Adam - 12 x 12 gallery canvas

Title: Adam

Oil on canvas

12 x 12 inches

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This painting was done from another pic from the Urban Weeds blog, Lisa really takes good pictures. I was drawn to this photograph as he had quirky glasses and I loved the beret. Just realized this is my second painting of a guy in a beret.....whats with me and berets! 

At school, after weeks of working on the cast drawing on rough paper I finally transferred it to good paper and will be working on the rendering this wednesday. I missed last mondays class due to Thanksgiving and that has put me behind my class - not liking it. Anyways I plan to go in for an extra class this week to make up. 

Abigail Breslin - part 2

What's on my easel today?

Been working on this painting from the sketch I did earlier of the lovely Abigail, and its been a good three days of  working on the shadows and eyes. I stopped looking at it today as I am tempted to keep adjusting and I fear I will just mess it up. So tomorrow will start work on the hair and rest. I think my attention to detail is what draws me to portraits...getting the shape of the eyelids just right, the length of the lips, the shape of the eyebrows.......I really do enjoy doing portraits. Do drop by the blog in a few days for the completed painting.

What is Coach thinking?

When we first got Coach in November 2009, he would follow my 10 yr old daughter everywhere. Then a few months later he started following me everywhere....waiting outside the washroom, at my feet, on the armchair next to me.......D thinks he has 'imprinted' on me! :)

Most times when I am at my workstation he will come up behind me and give this soft woof (to let me know he is feeling ignored) so I pick him up and put him on my lap for a few seconds then send him off to his cushion. Today I picked him and he proceeded to climb on the table and promptly go to sleep in front of my laptop.

I don't know what goes through this dog's mind - maybe he thinks "she spends so much time at this table....it must be important to her so I will be there too!??"........who knows!

What do you think he's thinking????

Perception Is Everything

This story was shared on Etsy and I want to share it with you...

Perception is everything:Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.

A man played six Bach pieces on a violin for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:A3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.

45 minutes:The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace.He collected $32.

1 hour:He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.


This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ....

How many other things are we missing?

From this thread on Etsy

My painting got featured in an Etsy treasury for the 5th time - yay!

It is so thrilling to get featured in an Etsy treasury and it has happened again...for the 5th time. The lovely Ms Angela from the PINK DILLO shop featured my "Caramel" painting in her treasury aptly titled CHOCOLATE COVERED CARAMEL. Angela sells beautiful handmade cards and embellishments - please drop by her shop to check out more of her beautiful creations. Thank you Angela! 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE TREASURY AND MANY OTHER BEAUTIFUL ONES

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Wednesdays........

At ARA, wednesdays is our live model drawing session. Every wednesday we get a different model who changes their pose every 1 hour, but starting yesterday we will have the same model for the coming 10 weeks in the same pose. This allows us to really get into the pose and develop the drawing. So how much did I complete yesterday - about -3%....yes that reads -3%...your eyes read right! I just about got some markings on the paper and was able to do the ghost lines for the knees - all in 3 hours. Prof says some of us will not even complete our drawing in 10 weeks - I can see why now!...measuring takes forever. I hate this.....just like I hated practicing the scales when I was learning the piano at age 10....I want to just get to the end where I am drawing like one of the super-drawers in the class.

Latest brags about the school are:
- DeGrassi High's next episode will feature some of the students drawings and the school will appear in some scenes
- One of the students was commissioned to paint Brian Mulroney's portrait which now sits in CasaLoma.
- One of the professors and 4 students are winners on the Bravo TV show "Star Portraits".

Etsy best buys

Aside from my store being on ETSY, I also love it for the various handmade goods sold by the other talentend Etsy folks. So I thought I would feature one of my favorite stores each week giving you a gazillion ideas for Xmas and Birthday gifts.......so my first favorite store is ARTMIND:

Cold

Sad

Mean

Cursed

They make little ceramic odd looking statues with very clean lines. I love the subtlety of the emotion - especially the above four which are my absolute favorites! Do check out her store for more of her lovely work - I can certainly see a dozen of these lining up a pristine white shelf. And her packaging is delightful too! Seriously, if I wasn`t into art I would`ve definitely been a ceramic artist. Maybe my next life.

Panel Holder

With a 7 x 8 panel in place  

In January 2009 I had made a resolution to complete 100 panel paintings and proud to say I did complete them in August 2010. There is so much I learned from the process and so many ways I have improved. Anyhoo back to the subject - I needed a panel holder so the panel would be positioned more at eye level than on the easel ledge. D modified this design from another blog and created one that worked perfectly for me.

It was one of the main reasons I was able to complete the 100 paintings so all thanks goes to my husband who has backed up all of my crazy plans from day 1....Thanks babe!

You can view the entire post at his blog here.

Pondering

Title: Pondering

Oil on hardboard

8 x 8 inches

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This is a painting of our dear friend Ranjeev. A bunch of us had gone out for lunch to one of our favorite haunts in Dubai - Ravi Restaurant famous for its Nehari and rotis. D was clicking pics of us and Ranjeev decided to look 'intelligent`by striking this pose. He always had his wool beret on even in 50c weather.  

Air Stream lust.........

So D and I have always wanted an Airstream.....last year at a vintage sale we were seconds away from committing to an aluminium skinned 1960s Airstream 25 feet land yacht with original fittings BUT our practical brains stopped us (seriously practical brain realized we don`t have a garage so where the hell would we park it!)

Anyway every time I see an Airstream I start drooling again...imagine turning up to an art show in an airstream that holds all my art......swoon!

