Blogging interruption: Costa Rica

No regular art in this post.

We've been battling a lot of rain, too many hours in the car, and some lack of internet. And I personally have been battling two of my nemeses: spiders, and the impenetrable birds'-nest-Jewfro I get when it's humid.

In a zoo, not in the wild, these two. Nevertheless, it's one of the "good" zoos (or I would refuse to go). It's La Garita, and parrots and macaws are used for breeding and reintroduction programs.

Also at La Garita: a little turtle acrobatics.

Don't know what kind of plant this was, but it looked pretty freaky.

I love these guys, coatis (pizotes). They're the size of a raccoon, walk like a cat, have a mobile anteater nose, and big claws. One (who unfortunately had obviously been fed by humans, judging by his behavior) came up and nuzzled my hand. It felt just like a very wet and cold little dog nose.

The Husband (right) making sugarcane juice on an 1891 machine.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

And then she let go the balloon

Ugh. I am so not ready for this. 30 degrees F and waking up to this:

A small pastel from the other night. This was on my usual, Sennelier, but I have a question for you pastelists out there: I got a couple of sheets of Wallis paper to try, and cut some squares out to try prepping them with different colors of gouache underpainting (so, that includes water). I left them overnight and they curled up very badly, such that they are un-pastelable. Is Wallis not supposed to be used with water?

Miss Lemon just loves squishing her new adoptees. They never seem to mind.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

O'Keeffe style

I was looking at an O'Keeffe book yesterday and trying to analyze some elements of her style, what makes an O'Keeffe look like one. Then I set out to do something in her style last night. I'm no expert on her, but the things I noticed and tried to follow were: cropping; asymmetry; boldness; curves; negative space; lack of detail on big color areas; and that each shape and even each little part of a shape, including shadow shapes, have an interesting "arabesque" (line that's never boring, repeated, or symmetrical).

One thing I didn't do, of course, that she did, was blow it up to an exaggerated size. Working alla prima, I had to stick to a manageable size.

It was a really interesting experiment--so different than the way I usually paint--and I plan on trying at least one more in this style.

Blorp.

$115.00 - Two leaves (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Koi

These remind me a lot of the innumerable koi I saw while living in Japan for six months, about two decades ago.

Lynx looks so sad and lonely here. This is one of his younger shots.

$115.00 - Koi (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Light leaks from all things

Large abstract (36" x 36"). It's pretty dramatic in person.

Miss Lemon thinks Lynx has been hogging the limelight.

$925.00 - Light leaks from all things (no need to frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Couch inhabitant

I have been painting--furiously, even (unlike this small furry couch-corner inhabitant). But it's all been "putting on layers" onto abstracts, so nothing to show yet. I also just started (i.e., put my first layer onto) the largest piece I've ever attempted (40" x 60"); the blank canvas stared at me and intimidated me for a month. It's better once you actually get going on it.

I changed my blog subtitle to reflect the fact that I enjoy posting pics of my "animolecules" as much as I enjoy posting my art. Well, animals are art, too.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Giant's Causeway

A long time ago, I saw the famous basalt site on the northeast coast of Ireland called Giant's Causeway. Hence the title of this most recent abstract painting. (The Wikipedia photo doesn't give much idea of the outrageous scale of this natural rock formation, so when you look at the photo, keep in mind that the tallest of the columns is about 36 feet high.)

Feisty little CheeseMonster.

$1025.00 - Giant's Causeway (No need to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Small harvest / Lynx-in-a-box

This is what came out of our little vegetable garden yesterday.

...And this is what came out of a box.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Colored sphere studies in pastel

I did one of these as a little demo for a student last night, about using color as well as value to create a 3-D form. (She was using watercolor.) It was really fun, so after my student left, I just had to do a few more! Each sheet is 9" x 12", and yes, I know they're not perfectly round. :) Working on these made me want to try some more realism in pastels; I've done very little of that.

Sometimes you feel like a nut...

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Sunflowers 2

Cut these from our yard and painted them last night. These are the mini-kind of sunflower, each bloom only perhaps five inches across. Sunflowers are so nice to paint, I'll probably do some more before their season is over.


Sold.

That sunlight is a bit bright for naptime... (I love his plump white belly here.)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Forgotten oldie but goodie

Whoops! I'd forgotten about this one! This one was the last one I did in art school. I promise. :)

Little dude has become really naughty lately...

$265.00 - Squash and chilies (Framed)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Miniature jam pot and spoon

Finally had a nice loose painting night yesterday. This is a little jam pot that came with our breakfast on the plane from London, and which I pocketed (how embarrassing) in order to paint sometime...

People, it's very hot outside. Make sure you keep drinking lots of water...

$115.00 - Miniature jam pot and spoon (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Blue

36" x 36", oil on linen.
Sold.

This is a large oil abstract which got its final layer just before we left for London.


Lynx and Miss Lemon played extremely hard all morning, then collapsed in the afternoon. I think he looks like a lizard here.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Lynx-only post

Just had to share this with you Lynx-lovers. (Regular art programming will resume very shortly, not to worry.)

He was perched on the very edge of the couch and started falling asleep... Yes, he did eventually topple off backwards, after a lot of weaving and nodding. (He was just fine.)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

White pattypan

Saw this funky bizarro white pattypan squash at the farmers' market, thought, Wow, I'd love to paint that!, bought it for two bucks, started painting it, wished I hadn't. Ugh. It nearly killed me. My friend/artist/neighbor Sam would say, "It turned on me." Don't ever let me paint another one of these.

