Red Apple

Red Apple – 5" x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

I really like this simple painting because of the folds of the dishtowel. The white of the dishcloth reflected into the shadow area of the apple creating some fun reflected light.

On a side note, my office is in the midst of a move so unfortunately I have not had much time to sketch during my lunch break, because I have not really had one lately L. Though this is not keeping me back in working on sketching, in the evenings I have been working on some contour line sketches and something I am calling “memory sketch exercises”. These memory exercises consist of me viewing some photos I have recently taken of tourists in the DC area. I look the photos for a full minute or so and then reduce the image and sketch what I can from memory. After I am complete, I then restore the photo preview and in another color ink pen, draw the person more accurately over my original memory sketch. These exercises are helping me build my memory skills in remembering fleeting scenes and images I like. I was talking with Danni Dawson about this today in my painting class, and she said that with time this skill of recalling and remembering gets to be more natural and of a second sense. So hopefully my mind will start to understand this game and improve on remembering what I see. So if a person I am sketching does stand up and walk away, I will still have the image in my mind enough to sketch the gist of what interested me in the scene in the first place!

Three Lemons

Three Lemons – 5" x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

This is a small study of a larger composition I have begun. It will be another “frieze” painting this time in a 1:2 ratio. I really like working on paintings that have analogous color palettes, there is something soothing in them.

Thanks, Liz

Standing Figure

Untitled (Standing Figure) – 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

This figure painting is a fun and exciting piece for me. I completed it during one of my figure painting classes with Danni Dawson, she pushed me to see and interpret the different colors on this beautiful woman. With this painting, I treated the female as a whole being, rounded and with volume, then to push the painting more towards a modernist feeling I flattened the background. I feel it makes the figure more dynamic and while also creating an environment that only she belongs in.

Thanks, Liz

Memory Sketch Exercise

Graphite, Cachet bound sketchbook 8-1/2” x 5-1/2”

I have recently subscribed to Katherine Tyrrell’s blog and this Sunday her post listed another blog by Vivien Blackburn, who had attended a lecture by Liz Minichiello where at the end of the presentation everyone was given a sheet of paper and encouraged to illustrate there day from memory in 12 squares/rectangles. Vivien shared her cartoon depiction and encouraged other bloggers to do the same. This exercise really captured me, and I set out to complete it on my lunch break on Monday, however I found this to be more time consuming and challenging than I had anticipated. So 1-1/2 lunch breaks later here is my cartoon sketch of Friday, April 18, 2008. And the summation of my day:

- I am awoken by husband, Steve

- We share a few slow moments over tea and coffee before starting the day

- I slowly get ready for work, brushing my teeth, washing my face… the usual drill

- Commuting to work in traffic, not so bad for a raining Friday morning…

- Morning presentation with clients and consultants

- Lunch break at the Georgetown waterfront, where I sketch and watercolor

- Afternoon spent at the computer working on project and meeting minutes from morning’s meeting

- Leave work and drive to National Mall to meet Steve for our Friday night outing/date

- We meet up at the Lincoln Memorial, check out the site and read Lincoln’s second inaugural speech

- Picnic on the steps near the reflecting pool facing the Washington Monument and the Capital Building

- After our dinner, we return to the Lincoln Memorial, sketch in the fading light

- Go to sleep after a long and rewarding day with our kitty, Slim, cuddled at the foot of our bed

After working on this exercise I now realize that there are areas of draughtsmanship I need to focus on to improve my ability to remember and record the surroundings around me. I will continue to do different exercises that work the mind. If anyone has any suggestions, please comment and share. I figure I am not the only one in the blog-o-sphere that would like to know more about drawing memory exercises.

Here is a ink sketch I did after I finished the cartoon series during today’s lunch. I was using ink to make me see better and be more definite in my drawing judgement, as there is no erasing with ink….


Black Ink , Cachet bound sketchbook 8-1/2” x 5-1/2”

Zoomed in Dogwood Bloom

Dogwood Bloom (Zoomed in) – 6" x 6" Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

Here is another dogwood bloom. I really like these flowers, they are so pretty and simple, though I am learning not so easy to paint… simplicity can be deceiving sometimes.

Another Frieze Painting

Apple Frieze – 5-1/2” x 24” Oil on Canvas

This is the second frieze painting I have competed of a series I began earlier this year. I have been working on it since February. In this painting I have utilized the new techniques I have been learning from Danni Dawson and I have also been using glazes. The small paintings I sell on Ebay are typically painted in the alla prima manner very directly, where with this painting I would work on it for a few hours or a day and then have to wait for the paint layer to dry before I could commence on the next step I wanted to take.

I am hoping to get this painting into a juried show in the DC area, I will keep you posted if this ever occurs...

Here is a detail of the painting.

Dogwood Blooms

Dogwood Blooms – 6" x 6" Oil on Canvas Panel

In the DC area the dogwoods are blooming. They are such pretty and delicate flowers, I love how they just sprout from the end of the stems surrounded with little green leaves.

Midday Break – Sketching in Georgetown

Pencil and watercolor – Holbien multimedia sketchbook 9-1/4” x 6-1/2”

The last page of this sketchbook… I love the feeling that drawing on the last page makes me feel like. I sense of accomplishment, however it also is a moment of sadness, like leaving an old friend…

# 3 of the Lady Apples

Lady Apples Color Study #3 – 6" x 6" Oil on Canvas Panel SOLD

This is the final of the three paintings. I zoomed out the most on this one and incorporated the striped pattern of the dishcloth I had as the background all along. I like how the blue striping accentuates the blue tones in the shadows, they were always there, and however I saw them more in this painting.

Midday Break – Sketching in Georgetown

Pencil and watercolor – Holbien multimedia sketchbook 9-1/4” x 6-1/2”

Here is a view of Roslyn across the Potomac River from Georgetown. This lady was taking her lunch while I was sketching the scene, and she finished her lunch shortly after I had blocked in the drawing and packed up and left. So the color notes of her clothes were from memory and choices that reinforced the colors of the scene. I was surprised to notice that the tree had orange-red buds. This is my first spring to notice that when trees are coming out into leaf that often they are colors other than the green they will be in full summer.