Steve Schauer

This is a bittersweet shoutout to a member of the Topanga Community, Steve Schauer. He is survived by his wife Patricia. I have known Patricia Correia for a long time as well as her brother, artist Steve Correia. I rarely see them and this reminds me of how quickly time passes. Much LOVE and hugs to Patricia and I hope that you, Steve Schauer are creating art and laughter in the sweet hereafter...

Illustration Friday: Skyline

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Skyline" is a custom painting that is titled "Seattle Skyline". I did this 2' x 4' dimensional resined painting for Steve and Nancy Ross who live on Bainbridge Island. They came to one of my Seattle shows and commissioned this painting to feature their boat. It is the boat in the center. They asked me to do the view of Seattle from Lake Washington. They also asked if I could construct and add some houseboats including the one that was featured in Sleepless in Seattle (far right). I apologize for this not being closeup so you can see all the amazing details but I sold this long ago, it's on 4"x5" film, my buddy scanned the film and this is what I got. It is not easy to photograph these resined paintings because of all the shine.Most of the skyline buildings and houseboats are individually crafted buildings made from wood and foam and I layered them. All of the sky, water , boats, some background buildings and the Space Needle are painted on masonite and the wood frame. This painting was another highlight in my career as it was large, very detailed and extremely challenging. Please click on image to see a larger view
Seattle Skyline copyright 1993

Illustration Friday: Sticky

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Sticky" is from my 2004 HomeMade calendar. The title of this painting is "Home on the Range". This was for the month of August and the quote was "Good sound cooking makes a contented home".

Don't let it stick to the pan and make sure you add the sticky stuff!
copyright 2003
valerie walsh

Laurel Canyon

Top: Cover of Laurel Canyon Middle: The silkscreen poster of the Kaleidoscope Club that John co-owned with Skip Taylor and Gary Essert on the Sunset Strip in 1966 Bottom: Cover shoot for Desparado (Please click on images to view them larger)


Today I'm writing about a book that just came out called "Laurel Canyon" by Michael Walker. This book is "The inside story of Rock and Roll's Lengendary Neighborhood". This is from my signed copy and one of the reasons I am into this book is my husband John Hartmann is included on over 21 pages. He has devoted much of his life to managing the careers of many artists and characters that we have all come to know and love in the music business. John is in many books and I will list a few at the bottom. If you enjoy reading about this time period, about some of the best and most interesting and talented songmakers and singers then you will enjoy this read. Here is a picture inside this book of John with JD Souther and Jackson Browne on a shoot for the cover of Eagle's "Desperado" in 1972. This post isn't directly about artwork but in a way it is because that was a very creative time, a lot of great art came out of those experiences and people create art to the music of many of these songs to this day. It takes passion and love of art and music to help direct an artist's career and John has all that and is a true friend and champion who goes to battle for the artist, musician, student and even the wife sometimes...

John lived in Laurel Canyon four different times in the sixties and seventies. His adventures there are well chronicled in this deftly researched and well told tale of rock and roll's most exciting era. John has a prodigious memory and is a great story teller. Reading Laurel Canyon enabled him to relive some of his most exciting adventures, as well as gaining insight into many events that were going on around him, of which he was not aware at the time. He and his clients were engaged in the fight to stop the Viet Nam war and every song and tour had an air of significance in those days. John was the last person to live in "Our House" before Joni Mitchell sold the rustic cottage that inspired the famous Graham Nash song. It was John who came home one night to greet burglars dashing from the house. Michael Walker mentions the incident in his tome but did not know it was John who greeted the unwanted guests that night. The thief John danced with in the doorway left in his favorite leather vest from North Beach Leather a famous clothier of the rock & roll artists and mavens who lived and loved in Laurel Canyon.

Some of the books John is featured in are:

Eagles To the Limit the untold story of the Eagles by Marc Eliot

Living the Blues Canned Heat's Story of Music, Drugs, Death, Sex and Survival by Fito de la Parra

The Operator David Geffen Builds, Buys and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King

The Mail Room by David Rensin

Elvis Presley A Biography by Jerry Hopkins

An American Band by Dan Peak

The Mansion on the Hill by Fred Goodman

"Duck" The Dick Cheny Survival Bible by Gene Stone

Illustration Friday: Rain

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Rain" is from my 2001 HomeMade calendar and the title is "Dog House". This is my dog Rat and this was for the month of April. You know, April showers bring May flowers. The quote is: Mid Pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble there's no place like home. ~ Howard Payne

Illustration Friday: Dance

This is my submission for Illustration Friday's "Dance". This painting is a blast from my past and is titled "Flamingo Tango". I did many of these flamingo characters and paintings and they were all purchased by some of my more "out there" patrons. This was painted in 1989. The boy is my friend Paul (he looks just like this guy) and his girl Barb, dancing the tango with the fishes.

Illustration Friday: Jungle

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Jungle" is a painting called "Pick Me". I think this is from 1987 but I will have to look that up later. This is acrylic on masonite and I bought this groovy bamboo frame to enhance the island/jungle feel.

