"Apples and Blue Feather"

5" x 7" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
-SOLD-

I felt like this needed something different so I added the Blue Jay feather.  I have found and collected some feathers thinking I would paint them someday so you may see them show up again once in a while.

I looked up the symbolic meaning of feathers and it seems they can symbolize a lot of different things... all good.  It's believed that finding them can be a sign of encouragement as you philosophically travel on your path.  I like that one and can sometimes use some encouragement on this painting path!

I sold my painting that I donated to the Hurricane Sandy Fundraiser on The Daily Paintworks!  They have raised over $7,000 so far and still going!


  

"Grapes in a Glass"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
NFS

Well so much for loose and free!  I fought with the details but in the end, the details won.  I just couldn't seem to stop fiddling with it.  I lit this from the back and a little to the left to set up the challenge of painting the luminous translucency of the grapes.  I tried to pay close attention to get the values and colors accurate which is the key to making them appear to be translucent.  It was an interesting challenge that I want to explore some more.  I think I was able to capture the look on this one at least to some degree.  Now I'm wondering if I should have darkened the background a little to increase the contrast with the grapes.

"Red Grapes in a Bowl"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessoboard
Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $100 + s/h. 

It felt good to finally get to spend some time in my studio today!  Here's another effort to loosen up and keep it fresh.  I find it very difficult to resist "fixing" and over working everything.  I'm fairly happy with this one and plan to keep going down this path for a while.

Daily Paintworks has featured me in their Spotlight Interview!

I am really honored and pleased to announce that Daily Paintworks has featured me this week in their Spotlight Interview!   Click here to see the interview.   I am so grateful for this awesome website and appreciate all the support and opportunities they give us!

"The Rose"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $80. + s/h.

I found myself chasing daylight to get a photo again today since I got a late start in the studio.  I admire so many artists who are able to simplify and capture the essence of a subject with minimal brush strokes... It's not as easy as it looks!  My natural tendency is to fuss way too much with details.  With limited time today I didn't have the luxury of fussing, so I used a large brush and got it done.  I'm happy enough with the effort that  I want to explore some more in this direction.

"Old Brown Leaf"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $60. + s/h.

I know, I know... it's been a while!  First I got really busy with some important non-art related obligations.  Then yesterday my good intentions finally got me some time in the studio but nothing was working for me.  I felt a little lost today and, although I have a lot of painting ideas, I couldn't settle on a direction.  I was outside in the backyard playing with my dog and simply picked up a leaf so... here it is.

I tried using a much larger brush and simpler brush strokes in an effort to get something, anything, finished and posted onto my blog today.  It had to be quick because daylight was fading and I needed to get a photo.

"Marble #3"

4" x 4" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $60 + s/h

Back to my marbles!  After the little Traveling Chicken's visit, getting some paintings shipped out and catching up in my office, I'm finally able to get back to my marble series.  This is just a common cat's eye probably from the 1950's.  I'm still looking at some of the really spectacular handmade marbles on Ebay but I just haven't been able to bring myself to pay the price needed to score one.

Next I'll probably try a painting with multiple marbles in some sort of set up.  I have some ideas but we'll see how they pan out once I actually start playing around with them.  Lighting is tricky with these little gems.  Stay tuned!

"The Kudzu Adventure"

6" x 6" oil on gessoboard
- SOLD -

This is the world-famous "Traveling Chicken".  She is a little ceramic chicken who started on her journey when Azra in the UK hatched this idea and sent her off across the big pond back in April.  Although she's only been traveling for a few months she has already visited many interesting places and has had some very exciting adventures!  Click to go to the Traveling Chicken blog to read about them, including her latest "Kudzu Adventure" here in Georgia while she was visiting me.  I almost lost her in my backyard after a Kudzu vine wiggled through her tiny pink ribbon, hoisted her up and stuck her onto my fence!

If you are an artist and would like to have her visit you, click on the "Sign Up" tab at the top of the Traveling Chicken blog for instructions. There is a growing wait list as you will see.  She is quite the world traveler rubbing elbows... errr, chicken wings... with some pretty famous artists!  (Like Carol Marine, one of my favorites, for one!)

What fun!  Now I will be saying goodbye to her and her entourage.  Yes, she travels with a whole crew... long story!  I'll carefully pack them up and mail them to Karen in Wisconsin next.  Can't wait to see what she comes up with!

Stay tuned for more marbles in my series... I haven't forgotten but I just got a little side-tracked with my house guest for a few days.:)


      

"Marble #2"

4" x 4" oil on gessoboard
- SOLD -

The second in my series.  Again I messed around for a long time selecting which marble to paint and then with placement and lighting.  I discovered that setting it on top of my magnifying light so it was lit from below really showed the inside of the marble at it's best.  Then I added some purple paper so the color would reflect up under the marble.  I nearly went blind trying to look at it but the effect was pretty cool!

