Everyone's Going Somewhere

"Lavender Fields, Forever"

7x5    $95

So many of my fellow daily painters have been painting French, Italian & Cape Cod scenes, I was starting to feel left out.  So today, I packed my paints and headed to Provence (not literally).  I can just image sitting under an umbrella at the edge of the field, the sun shining brightly, drinking a glass of wine & painting.  What a beautiful thought, too bad, reality is it's September in the south, high humidity, it's raining and the bottle is empty.  Oh, such a wonderful, brief escape.  Where do you want to escape?

Looking Foward to Spring?

"On the Tour"

SOLD

This is a piece I did earlier this year and was based on  a photo from one of my favorite cities, Charleston, SC.  In the spring, I'm planning to meet with a girlfriend from California and introduce her to this quintessential southern city.  So California girl meets the south.  Her name is Julie Hill and is a fellow daily painter.  We connected through our blogs and over the last 6 months have become good friends.  We've never met in person but talk several times a day, so this will be the first time we actually met.  Let's hope she can survive the humidity, southern accents and grits.  Looking forward to it! 

Working With What You Got

"Nectarine & Carnations"

7x5     $95

Teaching 5 oil painting classes a week has offered big lessons for me almost every time.  It has helped reinforce the fundamentals as I paint, pushing me to paint either something I don't want to or paint when I don't necessarily feel like it.   Several of my classes have been painting only in gray scale all week.  I've done demos in gray scale, no problem.  Today might haven taken the cake.  When I went to the store on Monday to gather my fruit & flowers, the choices were not great but since it was to be painted in gray scale, I didn't concern myself with the color.  However, today I did a demo in color.  Let's just say that pink carnations, nectarines & a turquoise drape are a bit of a challenge to harmonize in a painting.  Maybe next week we'll paint donuts! Oh, and did I mention, I didn't have the panel size I really needed?

20 Minutes

"Last of Summer"

7x5   $95

What do you do with less than 30 minutes to spare & watermelon that is lovely but not so tasty?  Of course, you paint!  Normally, I wouldn't consider going to my easel with such a little amount of time but I'm glad it did.  It forced me to quickly note on the canvas what was in front of me.  Just grabbing the essence and nothing else.  It feels a little unfinished but very direct and fresh.  Which is exactly what I want my paintings to convey.  I highly recommend setting a timer and seeing what happens. 





Property Management - SOLD!!

"Passing By"

6x6  Sold

This painting was a bit of a challenge...eliminated 3 buildings on left and one on the right.  I believe that the  owner was certainly more interested in the functionality of his property that the aesthetics.  I, of course, felt that he should move or eliminate a few things.  Guess that's the good thing about being an artist, I can rearrange to suit my purposes.   That has to be much better than knocking on one of his "many" doors and saying..."Hi, I'm an artist" and I can help you reconfigure your property.  Much safer too! 

Testing the Limits

"White House"

6x6     $95

I evidently like to really push my own buttons.  I left my studio today without my best & favorite brushes, no palette knife & only had a few colors (not my regular palette) at home.  Nothing like trying to test my limits and my humor (evidently I brought that home).  So if you're wondering who painted this piece, I can say in all honesty it was...my blonde alter ego.  She's more colorful, lacking some brain cells and really likes the purple/pink combination. Woohoo!!!!!!  So cheers to a good week & lots of strong liquor.  Some good blonde jokes seem in order.  Who's got some?

When Did He Grow Up?

"Father & Son"

6x6   $95

Yesterday my nephew turned 11.  Where did the time go?  When he was born I was just barely getting back into my art after leaving the corporate world.  Time marches on, things change, growth happens but thankfully some things stay the same.  He still crawls into bed with me early in the morning, gently tapping me on the shoulder to let me know he's arrived, he still beats me at "Trouble" and he still talks (not grunts) to me.  We've had these constants in our life since he was old enough to crawl out of his crib.  I realized that it's time to start painting my niece & nephew again to capture the memories.  He's just lucky I don't have a picture of him dancing in his diapers.  Happy Belated Birthday, H! 

P.S.  His sister is next!

Hump Day - SOLD!

"Over the Dam"

SOLD

It seems this week is neverending.  Getting back into a regular schedule of teaching is tough but as I always say..."My worst day at the studio is always better than my very best day in my previous corporate job".  Thank goodness I dropped out of the rat race!  If you are lucky enough to be an artist, enjoy every minute of  it.  Happy Hump Day!

Sibling Rivalry, Sorta!

"Tomatoes, Study"

Oil on Paper

6x12    $175

Julie Hill, a dear friend, also painted tomatoes today.  We didn't know this until we emailed each other our paintings.   We think we were separated a birth.  My official take, she kicked me out earlier to go make discoveries and report back.  That's how I can resolve the few years in age difference.  I wasn't going to post this piece except that Julie wouldn't leave me alone until I did.  You know how younger siblings are...pester, pester, pester.  Go check out her site and pester her for me, please!!!!!!

Playing with Paper II

"Pears & Grapes"

Oil on Paper

10x10   Reserved

Here's another in a series of paintings that I've been doing on paper.  This painting has an luminosity that I like but still haven't quite "hit" the mark.  Somehow it is tighter than I wanted and I'm missing some thickness of paint.  I'm trying to be very direct in my approach and getting the essence of the subject.  Not sure I will stay with the paper but it certainly has pushed me to not overwork the subject.  Any thoughts?