Light of Dawn II, 7x5 Small Seascape Oil Painting, Sunrise Over Ocean

$89, Purchase Here

It's amazing how you can cross busy Highway A1A and leave the chaos behind just by walking on the crossover to the beach. It's like a curtain comes down behind you and you are in a new world. It's peaceful (usually), and there are waves, and birds, and beautiful light. I get the same feeling when I walk from a busy road into the woods. It is so quiet and peaceful. We are so used to noise in our daily lives that we don't even realize how jarring it really is.

Carmen

Alaska!, 20x16 Oil on Canvas, Landscape Painting

$325, Click to Purchase

This is a much-photographed scene in Alaska, and since it was July, I got to see Fireweed everywhere. They are the spiky blooms in the foreground. My cousins took us all over Alaska in an RV one summer, and I can only say it is an astonishing place. It's a good thing I took a sleep mask, because it was daylight at midnight. It's so weird to go to bed when it's still daytime outside. In spite of that and the rough winters, there is a lot to love about Alaska.

Carmen

Broken, 16x20 Oil on Canvas Portrait

This painting has been on exhibit in the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery's "Word" show this month. Artists were given three words to be possible titles for a painting. I picked "Broken" and painted this homeless man. He looks like he has been broken by life; maybe by addiction, or foreclosure, or even an illness that bankrupted him. He has a sad story that is written on his face.

Patrons visiting the gallery opening were given the list of words to see how many they could match to a painting. A very clever idea, isn't it?

Carmen

Pacific Northwest, 5x8 Watercolor Journal

We've been in the Seattle area visiting relatives and friends, and I recorded various events in my sketch journal. What a handy dandy thing that is. When I can't remember what year or month I did something, I find it in my journal, along with happy memories. First we were in Sequim (pronounced "Squim"), where lavender farms are everywhere, with my cousins, Bill and Louise.

Hap and I in the Big Chair at a lavender farm. 

Opera music plays in the Sequim rest rooms. They appropriately played a selection from "Carmen" when I walked in. What a wonderful small town with a great community spirit and an appreciation for every shade of purple.

Carmen

Beach Chair, 10x8 Oil on Canvas Panel Seascape

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I know there are a lot of stripes in this painting: the clouds, the ocean, the surf, the beach--even the chair has stripes in it. There really isn't much you can do about it, that's the way it looked. I decided to just go with it. There was more seaweed than I'm showing, but it didn't look too pretty. The Sargasso Sea is a large mass of floating seaweed and when it drifts to our beaches, it helps anchor the sand and it provides food for small creatures. When you see a brown tangled mass on the beach, don't complain about it, just thank it.

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Light of Dawn, 6x6 Oil on Canvas, Skyscape Over Ocean, Daily Painting

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When clouds are on the horizon at dawn, the sunrise is always beautiful. It's one of the nice things about living so close to the beach. When I'm photographing a sunrise it always amazes me how fast the light and the colors change. 

Carmen

Decorative Painting

While in Virginia I painted my daughter's armoire. I really enjoy painting furniture, and I was able to eliminate a monkey, a cat with people eyes and a dead fish, and other unsavory creatures that were painted on the armoire when she bought it.

Carmen