#47 - Jacklyn

8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Board
NFS

I drew my Aunt's name in our family Christmas gift exchange. I painted her youngest child Jacklyn. She has 4 more kids and says that I'd better draw her name for the next 4 years.

#46 - Brenden and Amy

"Brenden and Amy"

12" x 9"

Oil on Masonite

SOLD

Say hi to my son's best friend and his mom! This piece was commissioned by Amy's sister and I love how it came out. It's a completely two-color piece. Titanium white and and Williamsburg Italian Black Roman Earth, which is the warmest black oil paint we could find. Really thick paint. Heavily pigmented. I had to use a lot of medium with it but you can feel the handmade quality to this paint.

This was my first two-color portrait and I'll definitely be doing a lot more. Let me know what you think!

#45 - Red

"Red"

8" x 10"

Oil on Masonite

Red is a beloved pet of one of my co-workers. His color was definitely the challenge on this one! And when I delivered this one, the co-workers husband (who is the recipient) answered the door. Slightly awkward, but I passed the box off as if it were a gift for his wife so he didn't peek. I'm sure he was highly impressed with my "wrapping". It was obviously a previously used box that I had placed the painting in just in case I had to leave it outside.

#44 - Smitty's GC 4

8" x 10"

Oil on Masonite

SOLD

And last but not least...The children are finished and delivered. Fingers crossed for happy parents!

#43 - Smitty's GC #3

8" x 10"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

Isn't she a cutie? The biggest challenge on this one honestly was the flyaway hair. In the photo, it just glowed from the sunlight. The photographer truly has a gift and I was not able to duplicate it exactly, so after a few attempts, I didn't try. I stepped away, came back to my style and think I came up with a successful solution.

I'm not a photorealist and I really don't want to be. I certainly admire photorealistic artists (Here's one of my favorites.), I've just never had the urge to paint like that. Love to look at it though!

#42 - Smitty's GC #2

8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas
SOLD

Here's the 2nd boy. Again, I had a ton of fun painting these kids. Their grandfather is a co-worker of mine and you could tell just how much he loves them all when he speaks of them. They are a beautiful family.

#41 - Smitty's GC 1

8" x 10"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

Ok, here we go! I can now post all of the Christmas portraits! Yay! I have 7 that I will be posting in the next bit. The first 4 are some of the cutest kids I have ever seen and it was a pleasure to paint them. I have to say, I had great photos to work with. As soon as I have the name of the photographer I will post it! (at first, I thought the grandparents took the pics, but they said a friend did so I want to make sure she gets all the credit she is due. These were fantastic shots!) These paintings were a gift to the kiddos parents and I truly hope they love them.

Where Have I Been?

I'm still here, don't worry! I'm just pushing through all of my Christmas orders. They are all presents, so I can't really post them until Dec 26th. Paintings 41-47 will be posted all in a bunch!

I think it's time to admit that the painting total is going to be 50, not 100. I am fine with that! That is 50 paintings in a year. 50 more than I did last year. In fact, 50 more than I completed in the last 10 years. But we'll talk more about that on Dec. 31. Who knows, maybe there will be a Christmas miracle that will produce 50 paintings.

#40 - Hmmm

#40 - Hmmm

7" x 5"
Oil on Canvas Board

Hmm..I can do better. NEXT!

And here's a preview of what's next! I decided to re-do the gold fabric one, but this time, I put black gesso on the board and started with the pom first. This is it so far! I think it's going to be one of my best yet!

#39 - Quick Pomegranate

#39 - Quick Pomegranate

8" x 8"

Oil on Canvas

After the success of quickly and more to the point, not micro-stressing, painting a pomegranate in half an hour the other day, I thought I would try a few more with an eye on the clock and a no-worry, whatever happens happens attitude. The next few paintings are the results of this.

#38 - Pomegranate #2 (The 30-minute Fruit)

#38 - Pom 2 (The 30-Minute Fruit)

7" x 5"

Oil on Canvas Board
SOLD

I painted on Saturday and have a series of several pomegranates that I am working on in between the Christmas portraits. I had an awful time with the fabric in this one. I tried to approach it several different ways and it just wasn't happening. So...I gave myself a time limit. At 5:30, I decided that I wanted it done by 6pm and started in on the pomegranate itself. Well. How about that. I love it. Not the fabric, but the fruit. And with the fruit, the fabric just doesn't seem so bad.

