Pastel still life for the SGVCC Spring Arts Show 8 x10”

 

The backstory

2 pastels, chalk, 8x9”, oil 6x9”, abstract, 2023

Talking myself out of a rage, the tweeny art therapist was a twit. Know your audience!

I was irritated by a UCLA art therapist talking down to us in a CPITS Zoom class.

 

Mt. Tam watercolor for Laura Austin Wiley, 4 x 6”

 

Mt. Tam from Ring Mountain, Tiburon. 4 x 6” watercolor and watercolor pencil

 

Alexander McCall Smith‘s Argyle, colored pencil, 6 x 9“

San Geronimo Valley community center spring art show

 

Yosemite Falls, watercolor, watercolor pencil, 6 x9”

 

Four quick oil paint sketches, 8x10" the

Thinking my painting for the SGV Spring Art Show was due on Tax Day, and wanting to test my newish Gamblin oil paints, I banged out four quick canvases while sitting in my car. Plein car. They were wet when I took the photos. Mt. St Helena from Sonoma Mountain is glistening, it's so wet. I haven't touched oil paints in 50 years, an allergy to turpentine made it impossible to breathe. Now there's Gamsol, a mineral oil, which opens up possibilities. Larry Rippe said no, you have two weeks. Reprieve. Sneaky Larry. I'm always late turning in my assignments.would I have done these four paintings? Had I known I had more time? Probably not. Carpe diem.

Lou Lambert’s Rockpile Ranch, Sonoma County, drawing 6x9”

Mt. St. Helena from Sonoma Mountain, drawing, 6 x9”

 

Fasciated banana, stabilo and pencil drawing 6 x9”

 

Peppers, drawing, 6x9”

 

two more pencil drawings, still life, portrait after Sargeant

I was taking some Michael’s Zoom art classes & disliked the assignments.

A horrid copy of a drawing by Sargeant on tracing paper

 

Cupcakes, pencil drawing, 6 x 9"

 

two pencil drawings. 6 x 9"

 

I dislike this drawing from a photo of Jack Hirshman but he died of COVID, a misdiagnosis

4 watercolors, 6x9”

I did four Michael’s Zoom watercolor classes in one day, each class involved a different technique, so they’re wildly unrelated.

This watercolor was saved by adding the drawing on top.

Watercolor based on an Egon Schiele painting

Mt. Tam from Ring Mountain, Tiburon, after a photo by Brian Woodsworth, stabilo, 6 x 9"

 

Elephant Mountain, drought, Nicasio Reservoir, pastel pencil 9x12”

 

Little Sur River, stabilo 6x9”

 

SGVCC Spring Art Show, Chilean Valley, Storm, photograph, Elephant Mountain, stabilo 6x9". Sunflowers, Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit, Tempera 18x24"

 

Elephant Mountain, tempera on cardboard, 6 x 18"

I was teaching a Paintnight class after the Van Gogh immersive exhibit. I discovered that the Dollar Store Prang tempera paints were so watery and transparent they might as well have been finger-paint. This was a demo model I tried to salvage. But the paint was so thin, it buckled the cardboard. Since the cardboard was long and skinny, I just kept adding extra humps to Elephant Mountain. The piece knocked around in the back of my car for a few months before I rescued it.

After Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit, Sunflowers, and Starry Night, Tempera 18x24" (SGVCC Spring Art Show)

First time I’ve entered a painting in an art exhibit before it was dry.

 

Two views of Mt. Tamalpias, stabilo pencil, 6x9”

From a Facebook photo by Scott Hess

 

Anecdote of the Jar, calligraphy, conceptual art, for National Poetry Month

For National Poetry Month, I calligraphed Wallace Stevens' Anecdote of the Jar, and placed it in an old pickle jar on a bench in front of my old grade school. I rewilded his poem and then took a photo of the slovenly wilderness that surrounded it. No idea who claimed it.

Pangolin for Amy Tan, 6x9” stabilo

 

Fjaðrárgljúfur Gorge, I think, SE Iceland, drawings from photos, 6x9” stabilo

 

Mt Tam, wetlands, stabilo 6x9”

From a Facebook photo by Karen Laffy

 

More candles, oil pastel 9x12”

3 views of Elephant Mountain, 6x9”, & 4x4.5” stabilo