Need Water?

Here in Southern California, we are in a deep deep drought. My neighboring city has gone into water rationing, hmmm. So I've been thinking alot about conserving and although I do have a pretty lush tropical garden in my front yard, I've been thinking about planting some succulents lately. These pretty little cacti were potted by my friend George and Jamar. http://georgeogan.blogspot.com/. Cacti or succulents come in so many varieties that you could make a little dessert oasis right here in sunny California. Do you have a favorite cactus plant?

My Mexican seashells finally find their home

I have finally found a jar worthy of my Mexico memories. The Encinata shores were lined with gorgeous sea shells from two summers ago. I vacationed there in the summer on a beach house and couldn't resist plucking these beauties from the sea. Anyone else fancy seashells as much as I do?

Sea Shell by Amy Lowell

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/amy_lowell/poems/19951

Sea Shell, Sea Shell,Sing me a song,

O Please!A song of ships, and sailor men,

And parrots, and tropical trees,

Of islands lost in the Spanish Main

Which no man ever may find again,

Of fishes and corals under the waves,

And seahorses stabled in great green caves.

Sea Shell, Sea Shell,

Sing of the things you know so well.

New Glass Blog and Etsy Store

This is an exciting day for me. I finally was able to add a glass store with http://glasspeeps.etsy.com made by my best friend Shannon McGarry and myself and with technical support, our close friend George Ogan. Our blog is called glasspeep.blogspot.com . Together we have been blowing glass for over 10 years. Why do we call ourselves GlassPeeps you may wonder? Well, since we've known each other we have always called each other chicken. I don't know how that started but its our cute knickname for each other. Its always been a goal of ours to sell our little creations. Our favorite thing to blow is miniture teapot pendants, along with various other things. As the weeks go by I will post a few pictures of some of the glass we have made together. Hope you all like it.

An American Car in Cuba

Just finished this painting today. I love working with acrylics as they dry fast and I can usually finish a painting the same day I start. As I have mentioned before, my mother is Cuban and I love pictures containing the old American cars in Cuba.








8x10 Acrylic painting on canvas board

Panama Lights

I visited Panama a few years ago and watched a traditional Panamanian dance.
I loved the big billowing skirts and the and the huge smiles that the woman wear all night long while dancing in the hot humid air. This is a watercolor painting which hangs in my parents room along with a "Flamenco" and "Cuban" dancer paintings you see below.

Park Bench

This cartoon if from that weird imaginary place in my head. Anyone have any ideas for a story about this? :)

Jellyfish Doodle

Couldn't sleep last night so I was up scanning a bunch of watercolor doodle cartoons I've done. Some of my doodles are characters that I might use later in different paintings.

I love jellyfish, very calming and peaceful. Although I have been stung and that' not fun.








Watercolor Jellyfish Doodle

Flamenco Anyone?

This is another dancer I painted few years ago for my parents. I thought a poem by Federico García Lorca would be appropriate:

Vestida con mantos negros
Piensa que el mundo es chiquito
Y el corazón es inmenso...

Draped in black
She thinks that the world is small
and the heart is immense...







Watercolor on Arches coldpressed paper

Cuban Dance

Watercolor on Arches coldpressed paper

(George Ogan took this pic for me. Thank you George.)

Anyone like to line dance? My mom is from Cuba and I have always enjoyed looking at pictures of Cuban girls dancing. This watercolor was done a couple of years ago by me to give to my mom. She hangs it above her bed along with a few other paintings I've done for her.

Birth of a teapot

This is a picture of my first blown glass teapot I made. My mom actually named it the birth of a teapot, and it resides in her home. My teapots have come along way since that first one and down below is a more recent picture. My friend Shannon and I will be posting up many blown glass items on a new post we will be creating soon. I think we will name our glass blog "Glass Peeps".

Birth of a Teapot blown by Jen Pfeiffer

Succulent Party

A friend of mine name George Ogan gave my husband and I a brilliant cactus garden that he created. Inspired by his work I decided to plant a little cactus garden for a friend of mine and I thought "what a cute painting this would make", and so WA-LA here it is.













"Succulent Party" 8x10 acrylic painting with varnish

Watercolor Caricatures

I decided to do give my daughters classmates a gift for their 8th grade graduation, and I came up with this idea of taking their picture and painting a watercolor portrait of each of them.  It went really well, and here are a few pictures for you to look at.  Maybe I should try and sell something like this on Etsy.  Hmmm.  Food for thought.

Technorati Tags: watercolor,5x7 portraits on watercolor paper,caricatures

5x7 watercolor portraits

Capri

Capri, you are my sunshine. My little girl loves to paint like me. You make me sooooo happy. Capri gets to have a real paint lesson this week. Exciting. I hope she will like it as much as I do.

Love you.

Mom

Capri is painting a shrimp in this picture. :)

Fish and Cat

Just a little doodle for today.

Goin to the Aquarium

5x7 acrylic on canvas board

At the Aquarium of the Pacific by Craig Erick Chaffin
I saw this poem on www.famouspoetsandpoems.com

I saw a brilliant angelfish whose tail

and fins shimmered yellow until it turned

and silver spread like an undercoat of fur

when stroked against the nap, across its scales.

Black as caviar and rimmed with gold,

its eyes, though flat as dimes, looked deep as wells.

The clownfish cruising by above the shells,

its idiotic smile painted bold,

passed disinterested as if it’d seen

it all before. Maybe. But I've heard

fish see only black-and-white,

so why this purple puffer and iridescent green

parrot fish-- and for whom? It's absurd

to credit chance. Either for us or for the light.

To View a Fish

I brought my kids to a pool party two days ago and since I brought along my paints I painted this little acrylic painting out by the pool. It reminds me of a little fish I encountered in Grand Cayman a few years back while snorkeling. This little fish snorkeled with me all morning by my side. I loved that.

8x10 acrylic painting

painted on canvas board

Grandma and five fast mice

small 5x7 acrylic painting

on canvas board

Grandma and four dancing mice

small 5x7 acrylic painting

on canvas board

Grandma and three curious mice

small 5x7 acrylic painting

on canvas board

Grandma and two quiet mice

small 5x7 acrylic painting

on canvas board

Grandma and one suprised mouse

small acrylic painting

on canvas board

So this is my first post, I'm a bit nervous but it is July 1st and it is high time I started this. I am taking a class right now with Marissa from Creative Thursday and I am thoroughly enjoying it. The class is about marketing artwork via the web. My first step into this scary world of the Internet (for me) is starting this blog. Photographing my work is the next step in this process. Currently my camera takes lousy close up pictures. I will post a few pics that I think are OK. Thanks for looking.

A brand new beginning for Jen

9x12 acrylic seahorse painting

Watercolor on canvas.