It's obvious that if I really wanted a challenge, I would paint fabric until I got it right. But do I really want that challenge right now? I'm not sure. Maybe next month.

#37 - Blue Rose 2

#37 - Blue Rose #2

20" x 20"
Oil on Canvas
Available

This is the 2nd of my Blue Roses. Earlier this year I painted a small version. (6"x6") Since then, I've wanted to re-do it larger. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

The painting is freshly glazed and will be available for shipping in a couple of weeks.

#36 - Pomegranates #1

#36 - Pomegranates #1
7" x 5"
Oil on Canvas Board
Available

This was an exercise in color and shape for me. But wait..what painting isn't an exercise in color and shape? Wini suggested that I try some pomegranates. That they would fit nicely into my style and help me work through some of my mental painting blocks. So that's what I'm doing. Next week is going to be a HUGE portrait painting week. I have 6 lined up for Christmas and another 12 lined up for the near future. Some of them I won't be able to post until after Dec. 25th as they are gifts, so expect a huge push toward 100 in that last week!

If you guys have read through all of my posts, you know that the inspiration for 100 paintings in a year came from the work of Adam Houston. He painted 100 in 2010 and he's doing it again in 2011. He's a pretty smart guy and seems to do really well with creating exercises to develop his talent. Head over to his page and check out the tree series he did. BIG jumps between painting 1 and 15.

The reason I bring up Adam's tree series is that I've been thinking for a while that I'm moving too fast and being too impatient with myself. Once I paint something I'm done. Then later, I'll look back and be not quite satisfied. I could have done a better job. Maybe a series is in order. Something to think about.

#35 - Puppy Parker No. 2

#35 - Puppy Parker No. 2
8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Board
Sold

You met Parker the Puppy a few posts ago. This is pose number two that I've painted. I just simply couldn't pick between the two. She is so cute.

#34 - For the Boys

For the Boys
8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas
SOLD

This piece was requested for a silent auction that will be a fundraiser for my son's football team. Maroon and Gold are the school's colors. It's still wet, so the pic is a little shiny.

Go Rebels!

#33 - A Shroom with a View

"A Shroom with a View"

14" x 14"
Oil on Canvas (with black painted sides)
Available

Do you like my title? I'm a jokester! Here til Tuesday folks. Tip your waitresses.

So this was painted from a photo taken by my Dad and Stepmom in their yard. These little babies were popping up all over the place. I have changed the colors of the mushrooms from real life to something a little more jazzy. Otherwise, well, it just looked like a bunch of hmmm...let me just say, they were all very flesh toned. I thought it was just me as my mind does a little gutter traipsing from time to time, but I emailed the photo to several friends and got 100% feedback on whether or not I should change up the color. I hope you like it Dad!*

In the end, I really like the grass in this painting. It's the part I fought the most. Aside from the color changes.

#32 - Nozzle Toff!

"Nozzle Toff!"

10" x 8"
Oil on Hardboard
NFS

This is a portrait of my sister and my soon-to-be bro-in-law. They are getting married in 13 days and this is a shower gift for them. As our 2-year-old nephew shouted last night, "Nozzle Toff!"

It's hard to paint people you know and even harder to paint people you know and love and don't want to disappoint! I can't tell you how many revisions I did on this one. I'm still not totally satisfied with it, but I feel like I'm on the edge of overwork so, I'm stopping...for now. Well, maybe just a little more...

Special thanks to Wini and Amie for their opinions on this one. At times I stared at it so hard I could no longer see when I was going off course. Again, the perils of painting those you love. Everyone needs someone that when you ask what they think they do not hesitate to come right out and say, "This line makes her cheek look fat". They are worth their weight in Ultramarine.

#31 - Three Pears

#31 - Three Pears

14" x 11"
Oil on Canvas Board
Available
(Needs drying time. Will be ready to ship on Oct. 26th)

So this one began as a contest entry. I had forgotten the painting that I was currently working on when I went to my studio class that week. However, a contest was announced during class. Paint fruit or vegetables. It had to be 14" x 11" and it was due the next day. I worked as fast as I could, but couldn't meet the deadline. So this board sat with one complete pear, one about 30% complete and one still blank.

