Fire

My favorite color of late is Orange. I paint a lot of wet on wet watercolors on the Arches paper in several shades of orange and scarlet with some yellow mixed in. This is painted wet on wet and kosher salted.

Ocean

I painted this on Wednesday morning - very, very early - it is an exaple of bathtub soaked wet on wet watercolor on the Arches French 100 percent cotton paper. I went to Laguna Beach with my children for two hours today and this reminds me of the clear blue Pacific ocean there.

Bathtub Soaking Cotton Paper

For those of us who like to paint wet-on-wet I've discovered that briefly bathtub soaking of the Arches French all Cotton Paper works well. The paper stays very, very damp. This is what I want. I ordered six packs of the stuff in the mail..I can't wait for it to arrive. I ordered the all cotton post card sizes too for Silvie to paint on...I'll probably use them too.

Medication Zone

This is supposed to be a blog about my mental health in addition to my art, so I feel compelled to tell the world that I increaed from 2.5 to 5 of Abilify yesterday. It messed up my sleep in the opposite direction...I was up late and up with my husband's alarm at 6...Maybe I got 5 hours of sleep with a lot of meds.

I want to ultimately be getting up at 6 and going to bed at 11...so I want this increase to work for me. I just have been living in some alternate time zone for months and need to be on Pacific Standard Time.

13-year-old Art

Today was the first day off of school for my 8th grade daughter...Her sister had arcrylic paints out and this is what she decided to paint. I like it. I really wish I could post some of her better work...but I doubt she would let me. 13-year-olds are very sensitive and embarass easily. I find this very happy and cheerful...

Purple Kosher Salt Flowers

I'm very tired and very unhappy right now and I figured I would make more Kosher Salt Flowers...but these purple ones are not nearly as good as the more random ones at 5 a.m. when I was fresh.

These are also on expensive Arches All Cotton Paper...I'm all out of the cheap Strathmore Aquarius Paper...but it does do wet on wet well...sometimes...

Kosher Salt Sunflowers

More insomnia art...at 5 a.m. today I decided to paint some flowers and Kosher Salt them prior to drying the painting. I finished the drying with a blow dryer. There is some watercolor pencil in this piece. My 13-year-old art skeptic likes this piece a lot. She does not like everything that I do.

I'm making cards out of this one.

At least the insomnia gives me some free time to be creative...

Blazing Red Sunflowers

I think I need to get seeds for these paticular sunflowers so I can plant them in my yard. They match my home perfectly. I grew sunflowers in Pasadena...not far from here...and they were fabulous...I really like the color of these sunflowers.

Sunflowers

I discovered today that my 9-year-old Siamese mix cat does not eat Sunflowers...but he eats all other flowers and gets so SICK it is so disgusting I can't even blog about it...
However, the impulse purchase $6.99 sunflowers from the Health Food Store are not being eaten...perhaps they don't taste good!? At least not to Silas...

So, for everyone I have ever told - "DON'T BUY ME FLOWERS, THE CAT EATS THEM" - You now have an option that I like and is pretty inexpensive - Sunflowers with very little greenery. So my anniversary is July 2...if anyone was wondering...My birthday is Oct. 20 if anyone was wondering... Sunflowers http://www.proflowers.com/sunflowers-sun
If you are looking for Sunflowers from afar ProFlowers is a good site...I buy roses and tulips from them all the time. The Blazing Red Sunflowers on the site look brilliant.

I like to paint Sunflowers...you can see them in the Blog Archives...I'm actually quite excited about a fact that has taken me nine or so years to discover a fresh Flower that I LIKE and the CAT HATES. If you want to see Silas, he is in the archives too...I need to frame the painting I did of him this Spring semester...

8-year-old's Modern Art

My 8-year-old decided to paint again today...all the materials were sitting out on the dining room table from my early morning painting session. She just calls this Modern Art. She says she was posessed by the paintbrush. Interesting thought. I like the painting quite a lot.

Insomnia Floral

Here is a piece I did in the wee hours of the morning today when I truly could not sleep...I did get back to sleep after the painting...It is no great masterpiece. I'll probably cut it and make it into greeting card covers.

Middle of the night waking is my big problem now...I actually slept for 6 or more hours and woke at 6:40 a.m. - but I was up so much during the early morning. It is an odd sleep pattern...The painting is a bit odd too.

