Purple Abstraction, 8x6 Abstract Painting, Original Oil on Canvas Panel

Click to Purchase

It's time for me to get more loosey-goosey, and one thing that helps is to paint abstracts. There is a certain freedom in putting colors and shapes together just because you like them that way. This one has some of the colors of my previous realistic painting, Rainier Meadow.

On another subject, I have been going to the gym lately, riding the bike to keep my new knee moving, and I have to say that gym clothing has changed a lot. People nowadays show up in worn-looking outfits and look like they mean business. In the 80s I took some aerobics classes with ladies all decked out in headbands to hold their large 80s hair down; leg warmers; and those thong leotards over tights. Now, that was a sight. Those outfits were what my grandmother used to call an imposition on the public.

People are tougher today. Their hair is allowed to sweat, their ankles are warm enough, and they do very well without thong leotards that cross the Great Divide. 

Carmen

Yellow Plumeria, Floral Painting, 10x10, Original Oil Painting

Click to Purchase

This painting is for sale in my Etsy shop. It has deep sides painted black and can be hung without a frame. I now have giclee prints of it as well, with 1.5-inch sides painted black. See more of my available giclees below, in various sizes:

"Cathedral Rock"

"Breakfast Club"

Mountain Swimmers, 20x16 Oil on Canvas

Click to Purchase

We had gorged ourselves at Graves Mountain Lodge, where they specialize in great country cooking, then we hiked up a mountain trail. Near the waterfall we came upon this mother and daughters. The sun was hot and the water was icy--much too cold for my thin Florida blood. It was a glorious day in a beautiful spot, and I am very happy to commemorate it with this painting of a lovely little family.

Carmen

Snuggled Palms, 8x6 Original Oil Landscape on Canvas

SOLD

These palms were all by themselves by the water, but they look like they are getting along well. Reflections are such a challenge, especially in still water. My brain just doesn't work right when painting reflections. I seem to be on a landscape binge, and it's all because of studying the work of Mark Boedges and Clyde Aspevig. I just can't get enough.

Carmen

Working Man 1, 14x11 Watercolor

A few years ago I painted a series of working people for a calendar for the United Association union (UA). I really enjoy paintings of the working people who get the things done that make life comfortable for the rest of us. That makes it sound like I don't work; I do. I work at art, and right now I am frustrated that I have so much else to do that I can't get to the easel. That's why I am posting paintings from the past.

I have a poem on my desk that I read when it gets like this. It was written by my friend, the lovely and brilliant JoAnna O'Keefe.

Moment to Moment

One moment I feel my life

heavily burdened,

weighed down 

by the bone crushing weight

of a thousand, thousand stones.

And the next--

by some split-second 

rearrangement 

in the order of things--

I am a shooting-star streaking

through a severe clear night.

JoAnna O'Keefe

Road to Sedona, 10x8 Original Oil Desert Landscape

Click to Purchase

This is a happy memory of a great trip, driving from Phoenix to Sedona with a storm ahead. Sedona is a magically beautiful place, with red rock formations, river scenes, forests, desert, and of course, vortexes. 

I have been studying the work of Mark Boedges, an awesome landscape artist, and I did a copy of one of his paintings as part of my studies. It is not for sale, of course; it is for my own pleasure and education.

It seems that I am doing more and more landscapes. They used to be a mystery to me, but I am gradually unraveling it.

Carmen

Flight Path, 10x8 Original Oil Painting on Canvas Panel

Click to Buy

Suddenly the images I put on my blog don't match the ones on Etsy. Oh, Google, what did you do? Like my last post, the purples are way too intense, yet they look correct in the Etsy version, which you can see if you click on "Click to Buy" above. As Roseanne Rosanna Danna would say, "It's always something." I have manipulated this as much as I could, and there's no telling how it looks on your monitor.

Anyhow, this is a South Carolina marsh scene, and I hope you will go to Etsy to see the real colors. You don't have to buy anything. I promise. 

Is anyone else who blogs on Blogspot having this trouble?

Carmen

Mountain Path, 10x8 Oil on Canvas Panel Landscape Daily Painting

Click to Buy

Our nature-loving, mountain-man nephew took us to the top of this mountain in a remote area, where we could see less-photographed back side of Mt. Rainier. It is lurking under cloud cover. At the very top we ran into two young girls who were camping in a very basic type shelter, volunteers watching for fire and other hazards. 

I see why my nephew is drawn to those mountains. It is an exhilarating place to be, so beautiful it makes you feel the existence of God.

The mountains look overly purple to me on this page, but if you click on "Click to Buy" above, it takes you to Etsy, where the colors are more realistic.

Carmen