Happy Holidays and a Merry New Year!

Time marches on and another year is passing. This blog has morphed into a sometimes thing that I'm not willing to give up on, but is obviously in some kind of limbo. I promise not to abandon it completely without notice, so expect little missives from time to time...

That said, I wish one and all a blessed season when we all can celebrate those people and things we hold most dear, and I wish you all health and good fortune in the coming year.

Crystal Cove Art Show

September has come and gone and October is bringing more shows and deadlines.
Crystal Cove State Park has an in-house fund raising component called the Crystal Cove Alliance, and a few times a year an art show and sale is mounted to raise money for the park and for the artists too. Crystal Cove Alliance Art Show.
Here are the four paintings I'll be showing at this year's autumn show:

El Moro Point
9 x 12 inches

Laguna Surf
9 x 12 inches

Lifting Fog
9 x 12 inches

El Moro Gold
16 x 20 inches

Ellie's Table

July has become August in the blink of an eye...
After the Back Bay Show in July, I took some time off from painting and spent some days helping my husband out at his booth at the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts. It's very beautiful and relaxing there and every evening there is live music. The picnic area in front of the bandstand fills up quickly and much wine drinking, eating and listening to great music ensues. After about 3 weeks though I became antsy to get back to work. I also received a good jolt of inspiration from one of my favorite artists, Frank Serrano. I signed up for a workshop with him for a weekend and I really got inspired!

Here is a painting I did of the restaurant Ellie's Table in San Clemente. It's based on a study I did there during the June San Clemente Plein Air Event I participated in, and was done as a possible commission.

SOCALPAPA PAINTS THE BACK BAY 2014

The long awaited week-end at the Back Bay is over and I had a wonderful time meeting old friends and making new ones. On opening night I was very honored to be given awards by both the Orange County Parks Dept., as well as the Newport Bay Naturalists. I also sold 5 paintings which of course becomes the icing on my weekend cake!

Here are the two paintings that received Honorary Awards, as well as the three others that went to new homes. All in all a wonderful event!

Afternoon Kayakers 12 x 16 inches
Newport Back Bay Robinson Award

Morning Reflections
9 x 12 inches
Best of the OC Parks Award

Morning Jog
11 x 14 inches

White Cliffs of Newport
9 x 12 inches

Early Flight
12 x 24 inches

Crystal Cove "Splash of Color Show"

First off, I need to make a correction to my previous post. The Back Bay Show takes place Saturday July19 & 20, not the 21st & 22nd as I wrote. There is a reception at the Muth Center Friday July 18 at 6pm.

Also occurring on the exact same weekend is a show at Crystal Cove. Reception July 18 at 4:30 and a show and sale both Saturday & Sunday from 10-4pm

Here are the three pieces showing at Crystal Cove Show, "Splash of Color"

Morning on the Porch
9 x 12 inches

Coming in for Some Shade
9 x 12 inches

A Place in the Shade
10 x 8 inches

Back Bay Paintings

Coming up the weekend of July 19 & 20, our local painting group celebrates it's Annual Socalpapa Paints OC Parks and the Back Bay. It's held every year in July on the grounds of the Muth Interpretive Center on University Dr. Newport Beach.

There is a juried component for which prizes are awarded, and a sale held on Saturday and Sunday. A percentage of all sales goes to benefit local school art programs as well as the nature center. If you live in the area, try and come by...

Here are my two entries for the juried portion this year:

Afternoon Kayakers
11 x 14

Morning Reflections

9 x 12

San Clemente Competition-Day 3 & 4

Time is just flying by! This past 10 days have been filled with Birthdays and mostly helping my husband to get ready for his big show at the Laguna Arts Festival. We are so excited for him and looking forward to a successful summer.
But, back to my week in San Clemente: The last two paintings I did, that I wanted to keep that is, were painted along the coast.
The first one I did on Tuesday 6/17. There is in San Clemente a beach trail, skirting the coast, running from north of the pier all the way down to San Clemente State Beach, totaling about 3 miles. This view is looking north, fairly early before the sun had risen to shine down on the cliffs. It is currently hanging at the San Clemente Art Association Gallery in San Clemente until August 1.
Shadows on the Beach Trail
14 x 11

 This second painting I did the next morning at the little park overlooking the pier.

