Upcoming Travels

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You haven't been hearing from me for a bit because we have been preparing for a month of travels in Israel and Sweden! These watercolors were done in 1986 after our first trip to Israel and I'll be taking watercolors again this time. Looking forward to showing you paintings of that little country and also of Sweden where my husband was born and grew up, so stay tuned. Summer Blessings one and all, Erin

Blue Door Inn

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More fun came during last weekend's class at the art center with Michael Reardon. I worked on this tiny watercolor of Mendocino's Blue Door Inn from a photo I'd taken and tried to treat the mass of trees as one large shape against the shaded white house. Even though Mendocino is so familiar to me, there is always a surprise waiting for me at different times of day and different times of the year. The late sun has to be my favorite lighting condition and I hope you like this example of that as well.

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Our dear friend of 40 years, Mort

Today's portrait of Mort 7.5x8 pencil and colored pencil

After a great weekend away with both our moms, we had overnight guests that have been friends forever, Mort and Mary. I asked Mort to sit for our portrait group since he'd celebrated his 80th birthday last month and I thought it would be a neat time to create a small personal work of art. He suffered through the 2 hours and managed to finish smiling, something I tried to capture a bit better than in person.

Blissful Bluffs

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I had a most delightful weekend taking the class I mentioned earlier and here is another watercolor. The teacher had me make a sketch from my photo (the weather was terribly cold so I stayed indoors) and then put my photo away. I worked from my black and white sketch and did my best to come up with colors that were true to life and interesting. In reality the background bluff was darkest but I wanted to push it back, so here you can see all 3 images. Working under another person's tutelage is a bit like working with your non dominant hand as I mentioned the other day, but still a great experience. Hope to see his influence finding its way into my subsequent work!

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Keeping Watch

 

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I'm taking a watercolor class this weekend from a painter named Michael Reardon here at the Mendocino Art Center. I really like his clearly defined shapes and values plus his masterful and colorful grays. It was terribly cold and foggy today but I forced myself to join the group and paint the tree behind the center. It was challenging because not much comes naturally when you're trying to remember the things that the teacher told everyone to do. Kind of like painting with your less dominant hand or something, as a way to describe the experience. Anyhow, here is my effort and it's fun to tell you that I still love the process of learning, stretching and growing.

 

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