Mom's Dollhouse

I found an old photo of my mother so excited to play with her new dollhouse, even in the dead of a Chicago winter. Her birthday is January 8, so I'm sure this must have been a much desired birthday present. You can even see a tiny CAROL written above the door. Sweet.

In their Sunday best

There he is again, little Polito, in his Sunday best, surrounded by women-his 3 sisters and his mother. Looks like a special occasion, or maybe Easter Sunday? I guess it's been all about Polo this week.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

A Pinata for Polito

Another from the "young Polo collection"...on his birthday I'm sure, trying to hit the somewhat scary looking pinata in the backyard. (p.s. I can't quite figure out how to get that little tilde over the n in pinata within blogger, so pardon the omission.)

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Posing with Dad

New drawing from a photo of a young little Polito posing along side a photo of his dad. So darn cute. I've been posting all of these drawings to my Picasa Web Album.

Missing Summer

The weather has started turning colder here and it makes me miss summer. This drawing, for my Sketchbook Project, was done from a photo taken in 1936 of my grandfather and mother on the beach and it's helping to warm me up today.

Plein Air on Lake Pearl

Autumn Tree Bouquet

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

8" x 10"

SOLD

We had so much fun yesterday painting plein air at our friend Diane's house that I just had to post a bunch of photos of the day. We arrived in the morning which provided the best light and set up outside her house on beautiful Lake Pearl. Here's a shot of the group. Don't we look like professionals?
Here's Polo working on his masterpiece. He received the prize for the day which was a "trip to paradise" for the best painting. I hope he brings me along!
Here is Frank hard at work on his second painting. Show off.
And here is Cindy in action. Look at those colors!
Haydi is crafting a beautiful rendition of Lake Pearl in watercolor.
We found out a little later that our host Diane, is also a swan whisperer. She lured this family of swans-mom, dad, and 5 babies over to the dock-for us all to get a closer look.
Tashi was our guardian. Ever on the look out from the deck, ready to protect.
And as a finale to our wonderful 10-10-10 day, we saw this fish cloud in the sky. So beautiful and yet so bizarre as these were the only clouds in the entire sky. Do you see the bubbles coming out of his mouth? What does it mean?

Opera House, Boston

Opera House, Boston

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

12" x 12" x .75"
SOLD

I originally intended for this painting to be more abstract shapes and then found myself getting obsessed with painting the windows again. I took this reference photo looking down the Ave de Lafayette at The Boston Opera House (the white building) on Washington Street. Again, I was attracted to the juxtaposition of old and new Boston all sandwiched together.

We had a discussion in painting class about that triangle roof-I struggled with it's perspective in order to make it believable. What's interesting is that I was googling images of the Opera House this morning and found some earlier photos where this buidling had a different roof. Later photos showed scaffolding around this building so that must have been a recent update. Kind of strange that they added such a modern roof to an otherwise historic looking building. Do you think they were trying to make it blend it better with the brandy new building that popped up behind it?

Pom Pons

The next sketch in my Sketchbook Project.When my friend Kim first posted this photo of her younger self on Facebook, I commented that I liked the Pom Poms on her sweater. This started a discussion that ended with "is it pom pom or pom pon?" Well-technically it is pom pon but "Pom Pon Girls" just doesn't sound right, does it?

Ah well.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Photos from Zullo Exhibition

The Zullo Gallery website now has some photos posted of the exhibition. This one shows 2 of my paintings on the right side. Fun! Click here to see the whole collection of images.

First Communion sketches

When my dad found out that I was painting pictures based on old family photographs, he shipped me about 10 photo albums of our family that he had at the house. Such memories they brought back as I paged through them. Going to church was always a picture making moment and there were many of us standing outside, usually dressed up for Sunday mass. I happened to find photos of each of us on the day we made our First Communions and decided they needed to be included in my sketchbook. So, here's the line up:

Big sister Cathy's First Communion

Middle sister Lyn's First Communion
And finally my First Communion.

