Orchids in Green Bottle & Mental Spam

Oil on panel, 14×11″ (larger)
I love painting glass and was happy with the way this bottle turned out. I tried to use the same free and fun approach I take to painting glass in watercolor and it actually worked this time. I wish the flowers were as easy.
It’s easier to show off the beauty and [...]

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China Camp & Two Surprise Parties

Old Boat on Rails, Oil on panel, 9×12″ (larger)
Blazing hot sun on the beach made plein air painting a challenge Sunday at China Camp State Park, an historic site where Chinese immigrants lived in a shrimp fishing village in the 1880s. It is a fabulous place to paint, with a small ghost town and old [...]

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Jumbo Apricots - Quick Oil Study

(larger)
I did this painting before bed last night, giving myself just an hour or two to complete an oil sketch. The panel I was using was a bit slick so the paint wasn’t sticking as well as I’d have liked but I was reasonably pleased with the attempt.
While I was painting my wonderful next door [...]

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Hydrangeas Plein Air & Creativity Interview

Oil on panel, 6×8″ (larger)
It felt so good to get outside and paint this sunny afternoon, even if it was only for an hour on the side of my house by my trash cans where this small hydrangea is finally starting to blossom and grow.
Creativity Interview
I was interviewed by Creativity Coach, Liz Massey and she [...]

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New blog: Postcard A Day

I heard a story on NPR about a father who sent his daughter a postcard every day that she was in college — 1,000 all together. They contained random stories about his day, questions and advice. It occurred to me how much that was like blogging (a daily post) except that he was sending actual [...]

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Better than Plastic: Blue Glass Water Bottle

(Larger)
While eating dinner, reading an art book and drinking water from this bottle I became fascinated by the bottle and had to immediately go paint it. The bottle came from from Trader Joes filled with sparkling water. It makes a great reusable water bottle. I washed off the label and just refill it with filtered [...]

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Farmers Market Friends (Work in Progress)

Larger
I’m really happy with the way this painting (from a photo I took at the Farmers Market) is progressing and since I couldn’t finish it tonight and it’s back to the office tomorrow, I decided to share it as a work in progress.
Questions for you:

Can you tell that the woman on the left is resting [...]

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Farmers Market Diversity, Roses & Revised Painting

(Larger) Finished but not satisfied…
Saturday I walked to the Farmers Market at El Cerrito Plaza with the plan to make some watercolor sketches. After half an hour exploring, taking photos and trying to find a spot to sketch I realized I needed to get out of there.
That happens to me sometimes; one minute I’m enjoying [...]

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Asparagus, Peach & Painting with Children

Larger
The kids next door brought over a plate of delicious Mexican-style barbeque tonight courtesy of their Papa who’d cooked it. I invited them to come back after dinner to join me in the studio. Now that they’re a little older (2nd grade and 6th grade) I decided to let them try acrylics instead of just [...]

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Roses & a freshly cleaned house

(Larger)

I gave myself the pre-birthday gift of a professional house cleaning today, by the most fabulous house cleaner in the universe. She cleans things that have never even occurred to me to clean, and when she’s done the house seems to sigh and say “Thanks, I needed that!”
When I walked in the door this [...]

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Birthday & Benicia’s Matthew Turner Park

Oil on 12×9″ panel (Larger)
Yay! First day of June, and I get to celebrate my (mid-month) birthday all month long. Because it’s a really big birthday, this year I’m going to celebrate all year instead of “just” all month! It’s also the birthday of Jana’s Journal and Sketch Blog, now entering it’s third [...]

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