Busy Busy Busy
May 1, 2013
I’m getting ready for shows and events in May and June here in Southern California.
Next weekend, May 11th and 12th, I’ll be showing my hand-painted silk scarves at Unique LA. This local artisan made show will be at the California Market Center in their Penthouse. The show is open from 11-6 both days, my location is T106, not far from the coffee bar (you’d think they’ve met me!).
Bring your Moms for Mother’s Day! AND, if you print out and bring this blog post you’ll receive 10% off the price of any scarf (retail sales only).
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The following weekend, on May 19th, I’ll be showing for my 5th time at the terrific Balboa Island Art Walk.
This is the Art Walk’s 19th year, and there are more artists than ever showing their work. I will once again be located between Coral and Apolena Streets, just look for my apple-green umbrellas. The show is strung all along Balboa Island’s bayfront walk, overlooking lovely Newport Harbor, from Marine Avenue past the Ferry Landing. The Art Walk lasts from 9 am to 5 pm.
My display at the 2012 Balboa Island Art Walk
I hope to see you at one or both events! Thanks!
Rich, Saturated colors in Watercolor
January 27, 2013
“Three-plus Poppies”, ©Jill Rosoff 2013, 4″ x 6″
I have these small pads of watercolor paper that I keep around for quick “jots” of ideas like this one. In watercolors, any whites in a painting are the paper left untouched, since watercolor is a transparent medium, and the transparent version of white is, well, nothing. Transparent. It’s a fun conundrum to play around with.
In this piece, I wanted to leave no blank paper, no white areas, but instead to paint the whole piece of paper, and to let the shapes of the flowers do most of the talking. Getting the colors this rich and intense is a fun challenge in watercolors. And there’s still good contrast between the brightness of the yellow centers, and the dark lines where the green paint overlapped the red. Unintended, and perfect.
One other thing: I love rich, vibrant and maintaining a sense of the transparency in the paint. In watercolors it is possible to use too much paint, which when it dries, looks dry, dusty and opaque, qualities that you just don’t strive for in watercolors. I like striving for the saturation and the transparency, especially since they are paradoxical. Fun!
It’s now available on Esty here.
Making good on the New Years resolution
January 11, 2013
“Lavender Poppies on red patterns” ©Jill Rosoff 2012, 10″ x 7″
I started this piece in the fall, as a demonstration piece once again in one of my workshops. This piece actually started me on the intention of loosening up on color ‘rules’ I have consciously and unconsciously obeyed. Since I often use a subject I know when I’m playing around with ideas, and I have been painting Iceland poppies forever, so shape, color and composition are like second nature to me, I find it really easy to go for changes and experimentation with them as my subject.
There is no such thing as a lavender Iceland poppy. Yellow, orange, reds, pink, and white yes, but nothing in the blue spectrum. And I’ve always wanted them. So ‘tada!’ I made them. In the grand scheme of things its really not much of a huge plunge, but then again, baby steps are just fine to start out on new paths. I also broke another covenant I heard early on in my painting education, that paintings with red backgrounds can be difficult to make work, let alone sell. Thank goodness Henri Matisse didn’t believe that! There are essentially four different reds used in the background, but with layers and some mixing, it looks like more. I am really enjoying how this piece turned out. You?
This piece is now available through my Etsy shop.
Happy 2013, and my New Year’s Art Resolution
January 6, 2013
“Red and Orange Poppies” ©Jill Rosoff 2012
I went on a bit of a blog-hiatus last month. Between making my holiday cards, which I’ve done for the past 25 (gasp!) years, and then making Christmas gifts for my family, I was plum tuckered out. Maybe that’s sugar-plum tuckered out? Only the fairies will know for sure. And they’ll dance about it.
I’m back at it now. I have some new paintings that I finished up over the holidays to post here that I’ve had on the drawing board for awhile. This painting actually came out of an idea I had for a new colorway for my scarves, one that was more fall or winter inspired. And to play with new color combinations through a very familiar theme is an interesting process, because it can help to bust open a preconceived idea. Since Iceland poppies are in a naturally spring-y color spectrum, which I really love, I have pretty much painted them that way. But now I think not every poppy needs to be in yellows, oranges, reds and pinks, do they? I mean, there are pink daffodils, for crying out loud. What if I could have a lavender poppy? Ooooh!
