Hidden Gardens

My moms property is nestled on some foothills next to the redwood forest in Mendicino county. She has some of her "garden rooms" tucked under stands of redwoods, this is where this Buddah sits. Watching over this area of the garden surrounded by hydrangeas and anemones she sits on her ivy covered redwood stump.

Rose Arbor

I am visiting my mom this week and I am enjoying the opportunity to paint in her amazing yard. Her yard always looks beautiful with things blooming off and on all year. Here is a 75' arbor that leads to a gazebo. She hopes to have weddings here on her 5 acre estate in wine country!

September Sketch Class

We had an awesome class this month. It was so great to see how everyone stepped up to the plate and took on this challenge. After a demo on how to create distance in a painting and painting vistas I let everyone choose a photo. I had a bunch of pictures face down on the table, everyone had to pick a photo to paint. As scary as that sounds, everyone did an amazing painting! I would love to see some of the other ones, so come on you guys post those pictures!  We have about 2 weeks till our next class. Your challenge is to paint a vista scene, like we did in class but of what you see from your house or near your house. Try to find a scene that has background, midground and foreground. If you are having trouble try looking through your camera lense, this helps to frame your picture and can help you see what you will be painting more clearly. Good luck.
I will be up north, visiting my mom this next week. I am taking my sketchbook and paints, hopefully I will come back with tons of great sketches. It should be beautiful up there since its getting close to fall. Keep painting, remember I have a holiday card class coming up if your interested let me know.

Grape Orchard

Today we watercolored from a photo.  This is my interpretation of the photon shown below.  First time I have watercolored so loosely and totally enjoyed it all at the same time.  This was most enjoyable.

Impatients

This is a lesson in layout from Desiree's class. I enjoyed the technique of using circles to frame both journaling and paintings.

Playing with painting

Nasturtium's

Wildflowers in Oregon

We stopped at a coffee shop for Mocha's and they had planters of many flowers, don't know what this bell flower is.

These are of couple of paintings I have done the last few weeks of traveling.  I always love flowers, so this is where I gravitate to with my sketching/painting. A comfort zone I guess! I do the same with my photography - with the macro on my camera I can get good closeups and snap all the colored flowers. We are hiking a lot, seeing many birds and plants/flowers and riding our bikes. Hubby keeps me hoping and it doesn't give me much time to pursue sketching, he's not into sitting for any length of time.  I do get a few in when possible. Nasturtiums seem to grow everywhere and in Oregon they have hanging baskets of annuals at every corner of every town, so that is my most recent sketch. I like each one I do better than the last, finding out the dark backgrounds work well and make the flowers stand out better.

Postcard Exchange

This is the BEAUTIFUL postcard I received from Deborah in this exchange.  I just love the wonderful brilliant colors in it and thank you so much for it.  This I will frame when I get home. I hope we do an exchange again - it was so fun! Looking forward to seeing everyone from Sketchy 5150 soon.