Oil Painting, Twisted Sister, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board, Sedona, Arizona Landscape

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This tree was on a trail that goes up from the Airport Vortex in Sedona, Arizona. We walked the trail until it became so narrow and hazardous that we wisely turned back. The view was breathtaking, and so was the thin air. Below is my husband enjoying the view from the wide part of the trail.

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

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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.

Red Grapes, 5x7 Still Life Oil on Panel

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This Spring weather just makes me want to be outside. I think it's time for some plein air painting. We don't have a very extreme "change of season" here in Florida, but my yard certainly comes to life. I have one Frangipani tree with leaves and no blooms, and a huge one with blooms and no leaves. Very odd. 

Been thinking of new challenges for the Pieces of 8 painting group. How about ten-minute plein air paintings? That sounds hard. Just what we need!

Carmen

White Hydrangeas, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Panel, Floral Painting

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I had painted this in a different color scheme, and it never appealed to me. Every time I looked at it, something went ick in my head. This was the previous version:

I didn't like the rusty color. I'm just not a rusty person. Creaky, maybe, but not rusty. I decided to give the painting a makeover. I barely touched the flowers themselves, but look how different they appear by changing the colors around them. 

Carmen

English Roses, 6x6 Oil Painting on Panel

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This is a repeat of an earlier post. I struggled with the photo of this garden painting, because it had a pinkish hue for some reason. It has bothered me ever since, so I took the photo again and finally got a better reproduction of the painting. I don't know why color in some images is harder to capture.

One of the problems with selling paintings online is that not every monitor shows colors the same way. I had a customer complain that her painting had some orange touches in it and she doesn't like orange; however, on my computer the orange is very apparent.  One customer out of hundreds can adversely affect a seller's rating, as this one buyer did for mine, and her comments didn't even match her rating. The lesson I learned from that is that when I am trying to decide between two sellers and one of them has four stars and the other five stars, it doesn't mean a thing. 

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Tomatoes and Garlic, 5x7 Oil on Canvas Original Still Life Painting

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Here are two staples of life, tomatoes and garlic. I had an Italian grandmother but she didn't like to cook. She was more of a career woman, darn my bad luck.

I have a new web page that is very user-friendly. Below is a screen shot of my home page. I highly recommend my designer, FileFish Web Design --very affordable and easy to work with.

Carmen

Flight, 5x7 Oil Painting on Canvas Panel, Seascape with Bird

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This shot was so lucky--it's so hard to see what you're shooting with a digital camera when facing the sun. It was early morning, and I caught this pelican flying solo right in front of the sun, as though in a spotlight. I am posting the original photo below just to prove it. Another problem with a digital camera is that photos that are facing the sun tend to darken everything around the bright light, so I added color in my painting to compensate for that. The photo is not a black-and-white shot in spite of the way it looks.

Alexandra, 5x7 Oil Painting on Canvas, Scene in English Garden

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My sister took this picture of our friend Alexandra during the week of her wedding. I was struck by the colors, the pose, and her reflection in the water (I'm a sucker for reflections). I broke the rules of composition by placing her smack in the middle top half of the picture, and I like it. Her beautiful red hair is the piece de resistance.

Carmen

Pretty in Pink, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Panel Wildlife Painting

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This was a commission to do flamingos, and I always enjoy using my favorite color. Lately I feel surrounded by pink; as I drove up to my house the other day it struck me just how much pink is going on in my front yard. I have a very large frangipani tree and clumps of pink lilies blooming; it looks like the wedding scene in "Steel Magnolias." 

Castaway Point, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Panel, Plein Air Painting

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My painting group, Pieces of 8, is doing weekly challenges and the challenge for this week was to paint en plein air, using four tubes of paint only. We were at a beautiful spot called Castaway Point, and there were so many lovely views. It is surprising how many colors can be made with three colors and white. Makes me wonder why I have so many different colors in my paint box. I do notice that my painting is a bit softer than usual, and I am not sure if it was because of the paint colors, the bright sunshine, or my canvas being in the shade. 

