New Watercolor Class

My new watercolor class at Fullerton College begins tomorrow, January 21. I am very much looking forward to it. Five hours on a Saturday of painting with a group of people sounds like heaven to me. Look on the blog in a few weeks for more paintings.

Spring Flowers

This is another 5 a.m. insomnia watercolor masterpiece. The background has been salted and dried to give it the textured effect. The watercolor flowers have been outlined in fine point sharpie pen.

Sunflowers with Filters

I painted these sunflowers in my watercolor class in Shaker Heights in spring of 2005. I then took them home, scanned them into my home computer, and applied several photoshop fiters to the piece.

Child on Bridge at Crystal Springs, WI

This is my youngest daughter at age 6 on a bridge in a trout fishing grotto near my Grandmother's home in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. I used photoshop to adjust the black and white color gradient on the original photo which was processed at Target, rather poorly.

Grainy Flower from Monet's Garden

This is my favorite sunflower from Monet's Garden in Giverny. I clipped out the flower from the original photo and ran it through Adobe Photoshop filters. The same sunflower is in a watercolor painting that I posted on Jan 12.

Fall Trees

This is small fall painting with a reflecting pond. It was in the 2005 calendar that many of my friends and family recieved. I painted it in 2004.

Modern Flowers

This piece was done in 2004. My art teacher always liked it and said it looked like something Yoko Ono would have painted.

Mexican Rose

This is a watercolor that turned out looking somewhat southwestern, even though I painted it in Ohio...

Buttons and Bows

This is an arcrylic painting - I don't usually use arcrylics for fine art - but my Shaker Heights instructor insisted, so here is a rare arcylic and sharpie pen painting.

Tree

Just a nice watercolor of a tree...

Self Portrait in Watercolor

This is a watercolor self portrait that I did in the Shaker Heights Community Center class. I originally painted it without glasses and the instructor insisted that I add my glasses, so I went home and added them in fine point sharpie. I painted this in 2005.

Shaker Heights Duck Pond in Black and White

This is a black and white photo that I shot in Shaker Heights in my old neighborhood and developed and printed at the Cuyahoga Community College photolab in the summer of 2004. It looks much better not transfered to digital.

Monet's Sunflower

This is a watercolor painting that I did of a sunflower I photographed at Monet's Garden in Giverny, France in October 2004. I traced the photograph and then painted a more pastel version of the real life sunflower.

Snowflake

Many of you have seen this, but it is my favorite piece of 2004. I used it on my holiday card. I want to do more pieces like this...it is a very well planned out watercolor.

Collage

This is a collage I did as a Photoshop assignment. My husband took some of the photos, so it is really a collaborative effort. The painting in the background is mine, done at a 5 A.M. at home insomniac moment. I actually like to do art at 5 a.m. It is the only time I'm totally alone in my own home.

Abstract Landscape

This is a watercolor painting that I did in a Shaker Heights, Ohio Community Center class that I scanned in to my home computer and altered with Adobe Photoshop in Spring of 2005.

Cleveland Passover

This photo was taken in April 2005 outside my former home in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The photo has been altered using Adobe Photoshop.

Introduction to the Blog

I am a 36 year old bipolar woman who has found that art is an essential part of my mental heath program. I have found that few inpatient or outpatient programs at hospitals offer competent art therapy programs and patients need to seek out their own outlets for creative expression that will help them theraputically. My own personnal art therapy program has included photography, photoshop and watercolor painting. I often combine two or all of these artforms. I have a degree in World Arts from UCLA and have taken many, many art classes at the community level. I'm trying to get into a local Southern California Community College Watercolor class for the Spring Semester becasue I like to work with groups of people and I like instruction.