Onion family

A small painting of a red onion and some shallots.  I love painting items that are so common that we  often disregard their beauty as art subjects.  These are ingrediants that I constantly use in my cooking and I think by painting them, I am giving them the stature they deserve.

Resting Nude

I have been doing " Life Drawing" for a couple of years and want to share my latest result.

It's been a great learning process and I can see the improvement.  According to experts, doing life drawing is excellent practice for any kind art including painting landscapes.  You can see how the curves of the model relate to landscape scenes.  I am sold on this theory and hope to continue life drawing for many years.  It's a continual process.  If you stop you lose the skill, quickly.

Lavender fields in Provence

I finally repainted one of my original studies from Provence.  I went to Provence with a small group of women and my teachers Brigitte Curt and Jim Smith.  The views and location were totally awesome.  So much to paint and savor.

The colors of the lavender fields were unbelievable. 

Our class has been painting in this beautiful setting called "Portola Pastures."  Scenery is gorgeous with stables,  horses and magnificient Eucalyptus trees.  What more can an artist want. 

Pears and Silver Mug

This is the first time that I have done a silver object.  I do enjoy painting pears - there's something so voluptious about them.  Hope to do some more soon.

Village of Brantes, Provence

Brantes is one of the beautiful villages in Provence that I visited last July with my art teachers Brigitte Curt and Jim Smyth.
We painted at the bottom of the hill looking up at the village.  Later we climbed up to Brantes, sketched and had lunch.
It was one of the many memorable experiences of this trip.  This particular painting was not done in situ, but later from the study, and using a photo as reference. 

White Pitcher on yellow drape

Another still-life done in class. White objects and drapes were the challenge last week. Getting the texture of the white object is also very challenging. The texture of my pitcher looks like ceramic while the actual pitcher was porcelaine.

I thought it looked pretty good and didn't want to smooth it out further to give it a more polished look resembling t porcelaine. Too worried about ruining it.

But, I will do it again and try to come closer to the texture of the real object.