lenny & carl

finally did the kitty commission for theo and natalie :)

cape cod: painting in the marsh

studies from cape cod

plein air painting is hard. plein air painting at the beach with wind, sand and blazing sun, really hard. to demonstrate. here's a little painting i did of the incoming tide. this picture was taken shortly after i finished it, and right after a big gust of wind blew my jar of turps over, spilling directly over it:

it immediately began to crack and attract sand, and i thought it was ruined. but miraculously when the turpentine dried it was ok, and i was able to dust off some of the sand:

even my tiny bathers were ok (i was very proud of my tiny bathers):

here's the second painting i did that day:



that photo was taken just before another big gust came and threw the painting directly into the sand. here it is now, sand and all (everyone kept telling me to leave it for effect):



despite the sand and the wind, painting on the beach was actually heaven. (how could it not be?) i'll post more pictures of us later, but here's one of me at the beach right by our cottage, on a really foggy day, where gaby and i found a good spot to paint, nestled by the rocks to block the wind...



...we were blatently disregarding the safety precautions being on these rocks. apparently cape cod girls tend to dramatically jump off them alot.. or, be whisked away by their sail-like skirts. or something..

self portrait study

study of mariette

weekly art group back in swing

we're trying tuesdays - here's a drawing of mark, who is a great draw-er and works in the space down the hall from us.

memory lane

this weekend jimmy and i took the bocho out for a drive up the hudson river and around westchester, where we enjoyed some lush scenery and fantastic antiquing. my pictures of the scenery were lame, but these shots of the little bug we took with the polaroid (we had a whole 70's revival this weekend) were pretty good:









when we scanned these in, we also scanned some other lovely photographs we have lying around... here we are in london:



and here's a pic that currently lives on our fridge, which jimmy named "shaundrey" - me and audrey on our foliage peeping trip this last autumn:



and finally, b/c she was here to visit this weekend and it was so great to see her and and take her and dave for a drive,.. and b/c we are just so damn cute, here's some pics of my friend kate and me, (actually taken last time she visited, in the winter):

TriBeCa Ball

Thursday was the Academy's annual fundraiser gala, the TriBeCa Ball, which involves a lot of fancy celebs and socialites dancing and buying art. This year I was invited along with a couple students to draw from live models as part of the "entertainment." Here's the drawing I did:



..at first it was a little nerve-racking, drawing in front of all the party people with photographers snapping pics left and right, not to mention doing so in a fancy dress and heels (note: making art while in heels: does NOT work for Shauna) - it didn't take long for me to go barefoot, until one of the models was nice enough to lend me her flip flops. but once i got into it, i was so happy to be drawing from a model again and was able to block out the crowds. here are some shots of me in action:

concerts

last week i went to a couple really great shows, and i thought i'd share some pics:



this is Final Fantasy, aka Owen Pallett, who is just a dude with a violin plugged into a looping pedal (à la Andrew Bird), and a friend with an overhead projector and some cut-outs. they opened for Beirut, who is wonderful and a new favorite of mine:



...and the next night was Arcade Fire, which was one of the best shows i've seen in a long time. i love them. here's a pic of the final encore, when the audience rushed the stage at the lead singer's behest:

exhibition!

i got the news today that a painting of mine was selected for inclusion in the Summer Exhibition at the New York Academy of Art. this is the painting that was chosen:



and this painting of my good friend morgan was in the final round, but ultimately didn't make it in:



the show was juried by vincent desiderio, eric fischl and jenny saville - three great artists who i really admire, so i'm thrilled! out of over 850 submissions, only 96 were chosen due to space limitations. the exhibition will open June 6th and will be up until july 18th. i'll be sending out an invitation soon!

news

i have been neglecting the blog, b/c i haven't painted in a little bit, but i should be keeping you my faithful readers posted with other fun news, for example, the animal-painting workshop i taught with jimmy, or hangin out with angelina jolie and wyclef jean the other night. unfortunately, i failed to get any good pictures from either. i do however, have some great pics of the newest addition to our family:

for those of you who don't know, this is alfred, the little baby squirrel who we nursed back to health with water and bird seeds after finding him stranded on our windowsill curled up and looking very ill. he now basically lives in our little herb garden, leaving only here and there to go exploring. he's pretty cool, and he keeps papi entertained.

also, i've bragged to a few of you on behalf of our old roommate yoni (aka baby buster) about the new video for the Beirut song "Elephant Gun" that his sister directed. i'm so impressed, it's so wonderful. if you haven't seen it, you should check it out:

http://www.shotsringout.com/

more soon!

jane

happy easter from papi

rachel

still jim

jimmy sat for us this week and he read his homework and sat so still like a good little model. you can tell by this painting how much he loves school...