Post Sabbatical

I AM BACK!!!

Yes, I gave myself permission to take a year off from painting. Funny, when I have used the word "sabbatical" in my explanation of "why I am not painting," I never looked the word up. In the definition it says "a period of paid leave." That did not happen! Needless to say, I have been enjoying life and that is payment in itself, right?!

At Breakfast Club, inspired by my two creative friends, Don and Linda, endeavors at publishing their written art, I began to paint. Not only that, I signed up for a class at South Puget Sound Community College: Intro to Welding and Creative Metalwork.

I am excited by the unknown possibilities of creativity from this day forward. Is it the quiet before the storm? Maybe the seed germinating ready to sprout? I feel the energy and it feels great!

This collage painting was brewing in my mind after spending time at Gleneden Beach, Oregon. Hiking down to the beach with my good friend Elaine and our doggies, this vista presented itself. I wanted to capture the beauty and delight I felt upon experiencing the view. I needed to give it more personality than just the typical gorgeous view; thus, the watercolor collage painting evolved.

Joanne Osband
Watercolor Collage

Sunday Sketches

This was a quick sketch for a painting I plan create as part of the workshop I am attending for the next four weeks. Bernie Bleha's "Atelier #2" focuses on the individual artist creative process.

My goal is to create several watercolor collage paintings for my September show at the Splash Gallery, in Olympia.


More Sunday Sketchers......

Another Trillium

I keep going back and forth between water-based oil paints and watercolors. They both have endearing traits.

After completing the oil painting of the trillium (previous post) in the woods standing tall against the cedar tree, I could not resist painting the same subject with watercolor.

Here is a colorful rendition......

I believe I have cured the trillium addiction, for now :)

Sunday Sketches

Each day my dog and I spend time on the Chehalis Western Trail in Olympia, Washington, rain or shine. The past month is has been more rain than anything else.

Fortunately, it makes great subject matter. With our rain comes incredible cloud formations and what we call, "sun breaks". This was one of those that caught my attention and demanded action in the studio.


I allowed the watercolors to flow and added a touch of detail to the foreground.

Sunday Sketches

This is a watercolor sketch.

I was demonstrating to a group of women at an assisted living center how to use watercolor to paint a bouquet of flowers. To my surprise I liked the way this quick painting turned out and did not want to mess it up with details. Take a close up view of the flowers to see what I mean.....

Sunday Sketches

Finished another sketch for the Sketchbook Project 2012. I took Carol's advice to use better quality paper and glue it into the sketchbook.

I have been looking at this photograph of the Quechua school children waving good-bye to us after our visit to their school. It was a memorable day for both the children and us.

I love the line up and knew one day it would be a painting. It was challenging to capture their faces with a single line of ink. The watercolors were applied after the ink drawing.

Sunday Sketches

Still learning about this Sketchbook Project 2012 process.

Today's lesson; Joanne verses "the paper."

I wanted to give a blast of color with watercolors to emphasize the leaves' fall color. The paper got saturated and started to shred. Immediately I took out the hair dryer before disaster occurred and I would have to remove another page from the sketchbook.

I remembered that my ink pen leaked through this paper, therefore, I opted for colored pencil to bring out the leaves and trees.

Hey, it worked! Score one for Joanne!



I have to figure out what to do with the next page because it is now wavy from the use of water on this page.

Ah, the challenge continues........

Sunday Sketches

I just returned from incredible adventures in Peru and managed to create a few sketches along the way.

I spent several days at Willka T'ika Guesthouse in the Sacred Valley which is a charming and lovely place full of beautiful gardens, fabulous vegetarian food which was grown there, and filled with 18 wonderful women to share experiences.

I became very fond of the thousand-year-old Lucuma tree which called Carol, the inspiration behind Willka T'ika, to this piece of land for the setting of the guesthouse. As she explains, "In the crown chakra garden, a thousand-year-old lucuma tree connects guests to the energy and wisdom of the ancient Inkan civilization. The grassy area beneath the lucuma tree is a perfect place for meditation." The tree has these wonderful, bulbous appendices of bark. One evening for desert we were treated to a wonderful dish with the lucuma fruit......yum!

Here I am painting the first sketch of the Lucuma tree.


This is the first sketch.


I had to get closer to really capture the bark.


Here is that rendition of the Lucuma Tree.


And here is the beautiful tree.



I will be painting more of this tree!

Sunday Sketches

Leaving LA after finishing college, I moved to Colorado to be a ski bum; ski everyday and work at night. I graduated to skiing all day when I became a ski instructor.

Living in Colorado, I began a love affair with aspens. In spring, you can watch the bright yellow-green little leaves appear and magically turn large before your eyes. Through the summer, the aspen leaves flutter in the breeze. Many times I sketched their white bark with the circular lines and "eyes". But the fall is awesome when you walk in the woods amongst the glow of the yellow and orange leaves. The leaves then make wonderful patterns on the ground when they fall. What a magnificent tree!

