The Canal by the Potomac River

Just a little bit of summertime nostalgia

now that it has turned cold! This is a little

painting, 5 x 7 inches. I had fun with all the

light effects from the water to the leaf

shadows on the path.

Small painting Butterfly #3

Here is the third of the butterflies I recently

painted. The tree hydrangea's flowers are sort

of like butterflies themselves.

This is alkyd paint on a panel, 5 x 7 inches.

Let me know which one you like best!

Small painting, but POW!

I don't think this looks as good as it does in real

life with its beautiful silver frame. But you might

enjoy it anyway. My Mother loved anemones

and this is, of course, such a one!

5" x 7" alkyd on panel

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

Small paintings continued

I am on a tear to get as many done as I

can for my upcoming show. This is my

fabulous hanging system developed by a

former studio assistant. These strips of

wood can be hung from the molding. They

have velcro on them and then I have put

a bit of velcro on the back of each painting

and voila!

If you click on the image, you can see the

paintings bigger!

My target is to get 30 new ones done. I

have 24 done or in progress, so I'm good!

These are 5" x 7" on panels and are done

in alkyd paint which dries overnight. I leave

them to dry longer and then apply varnish.

The two photos are of the same thing, the

first one with a flash and the next one without!

Small paintings underway again

Apparently my last post was not working to show the photo, so

now you get two to look at!

I'm doing these 5" x 7" panel paintings in a group, working on one

for a while and then the next and the next. I have about a dozen

of them going now and it is really fun.

I tape the gessoed boards to a matboard a little larger than the

panel and that pretty much keeps my fingers out of the paint!

I draw the images on with a Papermate Sharpwriter. It keeps

the lines very nice and thin. Then I spray with fixative so I can

still see the image under the early thin coats of oil paint.

There'll be more, so stay tuned!

Me and Monet

I was listening to Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home

Companion (prairiehome@publicradio.org) the other

day and heard him do a wonderful humourous bit

on visiting a museum and finding that all the guards

were artists. Famous ones. He gets into a conversation

with Monet and without telling you the entire skit,

it ends with one of those things you just moan over...

Monet tells Garrison that 'we have no Monet to buy

deGas to make the Van Gogh. Oooooooooooooooo.

These little water lily paintings I do are my homage

to Monet. This one is 5" x 5", framed. It is $100.

The Vintage Hat

Here you can see one of my 5 x 5 paintings with

its frame. These are little gems that have often

been bought from me as gifts. This one is still

available at $100.

A few more of the small works for the show

As you see, I like pleasure moments and hope to

assist others in recalling theirs because of

seeing what I have painted. These are 5 x 7

paintings and are framed. They will be at the

show this weekend, Oct 24th and 25th from

11 - 4 at my studio.

Something different for me to paint!

This weekend of October 24th and 25th, I will host

an art show and sale with my sister in my studio.

This is one of a set of new small paintings (5 x 7)

that will be available framed and ready!

This truck is an artform in itself. Can something

that is rusting and basically disintegrating be

beautiful? Apparently yes!

A small one

It's been a while since I was painting small panel

paintings. But here I am at it again and this one

is 5 x 7. I've been enjoying doing small ones again

and just started using a new brand of alkyd paint

which seem to be more opaque that the ones I

was using.