Everything's Better With Garlic, 7x5 Oil on Canvas

$89, Click to Purchase

I like everything about garlic: the look, the taste, the smell. My grandmother was Italian, yet she cooked very few Italian dishes, and I never saw garlic cloves in our house. When she and my grandfather became pioneers in Florida she became a Southern cook and learned to fry everything. He was from Spain, so I wonder what he thought about that? The other non-traditional thing for an Italian woman was that she didn't like to cook. Bad luck for us.

Just Before Sunset, 5x7 Oil on Canvas Panel

This is my first attempt at a Sedona scene. We were waiting for sunset, and the light was just getting to that stage that's hard to capture. I will soon paint a sunset, but it won't be believable. They are just too fantastic-looking, just like Florida sunsets.

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Winter Sunset, Oil on Canvas Board, 6x6

This was the view outside my house the other night. It actually was more vivid than this, but looks so unbelievable if it's painted that way. Florida sunrises and sunsets are just so hard to portray without looking exaggerated, because sometimes they are so dramatic that you feel your eyes are deceiving you. God's paintbrush uses some loud colors very effectively.

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Tree Frog, 6x6 Oil on Canvas

Tree frogs are the cutest reptiles ever. One got in our bathroom once and enjoyed leaping about and sticking to the tiles in the shower. Those toes were just adorable.

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The Everglades, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel

The Everglades is a wild and wonderful place, constantly threatened by damage caused by human greed or carelessness. The latest problem is pythons, and they are consuming huge amounts of small game, which leaves large game without food. A recent python hunt got rid of some of them, but they reproduce in large numbers, so this is an ongoing battle. I try to look at the beauty and hope for the best for this important ecosystem.

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Verdant, 18x24 Oil on Canvas

I can't imagine being an early settler in Florida and trying to slog through swamps and palmettos, but I really enjoy seeing what is left of that jungle. It's a lot more beautiful to look at than condos. Yeah, yeah, I'm a treehugger. I love the woods. Being in the quiet of a forest makes me mindful of the beautiful planet God gave us to inhabit.

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Elaine's Flowers, 10x8 Oil on Canvas

Some people in New Jersey and New York probably had gardens like this, and now they have destruction. It is so sad. We worry about hurricanes all the time in Florida, but who would expect this in the Northeast? To be hit by a snowstorm afterward is just unbelievable. My prayers go out to all the suffering people, and especially those who have lost everything.

NFS

River Cave, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel

I haven't posted for a while because we were in Virginia during the hurricane, and we delayed our return home. My heart goes out to the citizens of New York and New Jersey. As Floridians we are very practiced at preparing for hurricanes, and the number one item on my checklist is: Evacuate! I so wish everyone had heeded that warning.

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On a more peaceful note, the scene above is no longer accessible to the public, so I am glad I got this done. I've painted it twice, and here is a painting of me painting it. It's called My Happy Place.

Hurricane: Before and After, 8x10 Oil on Board

Before the Storm

After the Storm

My first reversible painting! It's stormy on one side, sunny on the other. I'm always fascinated by the changes in the ocean, and a hurricane passing by Florida creates awesome drama. This family wisely stayed in shallow water and watched the mighty waves crashing.

Hurricane Isaac was long and drawn out, so it was many days before the peaceful, warm, sunny scene in the "After" painting. I am so lucky to live here--barring storm surge, of course.

This painting comes with an easel so it may be easily displayed according to your mood. It's kind of a "Mood Ring" of art, and it's two paintings in one!

 SOLD

Moving Sea, 10x8 Oil on Canvas Seascape

The ocean changes constantly. Every time I walk over to the beach the water looks different, and I love the ebb and flow as it meets the sand. Even the rocks seem different somehow. Are they changing too? The water gets pretty powerful, especially in hurricane season, the dread of every Floridian (shudder). Maybe that power is moving the rocks around. Why not?

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Green Pond, 16x20 Oil on Canvas

What is  more calming than a setting like this? The reflections in the pond, the trickling of the water--it is hard to be stressed in such a peaceful place.

This is one of my larger paintings, 16x20.

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Calm River, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

Sometimes I don't see certain things until I have posted them. In this case, I have to laugh because I notice that the rocks that are just below the surface in the river look a bit like a body. I don't suppose that's a selling point...or is it?

I am looking at the work I have scheduled to upload in the next week or so, and it looks like I dabble in everything. My previous post was collage, this one is an impressionistic oil, coming next are a watercolor, an abstract, then a 16x20 landscape. All that's lacking is one of my cartoons. Hmmm...there's an idea.

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The Loons, 10x10 Collage on Canvas

I saw these beautiful loons when I was in a boat on Big Lake in Alaska. Hearing their mournful calls from far away is quite nice, but they have some other calls that are not as appealing. Male and female loons look alike, but the male is a bit larger. They can dive to depths of 32 yards and can stay submerged for fifteen minutes. That's my loon lesson for the day.

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Summer Fun, 6x6 Oil on Canvas

What a great feeling, having the water go back out, dragging sand between your toes. There is nothing more exhilarating for a boy than going to the beach.

By the way, I am now convinced my husband can fix anything. Our car was stuck in reverse, wouldn't go into drive. He said, "The linkage is slipping," and he got under the hood and fixed it with two zip ties. That is one handy man to have around.

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Shades of the Forties, 5x7 Oil on Canvas Board

My friend Donna was visiting England during a commemoration of the Blitz, those terrible times when the country was under attack. People in Haworth, England dressed in 1940s clothing and had a big celebration. It looked very authentic, since the village has not changed much in appearance since long before 1940, which is one of the things I love about England.

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Dream Boat, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Board

Going for a dreamy effect here, because the original scene was quite dull, in very flat light. In reviewing my work of the past two weeks, it looks like I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

I used to have a friend who would say, "When you grow up, you grow old, when you grow old, you die." Let's hear it for immaturity!

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Blue Funk, 5x7 Acrylic Abstract on Canvas Board

I see this as coming out of the blues into the light. This is an experimental work, using a stamp, pouring,   painting, and spattering. In other words, it was a lot of fun. Daily Painter Karen Margulis calls it a "detour" in her blog this week. It's good for the artistic soul every now and then.

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Ocean Shadow, 18x24 Oil on Canvas

It amazes me that the colors of the ocean are different every day. Sometimes this same view is quite turquoise, but that would be on a calm and sunny day. Other times the sunrises are so vibrant that it's no use to paint them as they really look--they just don't look real.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the the streams flow, there they flow again. 

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Ecclesiastes 1:7

Girl in the Butterfly Garden, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel

How much fun is a butterfly garden? This one had every color of butterfly, including green. The girl's pose really struck me, it is so typical of a young girl.

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The dreaded political ad season is upon us and I am disgusted already. I would like to refer politicians (especially those who claim to be saintly) to Proverbs 6:16-19:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Suzanne, 8x12 Graphite Drawing

I took this one right off my wall, since I haven't had time to paint anything new this week. This is a graphite drawing of my youngest daughter Suzanne. Not for sale, of course.