Plans and Goals

Have you thought about making plans or goals to navigate this strange mid-pandemic stage we appear to be in now? I have been trying to figure out what plans are feasible right now? We can’t fly to France or Italy now as last time I checked their borders were closed.

I’ve been looking at vaccination statistics until my eyes started dilating on their own. I’ve read articles from travel pundits about the possibilities of traveling abroad in 2021. Most of the pundits ( how does one get to be a pundit, anyhow?) are vague. Emails from travel workshops have some trips advertised for 2021, but not all.
I think I agree with my favorite travel writer/authority, Rick Steves, who is saying wait and see and we’ll go when its safe. I agree with Mr. Steve’s and have found a task I am planning to complete and my goal is to finish it soon.

Painting Faces Zoom Class

This coming Wednesday, March 10, at 9:00, I am going to teach you the watercolor and drawing skills you need to create faces that look good. Painting and drawing faces is easier than you think!
I will show you how to draw individual features and how to mix colors for differing skin tones. Email me at anywhereart4u@gmail if you want to attend. The cost of the class is $30.

Imperfect Sketchbook Making

I thought I would be crafty and thrifty and make some little sketchbooks out of my extra pieces of watercolor paper. I have made my own sketchbooks before using the simple pamphlet stitch and sewing the pages straight into the spines of old vintage books.

I watched one Youtube video on book binding using the more sophisticated coptic stitch method. My clever friends have shown me how to do this binding many times and the books they complete are beautiful.
I am not going to show you the results of my attempts to bind my sketchbook using this method. Please just accept that my results were very sad and mangled.

Fortunately family members intervened and stopped me from throwing my mangled sketchbook out of the 2nd story window. They reassured me that if I devoted the rest of my life to learning the coptic binding that I would probably be successful. I accepted that book binding may not be where I excel and sewed my pages together in a off kilter but sturdy fashion.

I found some decorate paper I had hoarded and folded it into an old fashion school book cover like our public school teachers taught us in the 1950’s and 60’s. Since my paper was white and delicate I covered the cover with some contact paper I hoarded also. To my surprise, I actually crafted a sketchbook I can take outside with me and use.

The reason (other than cathartic) that I am sharing my imperfect book making with you, is to encourage you to try making your own sketchbook. There are many books and videos around about book making. However, don’t be discouraged if you are not a fine book maker right from the start. Book making is a skill that you can learn if you want to. If everyone got discouraged and quit after their mangled attempts at book binding, our streets might be littered with messed up books.

Predicting Our Future

How are you feeling these daze? Maybe like me, a little off after almost a year of Covid-19 isolation?

As I usually do, I reached for a time honored tradition to predict the future. It helped that we had Chinese take-out a few nights ago and some fortune cookies were still rolling around our kitchen table.

This future predicting should be fairly accurate since I had 4 fortune cookies for my study.

As you can see from the fortunes, in the future I am still going to make mistakes, there will be obstacles, I will have a close friend and be an individual. Those results are good, but nothing too optimistic. However, going into business, overcoming obstacles and providing light sounds very good to me.

This future predicting via cookies may not be the most reliable forcast of the future, do you think? I feel better about the newspaper headline I read in the L.A. Times this morning, “As Cases Drop and Immunity Grows, Signs of Hope Emerge”. Now that is a good fortune!

Mini Palette Sampler Reconsidered

A few posts ago I wrote about putting together mini palettes with my favorite 8 colors. Included with the palettes are color mixing charts and a sample 8 color only painting with drawing and directions to paint. The reason I made these palettes was because I often hear questions from students about what brand and what colors to purchase. I thought it would be a good idea to simplify the process by supplying a squeeze of each of the colors I like to use.

What I discovered in the process of preparing palettes and recording top secret color mixing info to go on the accompanying charts, was that assembling all of the pieces took a lot of time. Also, I spent several days of watching the paint dry in the pans before I could glue the pans in the palettes and mail them out. Plus I watched several Youtube videos of how to fill half pans correctly, and spent a lot of time with a straight pin trying to pop possible air holes that might appear in the paint colors.

As I prepared the palettes I sold for shipping, I mulled over my palette making and decided that if I could recommend paints to purchase instead of supplying them myself that might be a better way to go for you and me. Then when you could refill your pans from your own tubes when you used up your paint. Then it occurred to me that I could also recommend a palette for you to buy. So, the only thing, you would really need from me would be my color mixing charts and practice painting! And, I could email that to you, so you would need to pay the $4 shipping charge. I could also reduce the price of the palette because there is no palette! How does that sound? Basically, (if you are still here reading, I would just send you the color charts, and the practice painting which I could email to you for $5.

Am I a art teacher marketing genius or do I have too much time on my hands to think about these things?

Let me know your thoughts and if you ordered the palette, its in the mail to you. If you’d still like to purchase one, I have 5 left and then they are gone and yours is an Anywhere Art Collectors item…..

Here is the sample painting that comes with my 8 color mixing charts and line drawing.

Paint Something Red Today!