I've got a small list of paintings that I need to do stacking up and this one kept looking at me. So I took about an hour and a half last night and finished this one. And I really like it. Mainly the dark/light contrast.

#30 - The Premier of the Pups

8" x 8"

Oil on Canvas Board
SOLD

A friend recently asked me if I painted pets. I said I never had, but I'd certainly give it a go. Here's the first result. This is 1 of 3 paintings of my friend's very-much-loved family pet. I consider this a preliminary sketch to see how I want to handle the final product. I used impasto medium to thicken the paint so that I could get the brushstrokes that I wanted. I will be sketching out one more version in a different pose, then rendering a finished painting on stretched canvas or hardboard.

Let me know what you think!

#29 - Beach Study

Beach Study 1

8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas
Available

It has been a while since I've been to the beach. Seems like a lifetime ago, actually. Probably because since the last time I was at a beach I have become a totally different person. But that's a long, not always happy story so we'll put it away for another time. The point is, is that I had forgotten the peace of sitting on the beach, breeze skimming across my skin, sun soaking in with nothing to do but read, enjoy the company and every few moments just marvel in the bright color and beauty that is blue water and pure white powder sand. Sigh.

This painting is intended to be a study for a larger work. I purposefully edited out everything but sky, water and sand, just trying to catch the light and color that was in front of me.

I like it.

It can still be done!

There are 102 days left in 2011. I have 3 paintings in the works and that leaves 69 remaining to finish this year. I have 3 additional paintings that I have deposits on and need to begin sketching. So we're heading in to crunch time! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

#28 - Singin' Sweet Songs

28 - Singin' Sweet Songs

14"x8"

Oil on Canvas
SOLD

This painting is for the dailypaintworks.com weekly challenge.

Not a literal translation of the song, but just the way it makes me feel.

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou:")

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

#27 - The Witnesses

#27 - The Witnesses

6" x 6"

Oil on Canvas
SOLD

My sister and her fiance will be taking their vows in October. These 3 guys live in the chapel where the wedding will take place and will be watching over the proceedings. Since they are carved wooden statues, I guess I'll have to eat their share of the cake!

Special thanks to Troy Burkhart for the photo of the statues. And thanks in advance for the cake. Welcome to the family Troy!

#26 - Violet Lily

Violet Lily
6" x 6"
Oil on Canvas
Available

This is the first in what might be several lily paintings that I do. I'm intrigued by the way the light reflects off of the petals and trying to show that while keeping a loose large brush stroke. I wish I could channel a little bit of Carol Marine on these. I love her work so much!

Three paintings this week! I may just catch up yet!

#25 - Sonoma Landscape

Sonoma
Oil on Canvas
6" x 6"
Available

Hurrayy!!! 1/4 done. That's 25 more paintings than I did last year! Or the year before that. Onward and upward!

This is my first attempt as a palette knife painting. It's from a photo that I took while visiting my brother and family in Sonoma, CA. It's part of the Benziger winery. What a gorgeous part of the country. I highly recommend a visit if you've never been out there.

As for the painting. Not too bad for a first time I don't think.

#24 - Teeny Pepper Top

Teeny Pepper Top
2" x 2"
Oil on the smallest Canvas on Earth
SOLD

This painting was part of my catch up weekend. I saw these little bitty canvases at the art store and thought I'd whip out a couple of really small paintings. This is a pepper top, which I'm sure you ascertained by the title. My son thinks it looks like a pumpkin top and that's fine, too.

This was one of the "lesson learned" paintings. I was in a hurry. I wanted to get a whole lot done this weekend, so I sketched out the pepper and started painting. Without using a fixative over the pencil drawing. The graphite mixed with the paint and made it more subdued than I intended. And I KNEW BETTER.

Coming up next...My first palette knife painting is done. Will have pics either this evening or tomorrrow morning.

Holiday Weekend Paint-athon!

Today is a catch-up day! I am sequestering myself and painting until I drop. My goal is at least 3 small paintings. I'm putting this out there so you all can hold me to it!

