Summer time is sweet.

Summer time is so sweet. In the south we have such amazing nature sounds, from cicadas and other insects that I don't want to ever see...but love to hear, to birds of all kinds chirping and chittering near and far. As I write this I am sitting on my back porch hearing this southern symphony, which today and and just now includes an owl calling (or at least I think it's an owl).
I am only teaching one class this summer and so I am going to try to set myself back into the good habit of blogging. Below find some of my watercolor paintings from the last six months.

The Good Listener.

I painted this watercolor for the Watercolor &Graphic Art  Society's show at the Mobile Arts Council. I used my new co-worker and Friend Kathe' as my model ! She was unknowingly posing for me during a luncheon. Kathe' is a very good and empathic listener, and I put that talent of hers to good use.

Well it sure has been a LONG time since I posted anything! I couldn't remember how to go directly to my blog, and had to google my name and sign in.

Here is a crazy attempt to catch you up: Last year I taught Art Appreciation at Bishop State Community College, and loved it. I took the summer off and played with Finn, visited California and applied for a job with the City teaching art at a community center.  It seemed like a perfect job to me. ...I could help a high school student get their portfolio together as well as help someone who always wanted to learn to paint...learn to paint.  It took three months but...I got the job! My title is ' Art Specialist I' and weirdly and wonderfully the job is everything I imagined, and more, I get to meet lots of interesting people,teach a variety of people art,learn from other Artists,wonderful park setting, and as an extra bonus, my coworkers are wonderful, talented, funny and interesting people. I have painted a little bit  in my new work studio, but haven't photographed anything so that is part of why I am posting this and am determined to get back into a weekly post...it really helps me document my work. The above photo is from a workshop that I taught at the Eastern Shore Art Center, these were not finished, but its the only one I had where everyone's painting is in one shot. The goal of this workshop was to conquer shiny stuff...glass, metal,and it was really fun. Amazing people in this class. Hope you are counting your blessings.

Best,

Just how I imagined it'd be 8x8

We had a lovely place to work, we had a beautiful model to paint, it was just how I imagined it would be... to be an 'Artist'. This morning I painted from a live model for two blissful hours. In this group we are painting from a single pose, which was very peaceful. It's been so long since I have posted on this blog, and I have waited...thinking that I might be able to resume' painting a day, but it looks like between my teaching at a local college, and my commissioned work, that I will have very limited time to paint what I choose. Naptime has become a rare occurance around here, so for now I will just post when I have something new, and perhaps next year when school gets started I can become a ' painting a day-er' again! best,

Show time !!!

The time has finally arrived. I am loading up my paintings and ceramic figures and taking them to the Spring Hill College Gallery tomorrow. As you may have noticed, I haven't been doing Painting a day lately, mostly because I have been dedicating my art making time to this show. I also have started teaching at Art Appreciation at a local junior college, and that has been amazingly gratifying and very time consuming.

I plan to get back on my P.a. D. schedule soon, I really feel that doing a painting a day (or almost) has led me down unexpected paths in my painting journey and intensified my learning curve.

The above painting is my most recently finished. I am enjoying playing with the modeling juxtaposed with the flatness of the ground, the process is sort of exposed, and I always like to see a bit of the process in art.

Here is a link to the announcement for my Capstone/or graduate show; Beauty/disillusion I hope if you live nearby you will come and raise a glass with me!

Best,

Lydia

Old again.Lydia Host

I visited a friend yesterday who has such a warm welcoming house with art everywhere....everywhere a still life in the making. I was admiring this clay piece that I made years ago. I liked that it was the front and back view of the same pose, I wonder what I was thinking in terms of the slab shape, but somehow on the dark board which I cropped off for this photo...it works! Hope you have a restful and wonderful weekend ahead of you! Lydia

echo. Lydia Host daily

Saturday was figure drawing, and we had a new (for me) model who was very fun to draw because she has a ballet dancer type of body. I painted with acrylic and watercolor on a small square canvas...and thought I'd use it as an underpainting for oil, but instead I decided to work on a clay version. Its hard to give delicate limbs in waterbased clay, because they really have to support the other, heavier parts of the figure, and if they are too slim..they will dry much quicker than the rest of the piece and crack off ! So I always have rather heavy ankles and wrists on my figures...which has become a stylistic element that I actually like. A couple of artist pals and I are planning to get together and have a sculpture figure group, with a model. This is something that I have wanted to do for a really long time, so I am excited.