Great Quotation by wonderful person

"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat." - Lily Tomlin (1939~) American Actor, Comedienne

If you know, me you know I've had a Lily Tomlin T-Shirt for about 15 years....Her portrayal of the School Guidance Counselor in the movie OC was really on the money.

Cezanne Slide Show: Today's NY Times

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/travel/11cezanne.html?th&emc=th

Those who know me...know I love my Internet NY Times...there is a fabulous Cezanne side show today that you will want to check out if you like this artist as much as I do.

Enjoy!!

Art Auction

Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton tonight at 7 ish is having an Art Auction...tickets are still available. Smoggy Sunset No. 1 is for auction tonight. I framed it in a wodden frame with a rose colored mat. If it does not sell from the temple tonight, I will know Monday and friends can start bidding on the blog...If it does not sell for $50 minimum it is a holiday gift for Family.
I'm actually glad I'm too busy to go to the auction, so that I can't see if no one wants my piece.

Take care, Linda Saslow

More Writing Tips

From Merriam-Webster.com (0ne of my favorite web pages)

The Word of the Day for June 9 is:
spiel • \SPEEL\ • noun : a voluble line of often extravagant talk : pitch
Example sentence:We let the time-share salesman give us his opening spiel, but when he got to the high-pressure sales tactics, we cut him short and made it clear that we were not interested.
Did you know?There's more than one "spiel." Today's featured noun sense is well-known, and many of our readers may also be aware that "spiel" can be used as a verb for the act of talking extravagantly. But did you know that the verb can also mean "to play music"? That, in fact, was the word's original meaning—one it shares with its German root, "spielen." In Scottish English, "spiel" is also sometimes used as a shortened form of "bonspiel," a name for a match or tournament of the icy game of curling.

http://www.m-w.com/

It is interesting to me that Speil is the word of the day because it is a word that is unusual and that I use a lot...but I've been pronouncing it incorrectly for years. Odd. I never spell it...I just say the word. Such as in reference to my work as a docent at the Fullerton Museum Center...

I actually had to tell my daughter's Jr. High School Principal about this web page when she used an incorrect synonym in a letter of appology to me (the details will be provided if you know me and call me).

This is a marvelous web page. Much better than a paper dictionary. I'm really sorry if I make spelling errors on this blog because I can't figure out how to spell check in Blogger...Does anyone know the secret??

Reference Information...

O.K. ...This has little to do with art and more with my life as a writer. My psych MD who knows I'm a wordsmith and scrabble addict turned me on to this web page:

http://refdesk.com/

I think you could use this page to find out information on just about anything. The word of the day and Quote of the day are fun too.

I think this page will be very useful to my 13-year-old honor student.

I know most of my friends will like this page.

8-year-old's Watercolor Creation

Here we have another carefully planned watercolor masterpiece by my 8-year-old daughter...I really just set her up last night to get her away from the TV and into something else. I gave her no guidelines. She asked for a ruler. She asked if she could use the fine line sharpies first - prior to the watercolor and I told her that was fine. Her creative process is really amazing.

My Favorite Music: Hiromi

This Japanese Jazz piano wizard has become the soundtrack to my art making and life in general. I joke about becoming the President of her fan club...but she is an artist on my husband's company, so it would be a bit of a conflict of interest...if you like classical and jazz, you will like her. She is good on CD, but even better live...so check the web page for her tour schedule. http://www.hiromimusic.com/

Finished Child's Stained Glass

This is the finished version of my 3rd grader's Stained Glass Project. She insisted on doing Sharpie Black Lines just like I had on all of mine. It is so cool I just can't stand it. I'm making greeting cards out of this....

3rd Grade Stained Glass

My 8-year-old daughter apparently had been inpsired to do a stained glass...like I did early in the semester...inspired as she was I set her up to work...

All I did here was cut out some paper, bring her water, brushes, a ruler and the paint...she did the rest....I'm very impressed.

My friends and family probably will be too.

Kosher Salt

I made some more cards today - a bit of AM insomnia - with the Strathmore Aquarius Paper which I wet with a sponge, used a big brush on to make big color patterns and then while it was still wet, I dusted the whole thing with Kosher Salt and let it dry for a while. Kosher Salt (rather than regular salt) really does the coolest effect to wet on wet watercolor. I guess if there is a Jewish element to my art of late it is the use of Kosher Salt...