Update:  Ugh...!  I struggled to get this photo correct.  In my original post I explained it didn't look quite right.  Well, I took some new photos today and I have replaced the original one with this new and improved photo.  It looks pretty accurate now on my monitor anyway.  The background should be a soft grayish purple.  

I've been asking around to see if I can locate and borrow a really spectacular marble but no luck yet.  I placed a couple bids on ebay but have not scored anything I can afford yet.  My gosh there are some beautiful marbles with things like "double ribbon" and "latticinio" in the titles.  I'm not sure what all of it means but I know a pretty marble when I see one.

"Marble #1"

4" x 4" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
- SOLD -

This is the first time I've tried painting a marble.  Fun!  I love gazing into these shiny little orbs with all their beautiful swirls and ribbons and colors.  They mesmerize me.  So, this is the first in a small series I'm going to do so I can learn about painting them and decide if it's something I want to pursue further.  It's ridiculous how much time I spent trying to select which marble to paint first, trying it out in different settings, figuring out the perfect angle and playing around with lighting and shadows.  Good grief!  So finally I just picked one, plunked it down on a plain piece of paper with a bright light shining on it and dove in.

I've been doing the craziest mixed-up things lately.  I ordered a whole pile of 5" x 5" panels by mistake instead of my usual 6" x 6".  Now I'm out of 6" x 6", I don't know why but I don't want to paint on 5" x 5", so I'll use some 4" x 4" panels until my new order gets here.   And this is just one of many silly mistakes I've made recently... so, today's subject is appropriate.  I really think I've lost my marbles!

  

"Retro Cherries"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
Click here to Buy Now through PayPal.  $90.

Found this little plate at Goodwill and loved the retro pattern.  I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out even though it's different than I envisioned it when I started.  I'm still finding it very difficult to loosen up and continue to fall back into old habits.  I've started reading Alla Prima, Everything I Know About Painting by Richard Schmidt and hope some of his thoughts will influence my painting.  His style is wonderful and loose and he points out that looseness "should be the way a painting appears, not how it is accomplished."  He talks a lot about being deliberate, careful and accurate which at first seems contrary to looseness, but apparently not so.  For me being careful and accurate translates into being very tight.  I have so much to learn...

I think I broke part of my blog.  Pretty sure no emails announcing my last post, "Three Amigos", went out to all the wonderful people who have "subscribed".  I tweaked the wording about subscribing and in the process must have somehow messed up the feed.   I've gone back over it all and hopefully it's okay now but I don't have a lot of confidence that it is.  A lot of this is a mystery to me so I just try to figure it out as I go.

I'm trying "buy now" on this one instead of putting it in the DPW auction.  I wonder what most buyers prefer...   Do they like "buy now" so they can easily finalize a purchase?  Do they find it inconvenient to have to keep up with an auction or do they enjoy the bidding process?

"Three Amigos"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $90 + s/h 

This is how the weather has been here in GA!  Hot! Hot! Hot!   It's been over a week since my last post and I've been struggling to carve out enough time to paint.  Life gets in the way but I do my best to balance it all out.

I have a bid on "Blueberries and Cow Creamer" and the auction ends this evening so it's sold for sure.  Also have a bid on "Homegrown" so it's a gonner too.  Yea!

I am so thankful to all of you out there who support live working artists.  What an age we live in with the internet making this all possible!  As I have said before, the main focus of my blog is to record my efforts as I explore painting and strive to find my artistic voice.  Selling my paintings is secondary but, I have to say, it's very affirming and encouraging when someone selects one of mine out of the thousands that are available. :)  Thank you!

"Egghead"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessoboard
 Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $50.

My farmer friend at our local Open Air Market told me when he picked this eggplant he thought of me.  Hmmm...  I painted an eggplant I bought from him last week so when he saw this one he thought I might want to paint it too.  It has a "nose" on both sides of it but I picked this side to paint.  Silly, I know.  Now, I'm finished with eggplants for a while. :)  Really.

Still having a hard time photographing these wet oil paintings.  I noticed Carol Marine has a new Daily Paintworks Tutorial about how she does it.  I think I better take a look at it and see if I can get some desperately needed tips.

By the way, when I posted "I am the Eggplant" last week I thought no one would be interested in purchasing it.  Ha!  It got well above average views, several people following the auction and got a bid on the first day.  Go figure!

"Blueberries and Cow Creamer"

6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
 - SOLD -

Hope everyone had a good safe holiday!  Our little town had a typical small-town parade followed up with food and celebrating at our city park.  I volunteered several hours to do some patriotic face painting... it's so much fun to see little faces light up when they see themselves in the mirror!

I started this painting several days ago but have just been too busy to finish it until today.  Here is another sprig picked off of my backyard blueberry bushes.  They are loaded with berries this year!

