Lead the Way by Steve Curry 30×24″ Oil – Available at the Vault Gallery
Steve Curry. I really like his paintings, they have a moodiness about them! These trees seem to be dancing in the light, don’t they? Quite like an enchanted forest!
Born in Milbrae, California in 1957 Steven spent the first 21 years of his life in the beautiful surrounding of Northern California. Both parents were practicing artists who nurtured Steven’s love of drawing and painting from an early age.
In 1982, he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Visual Communication from California State University, Long Beach working the first 6 years of his professional art career as Graphic Designer in Los Angeles, CA.
From 1988 to 2003 Steven owned and operated the Curry Design Agency based in Santa Monica, California. CDA’s many prestigious clients included Nissan North America, Sony Pictures, and the Academy Awards. CDA’s significant impact on the graphic design industry is emphasized by having three graphic design projects selected to be archived in the collections of the United States’ Library of Congress.
After more than 15 years of commercial success, Steven retired his design agency in order to pursue his fine art passion full time, choosing the Ojai Valley of California as home and inspiration.
This is the perfect painting for Flag Day! Painting by the uber talented John Matthew Moore! Nicest guy on the planet and such a fabulous artist! Check him out if you haven’t already!
I took this a few weeks ago. We’re walking along, early to beat the sun… we turned down a street in the neighborhood and look at this! The lone pine tree standing so tall against the bright sky with the sun peeking through the horizon… the dramatic trail of the airplane against the brilliant blue sky.
Katie Dowling. Around the Bend is a great example of simplified strokes making a knock out painting. A painting without a lot of detail leaves something for your imagination to fill in. The color palette, brush strokes and composition are very nice. Check out more of Katie’s work!
Katie grew up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. At age 18 a family friend invited her to go painting outside. Weeks later the same friend told her she must sign up for a workshop given by Don Sahli, a nationally recognized plein air painter, so she did. On the third day the entire process clicked and there began a new love and a new career in the fine arts.
Don Sahli introduced her to the tradition and heritage of Russian impressionism, to the work of Sahli’s teacher Sergei Bongart and to the palette and techniques of the Russian masters. With this springboard of information she was equipped to experience nature in a totally new way.
Katie began to win awards in local art festivals and then was included in Southwest Art magazine’s section, “21 Young Artists To Collect Now.” She was featured in the exhibition “Legacy of the Russian Masters” with Filmmaker and painter George Gallo along side her teacher Don Sahli and most recently won the Artist’s Choice award for the 9th annual Sedona plein air festival and the Crested Butte Invitational in the open class division.
As she grows she has developed and discovered the importance of both the outdoors and the studio. This has enabled her to explore the elements of design, structure and balance in pieces painted from her field studies. As a native of the Vail Valley in Colorado, she searches for beauty near her home and throughout the west.
This is the Shad Shack Retreat plan (1381) by architect John Tee. This plan is 1,826 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. Just look at that sweet front porch, the wonderful screened porch and the lines of this house that make it look like a cottage built years ago, when there was so much charm. I love this!
Shad Shack Retreat 1381 by John Tee
The Master Bedroom/Bathroom is in the front of the house, with the Living/Dining/Kitchen in the back of the house, which I really like. It’s more private. It’s wonderful to have a screened porch off the Great Room, so you can open those French doors and have a nice breeze flow through the house on a nice day!
Shad Shack Retreat 1381 by John Tee
With two bedrooms upstairs and a little living space, I think that’s perfect. I would opt for only one bathroom, unless I had two people upstairs that clearly needed their own space. John gives two options for the upstairs, this is my favorite. You check it out and see which you like best, or what would work for you!
Fred and I signed up to do the 30-day Green Smoothie Challenge. This is going to be big fun. Get healthier and have more energy, woohoo! Started with our own concoction this morning… hmmm, arugula I knew would be a bit weird and it was, but it was doable. They say if you keep to 60% fruit/40% veggies, you won’t taste the “green” – arugula is kind of hard to miss… Spinach next time!
Check out the Beginner’s Luck recipe (SimpleGreenSmoothies.com) – sounds tasty! The next 30-day challenge begins July 1, 2015!
Have you heard of www.WhereInTheWorldIsPleinAir.com? Quite the brilliant concept! Check out their website – you can see last years video’s. So cool, just like you’re there, at a fabulous plein air event! You’re able to keep up with over 100 artists (painting from all different locations) posting three videos per day, you will see over 300 paintings in that short time! What fun! All from the comfort of your own home! Another cool thing?? You can buy these paintings! Check out their website for more information!
Click HERE to view the videos from 2014! Fabulous! Some details from their website:
2nd Annual “Live” Online Plein Air Art Show!
June 10th, 11th & 12th, 2015!
