just some normal every day stuff

I am in a small town in Michigan shooting with Country Living this week and back home Sunday. I miss my little family and was thinking that I would share some photos I have been taking of them over the last few months here. My two beautiful daughters could be the most amazing works of art I have ever taken part in creating adn I am just lucky to have such an amazing boyfriend I am back home sunday night and will be getting back to work on some new paintings or should I say finishing some new paintings, but for now, some gorgeous faces, afterall they are a huge part of my inspiration to make things in general.

New work in my little far away house

I know, I know, I have been terrible at keeping up at this. I thought I would have so much more time on my hands to keep this going once I moved, but in actuality I am so much busier travelling back and forth between here and whatever coastline I am attending on a given week, that I have been terrible.
But I have been working, painting and drawing, throwing a lot of things away, but keeping a few. I have two fresh canvases in front of me as we speak that are blank and ready for me, and I can't wait to get started, but my little one Zana has whooping cough and can't stop coughing and I have training this afternoon so it might have to wait until later when I have a glass of wine in hand the humidifier is going full blast for the cough and I have re-heated the Indian food I made last night as a repeat for dinner again...

Here are some new pieces though, they are not as colorful as they usually are, but I like them that way for now....

the alphabet

here are some sketches and random works on papers to begin an alphabet series.... some of these were collaborations with Herb. Let's just say that my part is the messy part and his is the cleaner part. We have different styles....  I am going to do an alphabet series on paper first and then work them into larger canvases.  I am also very into the black on black and grey on grey which will go into the" black, white and blank series " I am forever working on
a....b.... c...d..........................

Lost in the Mountains and domestic bliss

It has been quite some time since I last said or showed anything here. Happy New Year to everyone, I am pretty sure it will be a great one!
So I made the move to  Montana, in Missoula and have been working head down on this very small farm house that sits on a nice chunk of land at the base of a mountain in "the Rattlesnake Canyon". we have a creek running through the yard, that of course is frozen solid right now and buried under many, many inches even feet of snow. It is cold and wintery and beautiful and bright. I am very much in love with my most wonderful boyfriend Herb and my two daughters are happy to be exploring a different life in a world of outdoor bliss. There have been trips to hotsprings, cross country skiing,  snow tubing, tons of cooking experiments and winter marshmallow roasting on the dock at the cabin on the lake. It is nice to feel like my life is changing in a way that I can have a more even distribution of focus between family, love, work and just doing new things.
In a few weeks I will be showing pictures of the inside of the house, but here is a photo of it from the outside, "our little house".

And then there is work, new work.

works on paper mostly, new canvases are in process. I will be working in San Francisco next week and am hoping to have some great things to show you from there, but promise to be back in the saddle sharing what I am making and doing more often.

two new paintings

I have finally had some time to make some new works on canvas. I was struggling a bit with some of the smaller sized ones, but I made two that I really liked. it is a new color scheme on one of them. They are both very light and airy, a new thing for me...
off to Montana again, loving it...

new discoveries

I recently went to a clients house to look at some artwork and was stunned and thrilled to see this beautiful work on paper hanging on the wall. The colors were rich and saturated. The lines were rough and edgy, but the solid shapes were strong and full of purpose.
I was given the artists name and some links and have been researching him. His work is beautiful. he died a few years ago, but his work can be seen all over the place, but most especially at a museum dedicated to him in Spain. The link is above.
Here are some of my favorites. I was very excited to come across this art, it really is so beautiful!

friends and art in Montana

As everyone knows, I have been spending a lot of time out west this last year and have fallen in love with Montana as a very beautiful place. I have also made some amazing friends who are both lovely people as well as talented, I am always in awe of people who can paint realistically and Mark Gibson is one of them. His sense of light and texture with oil paints is incredible to me. He has a great sense of detail and dedication to his subject, as well as an impeccable sense of humor! His wife Lisa, whom I adore is quite talented on many fronts fro P.R. to managing a family, also makes jewelry, which I love. I don't have tons of images for her work, but hope to get some more up soon. Together with their two gorgeous children Josie and Cal, they are quite the family. They are always working on new projects so check them out from time to time...

"black, white and blank"

I mentioned before that I was working on some sketch books whilst in Montana. I had planned to work on more but the kids took over most of the day and then there was a lot of wine and grilling to be done in the evening. I had a few lovely days in the sun where I was able to do some drawing and painting and I like the simplicity of it. There are few colors and the bright white against the creamy almost yellowed paper is just gorgeous to me, but the white lines on the dark blue gray forms of paint are my new favorite things to make.

I have a few projects in the works right now and after I send of Kodie to summer camp tomorrow and finish my shoot early this week I will be getting back to work on some of these things.

But here are some pages to view from my new book "black, white and blank".

the cover of the book

and then what...

brunch and tea towels

So we went for brunch at Pam and Jim's place this morning which was super delicious (thank you Pam!) and Pam who is an awesome stylist had this amazing tea towel with this yellow cross hatch pattern on it that is probably my favorite color yellow and so I looked it up to copy her and buy the same thing! This place is amazing, they make really beautiful stuff. The illustrations on everything are really great and simple and the colors are lovely. Here is the link, can't wait to get my stuff in the mail!

Back in NY for a few weeks

I arrived back to NY 2 nights ago and it was quite a shock to the system. I went straight back into shooting the next day and that was fun, but a challenge to get my head around since I have just been surrounded by nothing but natural beauty and loud children for 3 weeks in Montana.
We saw so much and it was great inspiration for some sketches. I am heading to bed, but tomorrow I will post the new work I made when I was there this time. There were some drunken collaborations with myself and Herb, we aim to make more in a few weeks, maybe not at 3 a.m. this time...

Here is a photo from a bacteria mat in a hot spring in Yellowstone that I just love. I am working on a cnavas right now that is inspired by these formations, the colors and forms are beautiful