International Cheetah Day ~ Painting and Drawing My Favorite Animal

Detail from Kilimanjaro 1989

Oil on wood panel, 2018

International Cheetah Day

December 4th

I think I started trying to draw cheetahs by the time I was in Ms. Skeehan's class in 1st grade. At some point in grammar school I did a report on cheetahs and bush babies got bumped from my number 1 spot of favorite animals. When I found out, as a little girl, that cheetahs don't attack humans I of course wanted a pet cheetah. The problem is that many people feel the same way and never grew out of it. 

Here's a little ink sketch I made in high school, in 1986.

These beautiful animals don't belong in homes or in places far from their own habitats with folks who have no idea how to care for them. Most die within a year or two. Believe it or not, this is one of the biggest conservation challenges. Dozens of cubs at a time are are being smuggled out of Somaliland and most of them won't survive the journey. Along with the captive pet trade, another enormous issue is that they have been driven out of 91% of their historic range.

Cheetahs are the most endangered big cat in Africa. Their population of 7,500 individuals is down from 100,000 and without help they will be extinct, in the wild, in the next 15 years. 

Here's a video from the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Please watch!

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Young Cheetah

Ink on paper, 2007

Here's a video of a rescued baby cheetah by the Born Free Foundation.

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For my last solo show Through Time and Place: 5 Decades, I knew I had to paint a cheetah. Seeing them 30 years ago in Kenya was an unforgettable experience!

I remember standing inside the van with my head popped out of the open top, 35mm with telephoto in hand. We were only 10 to 15 feet away from two brothers sitting on a hill. It was just my family of four, our guide Francis, and these two beautiful cheetah. They looked like they were posing, sitting there so regal and graceful. I remember staring in to the eyes of one of these beautiful beings and it was ... emotional, magical and indescribable. 

You can see, below, I was working from some of my old old Africa photos for reference.

Kilimanjaro 1989, 2018

12 x 12"

Oil on wood panel with gold metal leafing

I am planning on doing a life size painting of a cheetah for my next solo which will be on endangered  and keystone species and our fragile planet. Stay tuned for that!

Meanwhile here is a news clip about the problem of cheetah smuggling with footage of many of the cubs, please click HERE 

If you would like more information or to donate to help cheetahs, click on the links below.

Cheetah Conservation Fund
Born Free Foundation
Wildlife Conservation Society
5 Things to know about Cheetahs-BBC (with videos)

Blessings, Light and ...

Happy International Cheetah Day!

Painting the Isle of Skye, My Solo Show and Wee Bit of Scottish History

Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye.

Quiraing, Isle of Skye 2017

I can't believe it's been since September that I've posted! I spent many hours getting ready for my solo show Through Time and Place: Five Decades which opened on December 2nd. The opening reception was one week before my 50th birthday.

As you might surmise from the title, my paintings represented 50 years of places I've been in my life. I focused on places that touched me in some way. Some were places I lived and other were traveling or on pilgrimage. There were 32 in all and the piece above was one of them.

Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air,
Baffled our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.

When I last posted on this blog, I told the story of my incredible hike up to the Old Man of Storr. After coming down the mountain, I was cold, famished and needed a restroom! I'd read about a hotel north of the Storr and as luck would have it, it was on our way to our next destination.

The Flodigarry Hotel

A Victorian Hunting Lodge Built in 1892 for Maj. R. Macdonald

This bar was highly rated but when we arrived it was packed so we went and had lunch in the lovely restaurant. Of course, by the time we finished our lunch the bar was nearly empty. It's all about timing!

I'd been wanting to try something called "Cullen Skink Soup." Though the name might sound less than appetizing, the soup was incredibly delicious. It's a very lightly smoked fish soup with a cream base. SO good. I also had some salad and Talisker 10 year. Talisker, by the way, is the only distillery on Skye, but more on that later.

The soup was hot, delicious and perfect after a hike in the drizzling rain!

The hotel had a lovely sitting room and had we been staying there, I think it would have been difficult to get me to leave this room!

I can imagine sitting there for hours sketching and looking out to the sea ...

One reason I wanted to stop at this hotel was the Flora Macdonald Cottage, where you can actually stay! (Someday!!!)  It was her home early in her marriage, from 1751-1756.

Flora was the courageous lady who dressed up Bonnie Prince Charlie as an Irish spinning maid named Betty Burke after the Battle of Culloden (1746) to help him escape the British Army! She went to jail but eventually was released and became a heroine to the Jacobites. She moved to America but eventually moved back to the Isle Skye.

