I Miss U all my Blog

We're having a HEAT WAVE in New York - a 4-day heat wave, so my brain is cooked. What to post Monday morning? The first thing I do is look at my "Inspiration Board".
Do you have an inspiration board?

Plus Stef in Chicago keeps me supplied with beautiful teapot shots and they inspire me to paint my new mini blue and white teapot...

Next step I set up a matching still life with my minis. Some people ask, "What's with all the minis?" I can rearrange them anyway I like and play with the lighting in a way I can't, while sitting in Laduree, Angelina or Mariage Freres. Plus no waiter is leaning over me, wondering when I'm going to give up my table.. It's just me and the minis. Some people ask, "How can you paint from such itty biddy minis?" After I've pick the setup I like, I put it on the desktop and it becomes my touchstone to check what is where.
Next I do pencil doodles of the setup...

Then mix up some colors for the first washes...
Before I go to bed I lay in the warm shadow patterns, always checking the big picture... the clock says 11:48 = Bedtime!
The blue bird of happiness...
First thing I do in the morning, is lay in the cool shadow washes on top of the warm, at around 5ish am. I'm fairly unconscious at this point and that helps alot!
Et Voila!
Your assignment for tomorrow is to bring in your finished watercolors, Class. And I don't wanna hear the cat knocked over your alarm clock etc. etc.