rocks, they are make from tibetan prayer flags.

Tulips

The potted tulips are fading, but outside, the cherry blossoms are blooming. Yesterday I saw and heard a mockingbird singing all the songs he knew! This Sunday is a san diego sketchcrawl. We're meeting in front of the LaJolla Contemporary Art Museum at 10am. Bring your sketchbook and join us.

The desk in my studio

This photo was taken in October 2006, but it's worth blogging! This is little BeBop, supervising my watercolor moleskine.

Red Tulips

One of our sunday brunch guests bought this lovely pot of red tulips. It has grass planted around the edge. And Buddy loves to eat the grass and then leave little recycled clumps of it around the house....
watercolor moleskine

My favorite imaginary view

Plans for a small quilt, I think. Watersoluable crayons in my sketchbook moleskine. I usually never pre-plan quilts, I just start working with the fabric. I'm thinking this idea of "your favorite view out the window" will be lesson one in my upcoming Art Quilt class, that starts March 16 at Oceanside Museum of Art.

Sunday Brunch

We had company for brunch this morning. Hashbrown quiche, norwegian waffles, asparagus wrapped in bacon, blue cheese deviled eggs, fruit salad and almond champagne. I shouldn't eat for a week!
watercolor moleskine.

Doodling and the brain

A 3-day doodle featuring fruitstickers in my sketchbook moleskine. Last week I went to hear Dr. Betty Edwards lecture from her book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." First published in 1979, it is an excellent book to help one learn to see and to draw. Her thoughts on the left side/right side traits of the brain were groundbreaking at the time and continue to amaze me. Speaking the the brain, I hope everyone has seen Bob Woodruff speaking on TV about his brain injury and miraculous recovery. I've just ordered the book In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing written by him and his wife....You see, my husband has a brain injury. He had a brain aneurysm in 1992 and still cannot read, write, or speak well enough to work. He's on permanent disability. He was 46 years old when his brain injury occured. So to see Bob Woodruff in those early days, right after it happened and he couldn't write and sometimes spoke in made-up words...and how in just 8 months he was working on his TV special. It's a miracle. My husband did not recover his communication skills in all these 15 years. But don't be sad me for us. The first couple of years after he was hurt were very very hard, but now we have a wonderful, happy, productive life, full of love.

yoga shoes

These 'Crocs' are really comfy and perf for going to and from yoga. Red, of course.
watercolor moleskine.

ya gotta do the work

"Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working."
Henri Matisse. I read that in my march/april issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. Oh yea, that's the issue with a page from MY sketchbook on the cover!!
watercolor moleskine

orange petroglyphs

One more fabric postcard (with hand-carved stamp made into stencil). This one has burned lutradur too, and felt.
I plan to get back to my sketchbook tomorrow...still got another robe and slippers to do!

fabric postcards

Mardi Gras!

landscape

These fabric postcards (4x6") were made with my hand-carved stamps,then I made a stencil from the stamp image, then used paintstiks to color. They are way fun and easy to spend hours on.

landscape quilts

I just wanted to see all four of my landscape quilts together--I like this image. (I'm not sewing the quilts together, just wanted to see them grouped together.)

"troublesome lemon moon"

Another landscape quilt. This one "Troublesome Lemon Moon" is made from dupioni silk and is about 9x12." The next session of Art Quilt Exploration that I'm teaching starts on March 16, through Oceanside Museum of Art.

Paper Quilt

This is called "Following the Sun" based on this poem by my fave Mary Oliver. I made it out of old library book check out cards sewn together and painted with acrylic paint. (It's not really as tourquoise blue as this scan looks, and it's 12"x12" so I couldn't fit the whole thing in my scanner.)

The Sunflowers by Mary Oliver

Come with me
into the field of sunflowers.
Their faces are burnished disks,
their dry spines

creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky

sugars of the sun.
Come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy

but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young -
the important weather,

the wandering crows.
Don't be afraid
to ask them questions!
Their bright faces,


which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds -
each one a new life!

hope for a deeper acquaintance;
each of them, though it stands
in a crowd of many,
like a separate universe,

is lonely, the long work
of turning their lives
into a celebration
is not easy. Come

and let us talk with those modest faces,
the simple garments of leaves,
the coarse roots in the earth
so uprightly burning.

Sketchcrawl at the Mission

The San Diego Sketchcrawl group spent most of the day sketching at Mission Alcala--the first mission in California. The weather was perfect--like 80 degrees! We watched a wedding, and did commentary on all the dresses. Very nice day, and the grounds of the mission are so beautiful. That's a large fountain on the right, incase you couldn't tell. I tried to get creative with the placement and cropping, ala my current fave artist mrana but I've got a ways to go..
watercolor moleskine

#3 in the series.

My summer robe. I got this cotton kimono-style robe in Japan in 1989. I have such fond memories of that gorgeous country. I sort of mucked up this painting when I tried to add some more shading without wearing my glasses. oops.
watercolor moleskine.

Lavendar Robe

Another Jim Dine inspired image, this time of my lavendar fleece bathrobe. I always say I'm going to do a series, and then poop out after just two. My plan is two more robes to complete this 'series.' East coast Janey wonders, does everyone have a robe or collection of robes? I have 3, two winter and one summer. Just one pair of slippers though.
watercolor moleskine

No, not J. Peterman.

It's Jim Dine influenceI was researching Jim Dine for my 2nd grade class art lesson and found a new appreciation for his work. I'll be painting all my bathrobes now. (I had the kids do hearts, not the bathrobes.)
watercolor moleskine.

Two new members of my collection

I sketched at a reception last night, with my good pal Helen, at our 10 North gallery. Chatting, drawing, drinking champagne. Yup, it works for me! Had to two draw these two newcomers to my collection of metal birds. 7 birds, 2 rabbits so far.
watercolor moleskine

Filming in my studio

Andrea and David from Wonder Channel came over today to do the final filming for the DVD. We shot the introduction and a couple of scenes in my studio, and the rest we shot in September in a local video studio. The finished product of yours truly teaching three art quilt projects, will be out in a couple of months. Martha and Pokey, you know you'll get copies to review!!

Acacia branch

Acacia branch and hand made stamps.
Hey, I've got another 6 week art quilt class starting Friday March 16 at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Register now.
watercolor moleskine

I'm a COVER GIRL!

I just found out that MY sketchbook page is on the cover of the upcoming March/April issue of Cloth Paper Scissors!!! I knew the article I wrote, and images from my sketchbook were going to be in this issue....but being on the cover! WOW! Can you tell I'm excited.?!!
You can buy the magazine in stores after March 1.

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 30th wedding anniversary. Husb gave me a beautiful romantic card, and surprised me with a very thoughtful present. Ahhh. Then lunch (you can read what we ate. Delicious!!) at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe. After lunch, we two sat in the garden and sketched for 30 minutes or so. It was probably 75 degrees and a gorgeous and memorable day. I am very lucky.
watercolor moleskine.

Burts Bees

Everyday matters.... I love Karen's blog and how she selects simple everyday stuff to draw. I could have worked a little harder on lettering, but oh well.
watercolor moleskine

shag-a-delic

Here it is, with color. I used my water-soluable crayons and it's interesting how they influence the color choices vs. what this would look like with color pencil. Not my usual color palette, but fun to do.
sketchbook moleskine.

could be a....

This could be crop circles, or a 1950's dress print or the los angeles freeway system...It's just giant doodle in my sketchbook moleskine. I'll probably add color today.