California Art Club put together a "Paint Out" in Gualala, California this last month. I participated and really enjoyed it. There were about thirty-eight artists from all over California. For an artist, it is always fun to be around other artists. Two or three artists can be painting the same scene and they will all look entirely different. The only downside was that I stayed in an old-world waterfront hotel.

If you are not out doing a Plein Air painting, how do you decide what to paint next? I keep file drawers with lots of ideas. I collect work from other artists for inspiration. I add anything that looks good to me from an ad or magazine at the moment. I look for great photos on Facebook and ask permission to use.

I started this series for a friend of mine that was active in the Winters Chamber of Commerce. They were in a small section of a downtown store. People seemed to like them. They served as a nice memory of drinking wine, eating yummy food, or just spending time in Winters. I recently expanded the drawings to include a few new spots of interest.

A few years ago a friend of mine asked me to do a series of drawings of Winters, California. They were sold at the Winters Chamber of Commerce. People enjoyed purchasing a card to remember having a glass of wine or maybe a meal they enjoyed. Now living in Vacaville, I thought it would be fun to do a series of drawings of the local downtown.

A friend of mine is organizing a fundraiser for "Funky Chicken", a 501(c)3 non-profit animal sanctuary in Northern CA. They rescue animals in need. Recently the owner was injured. She asked me to be a guest artist; as they sell paintings to people that follow their Facebook page. You can see the artwork on the "Shine A Light - on those that care".

I have always felt if I learn one new thing from a painting class, then it was worth the money. I took one last weekend at Folsom college, which is about an hour away from where I currently live. Setting up my easel, I realized my tripod was broken. I leveled my pochade box and just set it up on the table.

When I travel I always take something along to sketch and paint with. We recently returned from a Viking River Cruise. For some reason I had expected to see wonderful sights all along the river. That just was not true. There were a lot of trees and many concrete levies along the way. I found we spent many hours on buses taking us to locations away from the river.

Kevin McPherson painted the pond out his back window, everyday for a year. I tried to paint the scene from my home on the beach everyday, but gave up after about six weeks. I tried taking photos and painting from the photos so I would have a painting from every day. I realized quickly that this was quite the undertaking. …

Over the years I have taken lessons from some well-known artists and some not so well-know. I've always believed that if I learned something new in my art. It was worth the money if I put it into practice. Sometimes when taking classes, you realize that the painter is successful with their art. However, they may not be successful in their teaching.

Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle I love this quote by Aristotle. It reminds me of what Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book: "Outliars". Ten thousand hours of deliberate practice are needed to achieve expert-level mastery in any field. While the 10,000-hour rule has become widely known, some argue it's an oversimplification. They emphasize the importance of the quality of practice over just the quantity of hours. 

Quote by C.S. Lewis As I grow older in life I think about this more often. In my younger life I designed and built three homes at different locations, learning something from each design. At this point in my life, I live in a home I did not design. It is a wonderful little California Bungalow on a main street in a fairly large city.

Teddy wandered into our neighbor, into our lives and into our heart. When he first showed up, he was not friendly, but he kept coming back. My neighbor across the street started feeding him, as did a few other neighbors. He was reticent, like most cats that do not know you. We never knew where Teddy came from. He was not a young cat when he started "hanging out" on our street.

I never thought of working in my studio to be dangerous. I am beginning to think twice about that now. Last week while working on a new painting, I was concentrating on the painting. I wasn't concentrating on where I was. I wasn't focused on what I was sitting on. As a result, I "missed" my stool when sitting down. I work in a remodeled small garage in a 1915 Craftsman home.

"Cell in the Sea" was painted with my fascination of when and where you find people on their cell phones. I took this photo which I painted in beautiful Puerto Vallarta earlier this spring. The original photo was pretty simple, so I tried to keep that simplicity in the painting. I did leave out the latte cup, but found it humorous that this is how some people might spend their vacation.

I first learned to drive on a Johnny Popper, as my grandfather used to call ours. When I was small I would sit on my father's lap and he would let me pretend to drive. I have wonderful memories of being out in the orchard among the walnut trees building "checks" to get ready for irrigation. Years later, he taught me how to shift gears.

Butterflies are declining seriously in most countries. Climate change, habitat loss and insecticides tend to work together to weaken butterfly populations. Without butterflies, plant biodiversity would decrease, leading to disruptions in food chains and potentially impacting human food systems. Butterflies are important pollinators and their decline can negatively affect crop yield and the overall health of ecosystems. Butterflies are a food source for many animals, including birds, bats and other insects.

My cooking group decided we should have a Vegetarian get-together, so I made this the other day from America's Test Kitchen Vegetarian Cookbook. It was delicious! I added a couple layers that made it even more yummy! The recipe looks very long and complicated, and it is; but it also very easy if you go step-by-step. I added a layer of cooked sweet potato (1 potato) and a layer of fresh cooked spinach.

When asked: "Why do you make art?" what do you say? I think all artists wrestle with the why of it? I, myself know I have to do it to be happy. Working on a painting or a pen and ink drawing in my studio makes me happy. The making of art is a tradition that has spanned the entirety of human history.

How do you feel about donating your artwork to non-profit auctions and events. Donating art to charity should be a meaningful way for artists to give back to society, support causes they believe in, and gain exposure for their work. It can be a rewarding experience for both the artist and the benefiting organization, offering a unique way to contribute to the greater good.

I often have ideas for projects, that sound so great when I start them, but become tedious as I start working on them. I thought it might be a fun idea to do sketches in a notebook on all the different flowers in our yard. I quickly realized that we have a lot of different flowers! So far I have completed these two and have started three others.

This painting called "Saying Goodbye" was done for an organization I am actively involved in for a show about death. It was rejected for the show, as they were looking for pieces more universal in nature and dealing with the figurative aspects of death, not something so explicit. When I painted this piece, although I did use people I know and love (and loved) I did not see it as being specific to these two people.

I joined my second Plein Air Paint Out in Winters, Californial. It was a great group of artists that I totally loved meeting and painting with for three days. The first day we met at Park Winters and spread out painting different areas of the location. It is a lovely spot with lots of interesting areas to paint. I would love to go back and paint the water tower.

Today I finished this 40 inch by 30 inch painting from a photo of the Berryessa Gap Vineyards. There is a wine stroll coming up in Winters on May 3rd and I was asked to have a booth. I will participating in the Plein Air get-together from May 1st to May 3rd. The third day I will be painting from my booth, probably from a photo I will have taken earlier.

Our yard is full of wonderful flowers that bound into bloom every Spring and continue through the summer. My husband loves to work in the yard (if it's not too hot), but never remembers the names of the flowers. When we are discussing an area in the yard he calls it by "the pink flowers", or the "red flowers" and etc.

One day about a week or two ago, I was getting out of the car and it was raining. The area between the street and the sidewalk was a muddy mess, and that is where I had to cross. I looked at it and thought about the fact that we had a variety of blocks and steps just hanging out by the side of the garage.