Three Days!
Three Hundred Paintings!
Three Live Videos per Artist Daily!
You get a chance to “Buy It Now” – woohoo! This show includes some of the country’s top artists – click here for a list of artists… impressive! Check out the website for more info!
We’re all looking for a quick, but healthy, weekday dinner… something we can throw together in the blink of an eye. Yet… something that will taste like we really spent time preparing…
Let me start by saying that I do not normally purchase processed food. Processed food is basically anything that makes it quick and easy. If you pick up breaded chicken strips in a regular grocery store, you will see a lot of ingredients that are chemicals and not food. This is good chicken, it’s quick, (from freezer to oven it takes 25 minutes, or less if you sauté on the stove!).
We put the chicken on top of some nice butter lettuce, and made a dressing of EVOO + Lemon + Pepper. (2 parts oil to 1 part lemon).
It was delicious! I sprinkled maybe a teaspoon of parmesan on mine, it added a nice flavor.
Happy Birthday Max (very old photo… getting in the ice cold river!)
I have to give a quick shout to our uber cool nephew, Maxwell! Today is his birthday – hope you have the best birthday ever kiddo! I call him a kid, HA… he’s taller than all of us! This is a very old photo, but one I love!
h a p p y b i r t h d a y m a x w e l l ! ! ! ! we love you, barbara, fred & charlie too!
Blue Tulip Pitcher by Karen O’Neil 30×30 Oil – Available at Thaddeus C. Gallery
Karen O’Neil. Gorgeous paintings! Different! I’m not sure how to describe, but the technique is so clean and just absolutely beautiful! She can paint these still life’s so beautifully. Refined and a little delicate, simply beautiful! Such nice color harmony and so pleasing to the eye!
August by Karen O’Neil 24×24 Oil
LOVELY! Karen is a master painting glass, isn’t she? Beautiful! Click HERE to see Karen’s list of Workshops/Classes for 2015!
“My goal is to capture the brief and fleeting visual excitement of our everyday lives…” Karen O’Neil studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and in Provincetown with Henry Hensche. Since 1990 Karen has been an instructor of painting at the Woodstock School of Art in Woodstock, NY. Her work is represented in many private and corporate collections throughout the United States.
Home is where the heart is, right? Absolutely! I would rather be home than anywhere else! Our backyard is turning into an oasis. Hard work? Oh yeah, getting everything cleaned up and ready for summer. It’s so worth it! I love the hydrangeas peeking through and the focus on the palm in this photo.
Happy (almost) summer! Catch you back here tomorrow!
Jacob Tarazoff. Nice work! Very different! Love his style. This guy looks like he loves life. I think it’s so cool how he travels around and paints. Check out the photos (link towards end of this post)… This is a nice street scene. Love the colors! The power lines add so much! So nice!
Velvet Hues by Jacob Tarazoff 16×20 Oil
Velvet Hues… pretty cool, eh? This is what Jacob is known for. His love of skiing, rock climbing and snowboarding really shows through in his paintings, doesn’t it? Check out his work, he paints pretty much everything… Great work!
Info from Jacob:
Over the last twenty years I have had some incredible experiences rock climbing and riding my snowboard in the wild areas of the Western US and Canada. It has become important for me to find ways to memorialize these experiences, and oil painting has provided me with a means to record that reaches beyond the scope of photography and video. I want to help people to make their climbing and ski memories something more substantial than just a helmet cam video or a ton of pictures after a ski day. Let me help you make your climb/ski experience last a lifetime, with an archival and fully reproducible original oil portrait by Jacob Tarazoff. Options for ski /climb portraits would be generally be one of three;
-Send me photo references and short synopsis of the day
-Meet me at spot of your choice for a custom climb or ski day portrait
-Meet me at the Festival/Event of your choice for a custom climb or ski day portrait
I was born in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1982, and grew up exploring the high dessert of Northern New Mexico. Snowboarding, rock climbing and mountain biking led to a deeper appreciation for the land and eventually paint and brushes became a means of exploration. I have a BFA from the University of New Mexico, 2006, and have had the opportunity to study with many wonderful painters in and around the Western US. I have had many public showings of my work and have won numerous awards at plein air events throughout the US, and my work is represented in private collections around the world. I am available for commissions, as well as an adventure-painting guide in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and throughout Northern New Mexico.
Ooh ooh ooh! Love these plans! This is TNH-LC-10A (LC = large cottage) by Moser Design Group. This plan is 2,457 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. 10′ ceilings on the first floor, 9′ on second. I love that the master bedroom is that sweet little separate space on the right. Fabulous isn’t it? What a dream to have a front porch that wraps to the side – so nice!
