Pugs Take to the Air!

Our new young pug, Don Diego, was adopted from Enchanted Pugs in Northern California. They commissioned me to immortalize Diego, his half brother Mater, and another family member Trinket as barnstormers.  Mater is the pilot (they apparently sit behind the passenger in biplanes - who knew?), Diego is the slightly worried-looking passenger in front, and Trinket stars as the daredevil lady wing walker!  I love doing "storybook" illustrations (as well as painting pugs!) so this was a very fun project for me.  Painted in gouache on rag paper, it now hangs in the Enchanted Pugs gallery...

Lisa's Winter and Christmas Greeting Cards Now In Stores

This year I returned to my British and Swiss roots, and created two new gouache paintings in the storybook style of European illustrators of the last century. I've also made greeting cards of a painting I did many years ago - in 1997 - when comet Hale-Bopp streaked across our night skies. My family and I were in Monterey visiting my parents that spring, and we drove to Asilomar Beach one night.  The breaking waves were softly illuminated by the stars and by the huge comet suspended above the sea - eery and magical. I got back in the car and did my initial sketches by the dome light as my daughters and husband gazed at the night sky and the silent, still, celestrial traveller suspended above us.

All of my winter season and Christmas greeting cards are now available in local East Bay card and gift shops, including Books Inc in Alameda, ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, Payn's Stationery on Solano in Berkeley, Red Wagon Collectibles in Alameda, The Framer's Workshop in Berkeley, and in Castle in the Air, also in Berkeley. Castle in the Air, on Fourth Street in Berkeley,  is a magically beautiful store, and they have an enchanting website too.  Here are a few pictures of the store and some of my greeting cards on the rack near the Christmas tree:

Here are some of my new greeting cards:

Winter Solstice

Roasting Apples

Comet Hale-Bopp above Asilomar Beach

Fox Squirrel in Gingko
(yes I know this doesn't seem particularly wintry, but in Central California
the gingko leaves turn bright yellow in December!)

And here are some of my Holiday greeting cards that were sold out and have been reprinted this year:

Christmas in Our Parlor

The Eiger by Moonlight

Winter Gifts

Early Spring

Winter Street

Lisa's artwork on the cover of the November East Bay Monthly!

The East Bay Monthly, a regional magazine "of commerce and culture", is renowned for its beautiful full-color covers featuring local artists' work, and I am very pleased to announce that my painting of The Plane Tree Allée at Sunset will be featured as their November 2012 cover image.  Published since 1970, The Monthly is the oldest independently owned East Bay publication. It has a distribution of over 80,000 copies throughout the Bay Area, and I am thrilled to become one of their long line of cover artists.

Copies are distributed at many bookstores, libraries, hotels, and restaurants at no charge, and you can find all of the drop points near you at the East Bay Monthly website under Circulation. Check out the Cover Archive page to see all of the amazing artwork they have featured on their covers over the years. Museum quality prints of all of these covers - including mine - can be ordered through the website too.

Here is the description in The Monthly of the image of The Plane Tree Allée:

The Plane Tree Allée at Sunset, Crab Cove, Alameda
(gouache on heavy rag paper)

Lisa Haderlie Baker, who lives and works in Alameda, has been a painter and illustrator for over 40 years. This painting is of a row of sycamores that extend along a path that used to be part of Neptune Beach in Alameda, a huge amusement park that had its heyday between the two world wars. Called the Coney Island of the West, it had public baths, dance halls, a huge saltwater swimming pool, and roller coasters.  Now all that is left of the rowdy Neptune Beach is this quiet path between the trees, and the view of the Bay…

Most of Lisa’s paintings are of quiet, mysterious  “secret” landscapes of the Bay Area, and especially of Alameda – old neighborhoods, quiet gardens and shorelines, often at sunset or twilight. Lisa’s work is in many private collections, and is also exhibited at ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, and at Vines Café and Gallery in Alameda. She has an extensive line of greeting cards printed from her paintings available at ACCI Gallery and Castle in the Air in Berkeley, and at Books Inc in Alameda, and regularly creates commissioned pieces.  See more of her work at her artist blog, manopanthea.blogspot.com, or contact her at manopanthea@yahoo.com

Open Studios and New Greeting Cards

  

The 2012 East Bay Open Studios, sponsored by ProArts the first two weekends of June, was a fun and successful event for me. I rented a space at the Jack London Square Pavilion in Oakland for both weekends, with 45 other artists in the same building, and it was a very lively venue, with lots of foot traffic all four days, and gorgeous weather helped too. I sold framed and unframed paintings, limited edition giclee prints on rag paper, inexpensive smaller prints, and many greeting cards. It was hard work, but definitely worth it, and there was never a dull moment. Having a space shared with lots of other talented artists - several of whom are friends - made it even more enjoyable.

Lisa Haderlie Baker in her space at East Bay Open Studios

So now I am introducing a brand new set of 22 greeting cards, which debuted at Open Studios, from my oil and gouache paintings! Many are of Alameda, where I live, but my subjects also include Stow Lake in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, Monterey Bay, Mare Island, a painting I did of Exmoor in Southern England, and some of my favorite animals.  A few are reprints of my most popular cards that have sold out, but most are new images.  They are currently available at Books Inc and Red Wagon Collectables in Alameda, ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, and at other venues soon.  They have blank interiors for your personal message, are printed on 100% recycled stock, folding to 4.25" x 6", include white envelopes, and are individually wrapped in a protective clear sleeve.

