Drive across Sheep Mountains

"West of the Sheep Mountains"
7" x 11"
Original Watercolor

Last weekend my husband and I drove across the Sheep Mountain range just north of Las Vegas. The wildflower updates on desertusa.com reported spectacular blooms up on this range and the reports were right. This is a scene near Corn Creek Field Station at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The creosote bushes were in full bloom and their yellows next to the delicate blues and lavendars of the mountains were irresistible for painting.

We took 7 hours to drive across this range on the Mormon Pass Road mainly because we stop so often to sketch or photograph. The beavertail and hedge hog cactus were blooming in the foothills and up higher the yuccas were putting on a show. But the best color was on the east side of the range where the fields of marigolds, larkspur and globe mallow stretched for miles. We even found claret cup cactus glowing with flowers on the rock walls of Peek-A-Boo Canyon. It was a wonderful spring day in the Mojave Desert.

Sketchbook Pages

Boulder City Fine Art Festival 2009

Bill and I and Liz had a great time this past weekend out at the Boulder City Fine Art Festival in Boulder City, Nevada. It is sponsored by the Boulder City Art Guild and held on the shady lawns of Bicentennial Park. There were over 80 artists there, all of whom are creating art that is thought-provoking, genuine and well-made. We had many good conversations with our fellow artist-neighbors as well as the art patrons. Some of the conversations were quite light-hearted and funny while others were discussions on the current state of art education in the schools.

This is a photo of me walking back to our booth after being presented with the Cliff Segerblom Award. Cliff Segerblom was chief photographer for the Bureau of Reclamation Hoover Dam Project. Mr. Segerblom, as a photographer and a painter, and his wife Gene Segerblom, as a teacher, writer and historian, have a long history of service to southern Nevada. During my years as exhibition chairman for the Nevada Watercolor Society I had the pleasure of presenting this award to several accomplished artists. So it was an honor to be awarded with this distinction myself. I also had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Mrs. Segerblom during the art show. Nevada is fortunate to have such supporters of the arts in our state and I am most grateful for this award.

This is a photo of an 18"x 24" watercolor titled "Sky Blue Pool". The photo shows the painting along with the ribbon which was part of the Cliff Segerblom Award which I received at the Boulder City Fine Art Festival. The painting shows a tranquil pool of rainwater I came across out at Valley of Fire State Park and my interpretation of the scene. 

Featured on Brush - Paper - Water!

Chris Beck has graciously picked my blog to be featured on her blog Brush - Paper - Water. The feature is going up tonight and will probably be available for viewing on Wednesday. This is a great honor as the other artists she has chosen in the past to showcase on this blog are all so imaginative and accomplished in their bodies of work. Chris' paintings are so beautiful, she works in a contemporary realist manner with a perfect compositional design sense, not to mention so much of her work is playful and inventive. Thanks so much again, Chris, for your confidence in me and my work. Here's the link again, http://brush-paper-water.blogspot.com/

"Afternoon Iris" Original 5 x 7 watercolor

"Afternoon Iris"

5 x 7

Original Watercolor

$65

I haven't been able to get out and paint on location the past couple of weeks for a few reasons. We've had very strong winds here in Las Vegas for quite a while and that put a damper on a couple of weekends. Also, I've been working fervently on new large studio paintings (and all the framing that goes along with that) to show at the Boulder City Fine Arts Festival on April 18th and 19th. I was determined, however, to get out of the studio and paint and so, I took my watercolors and moved to the dining room. I set a vase of flowers up on an old chinese chest we keep in front of a picture window, pulled up a chair, and painted this little watercolor. The background is from my imagination as the view out from the window behind the flower was actually our backyard block wall. Thankfully the winds have finally died down some and we'll be able to go on our regular jaunts once again.

Nevada Watercolor Society Hosts Studio Tour

Above, left to right, myself, Cheryl , Jan Schaeffer, Karen Saberzadeh, Darragh Goodsite, and Maria Frank

On Saturday, March 14 the Nevada Watercolor Society hosted a studio tour as a fundraiser for our upcoming Western Federation Exhibition. Local artists Dottie Burton, Sheila Spargo and I opened our studios and had the pleasure of greeting over 35 friends and fellow painters. This is a photo taken in my studio with one of the earlier groups to arrive. I had one of my large desert watercolors on my painting table and was able to use it to illustrate how I paint the underglaze effects before flowing on the large washes which complete my paintings. My guests asked so many good questions and it was a pleasure answering them all. I also shared my framing room and other areas of the house where we have paintings on display.

My husband and I spent a few weeks getting ready for this tour by polishing up the house and doing gardening. But the biggest area to receive the spring cleaning was of course the studio. I had not done a good organizing in there in years and so this was the perfect incentive to get it done. I even found old portfolios full of drawings and paintings that I thought I had lost years ago! It was a great day full of art, food and conversations with a very diverse group of artists.

Sketchbook Pages

These flowers were sketched from the centerpiece we placed on the dinning room table during the studio tour. My daughter set up the veggie and fruit plates, drinks and the bouquet. She did a beautiful job as hostess. More magenta colored lilies from this bouquet opened during this past week and I couldn't resist sketching them in the mornings after breakfast.