Best Gift

Yes, it is that time of year for gift giving.

The past couple of years I have gifted my grown children by taking them to Whistler to ski. It is a gift of fun and good memories. But this year with the Olympics being at Whistler, I decided to do buy a special gift.

At the Art in the Garden show in Enumclaw this summer, I met a fabulous artist; Julie Michels. Julie paints animals on rocks. She selects just the right rock for her composition. I fell in love with her penguin mother and child.



When I was at the Fair where Julie sells her art, I could not resist an owl.



Julie will paint from photographs, too. I sent her images of my grown children's pets and she capture their likeness perfectly. I was so excited by her renditions of my son's and girlfriend's dogs and my daughter's cat that I could not resist showing them on Thanksgiving rather than waiting until Christmas!

Looking for a unique, creative present?

Visit Julie at her website

Holiday Art ShowState of the Arts Gallery

More art shows and gatherings here in Olympia.

Sunday, November 29th will be the artist reception for the Holiday Art Show at the State of the Arts Gallery in downtown Olympia which is on 5th and Washington.

The show is well known and attended by many area residents. Now is your chance to meet the local artists. You will be pleased with the array of art and talent.

Two of my watercolor paintings, Lily and Explosion of Colors, will be on display. Here is a preview, but the paintings are a "must see" up close and personal. The internet image does not capture the beauty of the flow of watercolors that you find when you view the original art.


Lily


Explosion of Color


I hope to see YOU there!

Rocks - My Latest Art Form

Living in Washington, every time the sun comes out, (very rare at this time of year) I must take advantage and continue on my landscaping project.

I love rocks!

I wanted to create a river around my deck in the front yard and decided to use various sizes of river rock. Because the rocks were so large, I could not shovel them into the wheel barrow. Instead, I placed each rock in the wheel barrow, dumped the load, and arranged them. In other words, I handled each rock twice! I call this my Zen rock meditation.

I found it to be another outlet for my creativity; my latest art form.

This is what it looks like:

Woodpecker Sighting

This morning's walk was SPECTACULAR!

Not only was the sun shining after many, many days of rain, but also I was gifted with a very close sighting of a pileated woodpecker. Usually they are high in the trees, but this one was near the ground where I could get a good look at him. I watched for about fifteen minutes. The attempt to photograph him with my camera phone was unsuccessful as the image turned out very small.



Similar to "Where is Waldo?" Can you find the woodpecker?

I checked my bird book when I got home to positively identify the woodpecker. How fitting that the book described the pileated woodpecker as a spectacular, black, crow-sized woodpecker with a red crest!



Pileated Woodpecker


Ebony, my dog, and I were on the Chehalis Western Trail in Olympia, Washington where this sighting took place. It is one of our favorite places to walk.

Finished Painting: Mother and Child

A few days ago I posted this watercolor painting in progress. Today, it is finished!

I wanted to capture the tender mood of the moment.

Did I get it?

Holiday Art Show in Olympia

That time again!

Once again I will participate in the Fine Arts and Crafts Sale at the State Capital Museum Coach House in Olympia, Washington.

This juried art sale occurs on the first two weekends in December; December 5th & 6th and December 12th & 13th. It is well known for high quality art and fine crafts created by South Sound regional artists. People come from Seattle and Portland to attend this show. There will be different artists each weekend.

Show hours are Saturdays 10AM to 5PM and Sundays 10AM to 4PM. The State Capital Museum Coach House is located on 211 West 21st Avenue in Olympia.

If you mention this blog, you will receive a 20% discount on your art purchase at my counter. On display will be my latest watercolor paintings as well as the series of paintings I created while on the East Coast. Prints, cards, and ceramic tiles will be on sale, too.

I look forward to seeing YOU!

Sketchcrawl

On November 21st 2004, the very first global sketching marathon was held.

Yesterday, 21st November it was the 5th anniversary of the very first Sketchcrawl AND
the date of the 25th Worldwide Sketchcrawl.

What is a sketchcrawl?

This is what Founder Enrico Casarosa has to say about it back in February 2006.

The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: "SketchCrawl" - a drawing marathon. The crawl was more tiring than I imagined but also more fun and exciting than I had thought. Giving yourself this kind of mandate for a full day changes the way you look around you. It makes you stop and see things just a tad longer, just a bit deeper … needless to say I loved it.

I soon figured out it was much more interesting to do the marathon with a group of artists instead of all by myself! And so SketchCrawl turned communal. After a whole day of drawing it proved to be amazingly interesting and inspiring to share and compare other people's drawings and thoughts. Different takes on our surroundings, different details, different sensibilities.

The next step was making the SketchCrawl a World Wide event: having people from different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journaling and then, thanks to the Internet, having everyone share the results on an online forum.

So here it is, we have a website now, a few Crawls behind me, some by myself some with friends and artists from around the world … and hopefully plenty SketchCrawls ahead of us.