Duck Soup

This is a small tribute to the art of Michael Bedard. I found this little doodle on a piece of scrap paper in my flat files a couple weeks ago and just wanted to show the amazing talent this artist has. He would doodle and draw constantly while on the phone and he loves to talk on the phone! This doodle is a very preliminary idea and sketch for a major painting as well as a limited edition print he did in the very early 80's. We lived together for about 8 years which is why I have this sketch it was on a pad that held a few drawings I made too. I wish I drew all the time like he does because it is so good to do and only enhances the painting. One of the things I love about his work, he always incorporates tidbits of his real life and people he knows into his art. I find that very appealing, it's like a secret that you can share with others and it tickles your heart. In "Duck Soup" the chef in the kiosk is a guy named John Gabarra who lived with us for a year. He and Michael knew each other from Detroit, Michael is originally from Windsor Ontario, Canada. And John Gabarra really is a chef. The car was a vehicle that we really owned, it was a vintage Mercedes limosine and it was fabulous! We would go on long rides to Cambria and other places in grand style with our friends. In the distance is a movie theatre that is to small to read in this version but it says Barb and Val on the marquee. Barb was my best friend and we used to say "Barb and Val the movie" because we were always up to something dramatic... So he cleverly incorporated that into this painting. There are so many elements like this in the picture and so many of his paintings that are fun memories that you would never know unless I share them on my little blog. All of this happened a very long time ago and will be lost if not divulged. Michael taught me so much about art and life and he is a truly gifted and successful artist. More on this and other artists and printmakers in future posts.
Please click on to images to see them larger.

Illustration Friday: Portrait

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Portrait" is a painting of a painting of a house. It is from one of my Marisol greeting cards.
copyright 1995

Illustration Friday: Cake

click for a close-up view

My Submission for Illustration Friday's Cake is from my 2003 HomeMade calendar. The title of this painting is "Home Baked" and is for the month of June. You know, a June wedding? The quote is: A House is not beautiful because of it's walls but because of it's cakes. ~old Russian proverb~
copyright 2002

The Art of Phil Hartman

I loved Phil's art before I ever knew him and I watched him on T.V. and movies way before he became my brother in law. Phil died May 28, 1998. A day that changed the trajectory of many lives. But I don't want to talk about the day or way he died, I want to talk about his art. John and Phil were very close and they were born in Brantford, Ontario Canada. There were 8 Hartmann children all together. They came to California in 1959 and John went to work in the mailroom at William Morris in 1961 and worked his way up the ranks in the entertinment industry. When he became an integral part of the music business he was able to help Phil get job's doing album covers of many of the seminal rock bands that changed music as we know it. John managed the bands and Phil did the album covers. I have posted a few samples of some of the now famous covers that you might not realize Phil created. He was a very talented graphic artist as well as just an all around talented artist and he was good at pretty much anything he put his mind to. He spent 9 years on SNL which is probably the longest of all the comedians, he cowrote Pee Wee's Big Adventure with Paul Reubens, he played Captain Carl on The Pee Wee Herman Show, for the Simpson's he did the voices of Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, he was in over 2o movies and he played a wonderful character on News Radio as part of a great ensemble cast. Back to the art, you can see from these paintings that he really had a creative mind and hand and the Poco horse and CSN logo are sheer genius! Their Mom, Doris had a real creative spirit and was a wonderful artist herself and owned a very cool shop in San Juan Capistrano for many years. We really miss Phil , but he lives on in reruns on t.v., movies, his artwork, his children, brothers and sisters and friends and fans.
You might have noticed on the picture of Phil, he signed it to John using the name Chippie. That is because everybody in his family called him Chippie, John's daughter (my stepdaughter ) Ohara named him this when she was a very little girl

1. America's Greatest Hits 2. Poco Seven 3.Poco Legend 4. CSN logo used on many album covers and this was a patch they made for Jackets 5. Poco Cantamos

Illustration Friday: Sorry

My submission for Illustration Friday's Sorry is from one of my Marisol greeting cards offering a deluxe car wash on the day of your choice. Hopefully on a sunny day!
copyright 1994

Illustration Friday: Angels and Devils

My submission for Illustration Friday's Angels and Devils is a dimensional resined painting called "Flying Home". Some of you might remember an illustrated version that I used for IF's Free theme. This is one of my most popular images so I have done it in every medium and colour combo you can think of.

This pink house is an Angel flying back home to the hood and the Devil lives next door...

Flying Home:Resin, Wood and Foam copyright 1992

Under the Sea Part 2 Closeups

Under the Sea Part 2

I mentioned that I had the perfect painting for Illustration Friday's "Under the Sea" and it occurred to me that instead of finding someone to scan my 2 1/4 film, I could call the people that I did the painting for and ask them if I could come over and shoot the painting with my digital camera. They live in Malibu Colony. If you ever have a chance to go to the colony you must accept, as it is a little slice of Paradise. It's also a gated community and you have to be invited to get in. www.seeing-stars.com/Live/Malibu.shtml
Movie stars have lived there since 1929 when the widow Rindge allowed celebrities to build houses and rent the land. The Rindge family owned all of Malibu from the 1800's to 1938. The family that I did the painting for are the Fishers, they live in a house that has probably been featured in Architectural Digest. I have never seen a house like this and I am honored that I have a painting hanging in this home as every single element of and in this house is a work of art. I called the Fishers and asked if I could come over and shoot the painting and they kindly invited me last Friday. I drove down and took a few photos of their house so that you can get an idea of how unique it is. It was at 10:30 am so it looked like a cave inside the main part of the house. The entire bottom floor is like a cave, all stone and it is so wonderful, they don't have a back wall like most houses, instead they have a glass wall that features the ocean so they get to watch the beauty of nature all the time without a wall obscuring the view! My painting was for a guest bedroom and all of the colours in the room are very compatible. They wanted a piece that included their fish (they have the most amazing built in aquariums) their dog (a Maltese) and possibly themselves (see their fanciful gate). Obviously I needed to have a water based theme and they live at the ocean, so it is a big part of their life. I decided to do them as children and created "Fishing with the Fishers". It had been over a year or more since I hung the painting, seeing it again with fresh eyes was nice! I felt proud that I made it and it looked great in the room. So many times I ship off a painting that I spend a lot of time on, never to see it hang in it's new home. Of course I had to make a little coral house where the mermaid lives...

Tomorrow I will post some more closeups of this painting because blogger won't let me upload any more pictures.

Fishing with the Fishers is a layered dimensional painting with resin.

Topanga Art Studio Tour Auction

I have participated in the Topanga Art Studio Tours all 4 years since the inception. This will be our 5th tour and it is a wonderful experience. Studio tours are usually the second week of June for 2 days. You start out at the gallery, each artist will have one piece of art hanging , one silent auction painting and you purchase a book for $25.00 it has a description plus a bio of each artist with a map of how to get to their studio. For 2 days you can visit as many studios as you would like. At least 50 artists are involved. Last year they started a silent auction. They provide you with an 8" x 8 " canvas and if you finish it by May 1st it is photographed and included on the promotional invite they provide for the artists, they also make an e-vite using the art too. This tour is the perfect show for me because I am pretty reclusive and this way I don't have to leave my house! The people usually come in small waves so the art lovers get to have one on one time with the artist. People that enjoy coming to Topanga and seeing the houses, gardens and life here enjoy the tour too. Here is my auction painting that I made last week it took 3 days because I made a little mushroom house and resined it so that added more time. I decided to use my theme of the forest as a room along with this little mushroom house growing out of the grassy carpet. The bidding will start at $50.00 and I will donate all the proceeds to the gallery. The invite hasn't been printed yet so I used last years invite to show how it looks with all the 8x8's. The show this year is Saturday, June 10, 10:00 am-6:00 pm and Sunday, June 11, 11:00 am -5:00 pm. Reception: Saturday, June 10, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Topanga Canyon Gallery.

Illustration Friday: Fat

My Submission for Illustration Friday's theme Fat is from my 2002 HomeMade Calendar for the month of October. The title is "Home Grown". I have always loved the idea of the annual pursuit to grow the largest pumpkin.
The quote is : "Wide is the door of the cottage" ~proverb

Medium: Liquitex acrylics on Canson Airbrush paper

copyright 2001

Happiness

I am so happy today!!! I have finished a painting that I have been working on for months! It is why I am behind on everything else in my life! It is one of the most difficult paintings I have done. The reason for this is, it is not really a house. When I started my blog, I wrote that I received a commission from a couple who wanted me to do a Houscape of their miniature horses abode and back yard. It got put put on hold for a couple months and then everything fell into place and I started the job. Normally even though I love a challenge I would have said no. This is not what I do. This is a landscape and I don't crave doing landscapes. I truly love to paint houses. But they have been good patrons, they have commissioned 2 other paintings and said I could take as long as I need to. That means I can do other jobs that come in so I decided to accept. Well, I finished the horses houses very quickly and then I was faced with all of the plants and flowers. I am such a detail person that it took months which was not my plan but the painting comes out of me the way it needs to and I am just along for the ride. Some days it flowed and some days it was a pain in my tush! I have about 5 minutes to rejoice and now I have to do the 3 projects that are sitting on my desk waiting to be started. Momentary bliss!

Illustration Friday: Under the Sea

My submission for Illustration Friday's theme "Under the Sea" is from my 2001 HomeMade calendar. The title is "Beach House". The sand castle always ends up back under the sea but I enjoy them while they last. I actually have a great underwater painting but it is on film and I need to have it scanned. If this can be accomplished I will post it. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
The quote is: " A man's house is his castle" ~old proverb
or " A woman's home is her castle"~ new proverb

6 Random Things

People let me on to their properties to photograph their abodes because they know I paint paintings of houses and up here in Topanga you will find a lot of unusual homes. Here is a sampling of cool houses. Instead of telling you 6 random things I am showing 6 random houses in Topanga. Actually 6 homes and an interior of a Historic Topanga home. Hope this is alright Cream, I am not a very random person. Every thing I do is thought out so if you called this 6 anal retentive things I might be able to help you out. Ha Ha just a little art humour!


Cream from www.krimsong.blogspot.com tagged me for 6 random things.