Tea Towel Designs!

Latests Tea Towel Designs: Party Circles, Part Scribbles & Party Squares

I was given the task of creating tea towels using Fiesta-style colors: Turquoise, Magenta, Red, Orange and Teal. I never use this kind of palette, so it was a happy challenge. I knew I wanted to do something loose, bold and graphic, so this is what I've come up with. I have other towel designs "in the works", so you'll be seeing those soon.
In the meantime, when these towels come back from the printers, I'll get them hemmed and hang them at Au Coquelot, in beautiful downtown Berkeley, CA.

New Painting!

"Jean's Hydrangeas". Watercolor on paper, 12 1/2 x 22

It's been too long! Very busy with other activities and neglecting my painting. I also broke my radius but was able to finish this painting today---one that I started weeks ago before the accident. I've always been intimidated by hydrangeas, just because of their profusion of petals. I just decided to go loose and see if I could suggest hydrangea and carry it off.

Book Cover Design

Book Cover Design for "Stone Window" by Ann Robinson

Book Cover Design for "The Iliad Poems" by Anne R. Dick

Book Cover Design for "Penelope of the Mind" by Anne R. Dick

Book Cover Design for Point Reyes Poems" & Friends & Family" by Anne R. Dick

Book Cover Design for "Space & Love" by Anne R. Dick

The past 6 months were busy for me designing book covers for 2 local writers, Ann Robinson and  Anne R. Dick. They were all book of poetry and all were wildly different from each other, hence the different approaches to the art direction for each.
I loved doing them all, but perhaps my favorites were "Penelope of the Mind" and "Stone Window". Both of these had their unique trials and tribulations, but both came out better for having pushed through all the bad ideas, wrong turns, etc. The clients were very happy and that made all the difference int he end.

New Painting!

"Delphinium" 5x5, watercolor on Aquabord©

Another in my series of floral watercolors all done in the 5x5 format. I felt I needed more "blue" in my floral pieces, so I found this photo of a Delphinium I had on my deck and recreated it here. It was done rather quickly and I used a lot of Cobalt blue, which pleased me to no end as I find myself not using that beautiful hue.

"Low Tide" Watercolor on Paper, 12 1/4 x 15

My husband and I discovered this Open Space park in Santa Venetia, Marin County, and fell in love with what this small park packed: birding, waterways and lots of what I call "funky Marin". It was low tide, which brought out the funkiness of the environs even more. My husband actually pointed this dock out, with the beautiful aqua boat, and said, "This is right up your alley". Indeed it was. Everything was askew and off-kilter, but the aqua boat seemed wonderfully grounded there on the lob-sided dock.