The Major, for whom the hunting lodge (now Flodigarry Hotel) was built for, was a descendant of Flora Macdonald. 

Someone was staying in the cottage but at least we got to see the outside!

And speaking of the Bonnie Prince's escape to Skye, that is the subject of the Skye Boat Song! (Which is now used as the Theme to Outlander but you'll note the different words!)

Press play for this beautiful version of the Skye Boat Song, sung by Laura Wright.

 After walking the grounds of the hotel we headed to the very North of the Isle of Skye ...

Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rock'd in the deep Flora will keep
Watch o'er your weary head.

There is a small "Museum of Island Life" where you can see how people used to live on the Island. It was closed that day but we were still able to see the beautiful stone structures.

Behind it was Kilmuir Cemetery, which was what I had really wanted to see!

Grave of Angus Martin ... said to have stolen the headstone of a king for himself!

Burned are our homes, exile and death,

Scattered the loyal man.

Yet ere the sword, cool in the sheath,

Charlie will come again.

But I didn't come for Angus  ... I came because Kilmuir is where you find the grave and monument to Flora Macdonald.

You know it's windy when your hair goes sideways. It was howling! In the distance you see the ocean. One of my favorite designers is also buried in Kilmuir. Alexander McQueen. It felt fitting that I was in my Stewart tartan shawl.

The image I decided to use on the postcard for my solo show was the very first painting I did in the series. The painting is from a photo I took on my first trip to Edinburgh in 1990. It took me a long time to figure out where exactly it was taken. I couldn't remember but alas with the help of the internet I finally figured it out. 

It was a home designed by James Craig in the 1700s. He was the architect who designed the New Town, in Edinburgh. This structure became the city's observatory until the very Paladian one that was established in 1776 took on the job. The 1776 one also happens to be where my coworker Siri worked years ago. How cool is that? This original "Observatory House" was built in the 1700s on Calton Hill and I have read that you can now rent it out for events. Can you imagine?

"Edinburgh, Scotland 1990"

11 x 14"

Oil on Wood panel

600.00

My paintings for the solo show were all on wood panels. As you can see, I start with a very loose underpainting.

Then laying in more color, I started figuring out where I might want to do some silver leaf that would integrate into the painting and even enhance it a bit.

"Isle of Skye"

6 x 12"

(sold)

The reception felt like a huge success. There was a great energy and so many surprise guests, friends and family showed up. There was a lot of love in that room! On top of that I sold 17 paintings that evening, which was very exciting and quite unexpected! A few more have sold since then so there are 11 of the 32 still available.

I'll post more of the paintings and reception, as well as more Scotland soon! This time it won't be 3 months! Hoping to post again for Christmas about the Fairy Glen!

Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye.

~ Skye Boat Song

Lyrics by Sir Harold Boulton (b. 1859)

Links

Flodigarry Hotel

Skye Museum of Island Life

Kilmuir Cemetery and Flora Macdonald Monument

Blessings and light!

Talisman ~ Painting an Owl

Every spring we have a big art show at my work, The Wizard of Art. Each student chooses an art piece for the show, frames it, and then the teachers hang all (133 this year!) works the night before the big reception. The faculty each puts a piece in the show as well. 

Here's a little unfinished charcoal demo I did of a snowy owl, for one of my private students.

White Owl Song, on the beautiful Native American flute!

It's nice because when we have the art show, the students can see what their teachers are working on and that can lead to some nice discussions about how we choose our subject matter, and on occasion, how artists sometimes need to be patient about finishing a piece! 

They come for an hour, or an hour and a half class, so after some of the kids have worked on a piece for a month they think it's been forever and I can say, yes but really it's it's only four hours. I often work for 5 hour stretches or more in one sitting and I can show them an example. Usually, the lights come on and they realize that it's not actually taking them "forEVER" as they say. This, of course doesn't work on a 4, 5, 6 year old!  

Anyway, I wanted to do a new piece for the show and for some reason I'd been kind of obsessing on doing an owl, before I'd ever done that charcoal demo (on the grey paper above.) I had taken a photo years ago of Riley, a little Eastern Screech Owl, when I was in Ojai meeting some of the birds that were rehabbed at the Ojai Raptor Center.

I'm still on my "oil on wood panel kick," so one night after work at the Wizard, I sketched in the owl with a little Conté Crayon. (above) Then, I went in with Gamblin's odorless mineral spirits (a paint thinner) and used it to move the Conté around ... 

Then, I started getting in the values (lights and darks) with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue ...

At that point, I went in with slightly heavier layers of paint and more color ... and for some reason this little guy wanted to be on magenta ... though I don't know why, or at the time where I was even going with that.

