Portraits of my Father in Indiana

The Future Includes the Past

Digital photo art collage created for the new Illustration Friday, combining photos from the early 1970s with a more recent pen & ink and watercolor still life

My Military Experience

On the streets of Madrid, May, 1970, during the military parade for the anniversary of the victory of Franco.  One of the only benefits of living under a dictatorship was that, with so many Guardia Civil around, it was pretty safe to walk the streets without a guardian.

Pig Ballet Version #3

Poster print version #3 of the Pig Ballet.

Pig Ballet

Two new versions of a large format digital poster print titled "Pig Ballet."  The new digital paintings are intended to be companions to the pig depicted in my earlier "Exploded Balloon" digital painting.

Remembering Camp Lorr in Santa Barbara in the 1960s

I was lucky to be a LIT (leader in training) at Camp Lorr in Montecito for a few years in the 1960s, while I was in Junior High and High School in Santa Barbara.  Somehow my older sister Laura Autrey had gotten involved and opened a path there for me.  Unfortunately, the last year I was at Camp Lorr, I scared my tribe of kids by pretending a witch lived in the woods.  They all ran screaming through the trees and I was not  invited back the following year.  The camp was fabulous.  It was in a beautiful part of Montecito.  There were loads of great activities and on Fridays real American Indians joined the camp for a pow wow with chanting, songs, dancing and a campfire lit by magic.

On the back of the middle photo (I think this is in 1965)  I jotted down the names of some of the staff and campers:
Back row:  Linda, Lydia Weintraub and me (Lucy Autrey)
Middle row:  Daniel Green, Ann Smotheron and Lori x and Eva Hestal
Front row:  Kelly Jackson (Jones), Julie x, Debby x, Lynn x and Debby Monson.
Also in the tribe but not pictured was Celeste Weidman

In the bottom photo, taken in 1964,  I only remember my fellow LIT and friends Nancy Manzetti (far right back row) and Lynn Howard (left of Nancy).  I'm on the left in back, with an unfortunate flip hairstyle.

Twin Photos - Film vs Digital

No matter what they are shot with (SLR camera with B/W film or digital camera with color converted to B/W in Photoshop), twins Cole and Wilson Taylor always look great!  Photo above shot by Susan in San Anselmo, March 2013 with her old film camera.  Photo below shot by me in color in Seattle, February 2013 with my Nikon digital camera.

Autrey Family Goes to the Beach, 1960

B&W photo by E.A. Autrey, taken in December, 1960.  Photo colorized by Lucy Autrey Wilson in February, 2013.

Seattle Art

Art created in Seattle on my latest visit to see twin grandsons Cole and Wilson Taylor.

From top to bottom:

Face, mixed media painting by Wilson Taylor, age 3 1/2
Color Gradation, finger painting by Cole Taylor, age 3 1/2
Farmer's Market, pencil sketch by Lucy Autrey Wilson (age withheld)
Cow, finger painting  and ink by Lucy Autrey Wilson

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day

It's raining.  The boat is dry but my garage is leaking!

Maui Vacation Paintings

Top:  "Maui Cardinals in a Lemon Tree" 7x10 watercolor, ink, pastel & marker.  I've seen two of these cardinals in Hawaii but not yet the brown-headed variety

Middle:  "Maui Ginger" 7x10 watercolor & ink.  These alpinia speciosa (non edible ginger plants) were tucked away behind the banana trees in Eva and Brian Daniells yard

Bottom:  "Impressions of Maui" 7x10 watercolor & pencil.  This abstract is based primarily on the incredible hike part way down the crater in Haleakala National Park

Icons in Perspective

Recent 11" x 14" pen and ink perspective study.  The picture shows both spatial perspective and time perspective with pop culture icons (Mickey Mouse, Alfred E. Newman and C-3PO) depicted in 20 year increments (1930s, 1950s, 1970s)

Cymbidium in the Sun

Cymbidium in the sun, the day after Thanksgiving.  It's wonderful to live in California!

Catch Me If You Can!

Multiple Personalities

Florida Trees

Pen and ink on hand tinted paper 11" x 14"

The Model and the Bird

If parrots could talk, what is this one saying?  New oil on canvas 16" x 20"

The Circus - Perspective Study

What to do with Green Tomatoes?

Problem:  some of my Southern Exposure heirloom tomatoes never ripened, and one of my food contribution assignments for Thanksgiving is a cranberry dish.  What to do?  Solution:  make my own cranberry, green tomato chutney.  Delicious, especially when eaten with homemade Canellini heirloom beans from Ranch Gordo, topped with a dollop of freshly made pesto, stewed chicken from Prather Ranch, fresh bread from Brickmaiden and fresh collard greens and celery root from Draper Farm.  Why ever eat out?

Oak Tree

Which is better:  A) Oak Tree photoshop composite with long ago pen & ink & marker drawing of San Francisco as seen from Mt. Tamalpais (top) vs B) Oak Tree original drawing done at Pt. Reyes National Seashore (bottom)?  Can't decide!

Do You Know Who You're Voting For?

A poem on the benefits of voting with your eyes wide open

You can't see the truth
When your eyes are closed to reason
Or when the fog has blurred your view
When you open your eyes
And can see clearly
Then you'll know
You can see the truth
When you look for it 

Sunflowers Galore

Continuing on my theme of sunflowers, as first seen in my blog October 15th and again in my blog October 19th, the painting on top of this trio of paintings is a new oil on canvas 18" x 24" titled "Mixed Flowers in Vase." Sunflowers are also a theme of Autrey family painters with the watercolor in the middle a large, gorgeous painting by my mother J.L. Autrey and the trippy sunflower in vase below, an oil by my father E.A. Autrey.   One could say that families that paint sunflowers together, stay together!

Shoes and Skulls

New drawings October and November, 2012.

Music and Art

Listening to the piano and violin in Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa was the inspiration for the sunflower close-up, an assignment in art class to create a drawing based on another medium.  The quicker drawings of live models, done in class, were aided by a great selection of CDs playing in the background.  Art can be inspired by music and music can be inspired by art, in a beautiful synchronicity.

Flowers and Figures

Top: "Sunflowers" is a new oil on Belgian Linen 22x28
Bottom:  Under drawing for a new oil on canvas 36x36 to be titled "The Big Wave"

The sunflowers painting was inspired by my garden and the quintessential painting by Van Gogh.  The patterned background was influenced by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.  Both Van Gogh and Kusama's artwork can be seen among "art I love" that I've pinned on Pinterest.com here:  http://pinterest.com/lucyawilson/art-i-love/

After pinning a lot of art on pinterest.com and now on art.sy I realized I really like figurative painting hence the choice for my next big painting "The Big Wave."  I was also influenced by a great photo of high surf in Hawaii for the choice of subject.

The Impolite Girl

Ink Spill Girl

Digital Self Portrait.  Myself as a senior in high school with the two teenagers, who would greatly impact my life in the future, on my sweater.

The Taylor Twins in Silverpoint

Cole and Wilson Taylor, age 3, in Silverpoint on Gesso Sottile (rabbit skin glue & marble dust) on 9x12 cradled board.