Moments and Memories of France

Fancy Chickens were on a table cloth I saw at  Market in Saint Saturin les Apt.  I took a picture of them and then sketched them in my sketchbook.  Of course, by then I had non buyers remorse.  Luckily the next trip to L'Isle sur le Sorgue they were at market and I bought a length.  I also bought the little stone carving.  She is about 6" tall and was so calm and peaceful I just had to add her to my French women collection.

In L'Isle sur la Sorgue our drop off is next to the School of Music so this year I sketched their sign to add to my memories.  There are nice bridges that cross over the canals and I decided to capture part of one of the bridges.

Before coming on the trip I bought everyone in the group a Blessing Bell with a Fluer-de-lis design.

Bonnieux is a very hilly but beautiful little village. We found the rusty old bike hanging on a wall in corner which was quite fun to sketch.  We sat and had a great snack at Le St. André Café where I sketched the Place De La Liberté.  Of course we found the Post Office for our stamp and time for more lavender on the page.

Another collage done with Jackie Long.  I started this one and got a little stuck after the black and color were glued down.  Laura and I had gone to the bakery in Apt for our snack and we each got a bread bag and it was the perfect addition to finish the collage.

Robert Bateman 6" x 9" Sketchbook
Pen and Watercolor

More from Provence……

A few little eye catching things from Menerbes.  Interesting mailbox and door decorations, more lavender and of course a latte with a little biscuit. The frog was an etched design in the glass of a shop front.  I decided to make him very regal in red.
A frog playing a french horn!

The little window with a jug of fresh daisies, which lasted over a week, in the dining room.

The contraption is actually a lavender still which collects the lavender oils. This one was just hanging out in front of a shop in Rousillion.

"Where are we going today" road signs!  They're always a great addition to a travel journal. A new "old" key to add to my collection, ceramic flowers from the cemetery, Latte stain from Café de la Poste,  Jackie had bubbling lemonade, "Pschitt" got to love the name!  In Goult one little house has a great front window which is always decorated in a super fun ways. This time with a small Vespa!

Here is a picture of the beautiful golden Ochre Hills by the mines.  One can always find interesting signage, and another fun mailbox.  The little purple plums were so delicious and quite fun to photograph and sketch.

Robert Bateman 6" x 9" Sketchbook
Pen and Watercolor

A Little Trip to France

My friend, Marj and I took another group to France for two weeks of art fun!  I'm finally taking time to post some of my sketchbook pages.

First day of sketching with Laura outside at Les Bassacs.  We picked a stem of Lavender and got up close to sketch it.

A little windmill and a bit of a stylized grape vine.  Ardi brought a very cute French stamp from home which we each got to use in our sketchbooks.

I sat right down in the dirt between rows of grape vines and sketched this 30 year old vine.

I decided to add the sprig of Lavender every couple of pages to have a Lavender trail through my sketchbook.

This is the first of a couple of collage pages that I did with Jacki Long using collected papers of Provence.



Robert Bateman 6" x 9" sketchbook
Pen and Watercolor

Zentangles on the Go

I've been so busy with just life I decided to start carrying my newer, as I can't say new any longer, 6" Aquabee Mixed Media book around with a couple of pens.


Then if I find myself waiting or with a couple of minutes I can manage a stroke or two until the page is finished.

Doesn't everybody love a small branch of eucalyptus leaves.  They are a very forgiving shape to draw and so very fun to play with. Then I added some tangle patterns and a little side trellis as a border.

The larger shapes I found on Pinterest and I'm sorry to say I can't find the original post so I can't give credit where is due.  Thank you as it was a fun pattern to play with.

Fun and flowy!  I filled the right side of the page and decided to divide the page with an in and out border. Hmmm…what to fill that little side space with. Nothing wrong with a stacked grid.  I used a couple of the same patterns to keep the eye moving up and down.




AquaBee 6" Sketchbook
Micron Pen

Colors and Pen and Ink

The top four feather pieces are exactly that, four pieces of two feathers.  It is a thin plastic stencil you combine to make two whole feathers.  I decided to use it as a whole stencil.  The large feather at the bottom is a real feather.  The squiggly lines in the background are a sgraffito technique I learned from Jane Davies.

I then decided to go back into the dry print with some pen and ink work with some outlines and details.

7.5" x 9.5"
Monoprint
Pen and Ink

I'm not sure but I think this might have been a quick little demo of some techniques in class.

Once again that little black pen seems to have appeared and taken over the print.  In the end I think this will make four very nice laminated book marks.


5" x 7"
Monoprint
Pen and Ink

The Last of the Sketchbook Project

Here are the last of the pages for the Sketchbook Project.  I sent it off and received an email saying they have received it!  Hooray!!

I really enjoyed this venture into colors, textures and patterns.

Not only did images using the dots of bubble wrap and the nettings or holes of the netting continue to emerge but also I seemed to enjoy adding a curling undulating line to the pages.

The final page and inside back cover of the book……a few more feathers for good luck!

Sketchbook Project Pages

…more pages….
This is the back of the front cover and the first page of the sketchbook.

A new perspective on a cityscape?

It was very fun to go back into these pages of color, texture and pattern with the black pen and bring out the story of the page.

More Sketchbook Project

More pages from the Sketchbook Project.  I have two more pages left in the book and then it's off to Brooklyn and then back to California for the Spring Sketchbook Tour.

I've decided on a title:
"…and the black pen"

That is what fell into place when I decided to go back into each page with my black pen.

More to come…….

