Last Sketches

These are the last figure sketches from my sketch group. All done.

This is Toni. She brought her own music to class, and it was as if she took my own iPod. It's fun to find a music buddy.


And this is Forrest. Very nice guy. Great model. Listened to a book on tape as he posed.

My Husband Is So Awesome!

Saturday night was the Hi-Fructose group show opening at the Copro Nason gallery. Mark had five pieces in the show and SOLD ALL OF THEM.




It was great that the gallery put his pieces together on a separate wall.





Here are some great friends. Left to right: Monica and Phil Straub, Ana, Chris, and Mark. (Just ignore smiley drunk in the background. Don't know who that is.)

I can't believe I made it five hours there on my feet with the weight of massive boobs and belly pressing down. But the thrill of seeing my husband do so well was what I needed to persevere.

Congrats again, Baby.

New Drawing

Every once and a while in a figure drawing workshop you get the pleasure of working from a super great model. This model was professional, gorgeous, sweet, and most importantly, she had a confident and charismatic presence. Somehow, she was able to get right back into the pose exactly without needing any adjustments from us. (I have trouble just staying upright in my chair. ) And then she holds a difficult pose for hours while making it look effortless and natural.




I actually wished I had brought my paints because she had beautiful strawberry blond hair.

More Boobies, I Mean, Drawings

The model who was scheduled Friday canceled, so we waited and waited to see if another model could pose last minute. Luckily Elizabeth showed up. She had such an inspiring face. The problem with really beautiful faces is that the drawing always falls short.



I wanted to sketch from different angles...


and try a full figure sketch which I haven't done in a long while.



And this is from last week. She looks like she doesn't belong in LA.

Celebrity Sighting and Drawings

This morning Mark (aka Daddy-to-be) and I went out for brunch at Mo's. It right around the corner. Usually I like to get buzzed off the free cheap champagne, but obviously not anymore. We are always on the lookout for a celebrity. Hadn't seen anyone in a while, but today we saw Paul Dooley with whom I assume was his wife. You might remember him as the Dad in Sixteen candles. He still looks great.


And here are some new drawings and sketches.

This is Nicole. I really liked her as a model. She had a strong personality and wore a lot of eye makeup.


I did another quick sketch at the end of the session to get the look of how a model really feels after posing for ungrateful artists for three hours.



And this is from a costumed session. I wish I had more time to have drawn more of the costume, which was complete with buckle shoes, hose, and puffy pants. He just needed a sword.

Caution: Nudity

Usually around this time, I am in Florida attending the Forgotten Coast Paint Out. And usually I am planning my trip to Monhegan, to which I usually go in July-August to catch all the tourist money. The best time to really go is September. Not as many people and perfect weather. But, with the timing of Baby Boy Covell's arrival (August 4th), I made the decision to stay put. So with the ending of my part time assistant job because of morning sickness(or all day yacking, as I call it) and the (sort of) bedrest I was ordered, I have not been making any money, which bothers me more than I thought it would.
But I have been doing some painting. No plein air painting, though. Can't imagine being out all day when I have to pee every 30 minutes, eat every 2 hours, and get a sunburn just thinking about it. And I am either shivering cold or sweating my toosh off, sometimes at the same time. I am not complaining. I will take all that over nausea any day!

So here is a sampling of some work:


This is a study with a gorgeous model wearing this silly head wrap.



Here is a little study of my turp jar. It has been to Maine, Florida, and San Luis Obispo.



And I think I will never, ever tire of painting pears.



And here is the nudity I promised. This is Laura and her boobs.


So, yes, I will miss all my friends in Florida and on Monhegan this year. And painting there of course. And I will miss the money that I might have made. I have a hunch that that will change the moment I look into my son's eyes for the first time.

