Painting my 'art out

Zinnias to paint

2011-07-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

keeping it simple, I plan to paint this into a small 5x5 canvas.....back later with the painting.

2011-04-18T17:36:00.001-07:00

this is a test on our new computer.... The book cover I painted...!!!!

enjoying the sunny afternoon before the snow comes...

2011-01-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Life is good when I can paint....!!!! Ceramic birds are easy to pose! Also, easy to change in the painting if I want them to be a different color or even species! Why be limited by reality????

She's ready to dance!

2010-11-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Or should I say, as soon as I work out how to get those legs and feet in proportion with her arms and torso, she will just take off!
I had fun doing this and am blaming the diffuculty on not having a live model...being forced to use a photo with foreshortened legs and feet.
Still it was great fun and I love it.
36"x48" acrylic on canvas

Foxgloves in sunshine...or Paula's chair

2010-09-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

From a visit to friend Paula's garden one spring day...and old Adirondack chair and foxgloves galore! I love how they glow in the sunshine!
Using watercolor pencils and oil pastels.

Butterfly

2010-09-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

I found this broken butterfly in my driveway.

Along with some late garden zinnias I chose my "models" for a bit of art fun. I enjoyed having a couple of September subjects to look at. My art work today is with watercolor pencils and oil pastel.

Are we having fun yet????

Studying Winifred Nicholson

2010-07-11T19:52:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a version of "Gate to the Isles" which was painted by Nicholson in 1981.

When my book of her paintings arrives, I will finish this, and try some more!

A couple of red ribbons and feathers

2010-05-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Final version, with a bird becoming more dominant.

Making a couple of modifications to this 5x5 painting...

After:
Before:
Still trying to get comfortable with acrylics....watercolor being my first love, but framing is expensive!

Let's go to Greece!

2010-05-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is a 5x5 acrylic painting. I am starting to become more accustomed to acrylics again after years of watercolor. This was fun, though tedious and tiny!

Acrylics in square format

2009-11-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

Working on the sunny backporch on this November day, I finished 2 paintings.

Both are acrylic on panels. The tea cup is 5" X 5", the flowers are 12"X 12". I love working on these, as they are finished without framing!

They are for sale on ETSY!

2 small canvases

2009-08-14T17:52:00.001-07:00

These are 2 small, 5"x5" canvases. One is for my grandson's bedroom. The other is a donation to a silent auction to raise money for a local art center.

"Nantucket Sailboats" above. "The Blue Window" below.

Today's Bird Paintings

2009-06-25T19:16:00.001-07:00

Blue bottles and a yellow bird.

Lilies from the garden with a goldfinch, almost finished below

I turned it into a collage with batik fabric to bring out the blue and blue violet, as well as to add more whimsy!

These two paintings are for sale in ETSY!

Bird Watching

2009-06-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

2 small 8x10 watercolors of stilllife with birds. I wonder, what are these birds watching????

saved from the storm

2009-05-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

Flowers brought in before the thunderstorm this morning....now a painting!

2009-02-13T08:53:00.001-08:00

Playing with the desktop art files....this was on the screen, so I am blogging it. Detail of some summer flowers.

Reflections, Seeking Focus

2009-02-13T07:24:00.000-08:00

This watercolor is based on a still life, but attempting to escape reality. It isn't too literal, scale and space are distorted. [I need a camera to show the whole painting,this is a scan of the center] To me, there is a bit of a "mirror" feeling. The red pear on the right side is "reflected" as a pear bi-sected on the left of the painting (mostly missing here).
The bird (from a figurine, great for posing and painting from different angles) seems to be preening in front of it's reflected image.
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I WAS able to get a photograph of the full painting on the sunporch....available light.

Freesias and red pear

2009-02-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

A watercolor from this weekend. Freesias, pale peach carnations, asters, lime green pompom chrysanthemums and a red pear.

Painting for a fund raiser

2008-11-16T07:11:00.000-08:00

"Reflections" a 5"X 5" acrylic on canvas. We have a lake nearby with beautiful trees on the shore.

This was donated to the Art Center of the Ozarks for their 5X5 silent auction recently.

Take joy....

2008-10-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Painting plums on the porch!

A sunny warm afternoon...I love autumn and "need" to paint before October is gone!!!! Working on a composition using red violet and yellow. Delightful!

Scanned image of the finished painting. This painting has been donated to a silent auction to raise money for Art Center of the Ozarks.

After the storm...

2008-09-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

I gathered some flowers which were left after last night's storm....

they are in a McCoy vase.

