Mary Calkins

I found this artist on art.com. Reminds me of Rex Ray.

New inspiration

I found Marcie Paper on Dear Ada. I like her imagery. 

I'm taking Intro to Abstract and Color Theory at Brentwood Art Center. Really exciting classes that I think will teach me a lot. I'm slowing down right now and just enjoying classes and try not to rush into too many different directions, like I did last year. Now that I've learned how to post pictures from the web I can hopefully do more blogging this year. It's hard to blog when it's all about me, especially now that I'm taking it easy and just focusing on learning to paint. I want to do some collage too, but really I want to paint the kitchen before I go on vacation next month.

Rex Ray comes home

I picked up our R.R. piece last week and Mark put it up yesterday. I think it goes well with the Ninko Ouzo. I'll try to post more next week!

Inspiration for the week - Rex Ray at George Billis gallery

A beautiful piece we saw at the Rex Ray show. I wish I could have afforded one of this size!

Something to be thankful for - sales on Etsy

Sold yesterday on Etsy. I rushed them to the Post Office this morning before I started cooking. I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since my last post. I will get better at this -promise! Next month I'm going to start playing with Photoshop more, so I can develop material for collages. That's what I want to focus on next year, plus starting abstract painting. I'm not going to be doing anymore giclee prints, unless I get inspired. So a new focus, again, but the more I learn and do, the more I like the direction I'm going. Last year at this time, my focus was on ceramics and creating texture. I still love texture, I'm just doing 2 dimensional instead of 3 dimensional now. It's all been worthwhile - sometime you learn more by going in the wrong direction. I'm glad my cards are selling, but that's not what I really want to do, so I think I'm going to focus on a more traditional, fine arts avenue. I'm more interested in the process of creating than in the selling of finished work.

From my drawing class

I've been taking a drawing class for a couple of months now. I did this Tuesday and it's my favorite piece yet. Graphite stick on textured Canson paper. I copied a picture from a magazine. I used to think drawings of people with blank faces was cheating, but I left the face blank since I knew I couldn't do a good job of the face. So now I've changed my mind about blank faces!

Birth of the Cool at Orange County Museum of Art

A couple of weeks ago, we trekked down to the OC for this great show at the Orange County Museum of Art (btw, they hate it when you call it the OC). This was an incredible, inspiring show because it tied all of midcentury art, design, architecture, graphic design, and music into one coherent package. The book is great because it gives a lot more detail than the show placards. I could look at the book forever. I found some artists that were new to me - Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundberg, Karl Benjamin, and Frederick Hammersley. Lesser known than Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly, or Frank Stella, but just as incredible. At the time, these CA artists were called "abstract classicists" or "hard edge". I LOVE the clean lines - I've never been a fan of messy Jackson Pollock style abstract art. Helen Lundberg is particularly fascinating because her work has an architectural theme. She's inspired me to think about using my pictures of LA architecture as the basis for paintings. I bought books on her, Feitelson, and Benjamin, so I'll have to post them in due time.