Think Pink...Face of Ventura Project

This is a very special young teenager, Olivia Simonson, whose story really touched me. I know her mother, who passed away from breast cancer, would be so proud of her and I was thinking that when I painted her from life, in a single sitting, for my non-profit Face of Ventura Project running in The Ventura Breeze newspaper in CA. http://www.venturabreeze.com/ Thanks to Sheldon Brown, publisher, for his continued support of this project.

You get what you get when you paint from life with its distractions. There is talking, well, of course, breaks for coffee, lunch, restroom, aspirins or whatever. Each sitting has a life of its' own.

But I felt a real connection to Olivia hearing her talk about her mom and how she is now trying to raise money for the PINK RIBBON cause by climbing the world's highest mountain. As a proud mother myself of two young ladies, I found this eloquent role model inspiring. You don't get that connection painting from a photo in quite the same way.

FACE of VENTURA Project

A privilege to paint another sitter for my Face of Ventura Project running in The Ventura Breeze. Each sitter painted from life in a single sitting, each with their own unique story.

Craziest Royal Wedding Portrait?????

This has to be the craziest example of royal wedding fever? I found it on the internet and realized we are indeed in the middle of a nuptial frenzy like no other...

So with that in mind, I post my drawing of Kate I did last year during the 365 Challenge. GO KATE and WILS!!!

Some people really do take things too far.

Heaven sent...

Sometimes you get a good demo, most times you don't -they are average due to the nature of the beast. This is how I feel about demos. I am rarely able to get in the 'zone' around teaching. I have made peace with this.

You paint 'what you know' accepting you are teaching a lesson and hoping to show that lesson well for students.

I like this one tho', my demo from Vita this week. The sitter is an art student from my gifted teen class with a heavenly face. She is very reserved in person but, boy, did she look at me right in the eyes all the way through the sketch. I could have painted her for hours. She was also wearing one of my favorite vintage hats from my collection.

I set myself a challenge to hang on to the original 'hot' toned canvas on much of her face keeping some of the original drawing lines too. That made it a success for me. I knew when to stop before I messed it up by rushing and overworking. It also meant my drawing was 'on'.

Thank you Juliana.

Mural Master, Face of Ventura Project

Always an honor to paint another artist...this is THIS week's 'Face of Ventura' sitter appearing in The Ventura Breeze newspaper, the incomparable Ms. MB Hanrahan, muralist extraordinaire and an artist I really admire. A true artist thru and thru! I sure had fun paintings her dreadlocks too.

Thanks as always to Sheldon Brown of The Ventura Breeze http://www.venturabreeze.com/

Surf's Up...

Class demo at Vita Art Center this week...a 13 year old surfer sitter. Come join the fun...surf's up! I love to paint 'real' people in my teaching class. Fun to grab them off the street.

Tattoo Me? Face of Ventura Project.

I have been lucky enough recently to teach some of the best tattoo artists in the Ventura area who ink just about everybody and anybody who want a really good tat!

They are very talented with line and see value really well. They push me as a teacher. Plus, they are really cool and I am not, but they don't make me feel that way. They laugh at my jokes too.

I chose one of them, Manuel Valenzuela, to be my next sitter for The Face of Ventura Project appearing in The Ventura Breeze. http://www.venturabreeze.com/He was painted from life in a single sitting of about two hours. We met when he showed up at studio Open House and bought a painting. We had a connection of mutual respect as artists. Read about this great guy here: