shhhhhhh .....mice are sleeping in that mitten

I am working on work I cannot show .....yet, so here is something I am also working on at the same time that I can.
I recently wrote about Pobble's Way, one of the picture books I'm working on and I have finally begun painting the art! This is definitely my absolutely Favorite part.

This is a little spot illustration......today while I am working on a full page illustration for the book, I am also working on the aforementioned currently unmentionable work.Back and forth, an hour here, 45 minutes on that, back again...an odd but curiously interesting way to work sometimes. Illustrator Cross Training?
It's cold and rainy and raw outside and I think I need to make some quickie Salsa Bolognese.
Back to work...

Illustration Friday: Legendary

Well, here is another Illustration Friday piece. The theme for this round was Legendary.
I feel just slightly guilty, contributing pieces created for other purposes....but if I didn't there's simply no way I could participate, so I this will simply have to do.
It feels sort of like going to a pot luck at someone's home and bringing something from the freezer, even if it's really yummy, from because there simply weren't enough hours in the day to whip up a timballo especially for the occasion, such as this Timballo di Riso alla Romana (thanks to Mario, one of my favorite chefs, Batali).
But, as usual, I digress.
Here is my contribution to Legendary, a painting from the picture-book I illustrated, The Baker's Dozen. This book is set in the area around New Amsterdam, the 17th Century Dutch Colonial settlement that eventually became New York. The town developed outside of Fort Amsterdam in the New Netherland Territory (1614–1674).......so, for inspiration and and reference on the fashions that people may have worn, seeing that were probably few shops or dressmakers early on and people would most likely still be wearing the clothing that they brought with them from back home in the Netherlands.......who better to turn to than the most legendary of Legendary Painters, the Master Himself, Rembrandt. My painting of the Old Woman was inspired by none other than Rembrandt's Mother. The Baker's Dozen takes place around 1650 and Rembrandt's painting was done in 1639. My most sincere thanks to Rembrandt for this...and so much else.

Rembrandt's Mother

The Old Woman

Awards & Appearances

In my continuing quest to "put myself out there" more, to get out of the studio more and actually see and talk with the lovely people that support my art.... it appears that our indefatigably helpful and cheeky Universe ( aka Supreme Being, minor god or goddess, Universal Life Force etc. ) who always conspires to give us a leg up or a well needed kick in the butt has joined in the fun and brought me, my last picture-book, two awards in the past two days!
The book Saturn For my Birthday, by John McGranaghan and published by Sylvan Dell Publishing
was a whole lot of fun to illustrate and I am hugely gratified that others seem to enjoy spending time reading it and looking at my pictures.
Thank you everyone , Universe , included!

The two awards are, in order of appearance, The Readers Views Second Place Award for Children's Fiction ages 6-8 and a Foreword Magazine 2008 Book of the Year Award Finalist in the Picture Book category.
Here are the cute and shiny gold stickers:


Moving right along now to Appearances.....
I will be making two....
the first one.....soon!....on Saturday, March 21 from 1-3 pm at Oil & Water. I will be chatting, showing my work, talking about technique and showing my work, both finished, in print, and in progress.
This is the blurb that Richard, the charming owner of this wonderful art supply store wrote about the event:

"The Life and Times of a Children's Book Illustrator with Wendy Edelson
Learn about the joys and challenges of working in the creative field of children's book illustration from this talented and beloved local artist. Regardless of your interest in an illustration career, this demonstration is not to be missed, if only to see some of Wendy's beautiful work! In addition to book illustration, she also does beautiful, fanciful pet portraits."

awww shucks, Richard, I am determined to do my very best to live up to these high expectations and be witty and interesting.

Appearance Number Two will be Sunday, May 16 at Eagle Harbor Books from 12 -1:00 pm.
I will be reading Saturn For My Birthday and showing some of the original art from the book.
This event will be part of the events scheduled to promote literacy in connection with Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program in celebration of National Children's Book Week, May 11 -17.
Both events will be in charming downtown Winslow, Washington, on Bainbridge Island.
okay, I think that 's that.......
next time, more art.

Illustration Friday - Intricate

Okay, I keep feeling like I should Get Out More, at least put my work out there more...even if I don't get very far from my studio for very long.....very often.
So this is the first time I am participating in Illustration Friday...something I've been meaning to do forever. This week's topic was "Intricate", and for me, this was as easy as falling off a log so I finally jumped in.
I hardly just whipped this up specifically for this though. The original watercolor is about 14 X 15 and took me about 2 weeks to paint.
It's entitled Naptime and is well, obviously, really intricate. If you look closely at the bedside lamp you can see that the horse has a horn made out of bubblegum.....I guess the horse wanted to fit in with all the rhinoceri and Ceratopsidae. (If you click on it you can see it larger)
I plan to make this, if not a regular habit, at least a frequent one.

