Mt. Tamalpais Ridge Top at Dusk

What a beautiful spot we live in!

Lucy With Lantana Flowers

Throw back Monday with flowers!  New photo composite of fallen lantana flowers in my backyard with a high school photo taken of me by my father, the late, great, E.A. Autrey, around 1966.

Relative Sightings

Top to Bottom, Elsa, Gregory, Jean L. Autrey (age 96), Rachel

Lucy's Photos Now Available on Shutterstock

One of seven photos now available on Shutterstock.com.  My portfolio address there is http://shutterstock.com/g/Lucy+Autrey+Wilson

Photo was taken at the gardens of the Jardines de San Juan restaurant in beautiful San Juan Bautista, California.

Nicasio, CA Panoramics October, 2015

Top two:  Town of Nicasio, church and view of town in front of the church
Bottom two:  Skywalker Ranch Main House short and long views

Lucy in 1977 Meets Abbott's Lagoon in 2015

Trying to improve my photograph person-extracting capabilities in Photoshop CS5, meant  I spent way more time playing on the computer, when I intended to do something altogether different today.  Fun, though.

India Polka Dot Batik Quilt

Latest quilt, my largest yet!  Queen size, with DreamWool brand merino wool batting, and hand tied with red cotton embroidery thread (also from India). I fell in love with the polka dot material on a fiber arts tour of India in January, 2015.  Visiting batik artist Shakil Ahmed Q. Khatri, near the area of Mundra-Kutch, in the state of Gujarat, was a surprise treat. He had so many beautiful batiks, I wanted to buy them all.  One pink/red batik fabric, quilted with pink silk/satin, has already gotten away, sold to jeweler/friend Gemma Rose at cost, without my photographing it first.  This polka dot design was unusual. It was hanging outside the artist's house, drying, when I spotted it.  It took awhile to find another batik (the turtle fabric backing) to match sufficiently.  The polka dot fabric was so beautiful on its own, I didn't want to cut it up to much, so merely cut what I had in half, sewed that together and (after months of work) voila.

More info on the artist can be found here:  http://www.kala-raksha-vidhyalaya.org/2009/men/eportfolios_shakil_ahmed_kasambhai_khatri.php

Suburban Blood Moon

Painting Gift Bags for Owsley Benefit

A sampling of some of the gift bags I painted yesterday with friend Marcia Meyers.  Photographed with my mobile phone so pictures are not that sharp.  Marcia is coordinating a big bag painting project for the Owsley Stanley Foundation benefit this coming November 7th at the Great American Music Hall in SF.  More info here:  http://www.owsleystanleyfoundation.org/

Playing Around with Textures

Twins Cole and Wilson Taylor, shot with my Canon Powershot G14 in Seattle, in July of this year, below. The end result, above, was modified using various photo texture layers in both Photoshop CS5 and alien skin exposure 7 software.  An enjoyable way to spend hours I was supposed to be spending doing something else!

Addicted to Panoramic Photos

My backyard, with a sculpture of E.A. Autrey's head, which is in the perfect spot to watch the full moon eclipse this coming Sunday night.  First test use of my new Acratech nodal rail.  So much fun!

The Five Autrey Daughters in Santa Barbara - Best in Blue or Yellow?

Cleaning Up Old 1974 scanned B&W 4x5 Negatives shot by E.A. Autrey in the park across from our house on Merida drive.  These oversized negatives are pretty degraded so there wasn't much that could be done with them.
Top photo adjustments:  Photoshop CS5 levels, Alien Skin AGRA APX 25 and Copper Blue Finish filters with some masking.  After and before adjustments.
Bottom photo:  Photoshop CS5 levels, Alien Skin B&W split toning and FSA Red Bleach with some masking

Looking at Pictures of Snow on a Hot Night

It's so hot, I find looking at snow has a cooling effect.  Here's a scan of an old slide from a photo taken on a trip to Yosemite in 1978.  I doubt there is that much snow there anymore.

Fort Point Roadrunner

Playing around with a photo taken during my recent Aperture Academy workshop at Fort Point in Marin County, adding one of my fabric roadrunner birds and a Samsung Instagram shadow photo.

How Fast Time Passes When You're Having Fun!

Taking advantage of technology to merge old photos by E.A. Autrey, by me, and by Amber (as posted to her Instagram account and easily downloaded,) with a recent quilted place mat, to show the passage of time (from 1952 to 2015)

The Ghost of E.A. Autrey

In my kitchen window hangs a stained glass portrait of a rooster, made by my father, the late, great, E.A. Autrey.  In the evening, the sun hits it in such a way that it casts a beautiful colored shadow over my cast iron painted frog.  Perhaps it is E.A.'s colorful spirit come to say good evening.

Having Fun With Photos

Three nymphs and a kingfisher in Pt. Reyes.

Being Too Old is No Fun

The plan was to draw a fun abstract on colored paper, based on a poem by my mother, but this picture emerged instead.   At a certain point in time, being too old is just no fun.

Painting in the Sun

What happens when you paint on a hot, sunny day in an outdoors studio:
"Sun Flower Cross Section" 9x12 paper on 1 1/2" cradled board.  R&F oil sticks and oil paints.

Big Mouth

Two new oil, cold wax and graphite paintings each on 12x16 inch encausticbord (on 1" cradled wood panels) painted as a diptych (bottom) but presentable as two separate paintings - Big MouthA (top) and BigMouthB (middle).  Painted on a hot, sunny day in California in my outdoor studio as I channeled my love of the sun!

Although not yet completely dry, they are now up on my Saatchi Art gallery:  http://www.saatchiart.com/Lucy

My Idea of Heaven

Doing artwork with twin grandsons!
Top to Bottom
1.  Cole Taylor's self portrait
2.  Wilson Taylor's graffiti on my ink and watercolor painting of the kitchen nook window and wall
3.  Wilson's portrait of me.  He wanted to make sure he got all my neck wrinkles in!
4.  Cole's original shark painting - soon to be made into a new T Shirt for him.
5.  My attempt to capture Wilson, wearing the roadrunner applique T shirt I made.  Close but no cigar.
6.  The real Wilson, wearing a different T shirt.

Busy Hands are ...

... the opposite of idle hands, which are the Devil's workshop, according to some.  Took some time out from sewing last week to play with cold wax and oil paints:

Top to bottom:

1.  Space Flower:  mixed media on paper covered cradled board 16x12

2.  Space Flowers:  mixed media on cradled gessobord 8 1/2 x 12 3/4

3.  Woman Looking to the West:  cold wax, graphite and oil paint on arches oil paper on cradled board 6x6

Spoonbill Applique

Rough, not yet quilted, block for a new Spoonbill Windows of India quilt I'm working on.  I love working with raw applique (ie the fabric edges are not turned under first.)  The lazy person's way to sew!

Art on a Hot and Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Top:   Collage based on a poem titled "Garbage" that came to me as I was taking out the trash today.
Middle:  Collage by my youngest sister, after a nice lunch at my house, also based on my poem.  The two other family members in attendance are depicted in photos in Elsa's artwork.
Bottom:  Pencil sketch of a bouquet of flowers by my 96 year old mother, after she tired of playing the piano.