Zoom Color Class

This Wednesday at 9:00 am I’ll be teaching another Zoom class. The topic of this week’s class will be Color Contrast. You’ll learn which colors make the best dark mixes and which paints will only make light mixtures. I’ll explain where, when and why to place light colors next to dark colors and lots more.

Together we will paint a flower cart in front of a window from a photo I took in a hotel in Paris. I will also explain the ins and outs of painting from photos using a grid.

Class cost is $30 and includes drawings and a chart.

Email me to sign up for Wednesday’s class at anywhereart4u@gmail.com

The Cat with Big Ears

Yesterday I completed the painting below to include with the Mini Palette Sampler I am putting together and selling. This painting will use all the colors included in the Mini Palette Sampler. A chart is included in the sampler to explain how to mix the paints to get the colors you desire. The 8 colors in the palette are identified by name and manufacturer. This is because paint manufacturers can all use the same pigments or color but can name them different names making buying paints frustrating. My MPS ( mini palette sampler) will let you try out my favorite colors without the hassle of shopping for the individual paints.

The MPS is made from a recycled tin and includes color mixing charts and a color wheel with an explanation of how to use the 8 colors to mix all the colors on the wheel, which will give your paintings harmony. I’m also including the painting below and guided instructions on how to use the MPS colors to complete the painting.

The price for my Mini Palette Sampler is $20 + $4 shipping. Email me if you’d like to purchase your own MPS at anywhereart4u@gmail.com

“Life is confusing, painting should not be” Leonarda Da Roth

Notice anything funny about the cats ears and size? I think I might replace her with a leafy plant.

Upcoming Zoom Class on How to Choose and Mix Colors

Why not have coffee or tea next week with me while you participate in my online watercolor class. Next Wednesday’s class will teach you about putting together a painting and how to make successful color decisions that will make your painting shine. You’ll learn about mixing colors for shadows and how to paint them. Replacing local color with imagined color is an important concept I want to teach you how to do so you can invent a color you don’t see in your subject. Another concept I am going to teach about is how to see and translate the lights, darks and mediums you see in your subject into colors. Plus I will show you a few different painting techniques you can use to put the light medium and dark colors into place in your painting.

If this class sounds useful to you, go ahead and email me to register and pay. The cost of the class is $30. If you have taken a class with me before, you might even see some of your friends on the Zoom screen and be able to reconnect with them. In each class you will work on a painting which you will receive drawings of, before the class. I suggest you draw or trace the painting onto your watercolor paper before the class so you can paint with me as I demo the techniques. We go through all the parts of the painting and you have plenty of time to get your questions answered. You’ll also receive a temporary recording of the class that you can view after class to catch anything you missed.

Email me at anywhereart4u@gmailcom to register for next Wednesday’s class.

Creative Musing

For a long time I’ve been rambling about making art that has a practical use and is needed ( kneaded) instead of creating paintings that hang on walls and can’t provide sustenance. I was saying this because I felt frustrated because the paintings that I have spent the majority of my lifetime doing are not a needed commodity in today’s world. I made peace with this fact once I discovered that painting what you see can have a useful calming, theraputic effect on most people.
The phrase artisan bread maker caught my attention recently. I wondered if I could combine being an artist and making something that feeds people. But, I didn’t have time to learn to bake and the thought of cooking with yeast scared me.
Now that the current events happening in our world are so frightening, baking with yeast no longer scares me. So in the evenings I’ve been working quietly in my kitchen learning how to bake bread. My family are my enthusiastic bread tasters. They have even requested I make more of the cinnamon swirl bread pictured below. I came up with the name Cre Ate for my bakery but Rick thinks it could get confused with Cream Ate. What do you think? Do you bake bread? Can you share your favorite recipe with me?

Increase Your Color Mixing Confidence Class

Are you confused about how to mix the colors you see and want to put in your paintings? This 2 hour Zoom class is designed to explain+show you the small things you can do to mix the colors you need for your paintings. I will demo step by step what to do to get clear colors and show you why your colors get muddy. You will also see (because in a Zoom class you are peering right over my shoulder), just how much water + paint you need to get the right tone of paint you desire.
My color mixing recipes for terracotta pots, Tuscan villas, lavender plants, faded French shutters and more will be part of this class too. Everything will be put together in an easy composition we will do near the end of class so you will know how to apply what you’ve learned in this class.
Drawings, charts and info will be sent to you ahead of class. The fee for the class is $30. Best results happen if you sketch your drawings or mine onto your watercolor paper before class.

Email me to register at anywhereart4u@gmail.com

2021 Planning Tool to Help Get More Artwork Done

To get more artwork done in 2021, we here at the Anywhere Art Studio developed this hi-tech planning device. See the video on youtube using this link Planning Tool to Get More Artwork Done
https://youtu.be/JSC4PFKvOug

Zoom Class This Wednesday! 12/30, 9:30-11:30 am

Are you doing anything special to celebrate the New Year? This year we can’t go out and party all night in shamelessly revealing and sparkling dresses. So, why not choose to paint with me the day before the year finishes? A bonus of attending my class is if you had watercolor painting on your list of goals for 2020, attending this class will qualify and you will have accomplished one more goal before the year ends.