New Studio

When Mark started his hiatus from Family Guy, I was kicked out of the studio so he could work on his paintings without my interruptions and sudden hug attacks. I moved my laptop to the dining room table, which had already been pushed up against the wall for some painting lessons I was giving a while back. Now I have started painting in the 'dining room' too. Eventually, we will both be out here painting because the studio will become bedroom for when the Little Ninja needs his own room. So there will be the Big Rearrangement, where we move the studio, bedroom, and nursery around. That is a subject for another time.

I have been going through a whole load of changes with being pregnant and having TEN TIMES the amount of hormones a normal human has. 24 hour morning sickness, tiredness, no physical activity, dangerously low placenta, feeling very chubby, feeling bad for not working, clothes not fitting, felling better, energy!, comparing myself to skinny pregnant women, play-dough skin, feeling Baby Boy squirming around, peeing every 20 minutes, can't sleep on belly anymore, feeling amazed and blown away that I have a person in my body. All in one day. I love it.
But throughout those months, I wasn't painting. People would ask me, "Have you been painting?" A logical question because I have all this time now, but it felt like an deep cut to me. Mark was painting like a madman, and I was sitting here on the computer, walking, practicing yoga, or eating. What was wrong with me? I wasn't inspired to paint the things I usually want to. I was so cold all the time that I couldn't even think of going out to paint. I felt even more useless.

I reminded myself that painting is pretty much my only skill(other than making a sinfully good cookie), and I had better keep it up. And I wanted our son to see his parents working hard at their passions no matter what. So I grabbed my paints and set up a little studio in the dining room and painted a pretty pathetic painting. It felt good. I am averaging a little study every other day. I will post them soon.


I feel so much better now. I am not embarrassed and can say, "Yeah, I have been painting." Plus I work right by the window where I can look out on the bird of paradise tree, hear the birds singing, and reach over and do this:



Here is the messy new studio and my little workspace with a study in progress.

I Am a Creator of Orphans

In the past I have been outraged by things our government does. Like NOT pass a Bill that would give medical insurance to millions of poor uninsured children. Or it's foreign policies, or it's unlawful taxation of our incomes. Oh, the list could go on and on. And I have emailed letters to the Congressmen about it. But when Mark told me about this the other day, I went from disbelief to outrage and finally to that feeling when you realize that your best friend stole your prom date.

Basically, there is a Bill being written right now that could very well end Mark and my art careers. This is not an exaggeration. It's called Orphan Works. It would make it very easy for anyone to take photographs or works of art from artists and use it for monetary gain, and take away the rights or ability for the artists to do anything about it. So why would any advertiser, publisher, or licensing company ever buy art directly from an illustrator, photographer, or fine artist when they could just browse the web and take any image they came across. This Bill reads as if someone was specifically making a plan to bypass paying artists for any work they use, and make it nearly impossible for the artist to take legal action. Please listen to this interview with Brad Holland, who is part of the Illustrator's Partnership. It explains it better than I can. There is information on Orphan Works there, too.

Since the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Convention Implementation Act in 1988, intellectual property has been protected by the government. Artists, along with authors, musicians, or anyone who created a work, were protected. Nobody could use your work without your permission, and if you registered the work with the Copyright Department, you could get monetary damages for the violation. You simply showed them that you possessed this work.

If this Orphan Works Bill passes, artists, only visual artists and photographers, are NO LONGER PROTECTED, can NO LONGER GET THEIR WORK COPYRIGHTED, will have any existing copyrighted work UN-COPYRIGHTED, and have to prove HOW and WHEN someone stole their work, using their own lawyers. It would make artists and photographers the only artists who can't. Artists can register their works for a fee with private commercial agencies(which don't exist yet), but this gives no protection either. A company will just have to look at one or two of these agencies, and if they don't see the work, can legally use it, paying a whatever fee they choose. The artists has no say. The company can always say,"Oh, I just came across this image." And legally they are protected. Artists will have to register their images with every single company if they want full protection, and still get close to nothing if an image is used. A lot of time and money for nothing. My paintings will no longer belong to me.

