Susan’s Art and Sketchbook Blog

Ink, acrylic, collage on paper

one day i travel on trade winds to far continents,

the next i shrink pea sized examining with fascination my teeny tiny footprint

A too-hot day and the electricity went off for an hour and shrunk me to pea size, so I took a nap. Some days the world stretches out and says, “come fly with me dear, anywhere!” and other days it’s better to stay on my own little circle of earth.

Check out Isabelle’s “Not a Boring Day” blog , for her soul felt musings.

Acrylic, charcoal on paper, 11 X 15″

What mountains are these? What temple? What lake? What rock obelisk standing sentry? Go there and find out for yourself, and then let me know.

And then visit Miki’s fantascape #16.

Pen and watercolor in Moleskin sketchbook

A mixture of performance and fine art exhibited in Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa. I attended to see the art of my artist friends and for a leisurely Saturday afternoon of “bench sketching”. The juggler here was entertaining two pre-school age kids while I sat there trying to figure out how to freeze frame the action. As soon as I got the “nerve” to plunge in I discovered that the bench I was sitting on was being used as a step for an energetic teen migration to a spot on the grass behind. So as some lines went astray I struggled to keep my cool. The result is part observation, part invention.

While Badass Barbosa was flinging fluorescent paint at his easel to hip hop music I sneaked back to the other side of the open stage for a better vantage point for sketching. A performance artist they called him. ” I could do that!” I thought. Not that different from plein aire painting with a lot of people around, and you get to do it to music and wear paint splattered clothes and orange sneakers! My artist friend Ryan was hanging out in the sun, looking through a newspaper and toward the stage. Three hours of hip hop music. It got a bit old, but who even cares on such a perfect spring day in the park?

Acrylic, charcoal, ink on paper, 11″ X 15″

Every time I glance at this new painting I see more figures, and yet it speaks more obviously to landscape. These Fantascapes have become the playground of my mind and all that is behind the mind. They are fueled by this very loooong spring we are having this year, the swallows that fly in dizzying circles around my apple tree where their nests are in all the hollows. They are also born of this rare and wonderful creative virus shared by my French friend and artist Miki and I. If you haven’t already caught it, you are welcome to also! And if you find yourself awakening at 3 am with a creative idea that threatens to burn a hole in your mind and keep you up the rest of the night (as i sometimes do), don’t blame us.

Miki’s latest fantascapes.

Acrylic and ink on paper, 11″ X 13″

THis is the curvy Elizabeth from last Thursday’s figure studio, only now she’s dreaming, and what a dream! Have you a title for this piece? or a story for it (not too x-rated though please! There are children and grandmothers who visit this blog!)

Commissioned pet portrait, watercolor

In case you thought I was only fond of chickens and maybe cows and goats, allow me to share that I am in general fascinated by the animal world and have for years painted people’s pets. It all started actually with goats, the fluffy angora variety that used to graze the Berkeley hills eating poison oak and blackberry brambles (to cut down on the fire hazard!) And then I moved on to painting dogs and cats, and then moved to the country and started painting horses and even llamas.

And now you can see a collection of my animals and even order your very own pet’s portrait on my new website www.FavoritePetPortraits.com

But I must also report that, happy though I am with most of my contacts with the animal world, I could use some advice regarding my chickens. You see, while I was gone on vacation Nimbus (the Silkie who looks like a puffy gray cloud) started brooding (sitting on the nest where all the chickens prefer to lay their eggs) Even after her egg had long been removed, and even though, goodness knows, we don’t have a rooster and so will not likely have eggs that hatch into chickies! even then she continued to perform her motherly duty. Unfortunately the other 6 hens had gotten into a really slick routine of taking turns laying their eggs in that very same nest. Well, I guess we’re all creatures of habit, so we can understand their upset at not having easy access. (It must feel something like waiting in line at a public restroom when you really have to go) So I put another box next to the first, but they’re still so upset and raise their voices to a pitch that sounds like they’re being chased by the axe man! What’s a farmer girl to do? And don’t tell me to get a rooster. THat definitely was too noisy.

Join me for the next Vision Painting Workshop coming up May 17 and 18 at my studio in the wine country north of San Francisco!  More details on my Imagine With Art website.

