A Special Wave

This is my largest wave painting yet. It is 54x39 inches. I was proud of the custom built stretcher bars we made for it. It was requested by a friend with a spot for it in San Diego. She is a special friend who has a husband fighting cancer. I tried to have this wave be one that had a positive energy to it.

Fall Day at Seven Springs

The other day we grabbed the dogs and drove out to an area a bit north of here called Seven Springs. It is still very much desert but because of the year round flow of Seven Springs Wash there is enough water for some big trees to flourish. We had a nice day with the place to ourselves. I got a couple of small (5x7") oil paintings done of some fall trees.

Plein Air Painting Day!

Today I was part of a plein air competition at the Shemer Art Center and Museum. We signed in around 9 and painted until 1:30. The juror then selected work for the exhibit that starts next weekend. The Shemer was originally a beautiful Spanish style home that was donated to be an art center. It reminds me of my family home in Southern California. I loved the light and shadows on the walls so chose that as my first painting. I have been having trouble using oils after so long with acrylics. Today I found a nice solution by starting with acrylic and then adding oil over this under painting. It worked great. I was able to hang on to my darks that way. After this painting I had about 90 minutes so I ran around to the other side and painted the intersection with Camelback Mountain in the background. I had to be speedy, but it was fun. Both pieces were accepted for the show so I was a happy girl driving home!

Here is the link to my page at the Paint the Aspens 2010 section of High Country Gallery's website:
joyouslakegallery.com/PainttheAspens2010/AnnOsgoodPTA2010.htm

I am still finding myself thinking about the week in the forest. It was such a nice time connecting with people and a different environment. Almost every day the wind was stirring the trees. It would start in the distance and then move through the leaves with a clatter. There were different cries from birds than the ones I am used to in the desert. The pine smell and crisp air were really like a tonic. I am so glad I made the effort to go out of my comfort zone and experience it all.

Paint the Aspens

It was a great week in the White Mountains of Arizona at the Paint the Aspens event. 30 artist painted in the forest for the week and then submitted 3 finished works to hang in the High Country Gallery in Pinetop. I was a bit puzzled about painting in the forest as I haven't really tried. Desert, beach, city are all in my comfort zone but the forest was a new challenge. The weather was another big challenge as the week started, but fortunately it improved day by day. I was relieved to get 3 paintings done that I could frame and submit for the show. I was happily surprised to learn 2 of my 3 sold the first day! What a nice ending for a spectacular week!

Baby room mural

Now for something completely different..I finished the mural for the baby nursery. I think it is going to be a nice place for a little one!

Foxy Moxy

Here is another Roller Derby Girl. This is 4x2 feet so she is nice and big. Fun to paint!

Another Derby Girl

Finished another roller derby girl. This one is called Ancestors and is very Dia de Los Muertos.

Big, big painting

I completed a big copy of another painting of mine, "The Key". This one was 3 canvases wide and measured 40 inches high by 90 inches wide. It is fun to work big, big! This painting is for Arizona Pain Specialists.

Derby Girls

I am starting a new series of paintings based on Arizona Roller Derby Girls. I started with a small portrait of a skater who has great eye make-up and fun tints in her hair. She reminded me a a colorful exotic bird.

Plein Aire Painting

I ran into a posting by the city of Glendale, AZ where I was one of the winners at the Chocolate Affair last February. I had taken a rather poor photo of my painting and was glad to see a better one that they took.http://www.glendaleaz.com/centennial/pleinair.cfm

Life Drawing Fun!

Every Thursday morning this summer I have been enjoying life drawing. I use oil pastels on brown paper from Home Depot's paint department. It comes on big rolls and I cut off a bunch of random pieces before I go. Here are some samples. You can see crazy color is my favorite!

Portrait Assignment

I had an assignment to paint my husband's grandkids, Estella and Andrew. (I am much too young to be a grandmother to his son's children! Ha!) Anyway, working from a photo I did this acrylic 16x20. It went fairly smooth. Now that I am not working a day job I can paint into the late night and get things done faster.

The Job That Wasn't For Me

Well last week I had the fastest job ever. I quit before I started! I was hired to do painting workshops in art stores for a paint manufacturer. Sounded like a pretty cool part time gig. Then the "curriculum" came they wanted me to teach. It was scripted copy cat paintings that the students were to paint along on little 9x12" canvas boards. This was wrong for so many reasons I can't list them here. I quickly emailed my resignation...yikes that was a close call!
Meanwhile Life Drawing continues to be a real high point to my week. I'd better finish getting my studio cleaned up so I can get to painting soon.

Paintings from Lake Pleasant

This is a series of paintings of the area around Lake Pleasant. They hung in the reception for my niece Ingrid and Adam's wedding which overlooked the lake.

New web site

I am excited to have a new website thanks to my daughter. She gave me a year of hosting for my birthday and set up the first bits on the site. It is really nice. My old hosting company doubled in price and I had let the site sit unloved for awhile. I am excited by the new look and will do some tweaking to get it just right. Meanwhile it is an improvement for sure!

Where did time go?

This is the first post in over a year. Where did time go? I lost months in the blur of my last years of school and working as a volunteer exhibit coordinator. Those jobs overwhelmed my time and left me neglecting this other world. My work may have suffered as a result, but I hope not. I hope I have been learning things which will flow out as I begin to really work in earnest, full time as an artist. I have one quarter to go in school and then I hope an amazing period of work will begin. I plan to use oils for the first time in over a decade. A weekend workshop using them plein aire is the spark for that. The adventure is almost ready to begin...