Maui and Andy Warhol- what a combo :)

So this painting is of a look out point of the ocean on Northern Maui right before a heavy rain. I really wanted to play with the abstract quality of the water and with the light of the storm. I went to Hawaii this last year and I am so ready for some nice weather. It seems that I can see some signs of spring. This one is still a work in progress. :)

I just watched the documentary series Andy Warhol's Factory People. And I totally fell in love with some of Andy Warhol's drawings. Here is one in the MOMA . Look at how adorable that little bird is :) He did these type drawings before the Factory was open but they used to sell for $25-50 bucks. Crazy huh?

I seem to have found my motivation and I have a few projects coming up for this spring/summer.

Creative thoughts to everyone out there.

Bend

Tim and I are in Bend, Oregon. for a long weekend. We love to come out more often but it is over a 3.5 hour drive from Portland and going over the snowy mountain is always stressful. We usually stay at my parents cabin in Bend. My mother hides these plastic owls all over the inside and outside of the house that have motion sensors on them and they howl at you if you get to close. My mother thinks that it protects the house from burglars. They really freak out the dogs :)

Usually when I travel I have a travel kit with water color set, pens, etc. But this trip I needed to do some oil painting for the upcoming Love Show, since I have been putting off this painting for some reason. This is one of the few open shows where anyone can be apart of it and there are over 300 artists participating this year.

So I decided to painting the perfect essence of Love. PBJ ! Always a match made in heaven. Personally I am a creamy peanut butter fan and black or raspberry fan. I do prefer my PBJ to have potato chips in the middle for that extra yummy crunch.

No pants

This week I am starting on a larger panel and I have been looking through my sketchbooks and pictures and I really want to do do some kind of beach painting. I think this cold and gray weather is really getting to me because all I can think about is sunshine.. warm.. and beach. This point in winter all I can think is- Are we there yet? Ready for summer!

Here is a quick study of a cranberry vodka, that I painted yesterday. Yum!

Over the weekend I went to an event called the"No pants subway ride," since Portland doesn't have a subway, we have the Max. So there was about 50 people in their undies and grundies walking around downtown Portland. Yes those are leopard and no that is not me. :)

2010 and Santacon

Welcome 2010! 2009 has gone by so incredibly fast and has hosted some significant changes in my life. I went on a leave of absence from my finance job to focus full time on my painting. I have been painting since I was in high school and have always loved art. About 5 years ago I decided that I would try and sell and show some of my work and since then I have only gotten busier and busier. I used to come home from my day job and paint until about 11-12 o-clock at night and weekends I was in my studio. So my husband and I decided at the end of 2009, it was time to make a change.

I have embarked on a new series of work of unusual events or maybe I should say usual events I have been doing a lot of thinking about what is going to be our generations thumb print? What are they going to say in the future about our generation and community. I know that our economy and our society's use of resources has played a major impact of what our thumb print is. What about the joy? What about our community? Here is the first painting in my latest series... "the makings of Santacon"

Santacon is an event that you have to dressed up as Santa to attend. It is a very secret society event were they announce the the meeting spot a few days before but do not release the route until the day of the event. Santacon does take place all over the world but here it is in Portland.

Much luck, success and adventure to everyone in 2010.