Couldn't find the little fluffinmuffin today. Finally located him napping on the stairs. Notice the tiny black tippytail hanging down.

$115.00 - White pattypan (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

White peony 2

Sold.



Since I've gotten back, I've been doing some abstract oils work ("putting layers" onto some stuff, so nothing new to show yet). Here's a white peony from our yard from...when?...well, from peony season, whenever that was. A month or two ago?

And here's another kill-you-with-cuteness pic of the Lynxmonster. I swear, there's not a single moment that we're not like, "Grab the camera! Grab the camera!" You can't imagine how many amazing moments get missed being documented. You also can't imagine how many times the phrase "He's sooooooo cute!" is uttered around here. The fact that many of you are following Lynx as much as (more than?) my artwork bothers me not at all, in fact it cracks me up. He's a popular little guy out there in cyberspace. Will you all still love him when he grows up? he wants to know.

And on a bummer note, I've been rejected recently from two shows I applied to be in. Oh well. On we go nevertheless in our art journey...

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 44

Whew... catching up on sleep, laundry, grocery shopping, and re-bonding with all the animolecules.

Can't wait to paint again. I found I was missing color--the ability to use it, I mean--so much while traveling. We're probably going to India for three weeks in December, and I'll have to figure out something to use for art while there. Oil is too impractical to carry around and travel with, pastels seem even more so (especially as regards how to keep the finished drawings/paintings from smudging as you travel around with them). Maybe I'll just bring some watercolor and paper and decide to see it as a self-teaching experience...

Here's a small pastel from a few weeks ago.

And of course your daily dosage of Lynxmuffin, who has grown enormously while we've been gone. He is going to be a very big boy, I think.

$285.00 -Untitled 44 (Framed)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Last day in London

The photo of The Husband holding Lynx is so cute I had to post it, even though of course it has nothing to do with London...

The second photo is me desperately hungry and tired, wishing the waiter would hurry up and bring the parmigiano so I could start eating! This restaurant, Carluccio's, had the best (bitter-chocolate) gelato I've ever had in my life. Mamma mia!

Today was our last full day in London. I'm very tired (I find big cities interesting but exhausting) and definitely homesick for my smaller town and my critters (I call them my "animolecules").

Went to Marlborough Art Gallery (gallery selling art, not a museum) specifically to see if they had any Euan Uglows displayed, since I've found none in any museums. The guy working there fetched what they had, two paintings ('Girl in a Green Dress' and a still life of yellow flowers), from the basement to show me. How cool. It was like a private showing. The paint was much thinner than I'd expected--really very little surface texture. Anyone know if that's typical for his work? How much do you suppose those paintings would go for? I can't imagine. Of course I didn't ask. :)

Back to Tate Britain to see what I missed the other day. First question I have for you: re John Everett Millais' 'Mariana', how in the world did he get that color??!! (the color of her gown). It's the most astounding hue. I know it's not simple ultramarine (genuine lapis lazuli), at least not the kind I bought a small tube of from Daniel Smith Supplies online out of curiosity, because the kind I got is a rather pale, thin, extremely-low-covering-power sort of thing.

Some of Turner's paintbrushes, used palettes, and small sketchbooks were on display. The brushes (I don't know what kind they were) certainly looked ragged!

Turner's largish oil 'Seascape with Storm Coming On', besides being gorgeous, as far as I can tell used actual black paint, where you wouldn't think it would work--almost dead center of a painting that didn't seem to have any other black pigment in it. But not only does it work, it's amazing. In the photo I've linked here, it looks as if it's a very dark blue. But in person, man, it is true black. The Tate commentary here says it's an unfinished work. Um...really? Then it's a damn good thing he didn't "finish" it. It's sublime.

Does anyone know what color blue(s) Turner used for his oil skies? It's somehow the most true sky blue (that is, true to real-life blue skies) I've ever seen, and I swear no paint I've ever tried looks quite like it. Granted, I don't paint landscape, but still.

Adored a small Henry Moore sculpture, 'Animal Head.' Wonderfully organic looking. Excellent from every angle. If I hadn't been so tired, I'd have liked to sketch it from a lot of different perspectives.

And that's the news from here...flying back home tomorrow.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Infamous little Cheese Monster, aka The Lynxster, aka Lynxmuffin

I know, I know--you've come here for art, and you're getting an awful lot of Lynx. It has been suggested that he get his own blog...but I can't deal... So at least for the moment, he'll just keep sharing (usurping) mine.

A partial list (in no particular order) of things Lynx has been eating off our plates (we don't normally allow that, but a) he's so damn cute, and b) he's extremely insistent/persistent:

Potatoes

Pasta

Potato chips

Rye toast with raspberry jam
Crunchitos brand cheese doodle snacks
Soy milk
Indian spiced dal (lentils)
Carrot cake
Basmati rice
Forbidden (black Chinese) rice
Oat cereal
Shredded wheat cereal
Garbanzos
Eggplant
And...cheese, cheese, cheese!

This kitten is not normal.

Yoga and Clematis

Cheese Monster demonstrates the less-well-known yoga pose Down Kitten.

Plucked this clematis flower from the bush in our yard to paint it, and didn't expect it to last an hour in a vase, it looked so fragile and delicate. It's now on its third day in the vase...someone from the cut-flower industry ought to take note!

$115.00 - Clematis (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com