Speaking of getting out more.....I will be doing a 2 hour art demo/talk on March 21 (Happy Spring!) at a local art supply store, Oil & Water and a booksigning in early May. Some artists are great at these things, me, I'm a bit nervous. More on these events in another post, soon.

Camera!!!

I am SO excited!!! I FINALLY have a little digital camera so I can join everyone else in the blogging world, sharing pictures of my pets...my fluffy, drop ear, tricolor Corgi, Baci, (seen here, having a little swim today!) ......scenery, culinary successes , gardens, clouds, beautiful or otherwise exemplary ephemera/stuff...whatever I cannot manage to fit underneath the lid of my scanner.
I can actually write about something other than finished artwork.......or work I cannot show.
So......here are a few pictures I took today on the first actually sort of warmish late morning so far this year.

Baci on the dock

Someone's hat and driftwood on the beach and wonderfully colored kayaks & a sneak peek at a picture book illustration midway...shhhh, does this count?


Now, back to work.

Flight Of Fancy

Flight of Fancy
watercolor and acrylic on Fabriano watercolor paper 8.25 X 7
please enquire to purchase

quiet, quiet....I have the best intentions to write more but I'm not certain that the daily routine of dog walking on the beach and tea (Assam or Darjeeling ) making and paintingpaintingpainting, punctuated by drawing and forays into town would make for worthwhile reading......the daily routines of others, however, seem much more fascinating......like driving by houses at night and catching glimpses of the interiors of strangers.....the light spilling out so alluring.....little snapshots of domestic perfection, as seem from the outside anyway.

I am working on the projects I can't post so I painted the above kitty portrait, the way I recall Fancy, the tiger striped kitty of my childhood...... to have something to show. I've decided to offer the original for sale, so just ask.

It appears that Winter is loosening his (her?) grip a bit, although snow is forecast up in the mountains and the surrounding area.......this time of year in the Pacific Northwest is fickle, Camellias are about to bloom and the Witch Hazel is blooming her little honey scented heart out....

primroses and crocus dot the greening lawns with spots of bright color and daffodils and narcissus are pushing up out of the loosening earth......best of all.......scent has returned to the air! I LOVE that.

A Rousing Shower of Applause

I've been pretty quiet blogwise recently because all the projects that I'm working on are "secret"...I've agreed to nondisclosure until publication so it just appears that I've suddenly become mute and am goofing off. Al contrario.....in reality, I'm painting, painting, painting...burning the proverbial Midnight Oil. Night Owls know this special quiet, this luxurious span of uninterrupted hours....punctuated only by nightbirds, snoring dogs and the breezy tinkle of windchimes. Oftentimes my best work is created in that span of time between midnight and 4 am .....and often, I'll finish a piece....or even a whole book. This finishing, this putting down the brush for the last time and knowing that I'm finished, finally really finished is a moment of personal deliciousness. At that moment, if I were a musician or an actor, the lights would dim and there would be ( one hopes ) rousing applause........however, for solitary illustrators with vampiric schedules...this magic moment is met with deafening silence. One expects the clouds to part and heavenly choirs to warble a small tune at least, something...but no, just that deep, velvety quiet. Everyone that might cheer and give me an upturned thumb or a pat on the back is sleeping....so this moment can be a tad anticlimactic. In response to my complaints about this, my musician husband created a loop of the enthusiastic sounds of a rapturous audience who sound like they've gotten their money's worth.
To give yourself the cheering adulation you deserve, play:

I've played this several times in the pale pre-dawn and it's always made me giggle and sigh with gratitude, able to waft off to bed with a smile of appreciation on my lips. There are other times we need a hand, during the populated hours of daylight when all sorts of things may occur...not all of them what we might wish for, or even if we finish that masterpiece during the day and no one's home.....so for all the times we need a bit adulation and/or recognition I've decided to share this instant moment of gratuitous adoration with everyone.

Have fun, play often, you deserve it!

