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

In Montana again...

There have been at least 6 days where I have had no internet connection nor have a I had phone service out here in Montana. We were in Yellowstone and Big Sky surrounded by Mountains, Horses, Blue Sky and Bears apparently. I have seen more BEars of all sorts in the last few days than I care to see again. it was a truly amazing experience and totally frightening at the same time. It is all so beautiful and detoxifying for the brain. I find myself withe clearer thoughts and visuals as we walk around just looking at all this nature. The kids are having an amazing time and we are all in love with this other world out here.
There are these rich pools from the hot springs that calcify and create layers of white and colors of aqua and pale pink or bright orange. I feel some inspiration from these forms and will be making some small works on paper based on these. For now I will not be attaching images, but soon, very soon. I am still soaking it all in, little by little at a much slower pace.

The Whale

I think it looks like a whale... this new painting and the name fits because it is 10 feet square! I did it, finally, the big mother of a painting that has now had 3 lives!
1st life... As a set for a shoot with Brian Doben on teh Knot, thank you for letting me keep the canvases, the picture are amazing!
2nd life: a very subtle serene painting that got re-worked by myself, Herb, Chris and his gorgeous boyfriend (always forget his name, his face is too cute). After my little opening a few weeks ago the painitng got out of hand and the painting that was transformed into a  drunken purge of creativity. I feel in the paint and broke my ass, went to bed and woke up with quite a mess to resolve. I am happy to have such a  story to tell though...
3rd life: so now "The Whale" it is a reworking of the canvas with oil paint in thick layers to cover up what lies beneath, but there are a few windows in "the whale" where you can see parts of what happened. I like that there is history in these layers, lets see what happens next!

painted jars

I bought these beautiful hand painted vessels from Stand up comedywww.shopstandingup.us
by this artist Stephanie Dearmond. I love her work and these are my new favorite objects as well as my darling little Zana's. She can not keep her hands off of them she loves them so much she wants to bang them together like tambourines, needless to say they have gone to the shelf that is totally out of reach now.

paper stacks

So now that I am close to the Pratt art store I am in heaven! Their paper section has ben exceptionally pleasing with its large scale thick white watercolor papers, but now I found on a shelf all messed about, a stack of the this pastel paper that has a gritty, sandy texture on it, with the perfect white border. I just bught every piece they had and then ordered some more.
I absolutely love it and have been having a lot of fun working on it. It is also easy to care in rolls on my bike down Myrtle avenue which is very important, canvases not so much...

Bluetan

So I moved into th new loft over by Brooklyn Navy Yard and I am out walking with the girls one lovely spring evening. I stumble upon this amazing space filled with great artwork and it is across the street from my house.
These guys are amazing artists and super nice people on top of it. They came to my little dinky opening in tribeca even though they had to go to another 5 events that evening. Thanks guys. They had one the next night but I could not attend due to the fact that I slipped in oil paint the night before in my 3 inch heels and broke my ASS! I am not kidding, it is somewhat embarrassing.
Anyhow here are some of my favorite works, check them out, I hope we will get the chance to show together in september.
Cheers

in a paper bag

I find great comfort in the littlest things. I love the brown paper from brown paper lunch sacs. I used them when I was kid. I packed them myself full of peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches , apples and whatever else was available that day. It is a completely impractical material for such a  lunch, the grape jelly would always seep through, Anyhow, I have been working on these new paintings and using a lot of brown paper from paper bags. I love it as a material mixed with the texture of paint.
There will be 6 new works all together  at the end of htis month not including my largest 10' x 10' which I will photograph tomorrow. I hope these upcoming shows are properous in many ways. I am hoping to continue this work and be more frequently painting. It brings me great joy to do so...
here is a new one finished today