Wish me luck!

#23 - If You Give A Seth A Cookie

"If You Give A Seth A Cookie"

10" x 8"

Oil on Hardboard

NFS

This painting is from a picture that was taken on my son Seth's 16th birthday. It was right after he passed his Driver's Permit test and we were celebrating at Homemade Pie and Ice Cream Kitchen with a "monster cookie". I did not have to ask him to make a silly face, he's always hammed it up for the camera. I love this one. I wonder why that might be...

#22 - The First Dance

The First Dance

Oil on Hardboard

18" x 24"

SOLD

This painting was a fascinating journey. It is a custom commission that I received via my Etsy store. Maria, the bride, requested a painting of her and her new husband's first dance at their wedding. She wanted a greyscale painting with highlights of magenta. The magenta highlights mimicked the dramatic lighting at their reception. This was a challenge in body proportion and value. The client was a joy to work with. We kept in constant contact throughout the process and she approved photos via email. I was able to quickly make any changes that she requested.

Now...off to build a shipping box! This piece is going to live in Naples, Italy.

#21 - By Any Other Name

#21 - By Any Other Name

8" x 8"

Oil on Masonite

I see this as more impressionistic and about color than realism. This one was difficult and I'm not sure it is quite successful. But we wrestled for a bit and it's time to move on.

But enough about that...I've got a story!

At class tonight I started a new painting and ended up with a too-wet underpainting. I set the painting outside to dry a bit in the heat and when I went to get it later it was GONE! I had a painting STOLEN! Does that mean I've hit the big time? We found it later behind Staples, with the thief's fingerprints smushed right into the paint. How about that. I'm going to try to leave the fingerprint in the finished work. Maybe one day I'll run it through AFIS. I think this means it's going to turn out to be a real masterpiece!

I will take and post a better picture in the morning, I couldn't wait to post...sad isn't it.

(Edited - Picture updated. Much better!)

#20 - Sunset

#20 - Sunset

10" x 8"
Oil on Masonite
Available

Woo hoo! #20!

I know I'm still not quite where I need to be for 2011, but I am getting there and I haven't quit yet! So many times I would get in over my head with a project and quit, but I'm sticking this one out. I am loving oils and just painting in general. I am also discovering so much about where I want to go with a style. I'm not there yet, but I see potential!

I have to get so much credit and thanks for this painting to James Joslyn. He is a photographer friend of my boyfriend's who happened to post a gorgeous photo of tulips on his facebook page one day. I asked if I could paint it and he sent me a whole cd of incredible images to paint from! So thank you Jimmy! Thank you thank you thank you!

The picture of this sunset was on the disc he sent. It doesn't do it justice, but for a quick painting, I like parts of it pretty well.

What the heck do I do with...? Liquin

As a virtual newbie to oil painting, there are tons of things that I am learning in my class and in research online and/or in books. One of the reasons that I was leery of beginning painting in oils was just the sheer number of items needed to even get started. Acrylics were pretty easy in comparison. Canvas, paint, brush, water...go! My oil painting arsenal is getting close to rivaling the workshop of Q - the gadget guy from the James Bond movies, and I don't think it's going to calm down any time soon. I'm turning out to be quite the supply slu...uhm...enthusiast.

So what is all this stuff? The number of mediums are mind-boggling and some of the technique terms sound like diseases or menu items from fancy restaurants. I'd love some Grisaille! Does that come with garlic bread?

That's where this brand new shiny section of the blog comes in! I'd like to meet "What the heck do I do with...??"! Where I will try to explain in understandable terms what all this stuff is about. If you are older and wiser and know more than me, feel free to comment and add anything I might miss. Be nice about it. I'm the only one allowed to be snarky around here.

Quit yappin' Dawn. What's up first?Liquin

I first came upon Liquin when I was a kid. It came in a cheap little painting kit that I had bought with my allowance and I had no idea what to do with it. It was this bottle of brownish snot-like goo and there were no instructions on how to use it. Actually there were no instructions at all in the self-proclaiming intro kit. Intro kit my butt. I guess Intro meant take all this stuff, throw it around on a canvas, become totally frustrated and then stuff the whole box under your bed and become a banker like your Dad.