We were living in Florida for the first 2 photos and in Cleveland by the time my turn rolled around-thus the coats over our dresses.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Reenergized and inspired

I'm back from a wonderful vacation in hot and steamy, but inspiring Texas. I am reenergized and ready to focus on some new projects.

I signed up for The Sketchbook Project and the theme I chose is Boys and Girls. Like the paintings I've done for the Family Album series, I thought it would be fun to do some sketches from family photographs old and new. Look out Facebook friends cuz I may be invading your photo albums for sketching ideas. (if you signed up for that new "see who's viewing your profile" thing, you may see my name there!). I also saw that Boston's MFA currently has an exhibit about family. Photographer Nicholas Nixon took photos of his wife and her 3 sisters every summer for the past 35 years. Fascinating stuff. Might need to check that out for inspiration as well.

I started my sketchbook in the center.

I thought this photo that my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Arlene sent me of all of their grandkids (taken last year-it's still growing!!) would make a great centerfold.

Isn't this a hoot? I might jump around the sketchbook a little, instead of going in order, just to keep things interesting. And I can't help but want to write a little about each sketch to go along with it. Perhaps that's the blogger in me.

I've also signed up for Custom Art Framing and Gallery 9's upcoming exhibit called Looking Up. They supply you with a 10" by 10" canvas and you take it from there. What a fun idea and I can't wait to see them all together. The show goes up in November.

And finally, thanks to Kathy for the wonderful post today on her blog Weller Wishes about some of the pretty things you can find at Gallery 9. She included a photograph of one of my black and white Family Album paintings that is currently on display there. Kathy is also participating in The Sketchbook Project. Check out the cute illustrations she has done so far for her "Raining Cats and Dogs" theme.

The Littlest Bar, Province Street

The Littlest Bar, Province Street Boston

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

14" x 11"
SOLD

You might be wondering about the emphasis of the bright red window in the bottom right of this painting. Well, that is what used to be "The Littlest Bar". This Irish Pub, truly the littlest bar you've ever seen, closed it's doors a few years ago, but I just read recently that they opened a newer, and not so little bar in the Financial District not too far from this original location. Here is a portion of an article about it closing its doors. I just noticed the that date of the article is also my birthday.

Polo and I visited the bar when it was still open at this location and it was quite a local experience. Let's just say, they know when you are "just visiting". My friend Kim told me that she had a first date at this place. One of the patrons made a comment about her curly hair which I won't repeat here, but I guess the date worked out ok because they just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary.

When I took the photo I used for my reference, I peered into the window only to see stacks of boxes. The new owner is apparently using it for storage. The entire street has gone through quite a transformation. That building to the right of it is full of high rise condos. I so love the juxtaposition of old and new that you see all around Boston. I sure hope they come to their senses soon and do something interesting with this space. I mean, they gave it a fresh coat of bright red paint after all. I was glad to see they kept it intact.

Here is a close up of the only part of the painting that has people. You can see that it's only a few strokes that define the woman diners. I saved that part for last and had fun with it.

Juried in!

I recently entered these 3 paintings into a juried show for the Zullo Gallery Center for the Arts and I just found out today that they accepted all three! How exciting. Now I have to get busy doing the finish work for the show. Reception is September 25, from 7-9pm.

Half baked

I think it's interesting to see works in progress. I started this painting on Thursday and plan to finish it up this week, but in the mean time, I thought I would share it at this stage anyway. Why not, right? What I find interesting for my own introspection, is to see how I worked the top portion first (I think to completion) and left the bottom sketch alone. The bottom part includes people eating at an outdoor cafe and some flowers and landscaping. I think it will be a nice juxtaposition with the structural city buildings painted above.

The reference is a photo I took on one of my walks around Boston. When I post the final painting I'll share a little more about exactly where the photo was taken.

Pretty in Pink

Pretty in Pink

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

10" x 10"
SOLD

This painting was done from the sweetest picture that Suzanne gave me to paint of her and her sister. Looks like they just got a new doll and are as happy as two sisters can be, sharing at least long enough to smile for the camera. Their pink dresses are as cute as they are. I had to borrow the perfect color (Rembrandt's Carmine) from my friend Frank in order to get just the right shade of pink. This was such fun to paint and a nice diversion from the rigidness of city windows and perspective of late.