Pet Portraits.....In Memorium

Painting portraits of pets who have euphemistically crossed the "Rainbow Bridge" is something altogether different.....at least this one was.
When I was first asked to paint the portrait of this cat who is no longer "here", I thought of angel wings and cavorting amongst the clouds....but I was told "no", that this cat never loved anyone but the woman shown here holding him......and that it was very poignant how he had his paw on her arm. A border of brightly colored catnip mice was NOT going to work for this portrait!
Then I heard that the photographs that I was to use ( the portrait below was painted using two separate photos ) were taken at a gathering, a sort of farewell gathering of friends of the woman and her cat.... he was gravely ill and she was saying goodbye to him.....and he to her....before she let him go.
S and LB
I finished this portrait 3 days ago and am only now posting it. While painting it, and for a few days afterward, it haunted me.
I think I felt the way I have heard that psychics and healers feel after touching objects or visiting places that are emotionally charged with the energy of a living being traversing what we call "here" to whatever may be "there".
As I painted this portrait...I was drawn in, and a lot of something.......... energy, vibrations, emotion.....came rolling off the photos in waves. I felt like a witness to a very private and intimate moment and my best hope is that I have been even a little bit successful in honoring that. Thank you Annie for trusting me to paint this.

Some People Portraits of Authors

Since I've spent so much time painting and writing about pet portraits recently, I thought I'd show a few of the people portraits I've done for authors and their book covers/web sites.
Here is the portrait I painted of Aaron Shepard, the author of the picture book
The Baker's Dozen / Atheneum Books for Young Readers / which I had the honor of illustrating, and many other award winning books for both children and adults.
Here is another one of Aaron, a few years prior, for a book he wrote on flute playing:

And this one is of Anne Watson and her cat, for a book she wrote,
Smart Soapmaking, The Simple Guide to Making Traditional Handmade Soap Quickly, Safely, and Reliably:

I am finding that painting portraits...of pets people, people with their pets is really satisfying, something I really enjoy doing.
If you would like a portrait of yourself, a loved one or several, a person or an animal, or a combination......with a plain colored background or a "real" one or one completely imagined in your dreams, please let me know........I can paint you in a tropical forest with your favorite dog and a parrot, asleep on a cloud with your baby , your child playing with a baby elephant, your Grandmother dancing beneath the stars......
now, it's your turn.......

Good Bones

something a bit different.........
I think the drawings, the sketches, the Good Bones beneath a beautiful painting might be interesting.....to me, and this is simply my old fashioned, classicist opinion...a painting is only as beautiful as the drawing beneath it...otherwise it is akin to draping a sadly askew skeleton with Armani..the akimbo elbows cannot be disguised with beautiful paint.
Posting a bit about other illustrations ( other than pet portraits ), the process of book illustration..... the wonderful Uri Shulevitz in Writing With Pictures, wrote about the text and pictures in a picture book being like pearls strung into a necklace....words, pictures, words, pictures...that words needn't describe what pictures show.....and if the words are especially delicious and perfect, one needn't illustrate them. Each adds to the entire story. I love this. This is so much harder to do well than it may sound.
Neither words nor the pictures stand alone well to tell the story. In One Monday Morning by the delightful Mr Shulevitz, the book begins.....One Monday Morning......just that, and the only way we know that it is a rainy, dreary Monday morning in New York City is by the illustration. I always knew I wanted to draw and paint but Mr Shulevitz, by explaining picturebooks in this way, has influenced me more than any professor may have done. I am self taught and hope that my education as an artist and an illustrator has been serendipitous, that I have found my teachers when I need them. Thank you Mr Shulevitz......I think of your words as I work on every book, I only hope that I am slightly more successful with each book.
I am working on a story I fell in love with immediately, it has been edited and changed here and there since I first read the initial manuscript but the Good Bones remain and have been improved upon and I am about to begin painting.......the fun part. The drawing is the work, the labor! Painting, sloshing about with color is pure joy. My father, no longer with us, a philosophy professor, was also a sculptor, and a Fanatic about draughtsmanship. He instilled in me that any piece was only as good as the drawing beneath it. As a child I spent hours drawing at his feet as he carved tree trunks into horses and women and children. I would tire and let him know I was going to bed and he would look at my drawing and, on occasion, insist that I stay and fix the foreshortening, the foot, the length of the arms...until I got them right. Thank you Daddy wherever you are. I only hope that you would think well enough of my drawings that I might go to bed, finally......

The drawings here are from the picture book Pobble's Way by Simon Van Booy, to be published by Flashlight Press.
These drawings are the hopefully good bones beneath what will be paintings for this wonderful children's book.
Check back for a finished painting......soon.

Flyer and Worthy!

Flyer & Worthy
Yes, another Pet Portrait! Here are two beautiful Australian Shepherds, a brother and sister from different litters.
.......I am actually working on several art projects that I can't show before publication......so I am really happy to have these little love poems to show.
Painting these Odes to Joy, I am reminded over and over of the traits that the animals with whom we share our lives bring out in us because they love us so unconditionally.
Painting them is a meditation on openness and vulnerability, fidelity, sweetness and trust, playfulness and honesty and love.
Lucky me!