Sketchbook Project

I got an email from the Brooklyn Art Library about another edition of the Sketchbook Project. This time it was for California artist and a California tour before resting in New York.

Well, sounded like I qualified so I signed up…..and now I just have to finish!

I must say the paper was fairly thin and any watercolor bled through and the pages became very wrinkled.  So I switched gears and used my water based print inks and just rolled on layers of colors.
You can see the smooth left side and the wrinkled right side where I had applied watercolor to the other side of that page.

After getting a few pages layered I decide I would go into each page with black pen and make that the theme of the sketchbook.  This one went a little crazy but who doesn't need a little crazy in their life.

These are double spread pages.
Pages are 5" x 7"

Happy Holidays

Oh my goodness I have been neglectful of my blog.  Next year I will try to be better and post more fun things on a regular basis now that my wrist is at my new normal.
In the meantime I wish everyone a Happy Holiday and a Wonderful New Year!

Slowly Getting Back in the Game

Well, I'm slowly coming back or I should say my wrist and hand are. It's slow progress but the operative word here is progress.  Getting back into my art with some Zentangles. This one I did while booth sitting for a friend at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, CA.

 …and this one was also done at the Festival.  It was great fun to be in this great artistic venue with Music, Art and lots of friendly people who were fun to interact and chat with.

I finished one last little window on this one which I had started a while ago in my new book.

Rick's Paradox is the first page in that new book.  It looks complicated but is a really good warm up to letting the ink flow with repetitive movement.

All of these pages are in my Aquabee  6" x 6" Super Deluxe Mixed Media Book.

Still out of play but….

Well, I've been out of play since May.  Needed another surgery on my wrist for some ligament damage….stay vertical people!  This time I had a cast up over my elbow for immobility and healing so I got a lot of reading done.

Anyway…. I found I had a couple of things I hadn't posted so here they are.

This little 5.5" square print was watercolor painted onto a plexi plate which I let dry before printing. I then went back in with pen.  I got to a place where I really liked it and then went too far and didn't like it.  So I figured if I was going I might as well go all the way and now I love it!  I'm naming this one "Kimonos".

This is the last of my 5.5" x 14" series that I was able to work on before my little break.  Not to say it is the last in the series as I have more waiting in the flat files.

I also chose to add a little bit of white accents to this piece for a little sparkle.

I can't wait until I can get back to really working on art.  The big cast is off and I'm back in the split but my elbow is free to help hold big pieces in place while my pen find the wandering trail!

Oops! Off track again!

I'm still having some issues with the wrist so it is in "Time Out" for 4 weeks in a cast.  If this doesn't work back to surgery.

Oh boy!

So in the mean time I'm back to working on my 5.5" x 14" series of Monoprints with Pen work.  Larger pieces are better since I can only hold the images in place with my left elbow as I work on them.

I guess I really need to have a show titled  
5.5" x 14"

Monoprint Demo Piece

A few weeks ago I did a demo in my monoprint class on how I ink a collagraph plate which is a textured or layered plate built on illustration board.  Once the plate is sealed it can be inked and printed many times, each time being very different even if one tries to repeat an inking.

8.5" x 8.5" Collagraph Plate

Back on Track

Ok…trying to get back on track with art work and posting.  Yikes, I totally missed January!

I've still been working with my 5.5" x 14" monoprints and a permanent black pen.  These are very relaxing to play with and see where my pen in hand takes me.  Some of these prints were from fairly resent Monoprint Demos I had done at local art leagues and some were from just playing around and "pushing ink".

The "fish" print was made using some rubber cut stamps I made of the fish. They were inked and stamped onto the plate but then once printed they are reversed on the print. The top stamp is actually the word "fish" stylized to be a fish shape.

I think the feather print still needs some more work but I thought I would share it anyway.  I'll post it again when I add some more line work to it.


5.5" x 14" Monoprints and Pen

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to All!
These little Gingerbread houses were my card for my Art Critique Group card exchange. It is about 5" x 10" and with the crease in the fold it will sit on a table or shelf.  I signed on the back just in case they wanted to use it again next year.
Watercolor and Pen

Cold Wax Workshop

 My workshop buddy, Sharla and I went to another fabulous workshop to explore something new to both of us, Cold Wax Oil Painting.  This was in San Luis Obispo and was led by Jerry McLaughlin who was very knowledgable, friendly, funny, hospitable and ok, he was just plain wonderful.
Here are four of my five pieces we worked on layering and scraping over the four days of learning the cold wax techniques.

12" x 16"

The first one has more of the feel of one of my monoprints and I liked the way the colors swirl around the piece.  This next one was a happy accident that I pushed into a new direction.  I had scraped through the layers to build up textures and then put another coat of white and turquoise wax on top which I didn't like so I decided to scrape it all off….and Voilá… adding a little more strategic turquoise this one was done.  It has a watery landscape feel to me.

12" x 16"

Then somehow or other I ended up in space.  After adding layers I scraped out the circle and then rolled a veil of red over part of the circle. Then placing a circle of wax paper over the scraped area I used a palette knife to add the black wax aura.  A couple of black lines balanced out the painting.

8" x 12"

I had also scraped the circle and lines out of this one and added the same idea of a black aura around the circle.  I was just about to throw the wax paper out when I notices the wonderful black wax from the aura technique and pressed it into the piece.  Using my little sticks from Sharla I added the black lines along the path through space.

12" x 16"

Check out Jerry at jerrymclaughlinart.com
There is also a wonderful book:
Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts & Conversations by Rebecca Crowell & Jerry McLaughlin