All proceeds from the sale of this painting went directly to the Susan G. Komen foundation. How appropriate for it to be pink!

My moment to be a famous palette knife artist

Yesterday, we received the new (and really big!) Dick Blick Studio catalog in the mail.

My husband emailed me immediately to let me know that my painting was in there on the painting knives spread.
Even though I had posted a pdf of the page awhile ago on my blog, it was so exciting to finally see it in print! Someone told me this means that I am now a published artist. Perhaps it is my 15 minutes of fame, but hopefully people will hold on to it longer than that before it hits the recycle bin. Here is the painting that they chose to put on the page:

Afternoon in the City

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

8" x 8" x .75"

I really do order most of my art supplies from Dick Blick. I love their prices, their website is easy to use, and I find everything I need there. And they don't pay me a dime to say that.

Now, I think I need to go order some of those wonderful palette knives. Just look at them all!

Happy art supply shopping.

Another Boston city view

Boston Near the Finish Line

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

12" x 12"x 1.5"
SOLD

The finish line of the Boston Marathon that is. I've been taking some photos during my lunch hour and have discovered some interesting views of the city that are going to inspire some future paintings. I began this painting in class on Thursday and finished it up today. I think I'm getting obsessed with painting windows. The order and structure appeal to me in a weird way, even though with the palette knife, it's really not that all that straight and orderly. You may remember that I did this sketch for this painting a few weeks ago. It helps me compose the painting, study the photo, and do some editing ahead of time.

Abdi is the winner!

I watched every episode like an addict. Work of Art: The Next Great Artist season finale aired last night, and my favorite artist won, Abdi. Modest, generous, and funny, he just seemed like he had so much talent that he was not even aware he had. I can't wait to see what his show is like at the Brooklyn Musuem of Art.

From the very first challenge, this portrait that he did of Ryan was stellar in my opinion. Even though he didn't win that challenge.

I also thought it was interesting that he seemed to be one of the only artist who thought out and sketched his ideas first on a consistent basis. At least from what I could tell anyway. But when he included his sketchbook in his final exhibit, one of the judges called it "too art school". Interesting.

I am now inspired to check out the work of the guest art judges. Which most of the contestants seem to know. I had never heard of any of them. I'll try to find some good links later.

Andres Serrano

Will Cotton

Jon Kessler

Ryan McGinness

Jonathan Santlofer

Richard Phillips

As I watched each episode, I couldn't help but think, "what would I have done?" "how would I have tackled each challenge?". I've seriously thought about challenging myself and actually attempt each one. Although-I think I'll give myself a little more time.

Here is the list:

1. Create a "portrait" of a competitor

2. Create a work from trash found in an electronics graveyard

3. Create a book cover of a classic novel

4. Create a piece of shock art

5. Create art inspired by a visit to the Audi showroom (the only commercially driven challenge as far as I can tell)

6. Work in a team to create an outdoor sculpture

7. Create a work that symbolizes your early inspiration to be an artist using only children's art supplies

8. Work with a partner to create work that expresses opposing words -man/woman, order/chaos, heaven/hell

9. Create a work inspired by nature, including something from nature in the piece

10. Create a final collection

Anyone want to join me?

Drawing on the beach

It took all week to finally be able to do some pencil sketching on the beach. This is a drawing I did on the very last day at the beach. This captures our friends in their daily beach position-relaxed, reclined, and reading. Ahhh, summertime in New England. There is nothing better.

Great esCape

Cape Escape

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

8" x 8"

SOLD

I finally took a break from the sun and surf to do some plein air painting while on vacation. What wonderful weather we have had this week so far. I included some more photos to give you a sense of our quintessential cape surroundings.The place we rented is right near the path to the beach. People leave their wagons and other things while they carry their beach gear down the stairs. Our place is to my left.
While I was inside taking a lunch break, some onlookers stopped to take a peak at my progress.
I hope to get some more painting time in. Today is a little rainy but we're going to try to get 9 holes of golf in later this afternoon. I do not want this week to be over!!