As I was starting the owl, I began looking online at all the different symbolic meanings of owls. It's fascinating and I thought the need to do an owl might have some deeper meaning for me.

Different cultures have different meanings for the owl, from wisdom (Athena) and protection, to mystery, to death, rebirth and transformation. 

In Celtic mythology "Owls knew the way to the underworld and were fierce defenders of truth and honor." 

My favorite is that the Owl represents night, the moon and the feminine. So, I'm going with that ... and the truth and honor part. That magenta/red seemed to work with the idea of the feminine, blood and creation ...

My owl palette ...

I was hanging out and painting with one of our old students, Audrey, who started at the Wizard at four years old and is now a fine art major at UCLA. She also teaches at the studio when she's on break. I think I worked a couple nights with her at the studio. Probably in 4 or 5 hour stretches. I loose track when I'm painting.

After that, I took the little guy home to work on it. I showed a picture to my boss who said, "We see owls like that in the desert. Is that a cactus he's on?" And that was it. It was a cactus. I just hadn't known it yet, and I needed someone else to tell me. If you throw something up to the art gods, just pay attention and the answer will come. Often from a smart fellow artist! 

I started doing the detail work at home. As you might have noticed, I love doing detail work. Especially eyes! It's funny because when I look at other artists, I love really loose painting with very expressive brushwork, but when I start working on something, I can't seem to help myself.

It's kind of meditative but at the same time, using a tiny 0000 brush can be tedious and intense. (The smaller the number the smaller the brush!) At that point you take breaks and start photographing your pants!

The claws and the cactus needles were also very detailed. I also added more reds ... Alizarin Crimson, magenta, Cobalt Violet, and Cadmium Red to the cactus.

Here is a National Geographic Documentary on owls ... at 6 minute you'll see one hatch, and you see them grow! 

And here he is! 

Talisman

9" x 12"

650.00

To learn more about the Ojai Raptor Center on their website, click here.
To see my old blog posts about the Raptor Center, click here and here.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I:

In a cowslip's bell I lie;

Then I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

~William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1

The Little Maasai Girl ~ Choosing a Subject and Reference from the Past

“Through all the world 

there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: 

Give me a chance to do my best. ” 

~Karen Blixen

Babette's Feast & Other Anecdotes of Destiny

When I started gathering my ideas together for my show last fall, I wanted to choose references that were powerful to me. They were supposed to represent the idea that we are all made and shaped by our memories. So, for the "experiential series" they had to be related to important places, times or people from the past. 

In 1989, when I stepped off the plane in Kenya, I experienced a feeling that I had never had before. It was as if my feet rooted into the ground and in a way that I'd never felt before ... or since. I felt at home in a way that was so grounded.  I want to say "extraordinary" but there was something so normal about it, like coming home after a very long journey. 

I have traveled to places since where I've felt at home, or that felt so familiar that it was like visiting an old friend. In Assisi, I could find my way without consciously connecting my brain to my feet. I guess it felt like home too, but more of an out of body feeling.

 In Kenya, I felt rooted. I get emotional just thinking of it.

So, for my solo show I knew I had to paint a memory from Kenya. I wanted to do a Cheetah (being my spirit animal and having seen them about 8 feet away!) but the panel I have for that is 5 feet tall and if I started that, I would have ended up having a show with 1 painting! So, I picked my favorite photo, which was from our visit to a Maasai village. I'm sure you can see why, with her sweet, lovely, radiance.

I started with a sanguine color conté pencil, drawing in her features on the wood panel, then blended with a brush and mineral spirits, gradually moving into using burnt sienna oil paint.

Little by little I added more varying skin tones, then went into the fabric. I love painting drapery, so I can definitely get carried away! I decided to simplify it a bit to keep the focus on her.

I started adding her beads and eventually her silver necklace but I stopped short of the longer beads. I could have gone crazy with all the details ...

There was such a lovely sense of light on her, in the photo  (faded and discolored as it was) ... I knew just where the gold needed to go. 

And here she is ...

Several people wanted to buy the painting but she sold (to my sister) before the show opened.  

Oh, shortly after I started this blog, in 2009, I did a post about Kenya which you can see here.

Hope you are all off to a wonderful spring! I went to the Holi Festival of Colors weekend before last. I will definitely post those very color photos!

Buona Primavera, i miei amici!

Blessings and light!

“Up in this air you breathed easily, 

drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. 

In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: 

Here I am, where I ought to be.” 

~Karen Blixen

Out of Africa