Ramshackle, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

This was a pristine farm except for this old shed, which I thought was the most interesting building on the property. The Olympic Peninsula boasts magnificent rocky shores and lush rain forests, but there are also pastoral scenes like this.

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Waterlily, 7x5 Oil on Canvas

I've been posting vistas, so here's a change of pace--a closeup of a waterlily. I do quite a variety of subjects, but I do seem to lean toward landscapes and seascapes. Every now and then it's good to get a bit closer in. This is a redo of a painting I did years ago and I just like the dramatic value contrasts.

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Cascade Mountains, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

This scenery in Washington State just takes my breath away. We were above the clouds, in clear, crisp air, and we saw lupine and beargrass flowers blooming. The views were spectacular. At the very top of this little-traveled road we met two girls who were volunteers in a watch tower. They were as enthusiastic about the place as if they had not spent the cold night in a flimsy structure on top of a mountain. That's exactly who we want watching our forests!

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Yellow Buoy, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

I'll be painting the Northwests' mountains and rocky shores in a few days, but I liked this little boat so much that I just felt like painting it yesterday. It was in a calm bay with no mist (we saw a lot of mist) and bright sunlight.

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Below are some pages from my journal depicting some of the things we saw during our trip. I added a running theme of coffee and ice cream, which provided sustenance quite frequently.

Near the Shore, 6x6 Oil Painting

The light, color, and movement of the ocean is different every day, and I never tire of walking on the beach and studying it. I used to live in the Azores, where people would sit by a wall and just stare out at the sea. I thought they were dreaming of escaping their small island and going somewhere else, but maybe they were just doing what I do--watching the ocean.

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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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Brass Bowl, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Board

The only thing that would make this painting harder would be to add a lemon. This was the result of the Qiang Huang workshop, which was a fabulous experience. If you like a challenge, try painting pewter, glass, brass and fruit in one painting, like this one.

I painted one yesterday 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.

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Radishes, 8x10 Oil on Canvas Board

I'm so dull-witted today that I can't think of a clever title for this. I'm wondering if the ringing in my ears constitutes "white noise?" Anyway, I loved painting these radishes. They have so much color and personality. Look at that hairdo.

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Calm Harbor, 9x12 Oil on Canvas Board

It was a mostly gloomy day when our plein air workshop painted this scene. It gave everything a very serene look.

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House of Blue, 5x7 Oil on Canvas Board

Apparently I'm in my Blue Period, having painted a blue frog, a blue birdie, and now this. I was in Larry Moore's plein air workshop and we were at Ballard Park yesterday, a gorgeous location on the water in Melbourne, Florida. Well, what a day! There was a regatta of little sailboats as well as a pirate ship. Out of the pirate ship came--what else? a pirate, in full regalia. Larry immediately began painting a portrait of him, and it was wonderful. Oh, and the pirate had--what else? a parrot. You never know what you'll see around here.

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Larry Paints a Pirate with a Parrot with Painterly Perfection

Succulence, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Board

This was another still life setup painted with my painting group, Pieces of 8. We have so much fun painting together--almost as much fun as lunch afterward.

I am so happy to announce that I am now on the site dailypainters.com, along with some of the greatest daily painters on the internet!

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Sunshine Collection, 8x10

These are Florida oranges, the kind that make juice without fungicide. Why would we want to import such stuff when we have these? Buy Florida!

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Little Teapot, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Board

The Pieces of 8 group did a still life last week, all painting the same setup. I tried to be impressionistic, but wasn't sure how to handle the stripes. I hope I got it right. The temptation to nitpick is strong.

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Red House, 6x8

An alternate title for this would be "Summer's End." The inner tubes are stacked on the dock and the leaves are turning. This house is up the road from artist Carol Schiff's house in North Carolina. I can't imagine having a bright red house, but it looks just right in this setting.

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Nashville Cats, 8x6

After the Pieces of 8 art retreat in the Smokies, my husband picked me up and we drove across Tennessee to Nashville, where we visited with my granddaughter who is attending Vanderbilt, my niece and her family, and my songwriter friend Bobby Braddock and his family. Bobby wrote the country hits "He Stopped Loving Her Today, Time Marches On, and more recently, "People Are Crazy," as well as many others.

On the way to Nashville we stopped to see friends who told this story: their daughter was teaching a Sunday School class of little tots and she asked if anyone wanted to lead the prayer. A little boy volunteered. He bowed his head and reverently prayed: "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy."

I enjoyed sharing that with the writer of the song. 

This painting is of Broadway in Nashville, with historic Tootsie's Orchid Lounge prominently featured. You have to love a city where guys walk around with guitars and music is everywhere. This one didn't qualify as a "daily painting," it was too complicated and took two days to complete.

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Corncrib, 8x8

The Pieces of 8 went to the Oconluftee Visitors Center in Cherokee at the entrance to the Smokies, where we painted farm buildings. This was a corncrib in pioneer days, and it is completely painted on location. I didn't touch it in the studio. That was really an accomplishment for me, because one always wants to nitpick and perhaps destroy the spontaneity. The visitors center is wonderful, with recordings of mountain people talking about their very colorful lives.

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Big Splash, 8x10

I've traveled a lot this Fall, and I hardly know what to paint next. This is a view from the cliffs of Prout's Neck, Maine, Winslow Homer's stomping ground. It's so much more dramatic than our beach here in Florida, except during hurricanes.

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Neon Mountains, 8x10

I can truthfully say that these were the brightest trees I've ever seen. They just glowed. It was pretty exciting for someone from Florida. This is the first of my paintings from our artists' retreat this year. My group, Pieces of 8, goes to the mountains every year, and we hit it right at peak color this time. Glorious!

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Whirlpool

This is third in my "Agua" series. After this one I will get back to the real world and start posting paintings from my recent travels in Maine, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

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Street in Venice, 8x10 after John Singer Sargent

I copied this Sargent painting because I liked its mysterious air and because I felt I could learn from it. The two characters on the right look a bit shifty, if you ask me. Sargent spent a lot of time in Venice, as any artist should. It is a completely unique place now as it was then, Old-Worldly beautiful.

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