I am the TP Fairy

A nice thank you from Mr. Cheerful and Agreeable. Marriage to this (new) guy makes all parts of my life easier, today's painting included.

"Nectarine and Cherry," oil, 5x7 inches

A day in May

Forty-five years ago today, my daughter Andrea was born. Today I finished the little oil, "A Day in May."  Painting should not be harder than childbirth!

A Day in May, oil, 5x7 inches

morning at Gold Creek Pond

We spent this morning on a photo shoot at Gold Creek Pond near Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. Pristine water and air. Not sure when I'll get back to this kind of painting but I have some beautiful reference photos.

speechless

Mr. Cheerful and Agreeable has outdone himself and left me speechless. When I went out to the studio around 8 AM, look what I found!

Apparently, Jay got up at 5AM and made chocolate dipped strawberries for me. WHAT? I would NEVER have guessed he would think of doing that or that he would know how to make them. Not even any dirty dishes left in the sink! And, look at the message written on the foil wrapper of the chocolate bar. Wow. What a guy!

This nice surprise plus cards and calls from our kids - then a visit to our lake property - made a memorable Mother's Day for me.

Moving on?

I love the challenges I'm facing these days as I'm becoming reacquainted with oil paint. Here's what happened...

I've been playing around with oil paint for years but my primary medium for galleries and shows has been pastel. After a while, my landscapes in oil began to look very much like my pastel landscapes. Same look, just more trouble it seemed with brushes to wash, etc.

But when  I was introduced to the still life oil paintings of Qiang Huang, my interest in oil started anew and I am on a disciplined quest to learn to paint with control. Still life is an excellent subject for that now just as it was for me when I moved from the black and white work of fashion illustration to learning about color with colored pencil. For these little oil still life paintings, my goal is to handle the paint loosely with the hope that the viewer is still able to recognize the objects.

I'm painting with oil each day, my pastels are untouched. When the new issue of Pastel Journal arrived in the mail today, I was surprised to feel uninterested in reading it.

When a medium no longer holds challenges for me, I begin to get bored. That is what happened with colored pencil. I loved it and fully embraced it as my primary medium for a dozen years. Now it has been about a dozen years with pastel. Will my next dozen years be with oil? Sounds good today because I'm happy with this little painting of my father's shaving brush, the shells my son brought back from Europe for me, a sprig of dried Statice and a Chinese spoon that belonged to my first husband. The shells took a lot of trial and error which of course means I must paint them again in another painting.

Artists William and Elias

Friday evening we attended the reception for the Naramore 2014 Seattle Public Schools Middle & High School Art Show at Seattle Art Museum.

Our grandson William (14 yrs) had a painting juried into this prestigious event. William's painting is for sale directly from the artist, $500. After the reception, I took a photo of grandson Elias (12 yrs) with one of his paintings. We are so proud of the boys.

William Noah Foster, "Untitled," watercolor, Naramore 2014 Art Show at SAM

Elias Andrew Foster, "Untitled Aboriginal," tempera, 2014
Foster Family Gallery, Seattle, WA