Brass Bowl, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel, Still Life

Purchase

The only thing that would make this painting harder would be to add a lemon. You can see the influence of Qiang Huang in this one. If you like a challenge, try painting pewter, glass, brass and fruit in one painting, like this one.

The other day I painted one that was a "scraper." I don't often scrape a painting away, but the one yesterday deserved it. A large part of a still life painting is the actual setup, and I should have known the pot was too bright yellow and the spotlight too far away. The irises were beautiful, but they got scraped too. Darn yellow pot. Not every painting has a happy ending.

Carmen

The Kayakers in Progress

When I get a minute to myself, I will finish this painting and put the steps together as a slide show. This has been an impossibly busy time for me, what with appointmentsPenWomenLuncheonpaintingdemoPiecesof8meetingMothersDayhousechoresetc! It all runs together.

A perfect Mother's Day gift would be: drop me in a shady spot by the river with my painting equipment and come back in three hours. So, for our May 12 Pieces of 8 Challenge, that's what we are going to do. And with only four tubes of paint. This will be followed by lunch and a nap. Plein air painting is exhausting in a very good way.

Pardon My Back, 24x18 Oil on Canvas

SOLD

This is the first in a series and it's a bigger painting than I usually post. I didn't pose these birds, they were standing exactly like this, so this was one of those paintings that got named before I started it.

While in the Everglades I got to see plenty of mangroves, mangrove forests and mangrove islands. What fascinating trees they are. They thrive in salty environments because they are able to obtain fresh water from saltwater. Some secrete excess salt through their leaves, and others block absorption of  salt at their roots. Their intricate root design makes a protective nursery for tiny marine life.

Creek Flowers, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

Robert Genn wrote in his blog PainterKeys.com about challenging students to paint a landscape in either 37 minutes or 37 strokes. I tried both, and above is the one I painted in 37 minutes. This was a fantastic exercise for loosening up, thinking more simply, and as the master Qiang Huang says, painting mindfully. I am pleased with the result.  

PURCHASE

Below is the one I first painted in 37 strokes, and that just didn't work. That is very few strokes; the trees used up 14 strokes. When I finished it looked like a first-grader did it, so I went on and noodled around with it a bit until it resembled something. It is the same scene I painted in my previous post dated June 19, with a lot more strokes. Next time I try this I'll make it a simpler landscape. I'm not thrilled with this one, but I'm not giving up. It's also good practice for painting greens, and who doesn't need that?

Hobbitat, 9x12 Oil Painting

I call this Hobbitat because it looks like Hobbits would live there. It is a cool, lush forest and that road leads to some interesting places. No Hobbit sightings, though. Yet.

PURCHASE

Green Forest, 5X7 Oil on Board

Greens can be so difficult to get right. This was a cool forest with bright meadows, and is the preliminary to a larger painting of the same area.

PURCHASE 

Chikins, 5x7 Oil

Chickens are fun to paint. There is something comical about the way they strut around, not unlike the way some people walk. It's nice that the one in back buried its head in the straw so that our attention is drawn to the more colorful lady in front. I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out.

 SOLD

Lydia at a Tapestry Loom, 24x18 oil on canvas

This is a direct copy of a Mary Cassatt painting done in the 1800s. My painting group, Pieces of 8, did copies of masters as a learning experience, and I went on to copy Sargent, Gauguin,Van Gogh and Homer. This was time very well-spent. My last post was a copy, too, which I neglected to mention.

 PURCHASE

Three of us Pieces of 8 members took Dianna Gessler's journaling workshop last Monday, and had a great time wandering around Cocoa Village sketching and painting. I am flush with ideas, and hope I remember them when I have some time! Check out our efforts by clicking here.  

Near the Falls, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel

This is such a peaceful spot, the stream just trickling by. However, a few yards further down there is a spot that looks completely calm, even though it is a prelude to a huge waterfall. I feel sorry for the first person to ever discover this. Below is the waterfall, and if you look closely you can see two foolhardy youth who later jumped in.

PURCHASE

Teeny Birdie, 4x4 Collage

I thought I'd see how small a collage I could make. This is only 4x4 inches. It's on stretched canvas and needs no frame.

 SOLD

Oceansong, 18x24

This was a real challenge. I painted this from a phone photo. I don't think I will be doing that again. I was reminded of how much fun it is to paint larger, and I need to do that more.

To enjoy this as a jigsaw puzzle, click here.

NFS

Surf Spray, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

I've been wondering where my email has been disappearing to. I have finally learned that I am getting the opposite of Spam. My good mail from frequent correspondents has been going into my Spam folder in Earthlink, then getting deleted after a few days. Even more mysterious, I still get more Spam than a prison cafeteria. It took two hours with Earthlink to figure this out, and then I had to change each and every person in my address book individually from "Unknown" to "Known." Ah, technology. How did people I have gotten email from for ten years magically become "Unknown" in Earthlink?

If I have neglected to respond to anyone, I apologize. My seascape illustrates the mood I was in after this aggravation. 

PURCHASE

Mangroves, 6x8

Here are mangroves, reaching down to the water to establish a foothold and do their good work in the Indian River. I love them; their weirdness, their beauty, their usefulness.

PURCHASE

Beach Rocks, 6x6

This is a bit more peaceful than my last one. Water is the most soothing subject to paint, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm fortunate to live near the ocean (except for the high insurance rates).

PURCHASE

Study in Umber, 6x6

I love the challenges posted on Daily Paintworks. This was fun, basically a three-value study done in burnt umber. I painted it at our weekly Pieces of 8 painting group, and I only brought my tube of burnt umber. I had some spare time to do another piece, but no paint. This presented another challenge. I used my friend Donna's palette to paint "Tired Pear" which I posted previous to this one. Using someone else's paints is a very interesting experience, since we all use different colors on our palettes. It was also two different approaches to the same subject.

BUY

Little Pitcher, 7x5

This was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. I enjoy my handmade objects, especially pottery.

BUY

Wind Dancers, 5x7

Some people paint a little picture like this as a 'warmup.' Mine was more of a cooldown, after painting something a bit detailed. These flowers reminded me of people dancing exuberantly and joyfully.

BUY

Cypress Knees, 5x7

Cypress trees are so pretty, and their knobby knees are so interesting. Lamps made of the knees used to be all the rage...long, long ago. These were growing at Rock City Gardens.

BUY

Spoonbill Resting, 5x7

Yet another Spoonbill in the Everglades. This was a study for a large painting. He looks a bit depressed, but who wouldn't, with a big spoon for a mouth?

SOLD

Rocky Shore, 5x7

I'm so lucky to live near the beach. Of course, it's hurricane season and we are expecting eight-foot waves this week from hurricanes offshore, and we worry from August until December about being slammed again. I'll look on the bright side and get some good wave pictures to paint this week.

SOLD