tea timez 3. Lydia Host

The third time is sometimes the charm...but she chose number two! I thought this one was a bit calmer than the first, but not as calm as the second. The mugs are some of Jon's. I liked the addition of a cookie, and its empty paper. The ritual of having a cup of tea is so pleasing, in an aesthetic way that it makes a lovely thing to paint. Today on face book, a girl that I don't really know very well posted about how she was feeling so happy sitting in her house at that moment; the light, the temperature, her music and food...and I knew just how she felt. Its like it all hits you at once, a snapshot of a happy time in 3-D real time! I remember my first Fall season in this house that way...carving pumpkins, Beck playing, the light was so glowing throughout my house I just about swooned! I love moments like that, and I hope you get to feel like that yourself ...at least every once in a while. Lydia

ceramic cup party. Lydia Host

I have been working with clay since 10th grade...I love it. My husband Jon and I pulled out the wheel a couple of weekends ago, and made some mugs. Jon has worked with clay a short time and is SO much more adept at making things on the wheel than I am that its almost astounding! I think some personalities are just better at the wheel than others....for instance if you are impatient and not a perfectionist...the wheel is not for you. The above mugs are all Jon's except for the two in the foreground, which are mine...check out that terrible handle....I mean the cup is actually nice so why didn't I just wait and get a better handle shape? Impatience. It still holds a mean cup of coffee. :) Anyway, it was fun to play with the wheel again a little bit, and I hope that Jon will keep throwing things because he is really good...and if you need a mug let me know! Lydia

exquisite corpse.Lydia host

Last night I attended a really fun meeting organized by artist and friend, Ardith Goodwin who is teaching a class on collage, and wanted to experiment with the idea of the 'Exquisite corpse' parlor game from the early twentieth century. The idea is basically that one person starts a story, or piece of art, and then it is passed around to another person, who continues the process knowing very little of what the person before them wrote or put down. It was so fun, and has variable methods of execution that make the outcome a complete surprise. Last night the above pieces were started by one artist, and then passed around to three others before being finished by the original. Don't you want to play?

best,

Lydia

take two

Another tea painting. Went for a more subdued, contemporary look? Now that I am seeing it on the monitor I feel that I will go back in and adjust the right saucer as it seems out of perspective to me now...hmm. Painting white objects is really fun, I know I have talked about that before, but its true, the simplest is not boring to paint. Lydia

Relief tiles

I learned so much at Val webb's tile carving workshop on Saturday, plus I met some really nice people. One gal named Billie M. and I were eyeing each other and finally figured out that we had a clay class together about fourteen years ago! Anyway these are my tiles which are the same clay but at different points of dryness (the darker is further along). I took my drawings from figure drawing on Thursday and shrank them down on a copy machine and then added a cool curvy art border. I haven't ever done extractive sculpting, only additive,which is more in line with painting actually if you think about it. This clay will dry very slowly and then be fired twice, once for bisque and then with a glaze. stay cool. Best, Lydia

thursday figure. Lydia Host

There is a figure drawing group on every other Thursday morning at Space 301 that just started...and yesterday was the first day. We are a small group, and so we decided that we were in the mood to draw a few longer poses, rather than more for a shorter time...ended up with four 25 min poses.(one of mine is on back side). It was such a nice morning. My friend, and fabulous artist, Conroy Hudlow, loaned me some paper today, and I loved it...it was either printmaking paper,or cover paper (?). Anyway it took watercolor in a different way than paper that I usually use, and it made my morning just that much more of a fun exploration! I need more of this paper. Hope you have a great weekend, I am taking a stoneware tile carving class from the very talented, Val Webb all day Saturday, and am excited about it.

If you live in the Mobile area, tonight is the fifth anniversary of Art Walk...is it possible? Yes! I think its going to be a fun night with lots of good openings; Paper Wasp = Wanda Sullivan, Joann Cox, and Mark Davis. MAC= Painted dresses & belly dancing. Wellborn Ideas= Micheal Mastro (sp) photography. Space 301 = SALSA a regional juried show, with lots of artists ...yours truly included. I think they are having five kinds of different music in the square ...fun night to get out in our downtown that has come so far! Have you noticed that there are always flowers around the light posts these days? Looking spry!

Enjoy the weekend... whatever your plans.

Best Lydia

friendship. lydia host daily painting

I have a commission for a birthday surprise painting. These girls spent hours and hours drinking tea, philosophising, and commiserating with each other (pre-kids). Still close friends they live far apart and now time together is spent on the phone...kids in the background, but still with a mug of tea. I hope you have a friend like that too, I do and its a great feeling to have a long history with a person who you liked so much long ago... and still do!

