Hi! Just so you are forewarned, this post has quite a few images. I have not been blogging very often but it was not due to the lack of content :)

I'm happy to share with you one of my latest custom works - the portrait of Andrea. The way that this painting came to existence is pretty sweet and romantic. Inspired by my painting of Brooke, Andrea's husband walked straight into my booth at the art & wine festival and told me about his idea for a painting of his wife for her birthday. That was during the Lake Arrowhead Rotary Art&Wine Festival at the end of June and her birthday was on July 12. So, a few days later I was already working on this painting. I fell in love with the reference photo. The light was perfect, the pose natural and beautiful. Since it is a generous 20x16" size, I could work in life size and not worry too much about insignificant details. I finished it in about a week, which is probably my record for commissions. Not having my son at the time (he was with grandparents in Sacramento) definitely helped with that.

As I promised in the last post, a few words (and pictures) about the Lake Arrowhead Art & Wine Festival. First of all, Lake Arrowhead is a jewel that I had no idea about and it is relatively close to where I live. It is hidden in the mountains, so you have to go through some winding roads and scenic vistas just to get there. Next time, we will take a motorcycle! :)

I was fairly pleased with the range and quality of art and high end craft that was represented at the festival and with the quality of the visitors. For such a tiny mountain community, the event drew quite a crowd.

At most festivals, I offer 30-minute portrait studies, and this time, someone even decided to get one. Here is the result:

It actually looks more colorful and the values are a bit darker in real life...Of course, I wished I had more time to work on it, especially since the model was doing such a good job sitting there.

On our way back from the festival, we stopped to take some pictures and I somehow succeeded in making my husband pick me some flowers. It was my idea and not a random romantic gesture on his part, but it was still cute. Especially when I learned that the flowers were very prickly...Love hurts, and there's nothing you can do about it :D

And then I posed for some pictures that were also supposed to be cute...I did my best, even though cuteness has never been my forte. Even in kindergarten, I wanted people to take me seriously :)

On the 4th of July, we went to Ventura for the 4th of July Street Fair - which turned out to be a total waste of time and money. I'm not sure what happened, but it shouldn't have been advertised to artists as anything having to do with fine art. There was a lot of nice clothes and trinkets, which, I'm sure, sold quite well. There was good music and tasty food. However, it just wasn't made for fine art. So...I feel at best misinformed and overall very disappointed.

On a good note, my video interpretation of the Vase with Twelve Sunflowers has been featured on Watercolorpainting.com, which is a very informative website on, yes, watercolor painting. If you haven't been there before, go check it out!