Digital Metal Prints

Digital Metal Prints

Perfect for displaying digital art. I love these aluminum prints for art photography.  

New Painting.
Starting a series of 12"x12" acrylic on canvas paintings of flowers. I have an unnatural fear of painting flowers and this seems the best way to overcome it.

Poppy

Off to See

In a very short time, roughly two weeks, I will be embarking on a six-week journey to Europe. The challenge to myself is to blog that trip here and add images and musings; sketches and ideas.  We will be traveling to Venice-Athens-Istanbul-Naples-Rome-Barcelona-Madrid-Lisbon and many smaller ports and places in between, some of them my very favorite places in the world.

While not taking much beyond a sketchbook, watercolor pencils and pens, my goal is to get some of the most memorable impressions of these places on paper. It has been my experience that small experiences make the greatest impact and are revisited time after time -- like finding a small chamomile blossom between paving stones of an ancient walkway in Rome or a perfect apricot-tinted sunrise over a nameless Greek island. Revisiting those memories in my mind over and over again  has encouraged me to try to capture future images and express them artistically whether by drawing, painting, or photographing them -- iconography, in a way, for an amazing journey.

Lily Pond Series

Water Lily Prints

Featuring my Water Lily Pond Series. All of these images were created from photos of our backyard pond.

These and more are available in your choice of sizes and style of print at Dana Patterson Art Photography

California Coastal Art Photography

I am sponsoring a page at Fine Art America for beautiful images of California's Coast.
California Coastal

Please drop by and create something beautiful - canvas wrap, prints, framed/matted, in almost any size you would like.

FAA - Fine Arts America

Fine Arts America Profile
Clicking on this link will let you review, comment, follow, create prints, and even LIKE my work.

Have fun!

New Webstore Open Now!

Finally  took a deep breath and opened a web-based marketing site to sell my artwork.  Beginning with photographs, I plan to add images of the original pieces I still have.  Won't you stop by and view my galleries?

http://dana-patterson.artistwebsites.com/news.html

Ten Days To Cruise

Getting ready for a thirty (30!) day cruise around the Horn of South America. Got the drawing and watercolor pencils packed? CHECK
Beginning to feel excited about all of this and sharing some beautiful photographs of tropical places, penquins, the Ends of the Earth, and friendly people from villages to big cities.

Pastel Project No. 2

Copy a portrait of a favorite artist. So, I chose one. I kinda wish I hadn't chosen this one, but anything would have given me trouble. All-in-all, I learned a lot more about pastels and it was fun.

After Rembrandt (my version)

8x10, Artagain black paper, Prismacolor nupastels and (lol) Rembrandt soft pastels.

Detail from the original portrait (1659)

Pastel Projects

Started in with a pastel group for this Fall. I don't really know much about pastels and am willing to get dusty to learn more about the medium.

Assignment One is a self-portrait. I read somewhere that it is a good idea to do one every year. Probably like eating your vegetables or exercising- - good for you, but not really that much fun sometimes.

PastelSelf 2010, 11x14, 140 lb. cold press Canson

Nupastel (need a bigger set of these), Rembrandt soft pastels, and some other kind of pastels I have, but don't remember how I got them. This was an interesting way to paint as, in order for my old, nearly blind self to see, I set up a mirror reflecting another mirror in front of me while I was painting. (And, yes, I do look kinda slack-jawed like that when painting. I see, now, that one of my eyebrows could use some blending, too.

This was an arduous experience for a relatively short, but very intense, drawing/painting session. It seems that after getting the basic colors in the right places, you sort of "sculpt" the pigment into place and push it around.

Birthday Portrait

Daddy, 16x20, oil on canvas.

This was truly a labor of love and my first oil portrait. Painting is very much like living one's life in a condensed form: youthful enthusiasm in the beginning, self-doubt and procrastination in the middle, cynical negativity later on, and finally acceptance and gratitude for coming out of the process pretty much the better for it all.

Ballerinas

Anyone who wants an artistic workout, head on over to http://www.wetcanvas.com/ and join in one of the daily/weekly/monthly challenges. Here are this week's Drawing and Sketching examples. The critiques are wonderful, the encouragement invigorating, and the challenges are (gulp) exuberant.

Both are chalk on black Artagain 11x14. Not perfect, but fun and expressive.

Still Can't Paint Flowers or Why do I do this to myself?

It's all in fun and exploration, I know. Here are this week's daily paintings.

I am trying, I really am. But, flowers frustrate me. The leaves look pretty good though, so it was a fair-to-middling lesson and a great reminder of why I don't do flowers. (I wonder if I could whittle them?)


