No longer my canvas to paint on

Over the last 21 years my son has been my favorite model.  Not only was he handsome (OK, I might be a little bias) but he was readily available to pose for me.  Well, most of the time.  There was the one time when he fell asleep just before I posed the entire neighborhood for my next painting and could not be awakened.

All the neighborhood children except my son.

In addition, I have periodically chronicled my son's life with portraits.  I got the idea from another member of the the Portrait Society of America who said he painted his children's portrait every year.  I'm guessing he has a lot more time and wall space then I do.  I accomplished a portrait about every 5 years.

My little patriot.

At age four he helped me put out the flags and bows on our split rail fence for the 4th of July and happily it turned into a photo op, which because one of my favorite portraits.

At age ten I was so struck by the light in his hazel eyes so I decided to go in for an ultra close up.

As many teenage boys he took up playing the guitar.  So the most natural choice at age 15 was to paint him with his favorite guitar!

Red Guitar

This year he turned 21 and my little boy is now a man!  Wow, when did that happen?  So what do I do to commemorate this right of passage!

I'm always one to glean inspiration from those around me and this time it came from a childhood friend.  Over dinner one evening our conversation turned to how hard it can be to step back and respect our adult children's decisions after years of raising and guiding them.  She mentioned that her daughter had made a choice she would not have made but concluded "That is no longer my canvas to paint on."  Of course, the metaphor caught my attention. And my creative light bulb went on.

How perfect for an artist mom!  An unfinished portrait of a young man gazing off as if toward the future, combined with a letter to my son expressing the sense of pride I feel as a parents on having raised an amazing human being while acknowledging that my job of parenting is done.

 No longer my Canvas to paint on.

The Fox and the Hound

We have wonderful blessing of having thousands of aches of wilderness and miles of beautiful hiking trails surrounding our city.  Just a few steps down the trails and it is easy to forget that we live in a city with a population of around 125,000 just a few miles from Los Angeles.

Punch Bowl trail

Long Canyon Trail

One day I was out enjoying an afternoon hike when 2 beautiful K9s bounded up the trail past me.  One was black, white and brown spotted, the other had a beautiful red coat.  A minute later a man came running toward me and panted out "Did my dog run past you?"  I said yes, they headed that way and pointed in the direction they had run.  He looked confused.  "They?  I only have one dog."  Slowly the light dawned.  His Hound had taken off in hot pursuit of a Fox. 

Fox & Hound ACEO

 I have seen Deer, Coyotes, Rattle Snakes, Tarantulas, Skunks (dead), a Mountain Lion (also dead) and lots and lots of Rabbits.  But this was my first Fox sighting and the inspiration for this tiny master piece.

Attack of the Owls

The inspiration for my ACEO post this week comes from a road trip a couple years ago: A couple of my friends and I set off on a road trip from Southern California heading to Penticton, British Columbia.  The purpose, aside from an excuse to a road trip, was to ride in the Prospera Gran Fondo in Penticton which is organized by Axel Merckx. See more at https://www.facebook.com/gfaxelmerckx   Axel is a retired professional bicycle racer who's quest in life it to promote cycling in the youth of Canada and the USA.  He is also the son of the great Eddy Merckx.  And in addition to an absolutely gorgeous ride, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to ride with Eddie and Axel - well not with, but far behind :-)

Me with Axel and Eddy

But now I'm getting side tracked.  My inspiration came from the journey to Canada.  My friends and I decided to leave So Cal early on the 4th of July and drive to Pendleton, OR, all in one day.  It was a fabulous drive from which I'm sure there will be more paintings.  We traveled through wonderful little towns where people were celebrating the nations birthday with parades and festivals.  We took tons of photos. 

We made it to south eastern Oregon by dusk and turned onto Highway 78. The road runs along a plateau with open fields on either side.  As it because dark it seemed like the darkness around us began to come alive.  There were white blurs in the air as well as on the ground.  We slowly began to realize that we were driving through the middle of a feeding frenzy.  Both the prey - jack rabbits, and the hunters - snowy barn owls, seemed oblivious to our SUV speeding along.  It was surreal.  It felt like living through a video game.  I could do nothing but white knuckle the steering wheel and stay on the road as rabbits ran into my vehicle and owls swooped into it.  The most terrifying was the huge bird who flew straight into my windshield with a horrifying thud. And of course there was the sickening sounds of the rabbits who ran into our path.  This continued for almost 2 hours.   After the trip we discovered that AAA actually has a travel advisory posted for this stretch of road after dark.  That probably explains why we only saw one other car on the road. 

So My ACEOs this week are a tribute to the poor owls who committed suicide on my windshield and the bunnies who ran under my wheels.