Grade school wasn't much more help. Sorry Sisters. I mean that with all the love in my little catholic heart. I went to a teeny parochial school. And I mean teeny. There were 8 people in my 8th grade graduating class. So the nuns taught everything from Religion to Math to Civics and...Art. My most vivid memories of art at St. Paul was one whole year of origami (God bless Sister Mary Therese, She really loved her paper swans), and other periods of time that included lots of tissue paper and paste and Sister Kathy telling me that I was horrible at everything. I didn't take art in high school. Not really sure why. Hmmm...any thoughts?

Somehow I went to college as an art major. And for 4-1/2 years I worked in acrylics with a dash of watercolor thrown in. I'm sure that acrylics have lots of lovely mediums all their own, but we didn't use them. My professor (Hi Prof. Stomps!) was very abstract in vision and technique and so we added things like sawdust to our gesso and paint, not pre-packaged/store-bought mediums.

I managed to get all the way through college without finding out what this mysterious substance was and honestly didn't give it very much thought. Until last fall. When I received my supply list for my first ever oil painting class, there it was. Liquin. In big black letters. I cannot tell you why, but my brain immediately went into defensive mode. EEEK. GO BE A BANKER!!!

I fought down my inner 8-year-old and make the purchase. Until class started, I would just look at the bottle every-so-often and feel a thrill that come hell or high water this mystery was about to be solved. And yes, on the very first class in the very first hour, I was enlightened. During a color chart exercise, Wini (our teacher) said to mix a drop of liquin into each color blob. I raised my hand and asked "What exactly is this stuff?"

And instead of laughing in my face, my super nice teacher says, "You know how oils can take weeks to dry? This stuff makes them dry much faster. It can also make your paint thinner, smoother and more transparent depending on how much you add."

Oh! That sounds super useful! So i used my pallete knife, scraped up a drop of liquin and blended it with the knife into the paint.

And it can also be used for glazing, I found out a few lessons later. You add a little color to a lot of liquin and paint over a painting that is completely dry. Start with a quarter size dollop of Liquin and add a scrape of paint with your pallet knife. Mix up. Brush on areas you want changed. Let that layer dry and repeat until color effect desired is reached. Each layer you add adds a transparent layer of color that will brighten or darken depending on what color and mixture ration you use.

So there you go. Liquin and I have shaken hands, split a latte and are now BFFs. A few weeks ago he even introduced me to his one-upper cousin, Impasto.

#19 - Melina and the Llama

Melina and the Llama

8" x 10"
Oil on Masonite
NFS

This painting is taken from my favorite picture of my niece, Melina standing beside a stuffed toy llama. She's a super-smart, super-sweet kid who is completely ready to take on the world Pippi Longstocking-style. Last week she was very busy making reward posters for a friend's lost snail. The look on her face in the picture is a very obvious "Don't mess with me or my llama."

I would love any feed back on this one and #18. I'm trying to nail down flesh tones. I'm also trying to hold on to a more loose style. (Looser style? A style that is more loose?)

#18 - Hey Ladies!

"Hey Ladies!"

8" x 10"

Oil on Masonite

Meet Jack. My 2-year-old nephew. He's one of the cutest kids I've ever met. He had me wrapped the first time I saw him and the first time he said my name (before just about anyone else's, heh heh!) he assured his place in my "I will always have candy for you" Auntie soul. Even if he does blame me for just about everything. The danger of a kid being able to say your name, I guess.

Who made this mess? Dawn did.
Who ate that cookie? Dawn did.
Who stomped the flowers? Yep. Dawn did.

Oh the stories I could tell. And he's only two. Recently, Jack went to the beach for a week. Before going, some of us made sure that he knew some handy phrases for the beach. A kid this cute attracts the women, for sure. By the time he left, we had taught him "Heyyy Ladies!", "How you doin?" and "Can I have your digits?"

This was the first time I've ever painted on Masonite board. I had always known it was an option. One of my very favorite fantasy artists, Larry Elmore, whom I have admired all my life has for the longest time worked on Masonite. I had no idea how much I would love it! Why did I wait so long? It was just fantastic. Extremely smooth. The paint laid down like a dream. The only thing that I have to say is that after a bit, if your paint starts to dry and you go back to re-work, you can lift the paint that is already down right off of the surface. So, watch out for that!

