Cabernet

This has been a busy week so I've only done a small palette knife painting this week.  I am going to be at an art show on Thursday and I've been trying to get a bunch of silk paintings framed.  If you are in So Cal and would like to spend a relaxing day watching about 20 artists painting and displaying their art in a beautiful park, come on by.  The art show is a part of the annual Tustin Garden Tour.  If you are interested in coming to the art show, it is free.  If you want to attend the garden tour, the cost is $30.00 and you can buy tickets that day.  There are 3 gardens on the tour and they are all really beautiful.  One of the gardens is across the street from the park where the art show is being held and you can buy tickets there.  The park is on Lower Lake Drive, North Tustin, CA so just go maps.google.com and input that and it will show you the spot.  It doesn't work in mapquest for me.  The event will be held from 10:00 - 3:00.

Cabernet
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Sold

Fanciful Fish

This looks like a silk painting, doesn't it?  Well, it's not.  It's actually a watercolor that I did a long time ago.  This was way before I'd ever even heard about silk painting but I guess even then I liked the effect of the white lines and graphic quality this technique gives.  This was done without any resist.  I painted around all of the white lines which are about 1/16" wide.  I don't think I could do that now.  My eyes aren't as good as they used to be nor do I have the patience anymore.  I should try this design in silk and see how different it looks.

Mt. Fuji From the Golf Course

Here is a small palette knife painting that I did to submit to the Virtual Paintout challenge.  This month's location is Japan.  I found this beautiful view of Mt. Fuji from a golf course (hence the name) .  Can you imagine golfing in such a beautiful spot?  It would be like you were walking around in a post card.

All of the palette knife paintings that I've done so far have been 6" x 6" as is this one.  I am currently working on a 16" x 20" and it's really fun to be painting one so much larger.  I'm still using the same size palette knife which is only about an inch long.  I should probably switch to a larger on but I feel really comfortable with the small one therefore it's taking quite a long time to finish the painting.  It's also hard to get used to mixing so much paint.  It's amazing how much paint it takes when using the palette knife.

I've been thinking about cake a lot this week as I'm "frosting" my canvases.  I thought I'd gotten away from having that image in my head when I use the palette knife but it's returned with a vengeance this week.  I need to be sure that I'm not hungry when I'm painting or I might end up at the local bakery.

Mt. Fuji From the Golf Course
Image Size 6" x 6"
Oil
Unframed

Peter's Canyon - Silk Painting

I'm going to enter this silk painting in a local juried show in a couple of weeks.  If it gets selected, it will hang in Chemers Gallery in Tustin for two weeks.  If you are an artist living around Orange County, CA, you still have time to enter the competition.  Go to tustinart.blogspot.com to get the information and entry form.  The painting has to be a scene from Tustin, North Tustin or Peter's Canyon to be eligible.  The entry form and fees are due April 16th and the artwork is to be delivered between April 20th to 23rd for judging.  How it is framed is very important.  It needs to be a plain black or dark stained color frame.  If you have any doubts, take the frame into the gallery for an okay.

I have one more painting I want to do for this show so hopefully it will be done by next week.  It will probably be an oil painting but might be another silk painting.  I like to enter silks into this show because the judging is separated between amateur and professional rather than by medium.  Nobody ever knows into which category the silk paintings belong.  They usually get put into general (if there is that category) or mixed media ( which it's not).  To me, it seems like they belong in the watercolor/water media category because the dyes are water soluble but I've never had anyone agree with me on that.  What do you think?

Peter's Canyon

Image Size 21.5" x 31"

Silk dyes on silk