Sunday, April 29, 2012

Descanso Gardens

On a recent beautiful Sunday here in SoCal, I headed over to Descanso Gardens to play with my camera and do a little painting.  The flowers were beautiful and the light was gorgeous.  I definitely recommend a trip over there if you haven't been, it's only $8 and they have a tea garden, a camellia forest, a rose garden, California natives and more.




While there, I got to test out my new Koi Watercolor Sketch Kit.  I had to buy a new one, because I can't find my old one for the life of me, but it worked out, because I like this one quite a bit and it has more colors.  The brush is pretty neat too, it has a water reservoir in it.

I painted this:


It was fun to sit out on a bench in a shady spot and stare at a flower for a while.

I was doing a little research for a floral paper project that I am working on, and I went a little crazy with the flower pictures.  OK, now for an overload of pretty flower pictures.

The rose garden smelled amazing.

The branches in the canopy of the tea garden were like water flowing in the air.

Backlit camellias are the best.

Backlit flowers in trees are also pretty good.

That pink came from nature, nuff said.

I don't think I realized how much I liked camellias until walking through trees and trees of them in full bloom.

Tulips = spring!

There was a whole area full of lilacs, and their fragrance was overwhelmingly lovely.


Tiny little blossoms in a tree.


Saturday, April 21, 2012

New Leipzig School Inspiration

Back in early 2007 I went to an exhibition at the Frye gallery in Seattle of work from the New Leipzig School (Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection).  The stark and architectural nature of the work has always stayed with me and I decided to interpret this in a painting recently.

I'm not sure I love the results, but it was great to pick up a paintbrush again.


It's acrylic with some embroidered faceted things up in the corner, because what's blog art these days without facets?!

Some process pics.

I do like the color base though.


My favorite artist from the exhibit is David Schnell, the dreamy perspectival quality just draws you in.


In short, I've got a long way to go before I do any paintings that I'm super proud of, but one always has to start somewhere.