Acrylic on illustration board, 7″ X11″

After a bit of a Fantascape-escape I am back with #8 in the series. If I hadn’t wanted to post before dinner I would still be painting on this one. I love just painting shapes! After spending some time today planting tomatoes and mulching my garden, how could I paint anything but roots and stems and trees and earth? But the figures are in there too. And if I were my romantic French blogging partner, Miki, the two trees, the dark and the light would be in a dancing embrace!

Sketching Elizabeth on Thursday night, I found myself starting with her legs and torso in every quick sketch. THe only pose where I got more than that on the paper was the sitting pose! Since she seemed in fact to be all leg I asked her if she’s a dancer. Yes, and a former Las Vegas show girl! No wonder.

Curvy, sinewy, strong.

The straight lines of architecture - always a struggle for me. But the undulations of the human body, I love to draw.

If you want to have a look at a fresh new take on figure sketching, portraits actually, check out Miki’s new portrait blog

You definitely have not lived until you’ve tasted the cake from heaven - Janet’s chocolate macadamia nut cake. She’s promised to get the recipe to me, but I haven’t received it yet, so don’t ask. . .

I will end my travel sketch-log with sketches from one of my last evenings in Maryland, a small birthday party for my hosts’ friend Jennifer. Whereas in most situations you might think it rude to sketch during a dinner party, when you’re supposed to be social and pay attention to the conversation and food. However I am an expert at paying attention to food even while I sketch (or any time for that matter). And these folks were so delighted to watch me sketch that they were in wholehearted support of my otherwise rude behavior! Consequently i found myself in figure sketch heaven, with two willing and fascinating subjects and piles of delicious food and wine and a very spicy conversation to listen to. (that I must keep to myself because, after all, the confidentiality rule applies here)

See what happens when you drink wine and sketch? Lots of ink lines, several noses and lips. . .but Jennifer, the birthday girl, is the kind of person who sends sparks out in all directions, and many of them landed in my sketchbook!

This portrait, which I was really very pleased with, did not appeal to the subject, the beautiful Magda of course. And Leon and I got in an argument about what I should be shooting for when I sketch people - beauty or character. Of course what I’m able to achieve in these quick pen and wash sketches is neither. The one element I always capture is something about my own impression of the person. THey always end up being a kind of self portrait, so I must ask the kind forbearance of my models - and these two wonderful ladies gave it to me.

And so my last day in the WAshington, D.C. area was spent making the visits to my aunt and a friend in Virginia and tackling the most confusing driving directions and freeways. You know they actually have one area called the “mixing bowl” because of the complexity of roads? And so the Country Girl finally returned home to roads that are challenging due to bike riders on blind curves, possum and skunk crossings and the distraction of too much beautiful scenery.

A couple months ago I listened to the book on CD “Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Susan Vreeland, the story of Renoir’s painting of this remarkable piece, a portion of which is pictured above. How would you like to commandeer 14 friends and acquaintances each Sunday for weeks, wine and dine them and get them to pose for your painting? Against incredible odds and at great risk to his career Renoir pulled it off. When I came around the corner at the Phillips collection in Washington, D.C. last week, eyes full of other great Impressionist paintings, and saw this painting glowing on the wall in the far room, I had to clutch my heart and the (stupid) words flew out of my mouth, “Is that the original?!! And yes, it was - back from a tour around the country or world. Lucky me. At lunch in the back courtyard I sketched the back of buildings, practicing a bit of architecture for a change from figure drawing.

A superb day for art viewing! We also got to see the Baltimore Watercolor Society’s Exhibition, juried by Skip Lawrence and truly inspiring - the best watercolor exhibition I can remember seeing.

You know that color - Robin’s egg blue? I glued on some Robin’s eggshell, found under a tree, evidence of a newly hatched chick, and then those seed pods that twirl like a storm of little helicopters from the big shade trees.

On Thursday and Friday I headed out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay area where I joined two old friends, (they’re my age, meaning still young at heart!) We had so much to catch up on, that there wasn’t any time for sketchbooking, except this 2 minute sketch done of Karen when waiting for our sandwiches.

Next: A birthday party to remember

Check out my upcoming workshops:

Vision Painting, May 17/18 and Travel Sketchbooking June 21.