Brea Art Association

I recently joined the Brea Art Association and attended my first meeting. I may be helping them with some work on the newsletter and I put up a blog for them, just basic with some information. It's definitely a work in progress, not done yet, but better than the absolutely nothing they had before on the web. There are some very talented people there, wonderful artwork, but just not that many are comfortable with computers, like they are with their other mediums. The group has been around for quite a while, but right now is quite small due to the natural cycles that groups go through. Anyhow, they now have a blog! Maybe some of the members will want to get together and paint outdoors, which sounds like such a lot of fun to me.

B*B,

Ysabeau

Believing in myself

My husband bought me this easel set for Christmas several years ago. To me, it meant that he believed in me, that it was worthwhile for me to spend time painting, and learning to paint. He suggested (over and over, I resisted!) that I should think about taking a painting class at the local college. I finally did, and it was a great idea, but very hard for me to start doing it, I felt selfconscious and fearful that nothing I did would be any good. I was terrified, but I wanted to learn.

I found teachers that encouraged me, other students that were kind and fun to paint with, and more ways to play with my painting. I need to remember to believe in myself as much as possible, and not get stuck in fear or in the past.

B*B, Ysabeau

Student Art Show 2007 Fun!

Here I am blurrily receiving my unexpected award, the Marciano Martinez Scholarship, for the abstract watercolor below, called "Days of Chaos".

Here I am with my two pictures, and my friend Andres who won a special award for his oil painting portrait of a young woman.

Here is my finished "Building Trust" oil painting that took me about five weeks, the picture somehow doesn't show the colors well, but I really enjoyed doing it.

Submissions to the Student Art Show this year

This one isn't very large, but I liked the abstract quality and the depth I was able to get while still using lots and lots of color. When I matted it and framed it, I was pretty happy with it.

I saw a lot of the entries, and they were very good, so I don't have a great deal of hope that mine will be accepted, but I feel good about entering. I love seeing all the diverse pieces that everyone has done, we have so many talented students at school that you never know what you may see.

I submitted two more that I don't have pictures of yet, one was finished at the very last minute, but it was interesting so I managed to mat and frame it up, and it's there to be counted! Four pieces was the maximum you could submit this year.

This one was really hard to mat, I ended up centering it in a longer frame, which worked out pretty well.

B*B, Ysabeau

One of my Friendly Spider-eating Lizards

He posed for me, I took half a dozen pictures, and he'd move just a little bit, so I could get good pictures of him. I like my lizards.

B*B,

Ysabeau

Oil painting class

This is the underpainting for a painting I'm working on right now, with people working together to rebuild a footbridge across a damaged ancient stone bridge crossing a fast river with rocks. It's further along, now, and I'm having some fun with the individual people holding the rope.

The big stone hand is being carved - just a hand (?!) by the sculptor they hired for the annual visiting artist program. Last year it was a wonderful painter, who did an oil figure study, but I'm not wild about the stone hand. It's just weird... they are saying it will be a statement, but I don't understand what kind.

I'm really enjoying my oil painting class, of course learning a lot, and getting a lot of time putting paint on canvas, so eventually I hope to develop some skills. So far, I've done a waterfall, this bridge still in process, a glacier in process, and one that I just put some color on, and left it to dry. I like the texture and adaptability of oil, but like everyone else, it's hard to be patient with the long drying time of 2 days to 7 days, depending on how much paint and which color and brand you are using. It's slow, but very interesting, and I want to work on glazing techniques to finish this bridge one, because I think it will really enhance the light in the picture. I am reading what I can find on oilpainting, but one thing I am already discovering - everyone has a different opinion about what to use, and how to use it. They don't agree about anything. The advantage of that, is that I can try different techniques and see what I like to use.

I'm hoping that I can just keep learning and playing with oils, acrylics, and watercolors and enjoy them for a long time.

B*B, Ysabeau

Southern California Springtime

I love this time of year, the weather is wonderful, flowers are everywhere, and my local hummingbirds show thier young ones how to eat from the feeders and where the best flowers can be found, and I get to watch!

My hollyhocks are very happy this year, and I want to paint them.

In fact, I'm enjoying painting everything, in oils, watercolors and acrylics, figuring out what works for me in each medium and playing with color and texture. Today in class I worked on a middle stage on a picture involving a collapsed Roman bridge being rebuilt by a community of diverse people. Of course, it needs lots of work still. I also started a smaller picture that will probably end up as a sunset over water, but it's at a very early stage. Happy Springtime, everyone! B*B, Ysabeau