a benign, commonplace sight in a 

studio, a cup of tea, supplies, right?

these were on my desk as i painted today's 

tea bag.  well, you can guess what came next.

i dunked the brush right into the tea.  how 

many times has that happened to me (and you)?

sharing some photos of 

death valley taken by my brother recently.

if you have never been, make it a destination.

the landscape is as different as being on the moon.

i revisited this piece. 

thinking she might need a face

and some touches of orange and white paint

along with collage bits.

the two african dolls are from 

my collection.  i see a resemblance.

studio peek

over the years i have sent and received

mail art.  here is a small example.

a note

yesterday i found a great number of your comments 

that were left for me on this blog that i had not seen before 

or approved for publication.  i can't tell you how i missed them 

but i am glad to have found them.   so, with egg all over my face,

i apologize each of you.  

your time is valuable  and i appreciate your taking the time to 

leave me a message!  as you know, we blog in the dark, not knowing 

who reads or what the reaction is to what is written ... kind of like walking down a dark 

tunnel with no directions.  your comments let me know that you are there

and how you feel about what is written.  i will be responding to those of you

who were kind enough to take your time to communicate

with me.  to tell you the truth, along with feeling aghast,

i was also delighted to see so many comments.

thank you again!

thank you for visiting today.

on fridays i post collaboratively

with artists at paint party friday.

you are welcome to visit the site 

where you see a wealth of creativity there.

i have discovered that 

tea bags come in all shapes and sizes.

and what fun that is for me as i continue 

my daily practice.

cherry blossoms have been in bloom

at the local botanic garden.  i missed them 

last year by a week so i put down 

my paint brush, asked a friend to join me

and off we went. 

there is a lovely leg go exhibit throughout the gardens.

i saw this bottlebrush bush and was 

instantly taken back to my grandpa iwataki's

front yard where branches would drape

over the walk way inviting guests to walk

under it as if spreading wings in welcome.

and the california poppies danced in the 

breeze again bringing to mind days when 

they grew wild in the empty fields by

my childhood home.  

i have no idea what this plant is but both

my friend and i thought it looked like 

a pensive woman sitting under a tree. 

the cherry blossoms had already fallen in the recent

storm.  i did not realize that they were so delicate.

but there were still these beauties, though not a cherry

tree, spectacular, none the less. 

draping wisteria like dancers colored

our walk.

a walk, a talk in spectacular surroundings.

i couldn't have asked for a better way to spend 

an afternoon.

with all of the teabag paintings and monthly 

challenges, i have all but neglected painting

larger sized paintings.   i found this piece

lying on a magazine.  it did not feel finished

at this point

collage was added to the background, 

acrylic paint to the dress, face and hair 

and a little pastel added to her face.  

i will call her done for now.

here are a few photos from the art studios at the 

santa monica art walk held at the airport.  i visited 

once before and liked the light airy space and high 

industrial ceilings.  

miki yokoyama

susie mckay krieser

queen bee and friends

the hinterland drawing room

wende edlen

yossi govrin

these look like fascinating beehives

asian girl wearing green on

st. paddy's day

painted on a teabag

promise me you'll always remember:

you're braver than you believe,

and stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think

a.a. milne

roots, citrasolv, stencil sanding

sometimes we go into the woods

to find our roots.

i am leaving this for now but am 

considering the next step which 

might be adding more contrasts.

here's a little painting painted with 

watercolor on an unused tea bag.

i love the simplicity that can come with

a little dab of color!

i saw this in a store front window on my

morning walk.

i have spring fever just seeing the soft lush colors of 

my favorite  french tulips. 

a peek at my studio desk top today.

i showed the onion skins and avocado puts i boiled last week.

the initial dye was a light tint.  i boiled the solution down 

to get a concentrate.  i had newsprint with texture paste

that i made in misty mawn's workshop.  i cut it into

5 x5 pieces, painted them with the dyes, then collaged 

shapes cut from tea bags and  the words to one of my 

favorite poems,  wild geese by mary oliver.  i will continue

to add a bit more but i do like it at this point.  

happy friday!  i have to sets of friends visiting from mexico

and pittsburg and am so looking forward to catching up

and lots of hugs!

happy paint party friday!

FEBRUARY

a teabag a day 

what's this?  cans of sample acrylic house paint from my local 

ace hardware store.  my friend told me about them 14.5 ounces for 

the sale price of $1.99!  to my surprise, the paints were individually

hand mixed!  look at the colors!   apparently the stores have regular sales so 

that means return visits for me.

these are a gift of beautiful senellier pigment powders

that i just learned how to mix and make my own 

watercolors!  oh my gosh, what a gift for a girl like me!

to add to the new color, pigment theme, i boiled

red onion skins, yellow onion skins, avocado skins, 

and avocado pits as inspired by an exercise in 

misty mawn's make do art online workshop.

she recommended labeling the bottles right away.  

i can see why now that i made them~~  the batches 

look so similar and it would be impossible to keep them

sorted without a label.

here are the samples i took at varying time periods. 

samples of avocado pit dyes.  print paper on the right

absorbed the most  dye.  i have boiled batches of papers 

with flower petals  and onion skins.  they make lovely 

stationary and journals.

have any of you tried making and using natural dyes?  i would love

to hear your experience and get ideas on how you like to use

the dyes.  

it's friday and i am looking forward to a creative 

weekend.  on fridays as always, i post with a lovely

creative group hosted by eva and kristen, paint party friday.

peek in on the  artists there if you get a chance... and 

Have a lovely

W E E K E N ED

X O X O X O