This is my first shot at this set-up and I will do a couple of them so she can choose which one suits her the best.

cheers,'

Lydia

1. .sold 2..3.4. sold 5.6.7 sold 8..9.10.sold 11.12.13.sold I have been cleaning up my studio and found these tiles and would be happy to send them out to new homes. If you are interested, they are aprox. 3 or 4 x 3 or 4 inches they have a felt back and a ribbon to hang them from. They are figure sketches from life drawing on fired ceramic tiles. They are hand hewn, and imperfect, but appealing none the less! Clearing them out! $15.00 each including shipping if needed. Also trying out the paypal button...its fun!

Sparkles. 10x10

I have to admit to a very shallow desire of wishing that I had a daughter strictly in terms of being able to dress her! I realize that I would probably not get to do so for very long, but don't burst my bubble. While I have been attending soccer or basketball games, and band concerts, some of you have been watching twirls and leaps with sparkles. Wouldn't trade my boys for the world, but in terms of cute outfits girls win hands down! I have to live vicariously through my friends, and by painting as many cute little girls as possible. Best, Lydia

Garden Bounty. 8x10

I planted yellow squash and eggplant this year, the plants are healthy and vibrant with blooms, but no fruit. I read online that its probable that they just aren't pollinating on their own, and that if I used an artist brush that I could transfer the pollen between the male and female blooms, female are the ones that have a tiny fruit at the base of the blossom. I'll let you know if it works out! These were from Jimmy Lowes our local vegetable stand type store. Best, Lydia

figure drawing

Figure drawing Saturday. I took some charcoal along and used newsprint which was refreshing compared to my previous attempts with oil paint. I love to draw people and working with the figure ever challenging. My goal is always to say what I can with as little as possible in terms of line and shadow.

Lydia

fishy. Lydia Host Daily painting 6x6

I painted this fish when I painted the larger one...he is just as dour. Last night I taught my last 'art with a twist' class, and it was so much fun. There was a Lady who turned fifty this year and wasn't all that happy about it. She decided she would do fifty things that she'd always wanted to try this year to cheer her up...my class was one of them! Stay cool, Lydia

chit chat.

I think its fun to paint an almost monochromatic painting every once in a while. Just trying to capture the colors that are reflected from white china and linens. There is a coffee shop in Venice beach called' Coffee and Sympathy', and I have always admired that name. I always think of it when I paint coffee cups, I mean....what more do we want from friends? Best, Lydia

fruity nude

I painted this over an old fruit painting. I find that the more layers of paint that a painting has...the better! Maybe that is why a toned canvas is a good idea, and underpainting always makes things fly. I had fun painting boats on Tuesday, but haven't finished either of the two that I started. Best, Lydia

From the garden. Lydia Host daily painting a day 8x10

I just loved how these tomatoes were still half green...what? you can't see that? Oh, its because I didn't capture it! I like the way they look anyway.

I am making an effort to get into a good routine for the summer months, back to some daily 'nap time painting'. I am taking one last class to finish my degree, and so I am not sure how that will effect my dailies, but I will try to keep you abreast of my progress.

Hope its not too hot where you are.

Best,

Lydia

shrimper. Lydia host daily paintings.

I have been wanting to go paint some shrimp boats for months, and now with this horrible oil spill in the Gulf it seems bittersweet to paint them. I love the old style, they are so curvy and swank even though they are sort of humble at the same time. Hope you have a good weekend. Lydia

fishtooth. Lydia host

Mary Elizabeth and I painted this fish together today....and we both kept sighing with pleasure, the joy of painting fish continues! This is a Sheepshead (?) and it has little teeth that look like baby teeth...icky, but a great fish to paint. I am teaching a class tonight and I am bringing the fish as our still life...can't wait to see the reaction, but I know the paintings will be great! Hope you are having good spring weather where you are, it makes things seem so much more positive. Best, Lydia

Class work...

Two views of the same piece. This is probably my favorite from this last Semester, because it combines my desire to work figuratively, in a two and three dimensional way at the same time. I hope to make some more along these lines in my class this summer. I read about an artist that makes really big pieces by covering the leading edge with saran wrap and then adding more the next day...so the uncovered part dries enough to support more weight without sagging. Oh how I love clay! If you have the urge, please try it....I don't think any other medium is as satisfying and dare I say..grounding to work with.:)

Lydia