In Wednesday’s class, you can choose to draw and paint either a caboose, a yurt or a cottage. I’ll show you how to put a landscape in their background. It will be your choice to add snow, a forest, a sunset or fall foliage. I'll demonstrate how you can add all these things and I'll also explain how to choose a light source and how ensure you have enough values in your color mixes of paint to create depth.

All drawings will be sent to you ahead of class so you can draw them on your paper before class and paint with me during our 2 hour class. Or feel free to create your own composition and paint it during our class. Lots of time will be included to show your work, ask questions and get suppportive comments on your artwork. We’ll also end the class with a discussion of what you want to learn about in my art classes in 2021, as well as discuss if anyone knows how to drink prosecco or champagne out of a slipper or shoe at midnight on Dec. 2021 and thinks it might be a good idea to say good bye to 2020.

Cost for this class is $30

Email me to register for class at anywhereart4u@gmail.com

Happy Holidays

Last Minute Holiday Card

This past Wednesday, one of the students in my online class asked me about how to paint olive and cypress trees. She told me she was doing a painting with writing on the hills in her Italian landscape. I created a little drawing based on her ideas. I came up with the pun greeting myself. So, since this painting was fun and simple to do I thought you might like to try painting it at home. Below are the painting and the drawing. Feel free to email me if you need help painting it.

What I Am Doing During Stay-at-Home

Are you running out of ways to keep your mind active during our current stay-at-home period?
Pictures below show some of my activities. Top right: I am trying to communicate telepathically with my dogs while wearing a dress for dressember. Learn more about Dressember at https://dressember2020.funraise.org/fundraiser/barbara-roth

Top left: I ordered a Barry Herniman’s Cloverleaf paintbox from Jackson’s Art in England. It arrived in 3 days time! Now I am contemplating which of the Rembrandt paints that came in the palette on the bottom left, to fill the palette with.
I’ve also been doing some in- depth color theory research and have discovered a color mix that is an exact match to the colors of Beagle ears, Australian Shepard legs and autumn leaves.
How have you been keeping your mind active?

Another Day, Another Dress

I found another dress in my wardrobe to wear today for Dressember’s drive to raise funds and awareness about stopping human trafficking. There are still several dresses gathering dust in the back of my wardrobe that I plan to wear daily this month. I am thinking about starting a new blog and continuing to wear dresses until covid is over. I might call my new blog, The Beagle, The Bitch and The Wardrobe. What do you think? To learn more about Dressember see the link in yesterday’s post.

Want to Paint Leaves&Trees with Me?

Do you look at the leaves and trees in your neighborhood and wonder how to paint them?

Have you ever admired the many colors in a Fall leaf and lacked knowledge and motivation to paint that leaf?

Would you like to be able to paint a simple Fall landscape?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then consider signing on for my Wed. Dec. 16, Zoom class. The class will be live from 9:30-11:30 and a video of the class will be yours to view for 1 week after the class.

The cost of the class is $30. Email me to register at anywhereart4u@gmail.com

Thursday’s Dressember dress! Please read yesterday’s blog post if you are interested in learning more about Dressember.

Why Am I Wearing Dresses?

I am going to wear a dress every day since yesterday until the end of December. No, the pandemic hasn’t pushed me over the edge. Instead it may have pushed me in the right direction. Instead of obsessing about traveling and such, because I’ve been sidelined from my travel biz, I’ve been thinking about how I can help solve world problems in my own small way.
I stumbled upon Dressember on Instagram and am entranced by what they are doing.
Have you heard about Dressember? It is an organization whose mission is to end human trafficking. You can learn about almost all aspects of human trafficking and some ways you can help stop it on their website dressember2020.funraise.org

Wearing a dress daily to call attention to stopping human trafficking is not too much to ask of me. Thanks to my father, who was a dress salesman thru out my childhood, I have a fondness for dresses. Plus thanks to the bountiful thrift shops in San Diego, I have 14 dresses in my closet!

So, I urge you to visit Dressember’s website and learn about the causes
and cures to end human trafficking and if you want to donate, here is a link to my fundraising page https://dressember2020.funraise.org/fundraiser/barbara-roth

Zoom Learn with Me, Wednesday?

Are your brushes and paints begging you to take them out for a spin? Dust off your art supplies and join me for a 2 Hour Zoom Class.
The subject matter of Wednesday’s class will be Learning to Paint Dog With Pen and Ink + Watercolor. I will explain all the drawing and painting top secrets to you, give you drawings ahead of class, demo all techniques and answer all your questions.
You will finish class with several postcard sized paintings of the most favorite dog breeds and the knowledge and skill to paint more dogs. Class Cost $30 email me asap to sign up at anywhereart4u @gmail.com

Class will take place on Zoom, Wednesday, November 18 at 9:30-11:30.