Here are some work-in-progress pics!

#17 - Fleur de Stripes

Fleur de Stripes

8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Board
Available

Even with as many Fleur de Lis paintings as there are out there, it is still one of my favorite shapes/symbols. But how to make it different? Change up the background. Here is my attempt not only to paint another FdL, but to peek around the corner to more illustrative design elements. I whipped the background together first on the computer to make sure I got the stripes even, printed it out, and traced it onto the canvas. Then I added the FdL. It started out with a black and white striped edge, but that looked weird, so I painted over it.

#16 - Yellow. Peppers.

Yellow Peppers

18" x 18"

SOLD

I wasn't so much painting as I was working with yellow. I think it turned out fairly successful and is one of my favorite works to date!

#15 - Rose (Unfinished?)

Pink Rose
8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas
Available

I painted this last night. It's from a picture I took of one of my first roses of the year. I have two rose bushes in my yard. A pink one in the front yard and a yellow one in the back yard. I do not have a green thumb, so they've been left to their own devices over the past couple of years. Miraculously, they are still alive and are producing some lovely blooms this year!

Again, I painted this one on a black primed canvas and again, I was able to get the shadows as deep as I like them. Black canvas is well on it's way to becoming a regular part of my routine.

My favorite part of this one? Right now it's the little bud peeking up from behind the bloomed rose.

The problem with this painting is that I'm not sure if it is finished. Now that I've slept on it, I think the leaves need more emphasis. Maybe not more detail, but more color definition. They look a little blurry to me and blurry moves into the background. A little more detail is in order, perhaps?

What do you think?

#14 - Fleur De Lis

Fleur de Lis
8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas
SOLD

This painting and several others you may see over the next couple of weeks are for an art fair that I'll be participating in on Saturday, June 18th. The "Fleur de Lis Art Fair" is a 1st annual event being held by one of our local resteranteurs and I'm really hoping that it's the start of an annual fair. As far as I know there is nothing like it right now in this part of the city. So, in order to stay with the theme, I will be painting several of these to sell.

I'm pretty happy with this overall. I was going for a more illustrated feel to it rather than "realistic" for what that's worth. I added some black lines for definition instead of relying on shadows to show separation. Not sure it's my favorite, but I like the background really well. This is also the first painting I've done where I've covered the canvas in black gesso before getting started. I have been having issues getting my darks as dark as I'd like and I read where a well-known artist Karin Jurick always starts on a black base. So, I hopped over to Preston Arts and picked up some black gesso. I think I got positive results with it.

Let me know what you think!

#13 - Blue Rose

Blue Rose

6" x 6"
Oil on canvas
available

Painting #13! I'm really cooking now. Yeah, I know. I should be on painting #33 since we are in week 17 of 2011, but I've really picked up steam in April. I plan to be at 50 by the end of June.

Here is my Blue Rose! I really love it. It started as a full color painting, then I added a couple of layers of bright blue glazing to make it pop.

Have I said that I really like to paint roses? I like the challenge of a limited pallet. I like the shadows and highlights of the individual petals, I like everything about them. They are also my "go to" when I'm not sure what else to paint and I just want to scratch the painting itch. So excpect to see them pop up every so often. There may very well be one sitting on my easel waiting to be started as we speak. As I type. Whatever.

#12 - Class Pear 2

10" x 14"

Oil on board
Available

This is the 2nd of the finished class pears. It started out as a black and white painting:

but then several layers of glazing were added. Glazing is a technique where you add color by mixing oil paints with a medium and layering over the painting. In this case, I mixed paint with Liquin and added one color at a time. I believe, if I remember correctly that I added a red layer, azo yellow, ultramarine blue, added some highlights with lead white, then another layer each of red and yellow.

With glazing you get more of an aged effect for lack of a better term.
You can compare this with Class Pear #1 to see what I mean.




Class Pear #1 was painted with color from the beginning.

I learned alot from this exercise. In particular, how dark or light to make your underpainting in preparation for how it will show through the layers of glazing.

