Fresh artist's palette: sign of the new school year

My watercolors

Signs of the new school year are everywhere.

Minnesota State Fair opening day --  Hooray!

Relentless tv ads for school supplies – Make them stop!

Artists’ fresh palettes – Huzzah!

The Biggest Crayon Box
from My Childhood

Although I am no longer a student, the school calendar appears to be part of my DNA. Perhaps it harks back to getting the biggest box of Crayola™ crayons that my parents could be persuaded to buy, but re-setting my palette just before school starts seems like the right thing to do.

Artists are lucky because we can mark a new year or a new project by setting up a fresh palette. Washing out the old colors, introducing new colors, and bringing back standards and favorites are a group of unalloyed pleasures. A fresh palette celebrates possibilities and sparks creativity.

NEED FOR COMPACT STORAGE  Because I travel to around the country to present Pass the Baton lectures to law students and lawyers, I need a portable watercolor infrastructure that takes up minimal space and slides through airport security. At home, I have a relatively small worktable, and need to keep my colors within easy reach. Just as I used to organize crayons by color, I set my palettes by color groups: yellow, green, blue, orange, pink, red, purple, brown-black-gray, and metallic.

LOADED WITH COLOR  With seven Dick Blick small folding plastic palettes loaded with 150 small blobs of individual watercolors packed in a plastic makeup bag, I am ready to go. Three Daniel Smith Autograph Kolinsky Travel Brushes, a 6H pencil, an eraser, and a small pencil sharpener fit into the bag. Although one set of screeners looked closely at the travel brushes which unscrew to reveal the brush inside, I have never had a security-screening issue with this kit.

FRESH PAINT and FRESH IDEAS  I paint every day and can’t wait to bring fresh ideas to works in progress and to start on entirely new projects. Reset your palette and go!

nanoscapes' Small Friends declare independence in new website

After working in the shadow of the geometric abstract nanoscapes for more than five years, 38 small friends have declared their independence and moved to a website all their own. Find them in individual galleries for amphibians, birds, cats, fish, LLLamas, and mammals.  31 LLLamas appeared in Facebook in May, and all but Rainbow LLLama left abruptly on the first LLLamaWorLLLd Tour. Rainbow stayed behind to represent them at this new website.

Moose on a Hill: the 1st small friend

 Their first principle is WE WERE FIRST. Before the first nanoscape kaleidoscope or molecule, the Alaskan Moose on the Hill and the the first Musk Ox appeared on post cards that I made as souvenirs of my first visit to Alaska in 2003. One copy of the Moose remains in the archives, and the all of the Musk Ox are lost. These friends were painted on Arches and Canson post cards with watercolor pencils and brushes with water reservoirs. 

In 2006, shortly after taking my first watercolor class, a few extra cats showed up in my studio for portraits. I wasn't surprised because I feed, water, and obey Flying Tackle Phil and Darwin, Felinus Emeritae. Ever since, there has been a steady stream of whimsical creatures either visiting (Mary-Anna Musk Ox) or making their home in my studio. Fortunately, they don't eat, and even the largest (Darren Dragon at 32 feet) take up no physical space. 

Their second principle is USE GOOD TOOLS. They are all proud to have been painted on Arches, Fabriano or Canson papers with Daniel Smith, Winsor Newton, Holbein, Sennelier or Dick Blick watercolors using Daniel Smith sable, Winsor Newton Series 7 or one tiny Jack Richardson brush.

Their third principle is PAINT INDOORS. In our whimsical world, we share an aversion to heat, humidity and bugs. 

Their fourth principle is SMILE. The small friends are proud to stand up for whimsy, to support smiling, and to encourage 10 belly-laughs per day.

New nanoscape: The Blue Silos of Iowa

The Blue Silos of Iowa

Growing up with the limited horizon of 1950s suburban shopping malls in Washington DC left me unprepared to be entranced by vast expanses of field and prairie that I have found in Minnesota since moving here in 1992. The fields are alternately flat and rolling, the sky is BIG, and the vistas are endlessly interesting and wildly different from one another.

I was similarly unprepared to have been dazzled by silos, which I saw by the dozens on the road from the Moline IL airport to Iowa City where I spoke at the University of Iowa College of Law in September 2010.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and encouragement of Employment Programs Coordinator Craig Spitzer, I looked closely at the silos and painted nanoscapes. "The Blue Silos of Iowa" is the first of three silo nanos.  It is very small (3x8 inches) and began as a sketch for the two larger works-in-progress. I painted on Arches 140# hot press paper with Daniel Smith Autograph Series 44 Kolinsky Sable brushes numbers 3,2,1, and 00.

Pass the Baton llc has taken me to many places, and I plan to continue to look closely at them for inspiration. On my easel now: "Nebraska's Contour Plowing," which jumped onto my sketch pad as I flew over Nebraska.