Lighthouse - New Watercolor

For my parents' Christmas gift this year, I painted a watercolor of the Gay Head Light in Aquinnah, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, for them.  The actual watercolor painting measures approximately 10" x 16".

The Gay Head Light is the only red brick lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard. All of the other lighthouses are white with black trim.  It was first built in 1799 as a wooden tower on the top of the clay cliffs in Aquinnah.  The current brick lighthouse structure was built in 1856.  At one point in its history, the lighthouse was actually moved back from the edge of the cliffs to prevent it from falling, as the clay cliffs have been subject to erosion over the years.  You can read more about the Gay Head Light right here on Wikipedia.

A second watercolor painting that I made this summer of the Gay Head Light and the clay cliffs of Aquinnah can be seen right here in my blog.

Prints of this painting are available in my Society6 Shop. In addition to art prints, the painting is also for sale on phone cases, pillows, greeting cards, tote bags, and more!

The White Tree

With the first film for The Hobbit coming out soon, I've been on a big Tolkien kick.  Today I painted this watercolor version of The White Tree of Gondor.  The painting measures 11" x 14".

Some new options have been added to my Society6 shop that I wanted to play around with.  For example, you can now purchase my art on throw pillows!  The White Tree is ready and waiting to decorate your couch or bed (and makes a perfect holiday gift for your favorite Tolkien fan).  The painting is also available on greeting cards, iPhone cases, iPod skins, and laptop skins.  Click here to visit my shop.

Sketchbook Page - Jellyfish

The other night I drew a couple of jellyfish in my sketchbook using Sharpie marker and watercolor paint. I've been wanting to do some kind of a painting of jellyfish ever since I took a few interesting photos of them at the National Aquarium in Baltimore in their Jellies Invasion exhibit last summer.  I haven't been able to decide between acrylic or watercolor paint, so I was using sketchbook experimentation to try and decide.  

The idea of being stung by jellyfish definitely freaks me out a bit, but there is no denying that I find them beautiful in an almost hypnotic way when they are swimming.

Page and Plant - available at Society6

Feel like adding some classic rock style to your wardrobe? My painting "Page and Plant" is now available on t-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags! Nothing like a little custom Led Zeppelin artwork to spruce up a t-shirt or tote bag.  Click here to see color options in the shop.

Weekend Print Shop Promo

Today is the last day of a Special Weekend Promotion in my print shop! Free Shipping when you order one or more products through my Society6 shop - including t-shirts and tote bags! If you've had your eye on something, now is the time to snap it up.

Make sure you click this link to have the free shipping applied.

Promotion expires October 14, 2012 at Midnight Pacific Time. Offer excludes Framed Art Prints and Stretched Canvases.

James Dean - Block Print

This block print portrait of James Dean is based on a pen and ink illustration that I made years ago.  I actually like it better as a block print, with the slightly rougher lines from carving and the texture from the printing block.  I'm thinking of going back and turning some of those other Hollywood ink portraits that I drew in to block prints.  

This artwork is also available through my society6 shop.  

Green Tiger - now on T-shirts! Hoodies! Tote bags!

My Green Tiger painting is now available on t-shirts through Society 6! Click here to see the options.

It is also available on hoodies and on canvas tote bags.


Is there a particular piece of my art that you would like see available as a t-shirt, hoodie, or tote bag?  Just leave a comment and let me know!

Sunset at the Spanish Steps

One evening we walked up to the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome to enjoy the view and take photos as the sun was setting.  The colors were beautiful, and I absolutely loved the silhouettes of the the umbrella pine trees against the sky.

Colosseum - a watercolor sketch from Rome

I loved our tour of the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill.  I had never walked through actual historical ruins like that before, and it was impressive to actually get to explore places in person that I had read about in books and watched in films.  Slightly surreal, too, to be walking down a street, following a map, and suddenly you're looking up and saying, "Oh look, there's the Colosseum!"  

Piazza Navona - a watercolor from Rome

My husband and I went to Italy in August for our honeymoon, which was fantastic! We travelled through Rome, Siena, Florence, and Venice, eating lots of great food, taking tons of photos, and even doing some drawing and painting in our sketchbooks along the way. I'll be sharing a couple of my sketchbook pages in a few upcoming posts, and I'm hoping to do more artwork based on some of the photos that I took.

This was from a nice plaza called Piazza Navona. A great place to enjoy a drink and a snack while drawing and people watching.  The building colors look great when the sun hits them.

On a different topic, from now until September 16th at Midnight Pacific Time, you can get free shipping when you order one or more items from my Society6 shop. Just make sure to use this link to get to my shop or else the promotion won't work.

Green Tiger - a gift for my school

School starts again next week, so I'll be back at work teaching in the art classroom soon.  Yesterday I decided to paint a little present for our school.  Our mascot is a tiger and our school colors are green and white, hence the subject matter.  The stripes of the tiger, and using the white of the paper to my advantage, were a lot of fun to paint.  I dropped the painting off at school today when I went in to do some classroom prep, and it looks like it will be finding a home in the main office. Go Tigers!

Prints of the Green Tiger are available through my Society6 shop.

Ocean View of Aquinnah

This watercolor painting is of the clay Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard.  I used a photo I had taken while deep sea fishing the previous summer as reference.  The painting measures approximately 11"x8".  You can see the less detailed color study that I did for this painting right here.

Prints are available through my Society6 shop!

Prints now available through Society6!

Earlier this week I signed up to join the website Society6, and I am proud to announce that I can now offer prints for sale through them.  My other print shop isn't going anywhere, but with Society6 I can offer a wider range of my art as prints, and there is also the added opportunity of being able to have my art printed on laptop skins, iPad skins, and iPhone skins and cases.  Take a look, because there is art posted there for sale that is not in my other print shop.  More art will be added to my Society6 shop in the coming weeks as well.

And as a bonus, shipping is free worldwide through Sunday, August 26th! 

Print Shop Sale!

There is a 48 hour sale in My Print Shop!


Use the code U985ARUL2S to get 25% off.  The sale ends July 5, 2012 at 11:59 PM Los Angeles, CA, time.

If you've had your eye on a print of a particular painting, or even a coffee mug or some fridge magnets, now is a great time to grab it!

Clay Cliffs - a color study

I painted this small watercolor of the clay cliffs in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard as a color and composition study for a larger painting. This was done in my watercolor sketchbook and measures approximately 4 1/2" by 6".

Johnny Cash - new painting

I painted this on and off from Tuesday to Friday this past week in my classroom. I was in the mood to just paint a portrait, and my students enjoyed watching it progress over the week. It's approximately 4 feet wide and 4 1/2 to 5 feet tall (it's still at school, so I'm estimating) and was painted with acrylic paint on super thick corrugated cardboard. This picture was taken with my iPhone, but after I take higher quality photos I'll be making prints available through my print shop.

Swimming Fish - new lino print

This reduction lino print was a piece that I did as a demonstration in the summer of 2011 for a workshop that I was teaching. I forgot that I had never scanned it and shared it online, so here it is!

For those who don't know what a reduction print is, here is a good description. I recently started lessons on reduction printing with two of my high school art classes.

Prints are available here in my print shop.

Sea Otter In Love - new painting

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

This watercolor, measuring 8"x10", was painted as a Valentine's gift for my fiance. This is the first chance I've had to paint something non-work related in a while and I really had a lot of fun with it.

Prints of this painting are available in my print shop.