Carrasco Studio

Spring Inches Across the Land

 My tulips are up and meditating about blooming, and a male robin is patroling our spaded beds.  He looks martial and very smartly turned out.  New feathers and a bit of a black crest on his head.  Aha! A worm! He dives in triumph. (the robin) The early bird...etc., etc.

Which brings to mind.  My watercolor class at CandP starts up again on the 22nd of  March.  I wanted to let you know before it fills up.  Register soon.  The early bird...etc.etc.

Here's the facts.

Brown wrens, martial robins, timorous rabbits, fresh and radiant art loving creatures! Let's express our inchoate yearnings and renewals with splashes of paint and blooming fields of flowers.

Besides having fun, you learn skills and a way to start on your individual path in art. As a teacher, the coffee shop has been my favorite venue. Cameron and Pete, the owners of CandP Coffee have been the souls of generosity to allow us to paint in their space.  We all have bloomed.  You too, come to the meadow.

See ya. Chirp! Ribbit! Cheep!

 

 

Grey Whales in the Llano

 Llano River and Boulders                        ©Jennifer M.Carrasco  11/21/10

 

I am working with a series of watercolors about the Llano river in Texas.  I find, that in painting, it is always a fine balance between honoring  both the surface and depth of water.

The river is very clear and runs  over granite boulders smoothed by water and time.  The boulders, where they emerge from the water, make me think of grey-backed whales....and pockets of grass in some of the stone declivities add to the illusion.  Blowhole spouts of grass. Each boulder has a middle ring of dried salts with  the water marking a hem of dark pink granite in the lowest ring.

The water doesn't  rush into rapids, but slides sleek and transparent from gentle level to level, eddies in dark green channels and occasionally stills in a hollowed out bathtub of stone.

And all day the Texas wind blows, and the minnows dart in the shallows.  Tiny frogs leap from still puddle to puddle, and hide in the algae from the herons that stalk them.

I could play all day in this sparkle of clear water, smooth  granite and faded blue Texas sky.

 

 

Magic Forest Finished! The Rising of the Moon, Fairies, Frogs, Et Al in My Studio

Done! Well, maybe, except for some touchups on the rabbits and the sharpening of the moth wings, etc.  

Here are some snapshots of the 8'x13' mural I have been working on for the past months.  Installation will be sometime in late September.  It has taken much more time than usual since I had to come around from my hip surgery.  I thought that would be easier, since I went back to work at full bore after all my other operations, but this took longer.  Can't be because I am older!  Anyhow, now I am up to speed and ready for the next project.

My client was given a home by her childhood friend. It is situated on one of Washington's most pristine rivers, and my client wanted this mural installed in the dining room as a remembrance of her friend.  She had cared for her friend in her last illness, and  they would sing "I'll be Looking at the Moon and I'll be Seeing You"when things became too sad. Ever since they were little girls in kindergarten, they had an imaginary Magic Forest they would play in,  and it was full of creatures and enchanted elves and fairies. The memory of this helped them both in her friend's final illness.

In my mural, the lead female fairy (Tatiana ?) is carrying a banner with the client's childhood nickname initials and a poem in Elvish, and she is leading a parade of fairies out through the dark groves of the enchanted wood to meet the guy fairy (Oberon?), so they can line up on the fallen log to watch and celebrate the rising of the moon.

 

 

The missing friend is represented by the triumphant Royal Bird, who returns from  Neverland with the banner of her initials and her message in Elvish.  Everything is very soft to give the feeling of long ago and far away......

.....and Puck exhorting the bullfrog to come out to croak at the moon...and the duckling peeking out from it's mother's breast....

 

I'll have professional photos taken at installation. Here are some photos to show how I got from there to here.

A drawing on tissue.....some changes and then a rendering.....

Then scaling up and blocking in.......

.....and finally, again......