Maybe this one I don't dislike as much. It's not finished, but I'm finished for a bit. That funny streak of red in the front petal will someday look like the shadow of a knife-like leaf directly above the poppy in the photo I took. The center isn't really divided either, the lower red-orange center blob will also be a shadow.


Heck.


Maybe, I should just print the photos on canvas and leave at that!


The last little painting was a self-imposed challenge to loosen up my oil skills while I try to finish a big (16x20) portrait of my son and his kids in time for his birthday. Most of the time, I don't work bigger than 11x14. This little oil is 8x8. Just about my size, although I have two huge 19x25 pieces of Mi Tientes colored paper for some projects I have planned. That is, if I don't tear them into smaller pieces first!


I called my little challenge, "How many colors are in the shade?" Recently, on a birthday cruise for my sister, she passed along a biography of Monet, and one of the hallmarks of impressionism was that shadows were not gray. They were right -- they aren't. So, I thought Iwould try a stab (of the brush) at painting as many colors as I could find in the shadows.

This little painting isn't much, but I kind of like it anyway. That deep, hot sunny summer day shade appeals to me. I grew up in Southern California where plenty of scrub oaks abound in the hills. They are shady underneath, but it's not the kind of cool, inviting shade you're probably thinking of. If you plop down under one of these babies, you get dirty, you are still hot, and soon enough, covered with ants.

Happy August!

Back to Slingin' Paint and Throwin' Pencils

Gearing back up, it is amazing how long it can take to walk down the hall to the little room where I play with paint and pencils and most anything else tactile, colorful, and messy.

So, here we are with works-in-progress again.

I like posting this stuff, for some reason, I can see where I need to work next in the project.

Great Baltic Sea Raid of 2010

AGENDA: Fly to London. Sail to Russia. Return.

Never thought I would be writing that St. Petersburg was too hot -- but, it was! Whew. Lovely weather for entire twelve day cruise through Scandinavia. Loved Stockholm and Estonia. St. Petersburg was B-I-G and fascinating. London, too, is enormous and rambling. Lots of pictures and still reflecting on it all.

Lovely Tallinn, Estonia.

Another shot to go with my Chinese Glockenspiel Band and Viennese Samba Dancers. Sort of out-of-context Buddist monks in Copenhagen at Rosenberg Castle.

Dasvodanya St. Petersburg.

What does a diurnal creature do when the sun doesn't set until 1a.m.?

And rises at 4:14am?!

Lovin' San Diego

Rhododendron and Azalea Garden

Museum of Man

Nikki de St. Phalle Sculptures to play on.

Balboa Park in Early Spring. 80 degrees, light breeze, clear skies.

The Botanical Pavilion

Bird's Nest Fern

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Busy end of year, isn't it? But, I'm getting ready for new art work in the New Year after the bustle of holidays has ended.


I haven't been exactly idle, as am still working through the sewing pile.
Made some baby clothes for the new editions to our family and lots of decorating and baking.



So, from our house to yours, the best of New Years and happiest of holidays.

Been Too Long Gone

I haven't been making art, but I have a terrific excuse! Went to Texas to welcome a new granddaughter into the world.

Lillian Renee, September 25, 2009, 9lbs. 2 oz., 21.5 inches. She looks just like her mommy did when she was born!

The art space is still a bit disassembled, so am still finishing old sewing projects and miscellaneous details while I wait for the baseboards and lighting and closet storage systems to be installed.

Two Yellow Bags

We have been busy emptying my creative space (aka sewing room, painting studio). The new floor is in and looks great. So easy to keep clean. Next up, new quarter-round molding to the baseboards and touch-up painting.

Meanwhile, because everything had to be taken out of the room, I am finishing up long-neglected projects.

These two yellow bags were full of quilting projects. So far, I have made a set of four placemats and three matching potholders. Three more sets of potholders and some coasters for wine bottles with matching gift bags. AND, (drumroll, please) a quilt and pillow for my grandson, August. I am in the last stages of another quilt and busy applique-ing chickens to yet another one.

Dragon Teeth Quilt
Chinese Lantern Quilt

Getting these things out of the way makes me feel productive. So, while I am not painting, I am still having a busy creative period.

Just thought I would update this poor old blog as I have been very neglectful of it lately.

Daddy's Home WIP

This is my first big (as in 16x20) oil portrait. This is my son and all but one of his children. I liked the composition of the original photograph which was very dark and out of focus. The subject has quite a bit of emotional content for me as my son adores his children and after two tours in Iraq and other overseas assignments, he is finally out of the service and enjoying his family.

I am working slowly on this which is once again a learn-as-you-go project. Just blocking in some colors - that blue bloppy stuff in the left corner will be going away.

So, besides making a doll house and all the parts to that little world, I am still engaged in painting, but just not everyday, for now.