I have to keep reminding myself that the goal of my daily painting and blogging is to learn, to grow and to ultimately develop my own style.  The paintings produced are just a by-product of the activity, they are not the reason I'm painting.  However, in the course of doing each painting, it seems there always comes a point when I become invested in the finished piece.  This causes me to then stop being willing to experiment for fear of messing up the final outcome.  I fall back into a safe mode rather than stretching and learning... I need to work on somehow changing this in my mind... throw caution to the wind, play, mess up...

"Blueberries and Cream"

8" x 10" oil on canvas board
-SOLD-

I'm picking blueberries almost daily from the four blueberry bushes in my backyard.  One of my favorite fruits!  The colors are beautiful as they go from white, green, pink, purple, blue then eaten with all shades in between.

This is a little larger than my previous posted paintings and I changed to a rectangle which worked better for this composition.  I know, I've been yammering on and on about trying to loosen up my style and then I go off and do something like this!  I tried to fight it but the details won!  So, then I just surrendered and thoroughly enjoyed painting every tiny little brush stroke for every tiny little detail!   I've found I'm really loving painting fabric but this is the first time I've attempted anything lacy.  I'm pleased with the outcome.  I've raised the price on this one since it's larger and it took me two full days to paint it.  Enjoyable days, but still, two days...

P.S.  After failing to sell in the DPW auction with a starting price of $150, I've dropped the price to $100 and will try one more time.

"Pear with White Stripes"

6" x 6" oil on gessoboard
- SOLD -

It doesn't take much to make me happy...  like a lumpy Bartlett and, what a bonus, this one still had a leaf clinging to it when I found it at the grocery store!  I started painting this pear sitting on top of a gray book but it looked too boring and drab so I covered the book with this tea towel and repainted the lower section... now I'm even happier!  I love painting fabric and have found that adding a common old tea towel to a set up works well for me.  I like the casual feeling it creates combined with the graphic element of the stripes.

"Apple with Red Stripes"

6" x 6" oil on gessoboard
- SOLD -

Another apple study on a striped tea towel.  I like the graphic element that stripes add to a composition.  Check out all the powerful paintings entered in "The Stripe Challenge" posted by the fabulous Carol Marine over at Daily PaintWorks.  I'll have to add this one to the mix.  

And here's an update on the bidding for my last two paintings... "Mickey on a Mirror" auction ends tomorrow, June 18, and it's still only at $40 so, unless someone swoops in soon, the bidder will have it at a bargain price!  "Apple with Green Stripes" still has a few days to go and it's still at $40 also.

"Mickey on a Mirror"

6" x 6" oil on gessoboaard
-SOLD-

I picked up this little Mickey Mouse toy at a garage sale recently.  I don't know why but I just thought I should take him home and paint him.  In an effort to make the composition more interesting I placed him on top of a mirror.

Still working on my oil painting skills and still liking the change from acrylics for the most part.  I have a long way to go but I'm learning a little more with each painting.  For some reason I found this one pulled me back into the picky, tight style that I've been trying to free myself from.  I think probably because he's stiff and made of plastic with hard edges it was difficult for me to loosen up on him.  Oh well, maybe next time...

"Daisies and Strawberries"

6" x 6" oil on gessoboard
 Click here to buy now with PayPal.  $100 + s/h

I've resurfaced after over a week's absence.  I've really been itching to paint more but life gets in the way sometimes.  Here's my second attempt at an oil painting.  I've signed up for four weekly oil painting classes to glean some knowledge from an experienced instructor hoping to jump start the learning process.  She has been very helpful.  I started this one in class and finished it today at home.  I'm not totally in love with oils yet but I certainly am smitten!  Lots of fun!  I'm seeing many possibilities that acrylics could never offer.  

Now I'm wondering how long these little guys will take to dry... what to do if someone actually buys one and I have to ship it... from what I've read on other blogs, I think about three weeks.  I know some artists choose not to varnish, some do, some (like me) need to figure all this out!

Stay tuned, more oils to come...

"Hydrangeas"

6" x 6" oil on gessoboard
 - SOLD -

Another new adventure!  This is my first attempt to complete an oil painting.  I've been eyeballing these Hydrangeas in my neighbor's yard and had an opportunity today to get permission to swipe a few.  These big complicated flowers were probably a bit ambitious for my first attempt but sometimes I'm kinda crazy like that.

Whew! Handling oil is certainly nothing like acrylic!  But, I think once I figure out how to do some things I'm going to love it.  I see a million things wrong with this but, like I've said before, my intention is to record my progress and include the good and the bad.

With my fast drying acrylics I've been putting my little paintings on the flatbed scanner and easily getting high resolution images.  Can't do that with wet oils so now I'm faced with struggling with my camera and sketchy photo skills. More things to master...  

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