A Window and Camellias at Villa Montalvo

I saw this while walking around the Villa and thought it was so pretty I just had to paint it.

Easter Tea and a Vase of Calla Lilies

Today was Easter Sunday and I was blessed with painting together with my family. We didn't paint Easter eggs this time, but 6 of us learned Japanese brush painting together, then 3 of us continued with watercolor painting. The vase and lilies were my first attempt at ink painting, but I continued it on into a watercolor painting. I've been wanting to paint my tea set since I was inspired by my new friend Barbra and her teacup painting. This will be the first of many I hope. May God bless you all who read this. He is risen!

Filoli Garden House Tree with Tulips

Here's a different kind of painting for me. I saw this tree in a beautiful little garden house at Filoli in Woodside, CA. It captured my imagination and I just had to paint it. In front of the other window in this house was a very large birdcage with two doves in it (a subject for a matching painting to come.) Last year I thought I'd enter them both into a juried art show at Filoli. I planned early and started it well ahead of time. However, it turned out that they changed the subject of the art show to botanical flower paintings! Mine is more fanciful and not as realistic as they may want for a botanical painting, but I may just enter it anyway. What do you think?

From A to Z: Window View of a Garden and Beyond

Here it is. My step by step project of my Aunt's painting with a window scene. I had a few steps in between like drawing more details and then tracing over the drawing with a sepia pen and ink 005 permanent pen. The actual painting itself took 12 hours. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

My Adventure in Creating Aunt Cecile's Painting : Day 1

I started a new painting today and I thought I'd show step by step this time just how I'll do it.
Day 1: After choosing the reference material (from my reference file I've been updating for about 19 years and from my art books and home decorating books)(it took about 4 hours), I drew it out(that took about 2 1/2 hours). Here's the drawing I did on vellum paper. Christine and I had a wonderful time drawing and painting together. Check out Christine's blog too.