Inspiration!

It is a challenge for every artist I know to find inspiration for their next painting.  Whether the are a Plein Air landscape painter or a Fantasy artist that spark of inspiration generally comes from a concept along with something they have seen. Because I am a Photorealist most of my work depends on photo references and a painting is generally only as good as my photo references.  So I am on a constant quest for wonderful photo opportunities.

I pull over on my way to an appointment because I just have to have a photo of the clouds hovering around the top of a mountain. I stop on bike rides to snap a picture of a cactus in bloom beside the road (that's why I ride alone most of the time).  I've even been busted pulling out my cell phone in the grocery store to photograph a price wine label instead of shelling out the big buck they wanted for it.

So it only made sense to me to try and grow some of my own painting resources. Since I paint lilies a lot I was excited when my local Lowes had a special on Calla Lilies.  My favorite!  I live in Southern California they practically grow like weeks.  This should be easy, right?

It worked beautifully!  The photos above became the  painting below.

Well, thank goodness I took lots of photos of my lilies because over the next couple of weeks something began to go wrong.  My beautiful lily plant began to turn yellow and wither.

And despite hand watering, rain and beautiful So Cal weather....

My lily has died. Along with the orchid and anthurium and pink lilies I bought.  I think we can safely assume that I did not inherit my grandmother's green thumb! 
So I guess I am back to stopping outside my dentist's office to take cell phone photos of his lilies!  And with this track record, I think it best that I avoid the pet shop!

I just love a conspiracy theory - Denver Internation Airport

A little over a year ago, because of decline in her mobility, my nonagenarian mother had to move from her lovely Napa Valley retirement home to assisted live. After long consideration she decided to move to the Denver area to be closer to my eldest brother.  I miss my frequent trips to the Napa Valley but Denver is not without it's charm - and a international airport with a wonderful collection of conspiracy theories!  You've got to love that!
Last week end I flew into DIA to spend the week end with my family. Lovely airport!  But the post modern murals are just a bit disturbing.

 "In Peace and Harmony With Nature" and "The Children of the World Dream of Peace" by Leo Tanguma

 

In addition, I understand from watching "America Unearthed", there are all sort of wonderful theories about underground headquarters of the New World Order, the runways being laid out like a Swastika and of course the Freemasons placed a corner stone.  My favorite story is though is the story about the "Demon Horse" statue out at the entrance of the airport.

 

Luis Jiménez, the artist who created it, died when a piece of the sculpture fell on his leg and severed an artery.  Talk about suffering for your art!

Want to read more? Go to  http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Denver_Airport_conspiracy_theory

But, the art I love in the airport:

DIA Baggage Claim Bicycle Art

 

Anytime you can combine bicycles and art I'm happy.

Of course the reason for the visit was to see Mom who is looking pretty go for 92 1/2!

Here's Mom holding a bag she got from artist Stacy Vosberg five years ago.  She still loves it and carries her books and stuff around with her.

So, I didn't get any painting done but I do have some inspirational photos and had some quality time with family.

Back Online

So, I've been busy!  Painting, Traveling and Biking, but now I'm back to Blogging! 

My inspiration has been following the blogs of family, friends and complete strangers who are doing amazing and interesting things.  I have enjoyed the glimpse into their lives so much that I was inspired to get back into sharing what I think is exciting and interesting about life.

I thought it would be appropriate to post a painting I did from the photo shoot I put up on my last post. 

Not bad, right? 

I have taken the advise of my friends and am focusing on painting Still Life and well as portraits. 

I have also recently discover Art Cards!  The are one of those wonderful things that when you find out about them you think why haven't I heard about this before!  According to Wikipedia:

Artist trading cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern trading cards baseball cards or 2 ¹⁄₂ by 3 ¹⁄₂ inches small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets.^[3] The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland.^[4] Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals or fiber. The cards are usually traded or exchanged. When sold, they are usually referred to as art card editions and originals (ACEOs).

Now my goal is to paint at least 5 cards a weeks. I am having the greatest time.  After years of painting pieces that could take me 3 months to a year to complete this has been an amazing break through.  It allows me to put an idea on canvas quickly.  It them post and sell them on eBay.  From those I can pick and choose the best to repeat as a full size painting.
My dear friend and very talented artist, Stacy Vosberg, has also gotten the bug and is painting gorgeous tiny water color master pieces of her signature Tropical/Hawaiian landscapes.  They can also be found on eBay.

Below are a couple of my mini master pieces. They are signed an dated on the back.

"Swiss Cow"

"Persimmon"

 

See more at NancyHelm.com