Beach Paradise, Oil Painting on Canvas Panel, 9x6 Seascape Daily Painting

Buy

I'm running out of titles for these beach scenes. How many ways can you describe such a beautiful place? I worked on this while getting windows installed and pavers put down in the driveway. My easel was really the only place I could be out of the way, so the drills were drilling and the saws were sawing, and I pretended I was back on North Captiva Island listening to the sound of the Laughing Gulls.

Carmen

Oil Painting, St. Johns River, 9x12 Original Oil Painting on Canvas Panel

Click to Purchase

This is how the St Johns River looked after Hurricane Irma. The river rose to such a high level that the airboat we were in could go to places that were usually inaccessible. This is a 9x12 original oil painting, signed and ready to frame.

Carmen

Hot Air Balloons, 8x10 Original Oil Painting, Skyscape on Canvas

Purchase

I decided I wanted to just paint clouds. When I was done it looked like it needed something more, so I added hot air balloons to punch it up. I'm happy with the result, but I think the balloonists had better head home, because the weather doesn't look so good.

Carmen

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Board

 PURCHASE

What is it about chickens? We all paint them, and many kitchens are decorated with them. They do have personalities, just look at their confident walks. There was a very funny record years ago with chickens singing "In the Mood." Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck CLUCKKKK...

I know my friend the musical genius Bobby Braddock counted every one of those clucks to be sure I got it right.

Sunshiny Day, 10x8 Oil on Canvas Panel, Original Landscape Art

Purchase

This was the kind of day that just lifts your mood, and I hope I got that in my painting. It was sunny and bright, with nice fluffy clouds in a bright blue sky. It's hard to feel like a curmudgeon when you get to live in an environment like this. Makes me feel like going kayaking, which is on my bucket list. After all, the water is all around us here, what am I waiting for? It's got to be a lot easier than that whitewater rafting adventure that threw four of us women out on the rocks in North Carolina. My friend Donna said at the time that we bonded over a near-death experience--and I think she was right!

Carmen

Silver Sandals, 20x24, Oil on Canvas

NFS

I painted this a few years ago, when my daughter was getting ready for my sister's wedding. Painting a mural and having Thanksgiving has made my painting time negligible, so I went to the past for this one. What a jolly good time we had at the wedding, which was in beautiful Middleburg, Virginia.

Speaking of Middleburg, they have a wonderful annual Shakespeare festival, "Shakespeare in the Burg," and next year's date is April 2-3. Click here for details:

http://shakespeareintheburg.com/

Carmen

Still Life with Zen, 9x9 Pen and Ink Drawing

Click to Purchase, $35

I haven't been doing much artwork this week, except for illustrations for a memoir I am working on. It's now time for me to paint the cover art, and that will be a relief, after sitting at the computer for three days straight getting the book laid out.

The drawing above was our challenge presented by Kathy Garvey to the Pieces of 8 last week. The challenge was to make everything look flat and one-dimensional. I think I slipped up with the zentangles inside the mango (between the glass and the teapot.) They are giving it some shape. I admit that's my favorite part of the drawing.

No. 10 on my list of things we should not put up with, yet we do:

Grocery products are getting smaller, yet costing more. There is either less in the package (like coffee and sugar), or the product itself shrinks (like toilet paper that is getting narrower and narrower in width), yet the cost is higher. You might say less is more.

Red, White and Blue, 6x6 Original Oil Painting on Canvas

$99, Click to Purchase

I like painting reflections. I had not planned a patriotic painting, but the colors do give it an all-American look.

I'm trying to keep up with my daily painting, get ready for the Qiang Huang workshop (I'm the organizer) and prepare for a trip to Virginia, then to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. A lot of pressure for a woman of a certain age. Or any age, for that matter. I will fill many pages of my sketch journal with the sights in San Miguel. Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Call Me Ishmael, 20x24 Acrylic on Canvas

$225, Click to Purchase

This morning on the news I saw that a Taiwanese man drifted in the sea for 60 hours floating on a coffin lid. This was like pulling a page from Moby Dick, where Ishmael was the lone survivor because of floating on a coffin. I changed the name of this watery-looking painting in his honor. 

This technique is new for me. It is poured acrylic that I let dry into a 'skin,' then I peeled it up, cut it apart and arranged the design. It is glued to a stretched canvas. This is a very time-consuming endeavor, but I like the result. I am drying some very light colors now to see what I can do on a dark background. 

