The Nightjar

Watercolor of Apples

2011-03-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

I havent posted this on Etsy yet, but will be there shortly. I am loving watercolor lately, so free feeling and fun when I am doing it.

small drawing of leaves

2011-03-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Me Pendant

2011-03-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

BOO

2010-10-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!!!

2010-10-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

Poppy

2010-08-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

Booo!

2010-08-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Needle Felted Ghostie

New Painting

2010-07-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

new stuff!

2010-07-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Cat Head FP

2009-10-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

My new felted cat head made the FP of Etsy last night- yeah!

Ambera Wellmann

2009-08-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

After 9/11 I could not paint for a while because i just felt nervous and unsettled so when i did begin to work again I painted clouds, and nothing but. This went on for a few years until i transitioned to other things. I never felt entirely satisfied with my cloud paintings because they often ended up looking like floating rocks to me- very frustrating overall but still the clouds becond to me to paint them mainly because i had so many partial successes.
So whenever I discover a painter who can capture the essence of a cloud I am impressed and Ambera Wellmann is one such painter. This artist is new at oil painting (how annoying) and so very talented for her years. She has such a natural and intuitive understanding of color- placing a gorgeous Alizarin crimson in a sliced suggestion of a landscape with a contrasting greenish neutral for the turbulent sky above. The vapor and twisting clouds all move organically with such passion too, much like a Turner...but with the intellegence of a Gerhard Richter. I wish I had been able to comprehend (and execute) such intelligent painting when i was that age. Lucky duck.

Ambera Wellmann

2009-08-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

il_fullxfull.85660484.jpg (JPEG Image, 3070x2279 pixels) - Scaled (35%)

2009-08-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

il_fullxfull.85660484.jpg (JPEG Image, 3070x2279 pixels) - Scaled (35%)

Little Orange

2009-08-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Every so often the urge strikes me to paint traditional still life subjects. I have to be in the mood because for me it is so much harder to paint something that is in front of me than making something up on the fly....this is because there are rules about what can and cant be put down...and i dont like rules (typical artist...sigh) I started this painting,however, by using first a blood orange for a subject. I didn't like what was coming out at first and so time past by and i kept working on it...and my blood orange still life started to shrink...and shrink....and then before it petrified, (well, no really it did petrify first) i threw it out and painted completely over the original with a "regular" orange. There are so many many layers on this little (5" square) painting. So, I did end up making it up after all. Heh, heh. And i liked it way better too. I just listed this today on Etsy.

Jen Shifflet at Chandra Cerito Contemporary

2009-08-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

I kept hearing about this fantastic painter named Jen Shifflet and how much our paintings were similar to each others. Around the fifth time that I heard this coincided with an exhibition of her work at Chandra Cerito Contemporary, so I decided I must check her paintings out. Although her work is organic abstraction and I only sometimes work in that vein, there was surely a synchronicity to how we both paint... layers of juicy oil, a commitment to technique, depth of composition and richness of color. Even some of the flourishes and calligraphic linear elements that Shifflet uses are reminiscent of components of my own paintings. As I gazed at her work I kept getting strange deja vu feelings like- "Have I painted this before"??? The nice part (however slightly disappointing)is that she a better painter in many ways ...sigh. But I am lucky to learn from her examples. Check it out yourself until the last week of August.

Here's to you Tripod

2009-08-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

I love to create new things even if they dont come out the way i want them at first. I created this cat puppet after my own kitty, Sweet Pea (name for the flower and the pee "presents" she used to leave around the house) lost one of her legs. I guess i might call her tripod now. But she is A-okay- it was as though nothing happened to her at all and she can even run almost as well as she used to.
Anyway, I have had this loving cat for over 19 years so I thought I would make an honorary puppet of her because she is so special and reminds me of so many different times in my life just by looking at her. The puppet is made on museum quality board and painted with oil paint. I used metal brads so you can move the limbs around. Cheers Sweet Pea!

2009-08-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

Mercurys 20 great art

2009-08-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

I went to first Friday and saw some great art again at Mercury20 gallery in Oakland -here's some pics of David Seilers work, a fantastic painter and sculptor...also a great installation of wood block prints in Mercury 20's window by Mary

More Ornaments

2009-07-28T13:31:00.001-07:00

Yes, these look like they have a beachy background going on here ...that's what happens when you make Christmas ornaments in July

Xmas in July

2009-07-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, i know- Christmas in July? I used to think- totally not cool! Leave me alone, but now I am designing a German glitter glass ornament for my Etsy website and it is taking more time than I had wanted it to.
I am coming up against all kinds of problems with solvents and varnishes and technical issues that seemed at first like they would be a breeze. Oh well. So I plug away and make all of these mistakes that I really should know better about. So I thought I should post a couple of these ornaments and ask - what do you think? Just okay, good, brilliant? Different colors? Bigger? (they are about 3" square) Smaller? Different images? (oh, I love birds) More like Christmas? (probably, huh?) And, the big meaty question, how much would you spend? Just curious....

another Etsy FP!

