Rebecca Dautremer

I first saw Rébecca Dautremer's illustrations in a small shop in Paris when my husband and I were visiting Paris for the very first time. My husband was attending a conference and I tagged along since I had never been there. While he attended his meetings, I took every opportunity to browse book stores and children's books for French illustrators. Boy, did I find some wonderful illustrators! I fell in love with Rébecca's work and have looked for her books here in the US ever since then.

A few weeks ago I found her illustrations in "The Secret Lives of Princesses" written by Philippe Lechermeier. What a feast of color, design and style flows through this picture book! She creates her beautiful illustrations in gouache and has been illustrating books for over 10 years. Rebecca uses unusual views and every spread has such striking contrast with her color palette. Check out this book if you have a chance.. it is completely captivating. Also check out her website which has many more gorgeous illos.

Back on the road again

I have had a long absence from my blog, mostly because I haven't been creating any art. I've been involved with art.. student teaching to get my certification to teach art which was pretty awesome, but not creating my own. I plan to teach high school, middle school, or elementary.. any of those.. I will love it!

Above is a collage I did at a party  of creative women recently led by Johanna Roffino-Hulsey and the party was organized by Johanna and Karen Weiss. It was very freeing and we weren't trying to make anything "perfect"... we were just playing. That evening was the jumpstart I needed to get my creative engine running again. I've begun work on a painting for my new grandson's nursery and also have a couple of other new ideas for paintings to work on. Below are several of the collages done in the class.

I am SOooo excited to be part of Kelly Rae Roberts e-course, Flying Lessons!! Kelly has been an inspiration to me for a LONG time. I've followed her blog and feel like I know her as she shared her successes and ups and downs on her blog. I bought her book as soon as it was published and ordered her calendars and other items. Check out Kelly's blog and her fabulous work here. I can't wait for the e-course to start. It is going to be so WONDERFUL!

The Art of Dr. Seuss

"The Art of Dr. Seuss" is a national touring exhibition in recognition of the wonderful creative Theodor Seuss Geisel. My illustrator friends, Robyn Jorde, Nancy Heard, Wandie Ortiz and I visited this fantastic exhibit today. The exhibit was at a new gallery in Dallas, Storyopolis Fine Art which has recently relocated from Los Angeles, CA. Storyopolis is in association with The 4th Wall Gallery at the same location. The exhibition gives a glimpse into the creative and prolific artistic life of Theodor Seuss Geisel. In addition to Dr. Seuss, we saw some wonderful illustrations from Lane Smith, William Joyce, Alison Jay, and Nicoletta Ceccoli to name just a few. The owner, Matthew Abrammowitz, was extremely accommodating in showing us numerous illustrations and answering all of our questions! We are thrilled to have this fantastic gallery in Dallas. The Dr. Seuss exhibit ends today, but Matthew said they have some wonderful exhibitions planned for the future. Check it out!

Some of the fantastic illustrations.

Meet "Mama Monkey"

I thought I'd show a sneak peek of one of the characters in the picturebook dummy I'm working on. This is a sketch from my dummy which has been in the works for soooooo long. It has been a pure labor of love with lots of revisions to the manuscript AND the illustrations, but it's finally coming together. I finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
And, here's the finished painting. I changed a few things.. but I like how it turned out.

Goody Giveaway at Michelle my Belle

Gallop on over to Michelle my Belle for a super giveaway. Michelle Allen has terrific art pieces (see above) she's giving away on her blog. Check it out to enter the giveaway!

A Workshop in the Fish Bowl

I started a workshop with Marisa at Creative Thursday almost 2 weeks ago and I'm a little late in getting my blog updated about it. The e-course has started off great with terrific podcasts and videos from Marisa and she is an AMAZING and INSPIRING teacher.It's been inspiring and motivating to hear what other artists have to share, also. So many of the artists are much further along on their path which is fun and exciting to see what they are doing and hear what's working for them.

Art Night

Fisher Elementary in Frisco asked me to be part of their first Art Night Jan. 26. My daughter, Holly, teaches first grade there. It was a blast! Carly Allen, the art teacher, and Tricia Fay organized the event. I showed examples from my "Saving Emma" and they were available for purchase. My presentation also included the process of illustration and I showed my book dummy for "The Jungle Rescue". I made prompts with my characters and the kids created their own illustration using my characters. It was SO much fun!Here are some pics from the event.

My daughter, Holly Natale, Mrs. Lawson, principal, and me.

One student's illustration with one of my characters.
A student with her dad helping.
Tricia, Holly, me and Carly