Seasonal Cheer

Whenever I see that someone has rolled snow around into giant snowballs and made a snowman it always makes me smile. I hope my illustration puts some cheer in your holiday!

Hooray for Holiday!

Let the festivities continue! Warm gold creates an elegant yet woodsy feel in this illustration I created for TriFecTa, a floral, events and gift shop's holiday event. Isn't it nice to imbibe and nibble while shopping?

The Holiday Season Begins

It's December 1st, so for me the gift-giving season has begun. Here is the front of a large postcard with my illustration inviting people to a holiday event at a wonderful locally owned retail store New Orientation. They are celebrating 25 years and I am grateful to have been working with them for that long! Wow!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a wacky holiday that brings out everone's creative side. I love seeing all of the costumed characters that come to our house for treats. I also look forward to carving jack 'o lanterns and smelling that familiar pumpkin scent. This is an illustration I did a few years ago for the Utah Symphony's annual Halloween concert for kids.

Chamber Concert Illustration

This is a recent illustration I did for the Community Concerts at Second season brochure. They perform free chamber music concerts in Baltimore, Maryland showcasing local, national and international artists. Classical music is such an inspiration to me! It was great working with B Creative Group on this project for the second year in a row.

Portrait Commission

This is my gouache painting that is currently on display in the Salt Lake Art Center’s “Not Just Another Pretty Face” exhibition. It’s a new program at the Art Center in which patrons in the community commissioned Utah artists to create works that were unveiled at the Art Center’s annual benefit gala on June 6 and will continue to be on display until July 4, 2009. The program began last winter at a series of nine salon gatherings in private homes where a diverse group of people were introduced to a sampling of work by the 65 participating artists. Many of the artists were then commissioned to create art ranging from portraits and landscapes, to abstract paintings. The culmination is an exhibition of 25 works by 19 artists, commissioned by 18 patrons and representing some of the best contemporary art being created in Utah today. I am proud to have my painting included in the exhibition. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and had a a great time getting to know my patron and portraying her children. I hope to do many other commissions!

Farmers Market

Do you love to go to the local farmers market as much as I do? I was so happy to create the above illustration and design the poster and promotional materials for the Downtown Farmers Market here in Salt Lake City. They kicked off the season with a fundraising opening party Monday night at a local brew pub. The food was a delicious array of local artisanal purveyors--cheeses, meats, breads, greens and more. A big hit was a local distillers sampling of their oat-based vodka and rye whiskey. The market opens this Saturday. We may have to take an umbrella, but hopefully these last two weeks of rain will bring an abundant harvest!

Spring at Last

It is finally beginning to feel like Spring after several snowy days. The pansies and daffodils are blooming and the grass is getting green so this image that I created for a retail store's seasonal party invitation seemed like an appropriate post.

Get Your Goat

Recently we, and some of our "foodie" friends, put together a Goat Fest. A local rancher provided the fresh goat meat and everyone made a delicious offering. The buffet had wonderful salads, green coconut rice, and goat prepared in many ways--Rendang, goat chops with wild mushrooms, and broiled ribs. My husband Mikel made an elegant Moroccan basteeya, sheathed in thin layers of phyllo and dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar (he is the cook at our house). It is traditionally made with pigeon or chicken but he did it with goat and it was a big hit! I wish I had photos to share but you can read a little more about the feast at my friends blog http://shecraves.typepad.com/my_weblog/feasts-1/. In this morning's New York Times there is an article about dining on goat. Here is the link http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/dining/01goat.html?th&emc=th My painting of "Nymphs with Goat" is one of my series of acrylic on plywood.

At Palmers Gallery

The opening reception went really well with a steady flow of people coming throughout the evening. It has been wonderful to share my art with so many people. I am thankful to everyone who takes the time to go to the gallery to see my exhibit and especially grateful to those who are purchasing the paintings. Here is a photo of me in the gallery and one of the dwindling crowd at the end of the opening. You can see some of the paintings in my exhibition on my website in the "Gouache" section.

Show Opening Day

The exhibit is hanging and looks great. It has been previewed, and started off successfully with two paintings sold the day before the opening. I am so thankful, happy and excited about the opening tonight!

Art Ready for Delivery

Here are some of the smaller pieces just back from the framer and ready to be delivered to the gallery.

Upcoming Art Exhibit

One week from today my first solo show at Palmers Gallery will be opening. It runs from March 20 until April 11, 2009. I am really excited and have a few butterflies in my stomach in anticipation. The postcards have been sent and the emailers go out today. I am really happy with all of the new paintings and will pick up the last three from the framer this afternoon. Here is the gouache painting, "Woman with Violins", that we selected for the postcard.

New Orleans Lil' Easy Bus Illustration

I did a project last month that was an enjoyable challenge and a perfect fit for me: an illustration to wrap buses in New Orleans, featuring jazz music. Some of the New Orleans neighborhoods are still sparsely populated and are bouncing back from hurricane Katrina. These new Lil' Easy buses transport people from the neighborhoods to the larger transportation connection areas.

It was great working with Creative Director Dave Malone for Veolia Transportation. These are some of my thumbnail sketches as composition options for the art:






The Lil' Easy Sprinter buses are now driving around New Orleans neighborhoods with my illustration on the sides. I hope these colorful buses brighten peoples spirits and make getting around more pleasant!

Inauguration Day

We were glued to the television all morning and are celebrating at Humanities Happy Hour and a party after that. The collage of stuff on our refrigerator somehow beckoned me for a snapshot. What a wonderful day of hope, change and celebration!

Summer in January

Last night we watched a wonderful film that we hadn't seen for years, "My Father's Glory" by Marcel Pagnol. It is his memories of childhood with his family, particularly one summer holiday in the country wilderness area of Provence. My thoughts turned to hot days and long summer evenings, so here are a few images from my sketchbook from this past summer.

Happy New Year!

Here is a quick illlustration to bring in the new year. I feel very optimistic about 2009 and wanted to wish everyone much good health, happiness, prosperity and success this year. And, much love and creativity! Cheers!