The 22 images are all reproduced below:

Abandoned Airfield, Alameda

Approaching Storm

The Chinese Pavilion, Stow Lake

The Seawall, Crab Cove, Alameda

December Evening, Mare Island

Exmoor

From The Alameda Ferry

Full Moon Over Crab Cove

The Garden Gate

Monterey Bay from Carmel Hill

Odd Goose Out: A Snow Among the Canadas

Ohlone Oaks

The Ready Reserve Ships at the Alameda Navy Piers

Study of a Beurre Hardy Pear

Study in Black and Fawn: The Artist's Pug

The Palms

The Oak at the End of the Road

Vallejo Ferry from Mare Island

Woodland Reverie

Belinda, The Red Hen

The Freshwater Lagoons at Crab Cove

The Plane Tree Allee

LISA at EAST BAY OPEN STUDIOS in JUNE

   I’ve been working for several months now preparing for the huge upcoming Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios on the first two weekends in June! Since the beginning of the year I’ve been painting, framing, and photographing a lot of artwork, and designing a new set of greeting cards too. 

Open Studios will take place on two weekends,

Saturday and Sunday,

June 2-3 and June 9-10

from 11a.m. - 6 p.m. 

http://www.proartsgallery.org/

   I will be exhibiting for this event with a group of over 40 other participating artists in the Jack London Square Pavilion (formerly Barnes and Noble, 98 Broadway, Jack London Square). The variety of artwork that will be available at this one group studio space is impressive: painting, photography, sculpture, jewelry, mixed media, glass, and ceramics of all kinds.

   Over 400 artists will be participating all over the East Bay in Open Studios, and you can pick up a directory at the Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland and take a look at samples of all 400 artists’ work, with maps and more information.  Pro Arts also has a great online artist gallery at http://db.proartsgallery.org/ebosGallery_12.php

   You can view the art by last name, media, or city – and if you go to “Baker, Lisa Haderlie”, you can view 8 of the pieces I will be exhibiting, and get other pertinent information about me and the other artists participating in Open Studios.

   Below find a few of my images that you can expect to see at my space in the Jack London Square Pavilion in June… I hope to see you there!

December Evening, Mare Island

Full Moon Over Crab Cove

The Plane Tree Allee at Sunset

East Bay Open Studios is produced by Pro Arts, an Oakland-based nonprofit that supports

the arts within communities by serving the ongoing needs of artists. Open Studios connects

the public with over 400 regional artists and is accompanied by the Directory of East Bay Arts.

More information and online gallery at www.proartsgallery.org

  

Lisa's Line of Greeting Cards at Red Wagon Collectibles

The greeting cards I have designed based on my paintings are in many stores in the East Bay, but one of my favorite venues is in Alameda, at Red Wagon Collectibles (1553 Webster Street at Lincoln Avenue). Red Wagon is a charming and cozy antique and collectibles shop, totally at home in a handsome 19th-century storefront. The owners Calvin Hao and Arvi Dorsey are friendly, funny, and knowledgable, and they sell a fascinating selection of vintage items and also display artwork by local artists with an Alameda focus.  Hence my greeting cards!  I want to mention their store in particular for the wonderful card rack, shown below, where they display my artwork.  I've discovered over years of selling cards, that the key to success is good, noticeable placement, and this antique card stand is a doozy.  According to Calvin it's cobbled together from an old storage unit with drawers, and a 1950's hand-painted advertizing sign specifically for greeting cards. It all reads as one unit, it displays my cards beautifully, and it makes me smile every time I see it... go in and take a look.

  

New Line of Greeting and Holiday Cards from Lisa

In the past few months, I have been working on a new line of greeting cards to add to the twenty one cards I designed last winter, some of which have sold out and had to be reprinted. This time I have eleven new cards, making a total of 32 images to choose from.  Included in this latest set are several cards with winter and seasonal motifs.  Most are landscapes and streetscapes, some include animals, and some are flights of fancy inspired by old children's book illustrations.  They are 4.25 x 6" and are blank inside, for you to write your own personal greeting. All of the greeting cards are printed on 100% recycled stock, with high quality envelopes and clear protective sleeves. They are available at Books Inc., Vines Cafe and Gallery, Red Wagon Collectables and the Alameda Natural Grocery in Alameda, and also at The Framer's Workshop on Channing, and Castle in the Air on Fourth Street, both in Berkeley. The greeting cards will be priced at $3.25 retail, but I will also accept mail orders with an additional charge for shipping.

Be sure to see my post of December 25, 2010 for all of the images from my first set of cards
(most are still available, some in limited quantities).

These are the images of my new line of greeting and holiday cards:

New Landscapes:

 Alameda Evening, Bungalows and Palms

September Sunset, Taylor Avenue

Island of Ghosts

Sunlit Courtyard

Winter Street

New Holiday and Seasonal Cards:

Christmas In Our Parlor

Early Spring

Christmas Cottage, Taylor Avenue

Winter Gifts

 The Eiger by Moonlight

Firelight Pug Dance