2009-07-08T18:46:00.001-07:00

Mercury Twenty Gallery 25 Grand Ave Oakland California/featuring Anna Vaughan and Mary Curtis Ratcliff in July of 2009

2009-07-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Mercury Twenty Gallery 25 Grand Ave Oakland California/featuring Anna Vaughan and Mary Curtis Ratcliff in July of 2009.
I had the good fortune to show with Anna Vaughn last year at Mercury20 and the show as a whole was one of my favorites that I have evr been in. Part of the reason is because her work is so strong. At that time she was showing this amazing large ceramic sculpture of a frog surrounded by her eggs. My then 2 year old son proceeded to pick a couple of the eggs off the wall...Thankfully they were not harmed and Anna was forgiving.
This year Anna is showing one of my favorite sculptures I have seen all year. She calls the piece "Bee Bomb" LOVE it.!
Mary Curtis Ratcliff is showing with Anna and is making these wonderful installations of xerox transfers on wood. She displays them so artfully in groupings of five or more so that they play off of each other. I am drawn to the round format too. It is no wonder that a bunch were sold on Friday night.

Oakland Art Murmur

2009-07-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I visited Oakland's Art Murmur and went to the gallery that I am affiliated with, Mercury20. There was a fantastic opening featuring the work of two artists, Anna Vaughn and Mary Curtis in the front space and a 4 person exhibition in the back- ....i am soooo tired from July 4th today so i am going to write more about this tomorrow...nite

TheNightJar on Trunkt - - Beautiful Giftware Created By Amazing Artisans

2009-06-26T12:52:00.001-07:00

TheNightJar on Trunkt - - Beautiful Giftware Created By Amazing Artisans

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Hand painted miniature painting, Cherry (Vintage Bridal Button) by TheNightjar on Etsy

2009-06-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hand painted miniature painting, Cherry (Vintage Bridal Button) by TheNightjar on Etsy

Etsy Treasury - a green dream

2009-06-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Etsy Treasury - a green dream

Eric Herman

2009-05-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this great kids musician, Eric Herman the other day and i can not seem to get some of the songs out of my head. Not too fun at 3AM when I need to sleep but there have been worse thing in my head at 3AM. He does this song called, "The Elephant Song" that has had over 4 million views on You Tube..here is a link ; http://www.erichermanmusic.com/video.html

My favorite song of his is a pirate song where three pirates fight over which color to paint their ship and at the end of the song their paint gets all mixed together so the ship gets, "Marooned" - never to be seen again. ARGH MATIES. I guess its my favorite because of the color thing.
... I have shown this video to so many people, including my husband, and they are mildly amused and chuckle slightly. My husband flat out laughs at me and pats me gently (you know, like, "there, there, you silly two year old , middle aged woman...") So, he doesn't think its so funny, so then I am the goofy one laughing by myself. Thankfully, my son laughs along with me. ...URK! I'll shut up now about Eric Herman...
Pirate Action-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exads7KV-Y0

2009-05-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

2009-05-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Our kids have been off the hook lately, crying and fussing and demanding...sigh. This morning it felt really good to hold the hair dryer as close a possible to my head so I could be enveloped in the "silence" of it. Reveled in the whirrrrrrrrr............whooooooosh! (instead of WAHHHH!!!!) It was awesome...yeah, right. This is not in the how to be a good parent manual I suppose but it is a technique in sanity saving...try it sometime...

2009-05-21T16:15:00.001-07:00

I am at Stinson Beach right now hanging out with friends and our kids. I can hear the sound of the waves and Pelicans are passing by the floor to ceiling windows. Pretty nice is an understatement. Our friends also have boy/girl twins and they are all playing together on the sand, oh so adorable

It is nice also to have my first Thursday off since I started teaching last January. Yeah, summer is almost here.

2009-05-20T13:07:00.001-07:00

boy, that picture of Sweet Pea is not exactly timely- that was Christmas when she had all four legs....whatever....

2009-05-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have just finished swimming at the gym- why is it so hard to get a lane at the pool? its crazy- fighting with every walk of life to use a lane. Water walkers really urk me in the lap lanes...ergh. anyway...oooh.

So, i need not start this blog with angry energy, right.

I can hear my three legged cat eating her kibble. We had to amputate her leg a few months back because she broke it in two places and it wouldnt heal all the way. this is one tough cat boy oh boy. She just turned 19 years old....i wonder if i can post a pic of her on this blog? i must be able to do that somehow...hummmn