My New Year’s resolution? I will not be as literal with color. The reds can be deeper, softer, not so siren-like. The orange can be a faded tomato orange-red. And the green? Instead of a bright spring bud green, how about verdigris? A nice, oxidized, dusty green. This worked for me!
Now all I need to do is remember to write 2013 instead of 2012. I’m thinking I’ll get that done by February, earliest.
Watercolor Workshops
January 2, 2013
Happy 2013!
Detail from “Paperwhites”, ©Jill Rosoff 2010
For those of you in the Orange County, CA area, my watercolor workshops start up again on Saturday, January 12th.
These workshops are open to everyone at every level of experience in painting with watercolors. Each session’s work is focused on what those who are there bring in, whether it be a new project or technique, or working on ongoing paintings, and developing them to completion. When I find new ideas or ways of creating an effect, I bring those in and we experiment with them.
The workshops are held in Santa Ana at Karen’s Detail Custom Frames, which is on MacArthur Blvd, one block east of Harbor Blvd., across from the Home Depot. Each session is $25.00, or you can purchase a six-session pass for $125.00 (six sessions for the price of five).
Sign up here to receive emails about the workshops, or download the 2013 workshops schedule here.
Contact me with any questions using the ‘contact’ link at the end of this or any posting!
Spring bulbs and other fun things
May 14, 2012
“Red Tulips”, ©Jill Rosoff 2012, 15″ x 11″
I’ve had bouquets of daffodils, tulips and sweet peas in the house a lot lately. Its spring! and they’re really affordable now at Trader Joe’s. And REALLY affordable from my sister’s garden–she has a wonderful huge crop of sweet peas along the fence in her yard. The flowers have been my live ‘models’ for both for my paintings and my scarves, and I take them to my workshops for my students to use as subject matter for their paintings. I’ve while I’ve got a couple of paintings of daffodils nearing completion, but here’s my most recent watercolor of red tulips. I love these pieces, just the red of the flowers, on the white background, punctuated by the black stamens in the centers of the blossoms.
Tulips were some of my ‘teachers’ in watercolors. On a trip in Europe toward the end of college, I bought some bulbs in Amsterdam which were sent to me when it was time to plant them. In the spring, voila, I had some lovely tulips in my garden, and sat outside trying to get them down in watercolor. I was painting exclusively with oils at the time, and watercolors are nothing like oils to paint with. So I practiced with the watercolors, trying to figure out how to use them, as often as I could as long as those tulips were blooming in my garden, just about 2 weeks. I tried to get those watercolor paints to behave. Ultimately I learned to surrender to them, which is usually the case, isn’t it? So this painting is my most recent visit to an old friend and teacher.
The other fun things? I’m getting ready to show this coming Sunday, May 20th at the 18th Annual Balboa Island Art Walk. I really enjoy this show, partly because its on the bayfront of Newport Harbor, which is beautiful, but also because at this show is along a walkway thats about 8′ wide, so our displays are flat along the walkway. You can walk right up to the artwork, there’s no intimidation factor of having to enter into a 10′ tent. Click here for more information about the Artwalk. I’ll be between Coral and Apolena streets, just look for my apple-green umbrellas!
And I’ve got all sorts of new scarves! I’ll have them at the Artwalk, and they are also available through my new Etsy Shop, “Blooming Silks”. Please visit soon!
Going Just a Little Buggy
April 11, 2012
I’m showing my scarves at an event at the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach next month, its their Spring Faire celebrating the annual opening of their Butterfly House. Of course the scarves that feature flower designs are wonderfully Spring-y, just right for the show. Then I started thinking about making some scarves to celebrate the reason for the event, and started trying out some designs. These are shots of some of these new pieces as they’re drying.
Pink butterflies, silk scarf design, ©Jill Rosoff 2012
Now, I like butterflies as much as anyone. I really have a proclivity to dragonflies and damselflies, those lovely double winged, long-bodied, brightly-colored mosquito eaters, which were always around in the spring and summer, flying around our pool while we swam the days away. Even my doorbell plate is an Arts and Crafts-style dragonfly design.