When I was planning what trees to include in my landscape, aspens were a definite. I bought little "twigs" from the conservation district and planted them. Unfortunately, the deer also like my aspens. The first year the little forest of aspens were pruned at the top. This year I put a few in cages, but the ones not caged were pruned by the deer this time the middle leaves as the trees were much taller than last year. I will cage them all! These aspens will definitely have some interesting shapes when they mature due to the selective deer pruning. The most exciting thing this year is that the bark on these aspens have turned white and no longer look like twigs.

I love the shape of the aspen leaves, and recently I noticed something unusual. Two of the leaves on opposite sides of the trunk had wonderful colorful designs; worthy of a painting. Hopefully it is not some sign of a bug. If so, what wonderful creative work the bug does!

Sunday Sketches

Yesterday Maxine, Ray, and I hiked the Marmot Pass - Upper Big Quilcene in the Olympic Mountain Range in Washington. Amazing waterfalls in the first section, beautiful wildflower meadows in the second section, and scenic views of so many peaks from the top. It was a gruesome hike of 3,500 feet elevation in 5 miles, but worth every ache and pain.

The wildflowers were spectaular!






The view at the top of Marmot Pass was awesome!





I chose one of my favorite wildflowers to sketch: Wild Tiger Lily

Sunday Sketches

There is something magical about butterflies.

I was doubly fascinated watching my 16 month old grandson follow this tiger swallowtail as it lighted around the yard.

Sunday Sketches

I amazed myself!

With the excitement of travel and much to do, I managed to squeeze time for a sketch.

As promised, here is my favorite weed the foxglove.



I will be part of a delegation of artists creating murals in Gaza to bring awareness to the water crisis and need for water purification systems in the UNRWA schools. As soon as the website goes live, you can follow us each day at
http://www.maiamuralproject.org

I might be able to blog here, too.

Stay tuned........

Sunday Sketches

This is the most faithful clematis.

The plant looks rather scrawny and it was uprooted and moved, but it continues to put out a bunch of lovely flowers.

Sunday Sketches

Planning ahead! I did my sketch during the week.

I spent the full weekend baby-sitting my fourteen month old grandson, Haeden. Need I say, I was BUSY!?!?!

Tried the paint first then draw technique once again. My garden patch of purple lupines are in full bloom. These are one of my favorite flowers because they remind me of the wild ones growing along the Metolious River in Oregon where I lived for many years.

Here is stage one....


And the final.....



Posted this evening. Grandma is retiring for the night!

Another Beauty Erupts

What a surprise!

Having been gifted with Iris bulbs from my neighbor when I moved into the neighborhood, I had no idea what they would look like. The first year the lavender ones bloomed (the other day's blog) and I thought they were soooo gorgeous. What a treat to see the addition of a new beauty which erupted upon the scene this morning. I am in awe.


Close up view


The lavender Iris group's display, so far



Did you notice there are a couple of buds on another plant behind the newest arrival? I wonder what it will look like?

Which one will I paint?

Stay tuned for the unraveling mystery....

Sunday Sketches

Tulips make spring magical. They just show up and splash color on the winter barren landscape. Tulips make me smile.

Not only do they provide a gorgeous showing, but also when they begin to die their shapes and contours are wonderful. I am more prone to drawing or painting them at their senior stages.

Senior Tulips
Joanne Osband
watercolors
8" X 11"

Sunday Sketches

I fell in love with an orchid and being that it is Mothers' Day,
it came home with me.

The grace and details of the petals inspired today's sketch. I drew the shapes and painted with watercolors.

I am totally enthralled by shapes!


HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!

I am off to spend the day with my daughter :)

Sunday Sketches

I actually cheated and did my sketch on Friday!

I am now into the groove of sketching once a week since I ran across Sophie's blog about Sunday Sketches. Being that I was out of town for the weekend, I needed to have a sketch for Sunday.....so, I did it on Friday :)

I am enjoying sketching, inking, and painting. It feels like I am coloring in the sketch and I must admit to coloring inside the lines. I hope it does not ruin my reputation! I am intrigued by shapes which when I normally paint with watercolors (without the ink lines) the shapes are less pronounced.

Here is my Sunday (Friday) Sketch:

Ink version


Painted version

Love Affair With Shapes

A few blog posts ago, I shared the incredible spring flower, the Hellebore. Fascinated by its complexity and shapes, I have begun my second Hellebore painting.

The first one was a quick 9" X 12" sketch followed by an application of watercolor.


This next one on a half sheet of watercolor paper, I have emphasized the shapes and details with permanent ink because......I just love the shapes! What direction this will take from here still remains unknown.



Stay tuned........

Out Of The Box

Tried something new for my Sunday Sketch.

First, I sketched the subject matter of daffodils and tulips with a quick application of watercolors.


Then, I used pen and ink. Afterwards, I painted with watercolors.

A definite departure from my usual process of drawing first and then painting.


I have exited the box :)