Desert Diamond is a new work that I created based on my trip to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena with painting pal Otto Sturcke.  We both took our cameras and arrived back at the studio with a treasure trove of photos and ideas for a floral series which we have both been working on in the last two months. 

I decided to take a chance and enter this painting in the California Art Club 18th Annual Juried Associate Artist exhibition, Precious Gifts, at the Historic Blinn House in Pasadena.  Today, I received a letter informing me that it had been juried into the show.  The exhibition dates will be from December 5, 2009 - April 14, 2010

"I am following Nature without being able to grasp her...I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."
Claude Monet



Otto at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena

Nils draws Jack Skellington

My students bring me great joy as I watch their skills grow by leaps and bounds.  It is sometimes difficult to get them focused after a long day at school.  Nils, whose work is shown above, is a budding cartoonist with an intense drive to create. He runs into class each week with a sketch book full of ideas and cartoon characters many of which are his own creations.  My entire class loves Tim Burton and his characters so in our last class we took black paper and using white pastel pencils paid homage to his brilliant "Nightmare before Christmas." The use of white on black caused us to reverse our thinking and step outside of our artistic comfort zones. I  marveled at their inventiveness and compositions.  I went home feeling fulfilled and excited to have played a positive role in their artistic development. 


Here they are working away. Thank you Tim Burton for inspiring a whole new group of young artists.

I am busy this spring teaching and enjoying plein aire landscape painting.  Hopefully, I will be posting some finished work in the next couple of months.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”  - Thomas Merton

Have a wonderful spring and thank you for viewing my site!

Sincerely,

Margie

One of the true pleasures in my life is to teach children the joys of art.
A recent project for them was to paint a sea creature of their choice. I was beaming
with pride at their working sketches for their paintings.
Below is a photo of my student Carlos with his sketch! He did a wonderful job and later
drew a detailed sketch of a race car which before the "do the large shapes" lecture,
he would have never attempted. 


Carlos with sketch of his shark

Lately, I have been working in acrylic and studying with  master painter and teacher Joe Cibere.
I have started a small series of ocean and sky paintings which I hope to share with  you.



The bold approach and quick results are a rewarding change from my more methodical and detailed slow glazed oil paintings.
Please keep in touch and let me know what is new with you.

Walk in beauty,
Margie

Thank you for supporting me in my artistic endeavors. 

"MY HEART LEAPS UP"

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

Wordsworth    1802.

I'm only trying to do what I can't do." (Lucian Freud)

I love this quote from Lucian Freud.  This seems to be my journey in art as I struggle with complex subject matter and new materials.  The struggle makes the journey exciting and satisfying when a painting and drawing is successful.

This past week, my student Carlos brought to class an action figure and with his mother's encouragement a model car for the background.  He decided that the car would be too difficult.  After coaxing him to try to draw it, he did a magnificent job.  I would have a picture to share but he ran out class to quickly to show his mother that indeed he could draw the car!  I will take some shots of student work to put in a future blog.  Carlos reminded me not to play it safe and to rise to the challenge.  The rewards are sweet.

The image above is a detail from a painting that I am determined to finish this week.

Have a wonderfully happy summer.

Peace,

Margie