janettemarie completing painting #100 . . .

hey janettemarie . . . where did you get that big brush?

JM's apple-licious refreshments . . .

congratulations janettemarie on your 100th apple painting!

food coming later!

peanut butter popcorn?

JM will be posting apple painting #100 soon!  Guests are starting to arrive and we are snacking on peanut butter popcorn. http://kokocooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/peanut-butter-popcorn.html

psssst . . .

Myra:  Tiny have you heard?  Janettmarie has posted apple #99!

Tiny (also answers to Tiny Man or Mr. Tiny):  what's a janettmarie?  what's an apple?  does it taste anything like beef wellington? or bourbon braised barbecue beef bourguignon?

it's been a year but . . . here it is again . . . apples the movie!

featuring some daily painters we know and inspired by the apple lady janettmarie!

janettmarie 92 apples!

These are some of the apples janettmarie painted around the time I first met her.  They inspired my block buster film 'apples - the movie'.  For those of you who missed this academy award winner I will re-post it soon!

janettmarie 90 apples - 10 more to go . . .

OMG janettmarie has painted 90 apples and she has only 10 more to go!!!!  I'm looking at some virtual recipes to see what I'm bringing to the virtual party!  winning!

pan in the can?

The name of this artist is Stephen Pan.  His artwork has helped me to understand why I want to paint the ballet.  I love the way he renders the human figure in paint.  I love his delicate strokes of light and dark that convey the life - the warmth - the softness of her skin.   What I would like to paint is the sweetness, the loveliness,  the cuteness of the human figure - especially the ballerina in her tutu.  I've done some paintings where I have tried to paint cute - delicate - soft . . . I would say that I have gone from point a to point b - will I make it to z?  we shall see!

gracious and tea with janettmarie . . .

'gracious and tea with janettmarie'

As this sketch shows I have been working on my drawings and paintings of chairs.  I asked the modern day master of the impressionist apple JanettMarie if I could borrow her wonderful color palette for some of my pillows and she graciously said yes.  Thank you JanettMarie!  Paintings to come soon!

carol's cutie . . .

Ballerina (or Myra in Lavender)

by Carol Blackburn

Carol I love her!  I was going to take a 'sick day' from drawing today but when I saw your painting it inspired me to draw something new that I have never drawn before - a ballerina! 

ps now I will have to post my automobile drawing . . . I saw your wonderful rooster but that's just way out of my league!

francois and me . . .

Along with Degas I LOVE - -  LOVE I tell you - -  the paintings of Francois Gall.  I wonder why no one has ever written a book about him!  He has done many, many paintings of the ballet as well as other subjects that I just absolutely love.  If I could I would produce a book filled with pages of  full color images of his work - especially the ballet.  You know what I think?  In this so-called modern age I think that any artist who has produced a great body of work should publish themselves. ( I think that with blurb books anyone can produce at least one copy!)  Let's take Catherine Jeffrey or Janett Marie (or you) for example.  Each of them has a great body of beautiful work that I think should be published in a book.  If someone published a beautiful book featuring my 'homey' Francois Gall - I would scream and laugh and dance and cry and laugh and holler and run and flip . . . I think you get the picture . . .

stay safe . . .

I don't know who the artist is!  I've had this on my computer since 2007!  Since this will be a 'winter for the history books' - stay safe!

ma ma

girl with a dog by

Myra Anderson

girl with dog

Milton Avery

The 'ma and ma' stands for myra anderson and milton avery (1885-1965).  There was just something that I liked about this painting by milton avery.  As in much of  his work, I like the seemingly carefree drawing, the vibrant colors, the various textures and in this one - I was especially drawn to the dog.  This painting inspired me to do this pencil sketch using my face for the girl (now I'm lying).  It was a difficult sketch for me to do but I really like the end result.

workin' with renoir . . .

I love Renoir's paintings of 'Girls by the Sea'.  In my sketch I wanted to see if there was a difference between drawing with a regular #2 pencil and graphite drawing pencils ranging from 2b to f.  Of course there's a difference!  I wouldn't have nowhere to spend my measly few pennies if there wasn't!  The graphite drawing pencil 'smooths' onto the paper like butter compared to a regular pencil.  Not that the regular #2 pencil doesn't have it's place.  I would use it right along with the drawing pencils - maybe to fill in the hair or non-essential places.

myra like degas . . .

You may have heard somewhere that I like the ballet paintings and drawings of Degas.  I have long loved this Degas sketch (photo #2).  What I attempted to do in my sketch was to substitute my face for the face of the ballerina (now I'm lying).  I did the best I could with my limited skill set but boy oh boy was it fun!! 

Also, I need to go back and number my ballerina series.  What number is this one?  I think I am going to put numbers on them like JM's apples.  Her artistic way of numbering her apple series is just too cute!

Finally, I am thinking about getting one of those art projectors as a learning tool.  I would like to use one as an aid to help me 'see' objects better.  I would also practice tracing objects in order to learn how to draw them more accurately. 

I can't explain it . . .

I can't explain it but there was something about this video - I just had to watch it and I WILL watch it again!

eric bowman and me and emotional-lee

sketch #7 by myra anderson

eric bowman

What a beautiful painting by Eric Bowman!  With just the right amount of strokes he has captured the beauty and the emotion of the ballet.  I think that my pencil drawing shows a little emotion.  She's saying 'I'm young, beautiful and when I'm done dancing I want a small one egg omelet with pepper jack cheese and bacon on a nice piece of hot buttered toast. . . . and coffee'. (Her . . . not me!)

blue . . . shoe . . .

blue . . . shoe . . .

by myra anderson

This is charcoal on blue pastel paper.  It's sketch #3 of my dance series.  For some reason I thought that it would be fun to smear it a little and add those crazy lines.  Yup!!

 more from the article 'what is art'

Another beautiful photo from Rick Elkins.  I think that this is like a beautiful 'modern day' Degas.  Yet another reason I love the art of the ballet.  I often wonder what makes people love their particular genre.  There is actually an artist who paints 'a mule' a day . . . . . . . .

one small step . . . a thousand miles to go . . .

sketch #2 by myra anderson

First, it was so sweet of Mr. Anderson (that's what I call my husband Harvey sometimes) anyway, it was so sweet of Mr. Anderson to go out and buy me an automatic pencil sharpener.  I have many packs of  unopened pencils - but no sharpener.  Now, armed with  newly sharpened pencils I decided to 'lay down some lines' or do some pencil drawings.  (I have only done three pencil drawings in my life.)

Well, I rather enjoyed it!  But there were areas that I wish I could make darker.  Lo and behold I opened up a book!  *I found out that there is something called 'a carbon pencil' that gives you darker lines.  *The artist also said that he drew the entire figure before he added the clothing.    Duh!  Why didn't he tell me that before I put her other leg in the wrong place!  Off to the store for carbon pencils and other drawing pencils!!

A quote from the web

Photo by Rick Elkins

'the ballet is truly timeless'

It took me a while to 'see' that the two ballerinas in this beautiful photo were in the same pose as the ballerinas in the Degas.  This photo by Rick Elkins portrays the kind of beauty I hope to one day bring to my paintings of the ballet.  'A thousand miles to go.'