Texas Bluebonnets, 8x10 Oil on Canvas

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Van Gogh would have liked these flowers. They are pretty ornate, with little white dots all over them, so the big decision is: how much detail? I may go back and put a bit of blue in the sky, even though there wasn't any, just so the painting doesn't seem quite so divided into three parts. 

Carmen

Red Glass with Roses, 8x10 Oil Painting on Canvas

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Carol Schiff recently posted on her blog about her two paintings that got the most page views. This made me curious, so I looked up which post got the most page views for my blog. To my astonishment, it was one called "Oh, My Aching Back, My Whiny Post" showing the below cartoon and talking about my back going out. I have been analyzing this and have come to the conclusion that there are more painful backs than there are art collectors. Perhaps I should call my blog "The Art of the Aching Back" to attract more visitors? 

Copper Pot with Apple, 10x8 Oil on Canvas

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Taking a break from my San Miguel series to post a still life. This one was started in the Qiang Huang workshop in Melbourne. I have been so pleased to get thank-you notes from some of the people attending the class. Learning from Qiang is a very enriching experience, and some people came from a long distance and were glad they did. It's so gratifying when all the effort to put on a workshop is appreciated.

Blue Pots, 8x6 Oil on Canvas

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I love the colors of Mexico. This is Number Five in my series of paintings of San Miguel de Allende, and it almost has a Florida Gators orange-and-blue look (but not quite). Spanish style houses are my favorites, especially if they have beautiful courtyards. In San Miguel there are no front yards or sweeping lawns, but the casas' openness and courtyards make it feel as if you are very comfortably living outdoors.

San Miguel Sunset, 8x6 Oil on Canvas

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Our rooftop garden in San Miguel Allende was a delightful place to unwind at the end of the day, and the sunsets were beautiful. I loved the rosebud silhouetted against the sky. The rooftop garden held roses, bougainvilleas, margaritas, and good company.

San Miguel de Allende, 6x8 Oil on Canvas

Casa Gibson, Oil, SOLD

I just returned from a wonderful vacation in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where my sister and I enjoyed a pampered life for a week. We stayed at Casa Gibson, along with eight very accomplished women, including psychologists and diplomats. They were so much fun. We had a great time watching the Oscars together and criticizing all the dresses.

We were in a tower room in the villa. The views of the city were spectacular. We took a drive to Santa Rosa, through countryside that looked as though Clint Eastwood would ride up wearing a serape. Santa Rosa is a tiny little village with a wonderful place that makes Majolica pottery. We shopped and shopped...

My New Favorite Person is Veronica, the cook who provided us delicious meals morning, noon and night. I made it very clear to her that Mi Casa Su Casa.

Veronica and Effie (assistant cook/maid)

White Hydrangeas, 6x8 Oil on Canvas

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These flowers always remind me of my grandmother, who could grow anything. She was completely in sync with nature, unbothered by the snake in the garden. She was surrounded by flowers, birds and butterflies. She was like a heroine in a Disney movie, with beautiful things fluttering around her. I really miss being able to get her advice about how to grow a certain plant. I quoted her so often that when I lived in Bermuda, one of my neighbors asked me, "What does your grandmother say about planting this tree?" I replied, "Don't put a ten-dollar plant in a five-dollar hole."

My friend Qiang Huang had a quotable line on his blog the other day: "There is no shortcut in art. You just have to paint more." To all you Daily Painters: Rock On!

Pardon My Back, 24x18 Oil on Canvas

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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.

Rites of Spring, 18 x 24 Oil Painting

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I went to the beach on a fine Spring day, and after a hard Florida winter (ha ha), everyone had the same idea. The water was this incredible turquoise color and the whole atmosphere was just exhilarating. I am so lucky to live here.

Highway 70, 10x8 Oil on Canvas

It seems that every time I travel this highway there is a big rainstorm and my favorite light happens, that dark gray sky with the foreground bright green (after all, it is Florida, where I have seen it rain in the front yard and not in the back yard). A little while farther there was blinding rain, then a while after that, sun! It's kind of like life, isn't it?

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