Tucson Pima Arts Council Open Studio Tour

Visual artists in Tucson and Pima County open their studios to the public in this popular self-guided tour on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Open Studio Tour is a free, self-guided, self-paced city and county wide tour into the heart of Tucson’s creative, entertaining, educational and fantastic arts community. Gather the family and invite your friends.

Visit the web site to plan your tour.
http://www.tucsonopenstudios.com/ost/index.html

Using Intuition to Paint

Recently, I read an old Watercolor Highlights magazine that featured a number of artists who paint both intuitively and intelligently. The concept ran true to me. They all begin with a basic idea or plan but are not committed to the outcome. They use the art elements and principles of design to develop their piece one step at a time. So the painting evolves and changes intuitively.

I began the two paintings shown here with color choices and a basic design plan. When the paint dried I began to identify images and added color in areas based on design choices but using my intuition to develop the painting. So the final product surprised me! What fun!

From Luminous Gallery

From Luminous Gallery

Artist Biographies

I have always loved the Impressionists and own more than one book about Claude Monet. Inspired by the way Monet painted the same scene in different seasons or at different times of the day, I have asked the grade school students to draw or paint the same scene in all four seasons. This led me to wonder how and why other artists painted the way they did.
On a recent "artist date" with myself, I visited bookstores looking for artist biographies. I was surprised that the books that came home with me were about more abstract or expressionist artists than I expected.I learned that Kirchner chose his colors more for how they made him feel than what he saw. DeKooning also painted with emotion, full of energy as he painted outside the lines over and over to express his feelings. But I also bought a book of pastels by Wolf Kahn. At a time when most schools were encouraging abstract art, Kahn chose to concentrate on representational landscapes and emphasized color. His later works are full of brilliant, high-key color combinations.
So...I have learned, yet again, to follow my heart when I paint.

More paintings from this past year!!

I found a few more paintings to add to my galleries! My favorite today is Visionary that is hanging in my living room.

From Southwest Gallery

IT'S 2009!!!!!

Where did the time go? The Open Studio Tour is coming up on November 14th and 15th so I am motivated again to update my photos. I was surprised that I had a number of new paintings to add to my galleries even though I felt like I have not painted as often. This school year I am teaching art part time in grades 1-8 and feel more comfortable planning lessons and being in the classroom. Hopefully, I am better organized so that I can paint even more this year!

Today my favorite new painting is Living in the Light. I love the soft colors and the feeling of energy and motion in the color patterns.

From Luminous Gallery

To view information about this year's Tucson Pima Arts Council Open Studio Tour go to http://www.tucsonopenstudios.com/ost/

Tucson Pima Arts Council "Open Studio Tour"

Again this year, I will be participating in the Open Studio Tour, November 8 & 9 from noon to 5 p.m. For information about the tour, go to www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org/ost/

Recently I have been spending most of my time at the grade school and creating or dreaming lesson plans for the classes. The students are inspiring me to attempt things that I haven't done in awhile and I am learning or relearning as I work with them. They remind me of all the reasons that I love to paint...to remember, to inspire, to dream, to think, to focus, to play.

From All Sides Equal Gallery

CAMPUS CHRISTIAN CENTER

Fourteen of my paintings from my Luminous Gallery and the All Sides Equal Gallery are part of a show entitled "Inner Light" at the Campus Christian Center Art Gallery located at 715 N. Park Ave. at the UofA Campus. This is a joint show with my friend Mary Argueta who is exhibiting her beautiful acrylics and mixed media paintings. The show runs through October 10th. For additional information, including open hours, call 623-7575.

SAWG at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

"Desert Grandfathers" and "Steppin' Out" were juried into the 12th annual exhibition of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild in the Ironwood Gallery at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
The show runs from July 19th to September 7th and the gallery is open 10am-4pm. I spent the morning last Thursday at the museum and I especially enjoyed the hummingbird exhibit. I took many, many photos of them that may appear in future paintings. There was a hummingbird guard who "buzzed" around all who entered. I even caught a few "in flight" but just as many escaped my view finder. They were very busy considering the heat.

What have I been doing????

Thank you to my friends who have encouraged me to post again. I HAVE been painting but I also have been brushing up on my drawing skills. This fall I will be teaching art in grades 1-4 at the school my children attended. I always learn much from the kids as I challenge their creativity and imagination. I am really looking forward to the school year.

Art4God

These two images were chosen for honorable mention in the NCAC 2007 National Christian Art Competition. How thrilling for me! These and all the selected art can be seen at http://www.art4god.com.

collage

These collages were fun to create. I chose papers for their color and texture and just moved them around until I liked what I saw! They were selected to be part of the juried CASA show -Collage as a Way of Seeing "Beyond Kindergarten" -that can be seen at the Drawing Studio until March 29th.

Mandalas

Happy New Year to all! I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since November!
Since the holidays, I have been teaching grade school children about mandalas. I find it challenging to paint in a circle or square format and enjoy the meditative aspect of mandalas. The children and I are learning about mandalas in different culture, learning about "sacred geometry" and "story mandalas", as well as learning about shapes, design, and color.
In my "spare" time I have begun a spatter painting watercolor landscape and have almost completes a paper collage. Fun!

Desert Grandfathers

If only the mountains and the saguaro could tell us what they've seen...

Flagstaff Soloist

We went to NAU in Flagstaff to attend a choir concert and I also hoped to see the changing autumn colors. The red maple in the foreground and the various trees surrounding it reminded me of the NAU choir. The maple had just a little more to show.

My Very Own Palo Verde

In the spring and summer, I use to drive around Tucson looking for palo verde in bloom. For my birthday one year, my husband planted one in my front yard for me. Now I can enjoy it from my front window and paint it any time I like.

Looking for Poppies

Every year we wait to see how many wildflowers
the rains bring to Picacho Peak.

Mt Lemmon, Arizona

A couple of months ago I was walking along Loma Linda Vista Rd. on Mt Lemmon. Where once this road was canopied by trees, I was surprised by beautiful vistas.

Monoprint Workshop with Mina Tang Kan

This image was created at a monoprint workshop at Cochise College in Sierra Vista. The instructor was Mina Tang Kan who owns Tang Gallery in Bisbee. We put oil paints and inks on plexiglass and used their printing press to transfer the images to paper. I learned about embossing texture, ghost prints (second printings) and a fun way to use regular glue to make designs.

From Monoprints

watercolor inks

Last week I played with my watercolor inks. It was fun to watch the colors run and mix. Is it an eye...or a dragonfly...or a fairy...maybe just flowers?

Saints and Angels Among Us

I especially liked the stained glass effect that seemed to appear as I painted this.

A Place to Ponder the Past and the Future

This view from the top of a cliff in Sister Bay, Wisconsin attracted me because of the gentle tide in the bay and the trees that seemed to be just barely hanging on.

Open Studio Tour

Saturday, November 10th and Sunday, November 11th from noon until 5:00, I will be participating in an Open Studio Tour for the Tucson Pima Arts Council. I submitted an image from this series for their approval and promotion.

This summer I finally completed this spring desert scene that I enjoyed on a hike a few years ago. It has almost everything that I love about the desert...a blooming palo verde, brittlebush,globe mallows, the beautiful colors of cholla,prickly pear,