Saturday, August 12, 2017

Hopscotch


"Hopscotch"
24" x 18" oil on panel

I thought that Ivy looked cute in the outfit that 
she chose by herself (as only a three-year-old can). 
She was wearing this on the day of her 
birthday party. 

Simplifying the background and placing Ivy on 
an outdoor hopscotch seemed natural. It clearly 
made her the focal point of the painting.

Here's the image of Ivy that I used for a reference:



By editing our work we can create whatever we 
want in our paintings. Our references are merely ides 
that help us to catch the vision of what we 
want the viewer to see and feel.

We get to paint what we want!





Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Water Park



"Water Park"
36" x 48" oil on panel

I love painting images of water during the summer 
months.It was fun to sling the paint around and create 
the look of splashing water!

Here are some of the images I considered before 
deciding on my final composition.




When considering these images I decided to eliminate the 
background information. Instead of going with the tube on a 
white waterslide I put my subjects in a swimming pool. 

The moving water and the splashes were more colorful 
and better portrayed the movement in the scene. I increased 
the contrast between the kids and the background 
by making the sky (actually a waterfall) lighter. 

This is the image I decided to paint:






Tuesday, July 18, 2017

All Hallow's Eve


"All Hallow's Eve"
12" x 24" oil on panel

I am painting pieces for an art show in October of this 
year. When a show is several months away it's helpful to 
think ahead about what the season will be 
and then create appropriate works. 

"Life As I See It" is the theme of my show and what's more 
fun than a mysterious jack-o-lantern painting for October?













Silver Creamer


"Silver Creamer"
9" x 11" oil on panel

Gosh, I just realized that I never did post this artwork on my 
blog...so here it is! This is a silver creamer that my 
mother owned and used occasionally. I have fond memories
of Sunday dinners with the crystal and china.


Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Summer Garden Art


My children gave me a stepping stone kit for Mother's Day.

Instead of making one giant stepping stone
I decided to make three smaller tiles to go under
the hose bib in my garden. The perfect spot
for me to stand when turning the faucet on and off.

Art is where you find it!

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Cracked!


"Cracked"
8" x 8" oil on panel

My friend, Dean, keeps chickens in a coop at his office 
(in his beautiful French garden). He recently took two dozen 
of the eggs and blew the contents out so that I could 
store them in my studio without spoilage. Now, I can 
use the eggs in my still life work for many years to come. 

To thank him I painted 
this small painting of two eggs.

Fun fact: When I set up this still life I actually went 
through six eggs. When some eggs were cracked their 
yolks broke and I stopped to wipe up the mess. 

Once, when I cracked an egg I had my camera 
on the tripod. As I walked back to look through the lens 
I saw the egg slide off the table onto the floor. 
I tried again but then I noticed that the table wasn't level.

I placed a shim under one table leg and tried again. 
I focused the image in my lens and went to click 
the shutter when I noticed the the egg was 
no longer in the frame! Ha-ha! 

And so it went...

Simple painting - YES!  Simple set up? Nope.

Friday, May 26, 2017

My New Website Has a Store!

I have a new website! It has a fresher, cleaner 
look and is easy to use. It allows me 
to participate in online auctions to sell my work
and it has has a store (note card tab). Yay!

I have been wanting to sell affordable prints of my work 
and also make note cards available for purchase. 

The prints are not set up yet but the 
note cards are visible.