As soon as I complete a portrait, I email my client who commissioned the portrait a scan, before I mail it off. I sent this one of Flyer and Worthy off late last night and this morning I received this:
"This couldn't be anymore amazing and awesome.
You do incredible work and it must bring you so
much satisfaction that your talent brings happiness to so many people.
Thanks you so, so much!
Fabulous!"
...........thank you, L.M., and yes, you're right.......your happiness, and the happiness others have expressed brings me ENORMOUS satisfaction.

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

How fun to paint a portrait of a cat after painting 5 dogs , with another 2 dogs waiting in the wings.
Kitty, kitty.....this seems so casual, so completely lacking in a certain je ne sais qua that this particular cat has in spades...the antithesis of this literally awesome Maine Coon in the snow.....
This is Sherlock in Winter.
Not much more I can say, what a handsome CAT!..... what fun to paint!
Sherlock

"It's perfect! I opened your email at work and when I saw the portrait a huge smile came over my face. That's our Sherlock.... the look you captured on his face is classic. We will enjoy this very much."

thank you so much for that D.D.! The satisfaction that I feel when I hear that I have been successful not only in painting something pleasant to look at, or well executed...but that I have succeeded in capturing the essence of a particular animal for their human family, and in touching something intangible in a heartfelt way......that is an enormous pleasure for me.

I am longing for Spring.......cold COLD again, saw some snow flurries today.
Dreaming of Angel's Trumpets, Mandevilla vines in glorious shades of PINK,tender pale green sprouts and shoots poking their sleepy cotyledon heads up out of rich, chocolate cake earth into the new Spring sunshine.
Waiting, waiting......here kitty, kitty.

Two Journeys

Here are two more portraits of well loved animal companions, two more testaments of love to four legged friends of the doggie persuasion.
With each "portrait" I paint I am allowed access to the depths of spirit and loyalty, faithfulness and love between these creatures and the humans that share their journeys here and now. I feel so fortunate to be allowed in, to share in the sweetness and unadulterated purity in these animal eyes and to do my best to render them, as they were, in that moment.

At the same time, I am experimenting with a mixed technique of watercolor and acrylic, a new medium for me. I am trying to take what I find the best in both mediums and I am finding the journey exhilarating!
Watercolors are marvelous in their transparency and well, liquidity.....but one must work, always from light to dark. Acrylics are more forgiving in that respect , one can move from dark back into light but once colored is laid, they are unable to be lifted or lightened. I am finding that one can lay down watercolor washes as under-painting, then when all the basic colors are laid in, I spray the painting with workable fixative, to prevent any colors from bleeding or lifting up. I then coat the entire painting with a thin milky layer of diluted acrylic gloss gel medium.
Once dry I can move on to finishing the painting in acrylics. I am using Golden liquid acrylics and a marvelous additive from Golden, Acrylic Flow Release......something akin to Oxgall, a wetting agent for watercolor washes, a drop of Acrylic Flow Release in 10 drops of water added to the acrylic paint loosens it so that one can paint fine detail like blades of grass or fur with sharpness and precision, similar to painting detail in watercolor but with the positive attributes of acrylic and also extended the "open" time, retarding the drying time just enough.
I can use them in transparent layers to gradually build and deepen form, or I can lighten highlights with opaque acrylic.From this point on, I never use watercolors again from this point on in the painting.
The gel eliminates the absorbency of the paper and enables the development of fine detail and hard edges, and it enhances the dark values and intensifies the hues. It also allows for the maximum opacity and value range of the acrylic. Painting on its slick, smooth surface is a delightful and mesmerizing experience!

Sophia

Shiloh

adding to my great pleasure in the experience are these comments from the human companion of these two beautiful dogs:
"These portraits. These took my breath away. Seeing these perfect renderings of my kids brings tears to my eyes, and I can't thank you enough."
In every way, painting these have brought me great happiness.

next....stay tuned, a magnificent Maine Coon cat!

Simon

Here is Simon, the most recent portrait.

I had so much fun painting him, I was sorry when I was finished!

and......this brought tears to MY eyes, what Simon's human wrote me:

"Thank you so much for the puppy portrait. I was in tears after I saw it as it is so wonderful. You did capture his personality.
Take care and know that you are very good at capturing the essence of your subjects, not just replicating them...what a talent you have."

Thank you for that!


Size 5 X 7, acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil.

