Sunday, October 31, 2010

No photograph, but wanted to share

Yesterday I started a class with 5 students
called 'Critique and Discussion'. Five students
was the maximum number I thought would
work well. And it did! Very well.

Each person spoke about their background
in art, starting with their childhood endeavors.
It was fascinating to hear how each one had
been affected by their family and environments.
BUT what was even more interesting was that
each one had this nugget of interest in creating
art in place from an early age and it was not
because of anyone else, but was their own
possession, if you will. Their family and
environment affected them, but still, it was
theirs to begin with.

Then we all participated in critiquing the art
they brought for that purpose. The spirit of
help and interest was fabulous. I am looking
forward to next week and more of this high-
level experience!

Maybe I'll even have a photograph for you!

Friday, October 29, 2010

The show!


Here are two shots of the recent show
done together with my sister who
designs and makes jewelry. It was
a good show for us both and we were
happy to see the return of some folks
as well as new people to our show.
Here you have a shot of some of my
sister's display area and then a work
in progress on my easel.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Small painting of beach bunny!

This is my definition of sun-kissed
sweetness! What a darling girl,
daughter of a friend of mine. I was
with them all at the beach and this
is one of my favorite shots of that
lovely week.
Oil painting on panel 5" x 7"
It's in the show coming up!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Small painting of wicker chair

This pretty old wicker chair is in a house on the
grounds of Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.
Have a seat in the lovely surroundings...its from
a time gone by, but I think it evokes something
quite special and relaxing which perhaps the
viewer will experience when looking at this piece.
5" x 7" oil on panel. "The Wicker Chair"

Small painting of Butterfly #2

I took a lot of photos of my tree hydrangea and so
have a lot of great material to paint. Here is yet
another one. The way I would shoot these photos
is that I would drive into my driveway and be very
close to the flowering branches. They were loaded
with bees and all manner of flying insects and
butterflies. It was a great vantage point to get
the pictures.
By the way, my son tells me that this is an
Eastern tiger swallowtail!
It is also another 5" x 7" on a panel.
All of these small paintings will be in my upcoming
show, but if you are interested in any of them,
contact me. They are $175 plus s & h.
They take 4 - 6 hours to do, plus varnishing and
framing! Frames are included by the way.

Small painting of southwest scene




When I visited Arizona some time ago, I was
delighted with the crispness of shadows that
were so strong they were almost objects in
themselves.
This is another small work I did recently -
5" x 7" on a panel. Oil and alkyd paint.

Monday, October 18, 2010

My sister's jewelry



Just a small sampling of my sister's beautiful
work that she designs and makes.

Small painting of small child!

Thank you all for sending me your
wonderful email comments about
these small paintings. I really appreciate
it very much. Now to get you to comment
ON the blog itself! Please! Help!
This darling child was listening to
music not far from her parents.
It was a lovely setting at Longwood
Gardens on a perfect summer day.
I love her little chubby hand on the
stone wall and her fuzzy fine hair
which her mom had in a sort of up-do!
5" x 7" Oil painting on panel.

Small painting-Butterfly #1

This summer my tree hydrangea was visited by
so many lovely winged creatures. Here is one of
them. I had so much fun painting this I had to
do two more.
5' x 7' alkyd painting on panel.
I hope some of you who have seen these small
works will post your comments as well as sending
me your lovely emails!
Thank you so much for your interest and support
of my artistic endeavors.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Small painting of gate

I'm hoping to dazzle you all with my many small
paintings for my upcoming show at my studio!
I did this subject years ago in watercolor. I recently
looked at the photo and fell in love with it all
over again. It was fun to do it with oil/alkyd paint
and to use a painting knife for some of the effects
on the gate posts. The color subtleties are quite
challenging, but interesting.
(The spelling of 'subtleties' is the same!)
Remember you can click on the image to see the
details!
Again, this is a 5" x 7" panel and I think I have to
call it "Williamsburg gate". Any other ideas?

Friday, October 15, 2010

Small work - Bench and sprinklers

Here's another of my latest paintings. Again, it's
5" x 7" and on a panel. This one is mostly oil paint,
not alkyd. I had started it a while ago, but just
completed it recently doing the water reflection
effects. Fussy work, but I love it. I think this
painting took as long as any of them. Getting that
bench right was a challenge!
This is a bench in front of the DeYoung Museum
in San Francisco. Quite a fantastic building.

Small painting of fuschia

This is yet another of my recent small works.
I keep photographs of many things I see in life and
on such occasions as painting a whole series of small
works, I get them out and go for it!
I enjoy the use of complementary colors such as
the orange-blue combination you see here.
This is 5" x 7" on a panel and is an alkyd painting.
Now thatI am down to the wire on time, I
incorporate the use of alkyd paint. It dries much
faster than oil because of the medium used to
make the paint. But in all other respects it is the
same as oil paint.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Small painting of crystal glass

I have been trying for days to find the
photos I took of my small paintings!
Today I did and here is one of them.
This is a 5 x 7 inch oil painting.
The middle background section is
actually silver oil paint which I use
now and then very sparingly.
For those of you who
may think silver or gold paint is what
you use to show reflections, it isn't!
The top part of the background is
actually really black, though it is
hard to photograph it to look that
way because of light that bounces
off the surface.
I think I'll call it 'Crystal Beauty'.
What do you think?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Never showed you this one

While I am working away at my small pieces and trying to
get them to post to this blog (issues with my program to
upload them), I am showing this commissioned piece.
This is a work in acrylic. It is 3 feet by 5 feet. I had so much
fun with it. I did it on unstretched canvas so I could roll it up
and ship it to Texas where it now resides. It was stapled on
a strip of wood that hung on a few nails. This was important
because some of what I did to it needed to be done on the
floor. And some of what I did to it was done on the wall.
With that system that I devised, I could easily take it off and
put it back on the wall as I worked on it back and forth.
I look forward to your comments!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Where have I been?

Hello everyone,

I have been painting so much since my last post that I haven't shown up here to show you what I am doing. Soon however, you will see. I finally got my latest small works and my camera together. Twenty one in all with eight of the last of them in various stages of completion.

It is a joyous thing, painting is.

I paint subjects and images that make me happy to see. And then to paint them gives me the pleasure all over again! See?

I choose to focus on what I love about Life and to depict it for others to enjoy as well. Hopefully they are inspired to do their own looking for Life's beauties and pleasures.