Dragonflies in orange, purple and red, silk scarf design ©Jill Rosoff 2012
And here’s some orange butterfies too (taken with a flash, so these look yellower than they really are).
Orange butterflies silk scarf design, ©Jill Rosoff 2012
So if you’re near Newport Beach, CA on May 5th, come on by the Environmental Nature Center from 10 am to 3 pm and try on my scarves, along with all the other artisans work that will be showing that day, and visit the butterflies too!
The ENC is located at 1601 • 16th St. in Newport Beach, just off Dover Dr., next to the sports fields of Newport Harbor High School.
Blooming on silk
March 2, 2012
Pink poppies on habotai, Flower Fields on crepe de chine, Yellow Poppies on chiffon, Large Orange poppies on habotai, and Blue Poppies on crepe square.
Here’s a selection of the new scarves I’ve been making. The theme is poppies, and I’m playing around with the sizes of the blossom and also the colors. I also have them in red, tangerine, lavender, purple, and combinations of red and orange, yellow and orange, and red and pink. So far, that is. I’m painting these on three different silk fabrics: habotai, crepe de chine, and chiffon. The oblong scarves come in three sizes, and I have 44″ square scarves too. The procion dyes are set so that they bond with the silk fibers, so the color is permanent. If you see a color you like but want a different size or material than what is currently available, contact me to order the scarf you want.
I’ll be showing them this weekend and next at the Art in the Park section of the 41st annual Festival of the Whales, in Dana Point, California. Dates are March 3, 4, 10 and 11, from 9:30 am to 5 pm. Art in the Park will be on the grass areas at the corner of Dana Point Harbor Drive and Island Drive. A shuttle bus that will be running, and Art in the Park is at stop #E12 on the attached map. I’ll have my notecards, reproductions and small, matted watercolors with me too! We’ll be having a whale of a time!
Can’t make it this weekend or next? You can order the scarves through my shop on Etsy: Rosoff Artworks. And of course if you have questions, use the comment button below (all inquiries remain private), or convo me from my Etsy shop.
New production is blooming
February 23, 2012
Scarves in process, February ©Jill Rosoff 2012
I’ve been doing a lot of marketing work lately, one result of which is that I haven’t been painting much lately. And I miss it! But I’ve had a lot to do both in the marketing and in my art projects.
One project is my hand-painted silk scarves. I paint them with permanent dye, right on to the silk fabric. I’ve been in production, developing the designs, and getting ready to show them at a few shows in the upcoming months. My next show is the Festival of the Whales in Dana Point, CA, at the Art in the Park section of the Festival. For the first 2 weekends of March each year, Dana Point celebrates the return of the once-endangered California Gray Whale with “a leviathan-size event”. I spent my teen years near here, I learned to sail sabots in Dana Point Harbor, so it’s a bit of home turf for me.
Back to the scarves. The photo above is from my production day yesterday. The scarves are pinned onto canvas on the painting table, where I then paint them with the dyes. You can see the vestiges of previous dyeing under the scarves. These are just 2 of the new crop of poppy scarves, all of which signed and numbered, and which I will be showing at the Festival of the Whales. Come see what they look like on! My booth will be at Art in the Park at the Festival, located at the intersection of Dana Point Harbor Drive and Island Drive. It’s at stop E12 on the shuttle route, which you will find on this map. Look for my apple-green market umbrellas.
If you aren’t anywhere near Dana Point and are unable come to the Festival, the scarves are currently available in my Etsy store, where I’ll be posting the new ones as soon as they’re completed and photographed. And for those in and around north Orange County, they are now also at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center‘s gift shop, in Fullerton, CA.
‘There’s something for everyone at the ENC!’
February 15, 2012
“Field of Poppies”, ©Jill Rosoff 2010
1601 16th St.
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Hours: 8 am to 5 pm, M-F, 9 am to 5 pm Saturday
949-645-8489
Click here to go to Rosoff Artworks