Wanderlust is a vintage store that sells out of their vintage trailer............makes me so jealous. But seriously is she not the cutest thing ever!

Fall Days

Giclee Print of original oil on canvas painting

Title: Fall Days (8 x 8)

Epson Somerset paper

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Did I mention how gorgeous this Epson Somerset paper is - it feels like stiff watercolor paper with a textured surface. This is one of my favorite paintings as I like the concept of the portrait with the big floppy hat - something about it feels very old-worldly. The printer did a phenomenal job of color matching and his customer service was superb. So happy I found a great Giclee printer...worth the search! 

What's on my easel.....

Sketch of actress Abigail Breslin 

Working on this sketch from a magazine...still have to work on her left eyebrow a bit more me thinks. The thing with painting is you can go on and on tweaking it here and correcting it there and one gets obsessive about it - and then finally I have to say 'Stop'. 

Stop and move on Lynda................same goes with life. 

Newsletter from the 70popes studio

I have just sent out my most recent update through the 70popes newsletter which covers my new etsy banner, new prints in the shop and so much more. For my third issue only it came together quite nicely. I have sent it to everyone who's email addresses I had but should you not have received it please leave me a message in the comments section of my blog or on my facebook.

Just back from the printers and my new prints are drooooool worthy! the somerset paper is so delicious yummm could just bite into it. Can't stop touching it...........gotta get me some gloves. It's turning into an addiction! Lynda stop!

ARA The Academy of Realist Art

Survived.....and completed 4 classes at the ARA and am so pleased with the school. They teach the fundamentals of drawing and painting over a 2 year program. We are given a series of exercises to complete from an image of a cast drawing starting with the construct, articulation, contour and finally the rendering. I am now on round 2: Articulation and I am to measure every point and reproduce it as an exact copy. And guess what we use to measure...not a ruler, not a tape, but a knitting needle. Our charismatic Professor Fernando says it trains the eye to see better rather than relying on rulers. ``I keel you`` he says if we don`t get it right!

Mondays are the days we copy from the Bargue plates and wednesdays is live model gestural drawing. The gestural drawing is done using comparative measurement.

It took me months of on line research and several studio tours to finally find ARA with a program that taught in the old masters tradition. I even contemplated places like OCAD, Sheridan and TSA, only to find students of OCAD and Sheridan studying with me at ARA as their establishments do not teach fundamentals that are taught here. I am so damn pleased I found the right institution for my start....if not it could have gone so wrong.....so very wrong.

So below is my first exercise - part 2 - articulation and homework is reproducing all the lines without shading in.

...so back to work for me...lots of homework to complete! 

Halloween 2010

Plans for this year 2010 

2009 decor – mice on flight of stairs

Every year the girls and me make decorations for Halloween so this year we want to replicate the ``bats on front door`` idea and we have cut out the bats and added glitter to them. Last year we had done mice on the steps leading to the bedrooms. The girls are very creative (like moi) and love it when I plan art & craft activities for them. They have very busy minds and need to be engaged in something if not they gravitate to their Phineas & Ferb shows......frown!!!

Will post pics after we adhere the bats to our front door.

Etsy Treasury - featured for the fourth time

Double woohoo!! I got featured for the fourth time in an Etsy Treasury created by the lovely Sue of Oceanaire Dreamer who makes gorgeous hand made jewellery. She has titled the treasury `Imagine One fine autumn day, You, Lake Como & George Clooney`- isn`t that adorbs! and so unique!

What makes me double excited is that I uploaded the `Vespa`painting only yesterday in the etsy shop and it got featured today! woohoo and woohoo again!

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Ava - 8 x8 print

Giclee Print of original oil on canvas painting

Title: Ava (8x8)

Epson Somerset paper

Epson Enhanced Matte paper

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Enjoyed painting this piece especially the eyes. After months of painting on hardboard I painted this on gallery canvas and it felt quite different to me. I am going to do a few more on canvas just so I get a good feel for it and in between might do my hardboards. 

Just back from Curry`s from having to buy more supplies for my art school. We are also learning gestural drawing from a live model using comparative measuring. 

It`s been raining all day and grey and dreary...but.........the fall colors are gorgeous, some trees are a bright red and the grass has never been greener. I am blessed to get to enjoy 4 seasons in a year - quite different from living in Dubai and Bahrain where it is sweltering, boiling and roasting hot 365 days of the year!  

Vespa 8 x 10

Title: Vespa

Oil on hardboard pre framed

8 x 10 inches

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The painting is of a photograph we took out while on holiday in London, UK. I just love the Vespa and would buy one at the drop of a hat. The panel is pre framed and can be put up on your wall directly. Have just uploaded this painting in the shop this evening. 

Shop: www.70popes.etsy.com 

Coach 1st Birthday

I realize I am always mentioning our dog in the posts so thought I would post some of his pics below. He came into our lives on November 24, 2009 at 4 months old and turned 1 yr recently. He gets lots of compliments during his walks and is oblivious to just how cute he is!

Coach celebrating his 1st birthday on September 08, 2010

Coach's front legs are shorter than his hind legs so he looks pretty funny sitting! 

Coach loves water......rivers, lakes and his bath tub! 

Rosa

Giclee Print of Original oil on hardboard painting

Portrait 8 x 8 inches

Epson Somerset paper

Epson Enhanced Matte paper

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Am pretty excited about the prints, the papers feel so nice particularly the Somerset. I am a very touchy / feely person so the texture of the paper really appeals to me. 'Rosa' has been uploaded in my etsy shop: www.70popes.etsy.com. Hope you like her as much as I do.