Painted Cakes and Flowers

With all this cold weather and dreary rain, my daughter and I decided to take in the Flower Show this weekend to catch a glimpse of what we would like this spring to mirror. After parking the car and sprinting through the frigid cold to the Seaport World Trade Center, we were greeted with pure color, delight and warmth. How nice to be surrounded by luscious greens and brightly colored flowers. As always at the flower show, we came across spectacular varieties of plants and flowers that we had never seen before and can't pronounce anyway. I am hoping that I will be able to find some of these in local garden centers when spring truly arrives. It also made me long for warm plein aire painting days to arrive soon.

I came across a landscaping idea that I want my husband to now do to our back yard. It should be easy, right hun? haha!

We also came across these incredibly flower decorated cakes. I loved this painted one. I could do that...just paint on Fondant. I never even knew what Fondant was until my fam started watching The Cake Boss.

Funniest moment there...watching this older gentleman holding his camera, that must also takes videos-(I hope), at arms length above his head. He walked the whole show that way. We continually would catch glimpses of him here and there. His arm must have been exhausted by the end of his stay. And I can't quite fathom how this video must have come out.

Enfolded

contact artist if interested in purchasing/6"X6" Pastel

Just finished another still life with the Mary figurine, but in color. When I was arranging the lily it enwrapped the figurine and I loved the effect so I left it. Happy accident. It was a real challenge with the white lily against the white figurine. Lots of little subtleties.

Ivy

I drew this portrait of Ivy a while back and have entered it in a few shows. Ivy's mom just purchased the drawing and so she is now home. Appropriate. The medium I used was sanguine and white conté. I started using conté back at art school during my life drawing class. I think it gives a drawing a nice old world feeling. When I first met Ivy, she looked to me like she was from a past era with her gorgeous curly hair and her beautiful ivory complexion, so it made total sense to me to use this medium. It was one of those drawings that I envisioned what I wanted it to look like before I even put down the first mark on paper. Great advice from William Merritt Chase-"Try to see your picture...drawn and painted, always anticipating a success and never a failure. You should always see your motive painted before you attempt it, and choose as simple a subject as possible."

Demo Middle School

Today I gave a quick demo at our local middle school. I set up a little still life and worked directly from that. The kids were so inquisitive. They were truly interested and eager to learn about the materials you are using and the process. It was a pleasure to be surrounded by such great kids. Just so there is no confusion, the photo of my easel shows oil paints on the palette. That was just left over from another painting. The demo is a pastel painting.