The Orphan Works Bill supposedly has a purpose of freeing up artwork done by artists who have passed away, thereby 'orphaning' the work. Or making it legal to use artwork of which nobody knows the origin. This is all fine and dandy, and Canada has figured out a simple way to deal with this. If someone in Canada wants to use an orphaned work, they just apply with the Canadian Orphan Works to use it, then research is done, and permission denied or accepted. Simple, huh? Well, my hunch is that some VERY wealthy special interest groups here in th U.S. saw some major money making potential for dealing visual images and decided to have the government orphan ALL artwork and photography done in America. Corbis Images and Getty Images, sellers of 'stock images', are two such groups, and they have expressed their interest to Congress, in support of this Bill. THIS is the real reason for the convoluted, over complicated, nonsense of a Bill that is wasting everyone's time. If it wasn't about these companies looking to profit, why wouldn't the U.S. just do what Canada is doing?
Obviously, everyone involved with this Orphan Works Bill has no idea about the art world and absolutely no regard for professional artists, and I am furious. To make it worse, the Bill is said to be based on the ramblings of a self absorbed Law Professor and his students and their Marxist views about authorship of intellectual property. First of all, who in their right mind bases a Bill on this crap? And if it isn't really based on it, then what kind of looney says it is? And if the theory is that all artistic creation is based on what other artists have done before them, therefore rendering it instantly communal domain, why attack just visual artists? And not musicians, poets, writers, sculptors, architects, designers, etc?
It's obvious to me that visual artists are being singled out because it is easy to take advantage of them, and there are no big corporations to fight.
I really feel like my world is dissolving around me, and I have little chance to save myself and Mark from this nonsense.

The new Orphan Works Bill is not written yet and so has no official number or title. This means that letters to Congressmen and Senators will have no effect yet. I am afraid that this is on purpose, and that the new Bill will go to a vote with no time for opposition to write or protest. Mark and I are writing to every artist and friend once letters can be written to bring attention to this violation of rights and ask for help in fighting it.

I am terrified for our future.

Because We're Weird Like That

This might seem odd, but in going through all of our photos from Maui, I realized that we took more pictures of industrial stuff than the typical things you might expect. One reason is that we like these shots for artistic inspiration and reference. And another is that we both love these kind of images. And I don't care if you are thinking,"Why go all the way to Maui for that? You have tons of that in LA." I get that when I go to Monhegan and paint trucks. What makes the trucks so amazing is that they are in Monhegan, just like the docks are even more beautiful to me because they are in Maui.



I really do feel so lucky that my sweet hubby loves this kind of stuff as much as I do. We talked about when we started to appreciate the mystery of these images. I remember feeling a very strong feeling when I was in desolate or broken down areas as a child. It wasn't a scared feeling, but one of wonder and another feeling that I still can't name.



As artists we love these images for the colors, textures, history, juxtapositions, and symbolism. And also for that ineffable feeling we get when in that atmosphere.

Getty Villa

Went to the Getty Villa with my friends Laurel and Paul last week. It is a special museum perched atop a big hill in Malibu and overlooking the ocean. Very valuable real estate.It was made with the sole purpose of housing J. Paul Getty's(one rich mo-fo) antiques. It was designed and built to resemble what experts believe would be the ideal villa in ancient Rome, right down to the marble and mosaic floors, outdoor Roman theatre, courtyards, and colums all over the place.
Here are a few of the highlights. I loved this fertility figure with her arms out. Considering the crude tools they had, the carving is really amazing. And the other pic of the grouping of carvings is from about 5000 - 7000 B.C. Mindblowing. That's old.
And then a nice shot of the peristyle under a sunset.

The Real Stars of LA

I had the thrill of being invited by my friend Frank Serrano to a paintout down in Palos Verdes on Saturday. The very best plein air painters in California were there. The painters painted all morning while collectors and sponsors looked on. Then there was a light lunch. The best part was that I was able to tag along to Dan Pinkham's house (my dream house- I will post about this house!) to get to socialize with some of the artists, Mian Situ, David Gallup, Stephen Mirich, Amy Sidrane, Tim Solliday, and Alexey Steele. Later on, Alexey, Amy, David, Daniel, and Stephen went out to paint and enjoy this amazing sunset. It was like meeting your favorite movie star, but better!