TNH-LC-10A by Moser Design Group
This is a great plan for so many reasons. First of all you have a separate dining room for those of you who really use a dining room. I think I would make it a reading room, and put some really nice barstools at the bar area in the kitchen… or maybe I would use the dining room? Hmmm… Possibilities! The Kitchen and Living spaces are together which is so nice! THERE IS A PANTRY! Five stars for that alone! A rear porch, which I love, a powder room right off the porch, which is handy when you’re working in the yard! A sunroom! Which is heavenly! Ok, I’m ready to move! Hee.
TNH-LC-10A by Moser Design Group
The upstairs has two bedrooms with a shared bath as well as attic/storage or playroom space. Art Studio?? Whoa Nellie!
February Studio by Skip Lawrence 15×15 Acrylic on Rag Paper
Skip Lawrence. His paintings have pizazz. A little something unexpected and wonderful. They have life. Depth. Feeling and movement. They’re fabulous! Skip loves to paint and it shows in every single one of his paintings!
Red Mark by Skip Lawrence (Sold) 22×30″ Mixed Media
Red Mark is a perfect example of a loose painting that has total shape and movement. That white outline on her right hip/thigh is brilliant. Love the red mark and the swishes of color… what else do you see in this painting?? Fabulous!
Are you looking for a workshop to take? Something different? Look no further! Skip is offering workshops in several locations… check out his workshop schedule!
Read a bit about Skip, from his website, also check out his blog!:
EXPRESSIVE ARTIST
I love everything about painting. I love feeling the paint, seeing a rich color spread under my brush onto a surface and the play between colors coming together. I love watching my idea take form until a painting finally says “it” and I am surprised and delighted every time. I love sharing my art and knowing that someone is moved by it.
I see no hierarchy among realism, abstraction, non-objective painting styles. I see only the relationship of colors, shapes, surface and line that either thrills or bores me. When these elements come together to communicate an artist’s intention to the viewer, to connect with someone, it is nothing short of wonderful.
TEACHER & MENTOR
Teaching, for me, is nothing more than sharing my experience. And my experience has shown me that most of us are taught to spend too long learning how to paint before graduating to why we paint. Painting from an expressive idea allows us to evaluate our results, encourages exploration, and can lead to new possibilities. I believe that once you home in on the Why of your painting, the How will naturally follow. As a teacher, it is my desire and joy to help artists find out what it is that they want to say and to best say it in paint, in their unique way.
Inspirations
The subjects that have inspired me to paint have changed many, many times in the course of my painting life. I originally gained recognition for my landscape paintings. Like many new watercolorists, I was excited by the medium’s ability to capture glowing light and subtle atmosphere, and the landscape is an endless source of material. However, I missed the expressive lushness of oil painting, so I started using watercolor as I do now, in a more direct, opaque way.
The freedom from the “thou shalt/shall nots” of traditional watercolor opened up endless expressive possibilities and subjects to me. Today I work in oil, acrylic, watercolor, drawing, ink, and every combination thereof. My subjects may be my dogs, my paintbrushes, my wife, or the experience of gazing into a tide-pool or a day fly fishing on a mountain stream. The common element is that my subjects are always something I care deeply about, something I am connected to emotionally. It may not always be evident to the viewer What it is I am painting, but it is pretty obvious that it is something I love!
I draw from a deep well of inspiration and admiration of many artists. I am inspired by Robert Motherwell for his freedom of mark and dedication to ideas, by Pierre Bonnard for his ability to surprise the viewer with the most familiar of subjects and for his gift with color, and by Richard Diebenkorn for fearless form and flat out beauty. The list goes on and on and includes many of my contemporaries and students as well.
Goo57, one of the sweetest little guest cottage plans ever!
I love outbuildings. Brilliant ones anyway… So i’m going to feature them on occasion. Many of them would make amazing studio’s, wouldn’t they? Whether you’re an artist, woodworker or any craft where you need space to have your tools (be it a hammer or a paintbrush) left out, so you can pick up where you left off! Sometimes I may feature a garage or a garage apartment, other times a guest room/art studio or even a garden shed. There are so many charming and efficient plans out there, and I gravitate towards them, so I thought I would share!
At first I thought I would leave the Living area as is and use the Bedroom as a studio, but why? Now looking at it again, I think I would use the Bedroom as overflow when we had company in town. A bedroom, bathroom, and coffee pot for guests. We wouldn’t need a kitchen, a sink would be nice for cleaning up brushes, etc., as well as for making coffee or tea. The living space could be used for painting, with maybe a few chairs at one end and a nice floor lamp, so you can contemplate what you’ve done… I think this is the sweetest plan!
I would love to be able to offer guests their own private space! I love to dream about these plans! How would you use it?
Three Days!
ARTFOODHOME.COM 