Alla Prima in a Portrait

This is my first attempt in acrylics of a portrait with a live model. I felt out of my comfort zone since I usually draw flowers and landscapes. I signed up for a class with other art educators to learn Alla Prima. From the Italian word which literally means at once.This is where you complete a painting at one time. Our teacher was a young artist who does his own paintings. Daniel Gonzalez. He tried to get us to look for the shapes and values by squinting instead of going for alot of detail at first. I had fun meeting other teachers in the Douglas county area.

Here is the model we were attempting to draw.

Sketching in California

This was done outside our hotel in Santa Monica. I loved seeing all the palm trees we dont have here in Colorado.

Back From California-Art Museums

Some of the gorgeous architecture at Stanford and UCLA University at Berkely. I loved all the Trees and flowers everywhere. I brought home some leaves to sketch.

This was the Getty Villa in Malibu- An art museum that was a replicated villa from one in Italy that was destroyed in the Volcano eruption. Getty had it rebuilt from excavation they are doing now. It was incredible with all the gardens and mosaics in the courtyard . We also made it to the Getty in Los Angeles on the Hill. What an experience! They even have two Modern Art museums downtown.

Fall Collage

Finished my first fall collage. used a diecut for the apple shape and mostly paint . Some different printed papers. The quote is about autumn: The acoustics of this season are different and all sounds no matter how hushed are as crisp as autumn air.-edwin teale

Deer in our yard

We woke up this morning to four deer in our yard. This was as close as I could get without scaring them off. I got all four in the pic. Click on the picture to make it large to see them.

Collages in my Altered book

Here are some collages I completed in a workshop by Paula Hardesty. I did several in my altered book. It was fun as her personality made the afternoon go so fast. She introduced charcoal outlining and a white paint pen by sharpie.

This was done on a piece of watercolor paper, used rubber stamps, text collaged underneath.

The interesting embellishment she introduced was movie title letters she bought on ebay. They are 3 d and can be stamped with rubber stamps for textures.

Home sweet home collage

Just finished this collage. It was very fun to do. I used layers of text, music score, dictionary pages, rubber stamps patterned papers, gesso, paint and tissue paper. The idea was from Martha's website. I sent it to our schools fundraiser to have it copied on an apron for work. size is 8 1/2 x 8 1/2. I hope to make one or two more larger.