Update: Jury Duty, Art Show and Fullerton

Just and update, dear friends, on my recent activities. Last weekend Mark and I went to the Fullerton Museum to see the J.C. Leyendecker exhibit. A really great show! I sneekily took some pictures. Here is one of the series of Kellogg's cereal ads. They dubbed Leyendecker "America's Other Illustrator" because he was not as well known as Norman Rockwell, but he did many Saturday Evening Post and Colliers covers for 40 years.
We stopped for some Mexican and walked around the cute little downtown Fullerton. I picked up a ragingly gorgeous party dress (for $39!) at a second hand shop. I can't wait to wear it. Happy Birthday to me!
Last Friday, Family Guy had an art show at the office. The employees painted work in the theme of movie posters. Mark did a Sin City illustration with Peter and Lois all Frank Miller style. It was a big hit!
And Friday and Monday I went to the Los Angeles County courthouse in downtown LA to waste two whole days. I was originally pre-selected for a jury, but was excused after the lawyers interviewed me. I guess I am not jury material, but the person who couldn't speak any English and the deaf person who also couldn't speak English were stuck on the jury. Go figure.
Only in LA though will you have an actress, a stripper, the son of THE Lender's bagel guy, and the father of the singer of Maroon 5 with you in the courtroom. The big highlight is that the courthouse is right next to this masterpiece.

San Luis Obispo Paint Out, Part 2

While painting up in SLO, I met a couple of very talented artists. Here is a pic of Lori Putnam and me at the big gala reception. Lori and I stayed in the same host house. She is from Nashville and has the sweetest personality, so it was so fun to get to know her.

And I took a pic of Virginia Vaughn (V...Vaughn). She is from Texas, and she is so fun. I wish I had half of the energy of this woman.

San Luis Obispo Paint Out

The first week of October I went to San Luis Obispo to participate in the SLO Plein Air Festival. It's about a 3 hour drive straight north, where the vineyards and farms and world famous cliffs and rocks by the ocean. And I actually, for some weird, maybe hormonal reason, I did not really want to go. Plus, I had pulled a big muscle in my back at yoga class. Maybe I was psyched out about having to paint and show with some of the best plein air painters in the West. Maybe I was sick of being away from home.... Aaannnyywwayyyyy.... I went a day late, drove around aimlessly, didn't know anyone, didn't know where anything was. But I didn't care. It was so gorgeous there. I mean REALLY nice. The air was so clean and smelled like eucalyptus and lavender and grapes.
The first day I did some quick sketches of cows. Very fun. I love cows. They are so cool, and I feel so good that I don't eat them. Then I labored over this painting of the sun setting behind these amazing trees with rolling golden hills and a creek. And when I was almost done, a big wind came and blew my easel over, and my very wet painting skidded face down in the nice loose gravelly dirt. There was no saving it. Ow, well. Day two and no paintings yet. I had 3 and a half days to produce six showable paintings.(*Gulp*)

Plein air painting is done on location, using no photographs or tricks. One must set up in the elements: wind, cold, heat, sun, traffic, annoying people, no bathroom, no food. And finish a painting in about 3 hours. Or go back day after day at the same time. But I had SIX paintings to do.

Here are the best of the paintings I eventally did. I just loved the old villlage feel of the little towns. And I met some incredible painters and made some friends. I am so glad that I went!

Chicken Studies

Had a fun time doing these chicken sketches! Yes, the frizzly one is actually a real kind of chicken, called a Frizzle (go figure). When they are mature, they are gorgeous, but when they are immature, like this one, they look so pathetic. This guy was nicknamed 'Skeletor'.

A Sampling of Paintings from Monhegan 2007