Back to School

This is a monthly newsletter about my current artwork, influences, past projects, and upcoming exhibitions, often with some personal content thrown in. I will also include announcements when prints or originals are up for sale.

So much exciting news! Most importantly, I joined a wonderful 12-person group studio, Workspace Artists. I have a huge, beautiful studio in the back—with lots of diffuse natural light but no direct daylight, which are perfect  conditions for a watercolorist (watercolors are more light-sensitive than other paints).

This means that I’ll be doing San Francisco Open Studios there this year—and that you’ll get to see the other artists’ work along with mine. Please mark your calendars, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, for Saturday and Sunday, October 19th and 20th. The studio will be open to the public from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM both days. The studio is right next to Balboa Park MUNI and BART lines, and there’s easy street parking, too. I’ll post more details next month.

If you’ve been following along for a few months or more, your next question is going to be about what new artwork I could possibly have available, given the fact that I’ve just had a baby. Well, I went back to work a few weeks ago and I’ve already finished two new paintings. I have a very ambitious schedule for this fall, so I’m hopeful that there will be lots of new original paintings (and prints) to see and buy by the time Open Studios weekend rolls around.

Here’s what’s on my schedule for the next few months:

I’ve started a series of “Non Sequiturs”—superimposed object pairs that were selected randomly, with no obvious relationship to one another. One I finished last week: “Desert Dreadnought”, using references from the Sonoran Desert in Mexico and the H.M.S Dreadnought of the British Royal Navy, 1906. I’m hoping I’ll have finished all four by October.

Desert Dreadnought, ink and watercolor on paper.

It turns out I’m not quite done with my Insect/Flower series. I began “Dragonfly x Anthurium x Nymphaea” last week, and spent a wonderful two hours in the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, sketching reference for the rainforest plants. I am still saving the originals of this series for a solo show, but prints will be available at Open Studios.

I want to do at least three more composite landscapes. I’m planning to make “Coastlines”, “Rivers” and “Cities” composites, working from on-site sketches and photographs from my past travels.

I’m not hopeful that I’ll actually accomplish this one before Open Studios Weekend, but I really want to do a big painting of 4-5 superimposed lighthouses. I miss making paintings of architecture and other built environments.

Lastly, four of my landscapes will be up until Tuesday at “That Farthest Point”, the group landscapes exhibition at Four Barrel. “Canyons” has sold, but three are still for sale, and there are gorgeous pieces by Inga Poslitur, Victoria Veedell, Heather Martin, and Laurie Wigham. Don’t miss it!

Clockwise from top left: “Hills”, “Mountains”, “Canyons”, and “Shores”. Ink and watercolor on paper.