Summer Morning
12 x 9

San Clemente Plein Air Competition - Day 2

On Monday the 16th I headed down to the Ole Hanson Beach Club very near the train station in San Clemente. Here is a brief description of it from the city's website:

The Ole Hanson Beach Club is an historic two-story public facility and adjoining public pool originally constructed in 1928. The building and pool are in need of structural rehabilitation and repair. The City is planning to repair and rehabilitate the building and pool and optimize the floor plan to allow the addition of an elevator while maintaining and restoring historic architecture.

I found so much to paint there. I started painting at 8am and didn't leave until 4pm.
Here is the first one I did. 
Ellies Table, a little restaurant across the street from the Bath-house
9 x 12 inches, Oil on Linen Board
.

My second effort was of this beautiful tree. I'm not sure what kind it is...maybe some kind of fig...It had a wonderful presence overlooking the sea, casting it's welcoming shadows.
"Playing in the Shadows"
9 x 12 inches, Oil on Linen Board

My late afternoon painting was of this beautiful tiled stairway.
The composition was inspired by one of my favorite artists: John Singer Sargent who did a similar painting of a stairway on the Isle of Capri.

"Ode to J.S. Sargent"
16 x 8 inches, Oil on Linen Board"

San Clemente Quick Draw

Greetings,
Yesterday began a week of Painting in San Clemente. This was from a Quick Draw, a timed painting event. For the next 4 or 5 days I'll be out painting different scenes in San Clemente...more to come...

Thanks for subscribing,
Judith

One Year Ago Today

Joel and I were very good tourists in Washington DC. I had purchased tickets ahead of time for a wonderful double-decker bus tour that you could jump on and off of depending on where you want to go. It was perfect!
So, our first day we hit all the main sites: The Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, and Jefferson Memorial. We both loved our visit and would go back in a heartbeat. The people were very friendly and helpful and the food was amazing! Plus, it was really easy getting around.

A Year Ago Today

This year I'm preparing for a week-long painting competition which starts this coming Saturday.
But last year, Joel and I had just arrived in Washington DC for a short stay before moving on to visit my Dad in North Carolina where we celebrated his 90th Birthday!

Here are two photos from our first day in DC...

A view from our plane as we approached Dulles Airport. I love taking photos from planes! These kinds of views remind me of childhood picture book illustrations of the checkerboard countryside of fairytales

This photo is of our first evening enjoying some good German Beer. I hadn't realized that I booked us into a German Style Hotel and Keller. What a pleasant surprise!

A Prodigal's Return

Greetings from the void! In April, as the one year date of my disappearance from the blog approached, I promised myself I would not let it pass without logging in and posting a comment on what I've been up to. And yet even that hallmark has passed and here I finally am facing this blank page trying to figure out what to say...

What began last April as a short break in order to paint and plan ahead for a mid-summer show because of an early summer vacation, turned into a late summer family emergency, then another early fall family emergency, which then morphed into a late autumn deadline, which grew into.....
You get the idea. Most recently it's been inertia. How does one start up a once comfortable and valued but long abandoned routine?

The answer is of course to just do it.
I've still been painting, still entering shows, and still trying to achieve something more.

Painting larger landscapes has taken up some of that time while the smaller still life work I began a few years ago has been put aside for now.

If you are still out there, I hope you will welcome this resumption of the blog as I welcome the chance to reach out once more.

I'll start off with what I've most recently worked on, and will throw in a bit of last year's work just to make sure all is covered.

Right now there are 2 exhibitions and 1 competition coming up in the next 2 months.

Here are three of the paintings I've submitted into the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association's "Best of Plein Air" Show...I'll know which one/s will be entered next week.

Trabuco Palm 8 x 10 inches

Rancho Night 9 x 12 inches

O'Neill Sycamores 11 x 14