Now my eye can be more critical...since I am seeing this on the computer screen. The eye level I painted at focuses right on the stems, and the large hosta leaf points off the canvas....so this is just another of the hundreds we must do to learn our art! I'm happy that I didn't put the vase "dead center"....the yellow Stella Dora lily is almost the center....and may be the focal point. I used the violet to make the yellow "sing". So I make some changes...soften the large hosta, add another curling down on the other side and finally remake the maple leaf(lower right) into a hosta!

If you would like to purchase this painting for 35.00, using Paypal. Please click on the button !

Now on the wall!

2008-09-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

The paintings from the last post are now on the bedroom wall!

Celia Thaxter's Garden

2008-08-01T18:23:00.001-07:00

Series of three paintings for our bedroom wall...

This is how I spent my day.....on the back porch painting my heart out!

Mr. Pear was wanting something to hang on the newly painted wall in our bedroom...I thought it must be something I would love to "wake-up to", so remembering articles about Celia Thaxter's "Island Garden", I found photographs and was inspired!

First, getting 3 canvases started, 2 "portrait" orientation and one "landscape" for the sailboat in the sea. It is important to get the backgrounds in and the canvas "covered" with paint....details come later...

[Sorry if this makes you dizzy...photographed on a glass table top, it seem to "float" at an odd angle! Then a ladder improvises as an easel!]

The center panel of the sailboat and fence (from a photo in La Vie Claire...Claire Murray's periodical) requires the most detail. The flower panel on the left is focused on the flowers themselves, seen more or less at ground level.

This next panel is of holly hock and poppies. From a photo on Monet Giverney calendar.

I have more details to complete these paintings before they are hung together on our yellow wall, but that will be another day's "work"!

Artist's Studio today and self-portrait 3

2008-07-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Using the back porch for a painting studio today!

I'm doing another self-portrait sketch....using a digital color photo which was altered in Adobe Photoshop to have "poster" lines....

My sketch in the new Sharpie fine line pen and pencil....I think, seeing them here on the screen, that I could have made some things a little larger to keep proportions more in line with reality (What fun is reality anyway?)

Recent watercolors

2008-02-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

These are 2 recent watercolors! (I do love to paint!!!)

This one with Chinese lanterns and bittersweet is a special painting for Julie Marie of "Celtic Lady" blogfame! She had written about these wonderful fall color plants and I was able to secure this creative commission from her!
This is a quick study of a vase of lilac from last spring...however, I only just today put the finishing touches (and splashes!) on it!
This one is for sale on ETSY! (SOLD!)

A video montage of last summer's paintings....!

2007-06-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

Let's see how this goes!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'd say that is a lot of fun!!!!!!

A gift for a most precious friend.....

2007-05-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy.
They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
------Marcel Proust

This is a watercolor painting of a friend's white cat, Zelda.

She is a very aloof cat with a bit of an "attitude" . Last year on Easter day, we caught her on the cool green grass and my husband took her photo....I put that photo together with the photo of their potted Easter lilies and composed "Zelda the Miracle Cat"...a joke because in one part of her nine life adventures, she had lost most of her tail...in the painting I made it a bit longer...which you can't even see here because the scanner cut it off again!

Yesterday, having an unexpected day off, I went with Lizzzzzy to visit our long time friend, Sally....the cat's owner. [ We have all known each other since we lived in Little Rock. Sally now lives in a town about 30 minutes away, and has a wonderful old 2 story farm house (now with-in the town limits). Her husband is a professional gardern/landscape artist and a deacon in the Episcopal church. Sally has the worlds greenest thumb and is a science and math teacher. Going to their home is very much a retreat for me....the gardens and the fellowship.]

I took her the framed painting of her cat...and there was the perfect place just waiting for it...even a bare nail to hang it on!

Painting for a Cause.....

2007-05-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Healing and preserving memories......
This church, St. Marks in Gulfport, Mississippi, was totally destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I made this painting after that, from a website photo. I was able to make the pink azaleas really "pop" with the new quinacidone watercolor pigments!
It was purchased by the youth group of our local church (purchase price was dontated to our local homeless shelter) and then delivered to the congregation who are rebuilding...a bit further inland this time. I know that the "old" church held many wonderful memories for them!

More paintings from my art show last year...at St.Paul's. The fellowship hall is a wonderful space where I take yoga and the walls are gallery walls...always a changing art show.

All the monies from the sale of my (joyful)watercolors was given to our local homeless shelter....more than $500.00!

I sold 13 works and will post the photos, as I find them.

This Stargazer lily was one which sold.

This is a watercolor of a koi pond with a waterfall. It was donated to our Art Center of the Ozarks annual silent auction last year.

A few of Last Summer's Paintings

2007-05-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Recent Watercolors

2007-05-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

Recent Paintings

2007-05-02T20:37:00.000-07:00