A Bunch of Beach Cruisers

16"x 16"
acrylic on canvas

I'm working on a series of paintings for a show At Paradise Perks in Irvine, California on August 29th. Because I'm painting for Southern California, I get to revisit my roots and reminisce. After living in the pacific northwest for almost 20 years and being surrounded by many serious cyclists, it's been fun to remember the lazy summer days of my youth and paint a bunch of beach cruisers! However, cruising the boardwalk in Newport Beach is considered a very serious sport by some!

'09 Volleyball T-Shirt Design

Original art

front of shirt

back of shirt, right shoulder

Because my husband is the head girls' volleyball coach at Sunset High School and my daughter is on the team, I get to design a volleyball t-shirt for the camp each year. It can be intimidating, frustrating, and fun!

Intimidating because I want to create a design that girls and boys ages 12-18 will like. The timing is perfect, however, because I can look through the back-to-school ads to see the latest fashion trends.

It can be frustrating because I'm not savvy on the computer and do all the art by hand, hoping that I give the printer enough information and they can figure out what I want! They did a fabulous job!

Fun because it is so different from the other art I am doing and my kids get excited and involved and I see my t-shirts all around the school!

I used watercolor paper, ink, a dip pen, water sprays, salt and splatters for texture.

No Way!!!

San Francisco Street
8"x 10"
acrylic on masonite

I just spent the last four hours frantically(?) trying to start and finish my painting for submission to Karin Jurick's DSFDF challenge by 3:00pm PST. I didn't get it submitted until 3:30, was sure it was too late to be posted, but wanted to turn it in anyway.
I emailed my image to Karin and apologized for being late and she emailed me back and said it wasn't due until next week. :)

NO WAY!!!

I realized how hard it is for me to try to paint faster.

When I took life drawing classes and we drew 2min., 1min., and 30 sec. poses, I got good at quickly capturing the essence of the figure in a gesture drawing or a mass drawing. However, I have not practiced painting faster and had to find another way to get the painting done quickly.

Edit.

I don't need to include every detail. What is the minimum I need to make the painting work?

Simplify.

I can simplify how I paint the elements I choose to include. Squinting is very helpful here!

Okay, so, I didn't finish by my perceived deadline and the painting may not look very edited or simplified, but I was reminded of the importance of practicing quick sketches AND quick painting to see gestures, masses, value, color as a whole and not get too close and get lost in the details.

I have to admit, I'm very tempted to work back in to the painting and "finish" it.......hmmm...