Snow in Summer

Oh! Summer! I adore Summer!
Between now and September ( which is a whole other Wonder ) the world is so very alive and full of flowers and sunshine and shady spots and rain and thunder and lightening and perfume and glorious vegetables growing while you watch and fireflies and porches and that particular color of a slightly hazy blue sky...High Summer Blue and curtains dancing lazily at open windows and lilies and tomatoes and cherries and tanned feet and playing in the hose and happy dogs and the smell of the grill and long evenings and pasta al limone eaten al fresco as the sun dips behind the trees and the jasmine fills the air and just so much wonderfulness packed into such a short time....
AND what am I doing?
I am inside the studio painting snowy woods, woolly hats and mittens and tracks in the snow and a cold, cold pond.
Here are 3 finished paintings for Pobble's Way by Simon Van Booy to be published by Flashlight Press ,Fall 2010.
Next come the animals in the wintry wood. Fun!
Next Summer I will have a summery Summer, this Summer is snowy.

Reference Photos....aka Scrap

I am painting trees right now.......so that means painting some of my favorites......tree bark and snaky, gnarly tree roots.......there is also lots of snow and a bunny, a duck, an owl, a doe, a red squirrel, a mouse and a little girl and her daddy involved but for now, everything is trees....the lines that tree branches trace against the sky, the larger branches flung out wide embracing the sky..... the grays and browns and purples and russets and umbers of tree bark, the glorious undulation of roots like a basket of snakes......I'm loving painting trees!
Lucky for me, I live on a tree covered island so I can take a million perfect photos of trees for reference to use in painting. It's wonderful to take reference photos oneself and not be a slave to someone else's photos online or in a book....luckily I am not painting Baobob trees,

as, unfortunately, they don't grow here. One of Baci the Corgi's and my favorite places to walk is a nearby property where a house was torn down so it's like a secret park.....accessible down a long, tree lined driveway, then opening up into a large grassy area where the house once stood and a huge and glorious Maple Tree.
There are some oddities there that have caught my eye......an old, no longer seaworthy, wooden boat sitting askew in a sea of lawn.......and four chairs, ceremoniously arranged by someone, that appear to be waiting for their occupants. curiously formal as though in preparation for the audience who will be watching.......something mysterious and unknown. I find these quirky leftovers of someone's life enormously appealing and touching.


Back to painting now...well maybe I'll go workout for an hour.......then paint.

Peonies and Snowmen

I can hardly believe it's been nearly a month since my last post.......it appears I've been even more reclusive and swallowed up by the quotidian routine of painting a seemingly endless vista of picture-book illustrations than I had thought...sometimes I worry that one day I'll look up and find a year has passed.
Outside, a new season has arrived and amazingly, although there hasn't been a drop of rain for over two weeks, flowers are blooming their little hearts out. I adore peonies, they remind me of the girliest, most full blown prom dresses and rather like heads of butter lettuce in glorious shades of pink. Here are some perfumed pink beauties and some rather lovely and incredibly scented lavender roses found blooming on a rather sad and forlorn bush hidden away below some towering cedars......and a partially finished painting........

and then, some happy new pieces from my "let it snowman" licensing line, in progress. I'm learning how to do all sorts of things in PhotoShop and Illustrator that amaze me.......like moving lots of individual illustrations about until they become border designs and repeat patterns and just today, making type go around in a circle!
Anyone interested in learning how to make repeat borders and "toss" patterns in repeat from "icons" should go visit Tara Reed's website and order her ebooks......as one who knew virtually nothing about creating anything digitally, I have found her instructions incredibly easy to follow and wonderfully clear. Thank you again, Tara!
Maybe a plate........?

Maybe wrapping paper?


Borders
More to come, but enough of a start to begin feeling excited!

Back to what seems to be an infinity of feathers, tiny strokes of raw umber, shading angel wings. Back soon.

Illustration Friday - Contagious

This week's word is contagious.
Seems as though this word has been in the media a lot lately....mostly connected to negative things and events like Fear and the Flu Du Jour.......which is/was, I guess, more fear, really.
As a perennial Optimist and a "glass half full" cheerful sort......here is my contribution.
While this tender moment might be illustrating the possible swapping of germs, I'd rather think that the sweetness and warmth of Young Love, any love, is, indeed, contagious!

Back to painting secret picture book spreads......soon, soon!

Happy Children's Book Week 2009!!!!!

Jordyn

I am painting five paintings at once and once I finish these, I can launch into another five...and then. and then....until I'm finished with these books and I can't show anything I'm working on quite yet.....so I apologize for being a Very Boring Blogger.
On Saturday I signed books and showed the original art for "Saturn For My Birthday" while the very wonderful and entertaining children's book author George Shannon read the book !!!! How lucky am I?
After that Bonny Becker, read her great book " A Visitor For Bear "
George passed out home-made cookies and children and grownups alike all had a lovely time at our kick 0ff of Children's Book Week!

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy

Here is my contribution for this week's Illustration Friday, the word is Hierarchy
It's not really too much of a stretch....although there really isn't any obvious top or bottom .....but this will have to do. This image was one of four panels that I painted for the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.
This was Mammals....there are also Reptiles, Birds and Bugs. To see all of them, go here and click on Woodland Park Zoo.
okay.......back to painting picture-book spreads.......I can't wait to announce they're all finished!

Who's the Driver Here, Anyway?

I just finished another Pet Portrait, this one of Richard & Duffy the Most Wonderful English Sheepdog!
The pair of them, going down the road with Duffy happily occupying this amazing replica Steib S-500 sidecar is a joy to behold!
I had a blast painting this, and was surprised to remember how much I enjoy painting chrome.
This was painted nearly completely in thin acrylic glazes as I have found that greys and blacks don't fare so well in watercolor glazes......even when completely dry when glazed with subsequent colors they tend to lift a bit and muck things up. The acrylics stay put in a lovely, well-behaved, acrylic way and one can glaze them over and over and the colors stay true and bright.
I have absolutely no idea what's what with all the motor-y bits on the motorcycle so if you know everything about motorcycles and see that I painted something that exists in my mind only and not on any real motorcycle, please be kind and don't tell.....smile instead at Duffy who happily appears to be the one driving here...... he IS larger than life, so actually it's the way it all really is!
I am offering this image as a print so if you'd like to purchase one of your very own, please see my Imagekind gallery........and if you'd like a portrait of your pet with or without yourself...or your vehicle in it, please don't hesitate to contact me.