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!

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:

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.

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!

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.

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.

Day of the Dead

"Day of the Dead"

36" x 36" oil on canvas

Amber wanted an artwork to go in her master 
bedroom to match her comforter.

I didn't want to match the comforter design exactly, so I chose 
something that would compliment her room. The floors of her 
home are a turquoise color with yellow, purple and green accent 
walls.

Yes, She is an artist!

After toning the canvas with a transition of turquoise, 
I drew in the major shapes.

I began blocking in the major color masses and started 
to rough in the major structure of her face.

After tuning the major shapes and color masses, I had fun 
working the details of her face paint, moving her ponytail over, 
outlining the white borders of the background flowers and 
finishing the roses in her hair.

The finishing touch was to take my palette knife and distress 
the background so that it wouldn't compete with the figure. 
I scraped and added texture to give the painting some depth.

Completely fun!!!

Stacked!

"Stacked"

11" x 10" oil on panel

This was panel #1 of a three-part series for

the Art Access Gallery's  "300 Plates Show."

Want Coffee With That?

"Want Coffee With That?"

11" x 10" oil on panel

This was panel #2 of a three-part series for

the Art Access Gallery's  "300 Plates Show."

Decadence

"Decadence"

11" x 10" oil on panel

This was panel #3 of a three-part series for

the Art Access Gallery's  "300 Plates Show."

Mangos

"Mangos"

10" x 10"

oil on panel

Washed Ashore

"Washed Ashore"

11" x 14"

oil on panel

From My Garden

"From My Garden"

24" x 20"

oil on panel

Tis basket of vegetables was perfect for my

fruit and vegetable series!

Art & Soup Show

For three glorious days last week I was honored to be able to participate in the "Art & Soup" art show here at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were 44 artists, each one with their own booth. Around the perimeter of the room were food vendors handing out samples of delicious food. There were pies, cake, soups, bread, cookies and drinks. There was live music performed by various artists.

Here are some fun pics of the event...

Ice Sculpture

I wonder how the sculptor managed to get the tulips and the brushes to be suspended in the ice!

I also had the opportunity to paint in the quick draw. Artists who wanted to join the event were asked to paint a painting in one hour (start to finish). Then our paintings were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Here's my painting. The light was dim so this image is not very vibrant.

Here are some fun pics from the show.

Me with my son, Ben.

Me with my sister, Heidi.

Painting From Life

Usually when I paint flowers from life I place them in a vase with water.  Most often the flowers wilt under the heat of my lights. 

Last week I purchased a bucket of potted daffodils at the store - thinking that if the flowers were growing in dirt they might be a little more stable and last longer for the duration of my painting. 

Here is what I blocked in from the first day:

The very next day when I came into the studio, this is what had sprouted overnight: two red tulips and some hyacinths!! 





















Two days later it was a completely different arrangement. Who knew? Ha-ha-ha!!

So much for a potted plant being more stable than flowers in a vase...