Tanglefish, 5x7 Pen and Ink

$38, Click to Purchase

Sometimes I have a plan for these Zentanglish drawings, and sometimes I don't. I started this one as freeform curves and went from there. It made itself into a drawing that looked very undersea to me to I went with that.

I've been cleaning closets, purging mercilessly, and stopping occasionally to do Zentangles. I also tried an absolutely different technique which I will post next. I will be knuckling down to doing some serious oil paintings soon, and in February Qiang Huang will be here to teach, so I should be pumped up for months after that!

Ocean Dawn, 8x8 Oil on Canvas

$89, Click to Purchase

While ice storms are predicted today for much of the country, I get to see scenes like this while walking on the beach. I am very fortunate. I was interviewed after winning a competition and was asked, "Where in the whole world would you most like to live?" After thinking for a moment I responded, "Right here." I like to think I have always known when I was well off. 

Early Birds, 8x6 Oil on Canvas

$89

I love early morning at the beach; it's very active yet peaceful. Birds are fishing, people are fishing, there are joggers, walkers, even Tai Chi. It's the best time of day.

At risk of being repetitive, don't forget the big Pieces of 8 Sale on Dec 7 from 9-4. It's at 3532 Samuel Place, Melbourne. Click here for a map and details.

Fall Island, 8x6 Oil on Canvas

$89 Click here to buy

Well, my ten-year-old Mac finally let me down, and at a crucial time. I did manage to post on my iPad, but not everything worked exactly like I wanted. Now I am looking at my brand-new marvel of technology with a giant screen and no box, no round little base, no nothing that indicates there are magical things going on inside to help me do my job. Once you go Mac...

The painting above is on Lake Oconee, Georgia, a little island we pontooned to and explored. It is just a beautiful place. 

If you are in Central Florida, save the date! The big Pieces of 8 Holiday Sale is December 7, and you can click here to link to the map.

Rise and Shine, 6x6 Oil Painting on Canvas

I thought I would walk to the beach to catch the sunrise, but I was late coming out the door, and this is what I saw. I didn't make it to the beach in time, but I love the silhouetted palms against the colorful sunrise. Florida sunrises and sunsets are so fabulous it's hard to make them look believable.

$89     BUY NOW

Zen Mushrooms, 7x5 Pen and Ink

BUY NOW

It is fun to make up your own world. With Zentangle, it's not "less is more." It's "more is more."

By the time this post is online our artists' group, Pieces of 8, will be off to Georgia to paint, eat, and do other fun things. We will visit our former member, Phillis, who has lots of good things for us to do. It will be a riotous good time, as always, and we will have new scenery to paint. I am getting my Pleininator outfit together today (below). For painting en plein aire. It even has a citronella candle.

Liquidity, Acrylic Abstract, 6x6

I've gotten carried away with abstracts lately. They are more relaxing (and messy) than my other work. This one looks very fluid, rather like a gentle stream. The colors are not very gentle, though, are they? I'm thinking of the 70s...tie dye...lava lamps...

PURCHASE

Check out the Pieces of 8 Blog today for a wonderful new book by member Cindy Michaud, Sainted and Painted, Stories of the Not Wholly Holy. Cindy's cleverness never ceases to amaze me!

DeniZens, 7x5 Pen and Ink Drawing

My shading in the waves is made up of sea creatures, hence the title. I actually made this larger, but it did not enhance the drawing, and diluted the impact. I like this much better. I mounted it in a 10x8 mat. Zentangle techniques are so much fun, especially if making up my own designs.

PURCHASE 

Greenleaf, Acrylic Abstract, 4 x 4.5

This one just makes me happy. I love the colors and it looks very botanical to me. Leaves and flowers, some of my favorite things. The surface is nice and glossy and the support is wood that is a half-inch think. I painted the sides black, so the painting can be on a little easel or framed.

PURCHASE

Witch of Zendor, 8x10 Pen and Ink

I was just doing Zentangle type designs, very freeform, when I realized I was drawing a witch. I put the hat on her head and got her all ready for Halloween. I put her in a double mat, outside size 8x10. This is my first holiday drawing. Wonder if a Zentangle turkey will come out of my pen for Thanksgiving?

PURCHASE

Dragonflower, 20x20 Oil on Canvas

When I shot this picture I practically had to stand on my head; it was fairly dark but the light was shining through the flowers. This is the flower of the dragonfruit, and I have always heard it referred to as Night-Blooming Cereus. After doing a lot of daily paintings, and I mean a lot of daily paintings, I just had the urge to paint a big floral. I like using my big bristle brushes now and then.

SOLD