I am thrilled to have professional photos of my latest artwork at last. My camera isn't capturing their beauty and the plastic-like surface of the Yupo paper creates a bounce effect that distorts the colors. Don Felton at Almac Photo in San Francisco does fabulous work at reasonable prices. I watched as he removed some surface blemishes in Photoshop- pure magic. I'm getting my publicity ready for my next Open Studio at the beginning of November. This is the image on my publicity postcard ; it appears in a much paler version on the back behind the text.

      These goofy guys remind me of a Steve Martin routine.Based on an ancient Babylonian or Sumerian tablet that I photographed at the Archeological Museum in Istanbul, I intended it to have gravitas but instead have tickled my funny bone.
     The photo at the top shows the latest version of the painting. I'm happier with the new look. The professional photographer's lighting is much better than mine as well. The colors look so vibrant !

  I spent several weeks in May making this storyboard to illustrate my retreat experiences at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur . I went to a gathering celebrating one thousand years since the founding of the Camaldoli Hermitage in Italy- each participant was asked to bring a storyboard illustrating their connection to the place. I enjoyed making collage again and spent a long time laboring over the narrative portion, trying to create a whimsical fable.I enjoyed the hard work of pulling it all together. 

                                                                                 
         This is Nike descending or ascending, depending on your point of view - she's based on an ancient Greek statue . The side panels are postcards or photographs.The top one is the final version- the color difference is from the light situation, not from my work.

   The final version of lion attacking. horse on the to with stronger color and the black ground now surrounding the club-wielding central figure.

  Yesterday's work - adding the jellyfish frieze to the top of the piece. First I sketch in the shapes, then I fill in the dark sea, next I decide it overwhelms the image below so I erase and then paint over the dark areas. Now, as I look at the different stages, I like the inky effect the best. It's so easy to erase marks on the Yupo paper with water and paper towel, scrubbing with a Q tip if necessary. Sometimes it's a disadvantage. Maybe it's best to let the image rest for a while before deciding. I base my decisions on the little image I see on the back of my camera. I'm intrigued to notice the same pattern while working on the last image I made( of Artemis and the Egyptian boatmen). Courage and patience are needed in equal measure, it seems.

Just figured out how to download photos from my iPhone into my computer- too bad I didn't figure it out before my beautiful new iPhone was stolen with all my great photos from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Now I can record and post my current work.

    First stage of my most recent painting - Artemis statue from Ephesus in Turkey with an ancient Egyptian frieze of the Pharoah's boatmen docking on the Nile.
    The finished piece is at right. Luckily, enough traces of the original detailed sketch remain, though I tried to delete them for a paler effect. It's fairly simple to recapture the dense patterns that are so alluring to the eye. The saturated color enhances the beauty of the image as well.