Red Tanager, 8x10 Original Oil Painting

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Not much to tell, was just in the mood to paint a little bird.

Carmen

Florida Surf Scene, 8x10 Oil Painting on Canvas

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 As mentioned in my previous post, Mary Gilkerson's Art+Work+Living.com web page periodically has a five-day challenge to do a painting in 20 minutes. This is such a good exercise, especially for daily painters. I stuck to the time limit to produce this ocean scene. The horizontal dark lines were exactly as depicted.

Carmen

Palms and Pastel Houses, 12x9 Original Landscape Painting

 

$135

I used to live in a pink house in Bermuda, and the address was Diamond Cottage on Suffering Lane. No house number, the houses just had names and the street name. The house was nice, but the pink was Pepto-Bismol pink. I like this pink house much better.

Carmen

    

Beach Memory, Original Oil Painting Tropical Island Scene

 $145

This photo reminds me of time spent on Elbow Cay in the Abacos Islands. No cars are allowed, and my daughter and I explored every square inch of the island. We even found an abandoned hotel. There were so many flowers blooming brilliantly in the little main street in town that my daughter called it Electric Avenue.

Carmen

Are YOU Talking to ME? Chicken painting oil on canvas 8x8 inches

Are YOU Talking to ME? 

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I love the comical look that chickens can have, and this one made me think of Robert di Niro's classic scene in Taxi Driver. Sometimes the title comes before the painting.

This is painted on gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed.

This was my entry for the monthly challenge on the Pieces of 8 blog. Click here to view the other very clever entries.

Carmen

Summer Sunrise Oil Painting on Canvas 24x18 Ocean Art

I decided it was time to paint something larger, a dramatic sunrise. I live across from the ocean, so there's no reason not to paint a sunrise. 

When I'm not painting I seem to be gardening more and more. I've come to realize that I am an Overgardener. By this I mean that I get so carried away planting things that I create a garden that I can barely take care of. This is not my fault; it is what my family calls "The Chulie Gene." My grandmother, who the whole world called Chulie, had a nursery, and she knew everything about plants. This gene runs through the family, and if you ever see my daughter Suzanne's posts on Facebook about her plants, you will know what I mean. She can grow vegetables, something I fail at. I specialize in weeds and flowers, both of which are thriving in my yard.

Carmen

Jungle Garden, Original Oil Painting on Canvas 8x10 Florida Garden

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I love mysterious garden paths through jungle-like gardens. What exotic plant is around the next corner? There were bromeliads galore in this garden.

Carmen

Young Cardinal, 6x8 Oil Painting, Wildlife Art

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This was an experiment, adding punch to this painting with vivid color. Baby birds are just so cute, especially when all fluffed up.

Carmen

Beach Birds, 14x11 Seascape on Canvas Panel

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I enjoyed painting this bright and airy beach scene. The birds were very busy that day. This is an original oil painting on canvas panel, 11x14 inches, signed and ready to frame. 

Carmen

Sunday at the Beach, 8x6 Oil on Canvas

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The beach in Ft Lauderdale was packed with people when we were there, and it was exhilarating to see all the colors and the overall cheery brightness happening. South Florida is so beautiful.

Carmen

Beets, 8x6 Oil on Canvas Panel, Still Life on Purple

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My husband and I had a little getaway this weekend, to South Florida. We stopped off at Palm Beach's Worth Avenue, which I call Net Worth Avenue. That area has the largest concentration of billionaires on Earth, according to the hype. It certainly has the largest concentration of Bentleys. They were everywhere.

Worth Avenue ends at the beach, and it is a very beautiful beach at that. The water was gorgeous-- blue and turquoise--and I got some good photos there and in Ft. Lauderdale. I'll be doing some beach paintings soon.

Carmen

Silver River, 10x8 Original Oil Painting on Canvas Panel

$125, Click to Purchase

Our artists group, Pieces of 8, went on a retreat to Silver Springs State Park in Ocala, Florida. I first went there as a six-year-old with my parents and watched Ross Allen milk rattlesnakes. Though he is gone, the glass bottom boats are still there, and we enjoyed looking down into the depths of the river, where the springs produce 55 million gallons of water per day. 

Silver Springs had gotten a bit shabby after Disney got all the attention as a major attraction in Florida, but the state has taken it over and made it into a lovely place to visit. The cabins are wonderful. They are air-conditioned and have big porches. There are hiking trails and a surprisingly good museum in the campground area. The above painting is at the end of the Swamp Trail.

As an added bonus, the Appleton Art Museum is five minutes away, and it is fabulous. We were very surprised at the quality of art it contains. 

Below are a couple of photos from our trip.

On the Porch at Our Cabin

View of a Spring

Hydrangea, 6x6 Oil on Canvas

Hydrangeas are very hard to paint. Each one is like a bouquet. They grow in lush profusion in Washington State, in colors I never knew possible. This is the most common Hydrangea, and I like the complementary colors with the lavender and green.

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Flowers are the alphabets of angels, whereby they write on the fields and hills mysterious truths. ---

-Benjamin Franklin

Rainier and Flowers, 6x6 Oil on Canvas

Big news: Contemporary Fine Arts International just posted an interview with me on their site, at http://www.cfai.co/colors-on-my-palette/carmen-beecher/. Also, I was awarded third place in their Tropical Days art challenge.

My husband and I just visited the Pacific Northwest, along with my Pieces of 8 buddy Denette and her husband. What a wonderful time we had! I visited my family there and we went to Crystal Mountain, where the above picture was taken. A gondola took us up the mountain, where we saw five volcanoes from our vantage point. It was amazing. I have never seen anything so spectacular.

Those are not wildflowers; they were cultivated, but there were plenty of wildflowers, too, including masses of lupine.

The Happy Group

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.

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