Pleasures of Winter

How fun is this?
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, musicians extraordinaire, have just come out with a brand new CD, Pleasures of Winter , music for Winter and the Holiday Season featuring Jay & Molly's live performances from their annual Public Radio program with a variety of great musicians making guest appearances in the house band including: Harry Aceto, David Bromberg, Peter Davis, Peter Ecklund, Laurel Massé, Brian Melick, Michael Merenda, Ruth Ungar Merenda, Steve Rust, Butch Thompson, Tony Trischka and Sam Zucchini.

I was so delighted when they decided to use a painting of mine for the cover, I think ( hope! ) the spirit of the painting matches the spirit of the music really well.
Thank you Jay & Molly.

Please go visit their site to hear sound clips from this, and all their wonderful music.

Lemonade in Winter aka Pet Portraits

It is amazing, there must be 5 inches of snow outside......people in bright red Santa hats are going by on cross country skis accompanied by bounding, cavorting dogs!
It looks like Vermont out there more than a more often balmier island in the Pacific North West , but these are interesting times.....expect the unexpected!

Dogs! Yes Dogs seem to be playing a much larger role in my life than I once thought possible. I thought I was a "cat person" until my heart was stolen by a wolf dog we found wandering through a State Park in Vermont, who adopted us and whom we came to call Daisy. Daisy has gone on to where good and faithful dogs go when they leave us, and Baci, the fluffy Corgi now owns another hunk of my heart.

Now, into my life has come the opportunity to paint some wonderful dogs. I am having a terrific time doing this and thank the people these dogs live with for sharing these four legged Wonders with me.
I would love to keep painting more Pet Portraits, so if you'd like one, let me know! Oh, and I welcome cats and birds, iguanas, horses, cows and pigs, any animal you love!
Thank you!

Here are the first two finished "portraits" :


Reeses and Hershey


Pele

Snowmen and Animals in Sweaters & Jackets!

I LOVE painting snow, snowmen,snowmen who always have multicolored Lifesavers for their smiles! woodland animals in sweaters and wooly hats...gingerbread men and Christmas cookies....candy canes and peppermints falling from the sky, Santas and children making snow angels, babies in wooly sweaters on toy laden reindeer, stockings filled with toys, and happily wrapped presents...... cut paper snowflakes and all the Joyful, Sparkly, and Heart Warming images of this season......

Baci, the Fluffy Floppy Eared Corgi!

Here is Baci!!! my most lovable, darling, stout hearted, sweet, shy yet gregarious at home 18 month old fluffy ( long haired) Corgi whose ears have refused to go up, unless listening to something VERY interesting!
Here, he is nervously trying to decide if the camera is something to be trusted, or not.

Sunshine

The weather is clear and COLD, more like Vermont but the beautiful sunshine is a blessing after what seems like an eternity of grey skies and low slate clouds.
There are pots of primroses and crocus in front of the store and plump, red buds and the sun is sticking around longer....ahh Spring, I await you with a joyful heart!
These pictures are bits of spreads from the a l m o s t nearing completion "Saturn For My Birthday" picture book that is taking longer than it should but I am pretty happy with the way it's coming along.
Back to work now....

Saints, Angels, Ascended Beings, FINISHED!

The Irish Goddess Aine, Merlin and St Teresa above, a mere drop in the bucket of my new Celestial Friends.
Wow........finally after a final slog of working for 32 hours straight.......I am finished with my 100 Saints, Angels, Ascended Masters and Avatars.....I had no idea at the onset that my life would be so overly consumed with these beings..... the final batch was pushed out of the nest to the Publisher today and so tomorrow I am happily back to the realm of picture books where one illustration has to do with the following one.
This has definitely been an adventure into the nether regions of the Art Warrior, that driven and passionate secluded land that holds little room for other people and other diversions, that place of tunnel vision where what is paramount is the brush and the tube of paint directly in front of ones' myopic gaze, the illustration in front of ones' face and then the next and the next......one bribes oneself to work a few hours longer with movies, "I'll work for one more movie" then sleep at 3 am or so. Then coffee and a walk for Baci the Corgi and me by the water and then back to the studio......3 months w/o a day off and now they are finished!
Oh and Yes! The duck couple has returned to the wet marshy pond across the road....an early teasing hint of the Springtime to come. I tear up bread before Sig. Bacio and I go out for a walk and we take it out with us and I toss the bread across the still shivery cold dark water and Mr & Mrs Duck come paddling up and happily eat it up. I wonder if it's this same couple that come back year after year or are these the happy offspring? I must find someone who is fluent in Duck and find out. I understand that soon it will be "Make Way For Ducklings" and there will be baby ducks to feed as well. Sig Bacio is well behaved and doesn't bark at all, is simply very curious about these swimmy, feathered creatures.
Tomorrow morning I will tidy up the studio and perhaps buy some daffodils.......then back to work.