#11 - Sis Fishing

Sis Fishing

6" x 6"

Oil on Canvas

I enjoyed this one. I wanted to paint a figure, but am not quite ready to take on faces. The unfortunate thing about painting people you know is that they expect the paintings to look just like them and they most often do not. I do think I have captured a little of what my sister looks like. I can tell it's her. I think those that know her will be able to tell it also.

I had fun painting the water and the clothes so I'll definitely be painting more of both of those subjects in the future.

It's 1:30 am. I am tired. I am going to try to get some sleep now.

Have a great weekend everyone.

#10 - Cottage

14" x 10"

Oil on Canvas

Available

#10 - Cottage (Based upon the novel Stupid Cottage by Dawn)

This one gave me fits! FITS I tell you! I didn't like this painting at all until the final hour. I had difficulty with depth and the different layers of the landscape. I scrubbed out and painted the dark green ivy/rose background 3 times. I think I worked it out as best as I could and it's time to slap a signature on it, shake hands and agree to disagree. Someday we will look back at this and laugh but for right now...too soon. Maybe in a couple of days.

The ending of The Office helped.

#9 - PLOCK!

"Plock!"
6 x 6 in.
Oil on canvas
SOLD

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Col. Sanders: "I missed one???"

Thank you. Thank you. I'm here until Tuesday. Don't forget to tip your waitress!

This is one of my favorite paintings so far! it is part of the dailypaintworks.com weekly challenge. Funny thing...I had just told my mother that "I don't paint farm animals" and then this popped up as the challenge. A chicken with a 'tude.

As it usually happens, for about the first hour of painting, my subconscious mind was telling me that everything was just awful! Crap! Terrible! Thank goodness I pushed through. I had to redo the background several times and while it's not quite as vibrant as I would like, it does work I think. I like this one so much, that I priced it where I wouldn't be too upset to part with it if someone wants to give it a good home.

Prints!

"212"
24" x 18" Giclée print
$75

Several people have asked if I will be making prints of the "212" red door painting. I am thrilled to say YES! They will be 24" x 18" have a small white border for framing and will be signed and dated by moi.

The first prints will roll off the presses in about 1-1/2 weeks. Email me to reserve yours today!

#8 - Class Pear 1

Pear 1
10" x 14"
Available

You may remember this one. It was a class project. It's finished now, so I'm counting it. I really like how the gold in the pear turned out.

The other pear will be posted shortly. I am glazing it and have another 2 layers to go. Also in the works are a blue rose and a cottage painting that I think I'm really going to like. AND prints of the red door are in process too! Lots going on.

#7 - 212

212

18" x 24" Oil on Canvas

Wow. It's March already. That means that I should have a total of 16 paintings done and posted by...yesterday. I'm now posting #7, so I'm 9 behind. I'm perfectly ok with this. Here's why. You know how many paintings I completed in 2010? Zero. So I'm way ahead of the game in some respects. I'm also working full time, being a single-mom to an active teenager AND training for a half-marathon. Am I giving up on the 100 paintings? Not a chance. I WILL complete them all. While I paint larger scale works for class, I will be working on a smaller scale at home. 8" x 8" and 6" x 6" size canvases and whatnot.

So above is my newest painting. Again, forgive me, I took this picture with my phone. I will replace it when I have a better picture so you can see the detail. I have to toot my own horn a little bit with this one. I love it. I mean I looooooove it. It was truly a work of love for me. I love the door, I love the fact that the door is crooked as all get-out. I love the red wall. I love how many reds it took to actually make up that wall. And I love that I was able to portray brick without actually painting each individual brick. Apparently, that's pretty tough to do, or so I'm told. I'm glad no one told me that before I started. This painting will be in the "Louisville Women's Club No-Jury Art Show" beginning on March 16.

I want to give a special thank you, you are the best, I want to shake your hand shout-out to Aunt Owwee from Flickr. She is the person who snapped the fantastic picture of this amazing scene and then placed it on Flickr with enough rights freedom for people like me to use it as inspiration for adaptation. Here is the original photo. She had a lot of lovely pictures posted. Thanks Owwee!

Next up? Large scale - Another doorway. This one is one that I shot while at West Baden resort in Indiana. Small scale - I want to work on a few more roses. They were so much fun.