Sunflower in a Jar

"Sunflower in a Jar" 

6x6 oil on board

I'm on a roll with the flowers but I will say that I scraped this entirely and began again. Scraped that one and began this one. Wasn't sure if it was a keeper or not but I posted it anyway. There's actually a point when you're too close to the forest to see the trees. I've learned that I am not the best judge of my paintings and no matter how I feel about them, one way or the other, I am not the viewer. 

"Gimme That!"

6x6 oil on gesso board 

I'm painting on the smooth boards again because  the surface is great for the brushwork I do. I order them unprimed and give them three coats of gesso before I use them. I always like painting wet sand. There is so much color in the reflections and I love to play with the complimentary color harmony. Fun!
This is my painting for the 'Beach Time' challenge  at Girls Just Wanna Paint. This one gull was aggressively stalking the others and snatching things unseen, out of their beaks.

Garlic Demo

Garlic Study Demo
6x6 oil on gesso board

I am loving my Monday class with Beth and Linda. They are getting the all important value lessons and most importantly they are having fun ;)

White Dove

White Dove
6x6 Oil on Gesso Board

I've been at the pool recovering from my bout with value studies and my last wipe off.  But, I'm determined to get this dove right. The values still seem to be a tad off in the reflected light on the lower side of the bird, but perhaps I've been looking at it too long. Reflected light is deceiving and aways looks lighter than it is.
What do you all think?
Yesterday I went over to the Bonita Springs Art Festival to visit my friend JoAnn Sanborn who has painted the Everglades in all seasons for many years. She looked mah-velous and it was a beautiful day for the show. I'm looking forward to going down this week to visit her studio at the Esplanade on Marco Island. 

JoAnn Sanborn

Pig Love

"Pig love"
6x6 oil on board

The pig on the right is making "cow eyes" at the other pig because he has a crush on her, but she thinks she's 'all that' and won't pay any attention to him. I think she's going to come around though because he's irresistible. Don't you think?

Check out the rest of this month's challenge paintings at Girls Just Wanna Paint.

I've been painting this little pig again and again to get value and color saturation practice and wouldn't you know that today, the brilliant Carol Marine and her equally brilliant husband David, announced their newest cool DPW idea which is called ArtBytes. 

They are mini lessons on, you guessed it, value and color saturation among other lessons and demos which they've just rolled out. They're making them instantly available through PayPal for very low prices. I snapped up a few today and I'm sure I'll be returning to the 'well' as they add more. I've taken workshops with Carol and she is the best, most thorough teacher I've ever studied with. 

This Little Piggy

 This Little Piggy

I have two fabulous ladies who are studying with me and they were looking forward to painting this little pig prop from the Dollar Tree. I have to say that these girls are really getting it and I am so impressed with their work. This is my value demo which I tweaked a little bit after class. 

Dunkin' Munchkins

Dunkin' Munchkins 

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This painting is a commission done from a similar painting, for a pair of sisters. I don't know who's going to end up with it but they are both DD fans. I admit I was hindered some (mentally) by having already done this same painting, but I set up my still life anyway and did it again. Hope I captured the same feeling that drew them to it. 
Speaking of donuts, my dear girl Kelley has been down for the count with the flu and has not been able to lift her head to paint anything. But, check out her donut wars with the West Coast jelly slinger Susan Roden. 

MaryLou's News

"MaryLou's News" 6x6 
SOLD

MaryLou's News is a chain of coffee shops started and grown by the entrepreneurial Mary Lou. The "Best Coffee in Town"  is the slogan and the pink awnings and big pink cup signs are the local answer to the ubiquitous Donut Giant! You can find them all over the South Shore. 
Check out the  February Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge,  'storefront'. 

Frosty Kisses (win this painting) :D

The Winner of this painting is Karen Jenks!!!

 'Tis the season to give presents and this painting is up for grabs. The hitch? If you are already a  subscriber to my blog, send me an email  confirming that. If you are not a subscriber (yet) go to the little box on the right and subscribe and then send me an email and your name will also go into the "hat" for the drawing. IMPORTANT: put 'win this painting' in the subject line.  I will put all the names in a "hat" and draw one on Tuesday. Because my subscription service gives me no information other than the number of subscribers, I'm going to be switching to a new service and I want to take you all with me and reward you at the same time! :D
I hope all of you are having a wonderful Holiday Season however you celebrate and that, and I KNOW this is a REACH, we all carry the loving caring spirit that we feel during this time of year along with us as we head into 2012. What the world needs now is Love.... where have I heard that?

Over Economy Mountain

 When we go to Nova Scotia we take day trips along the beautiful Fundy Shore. Going South from Parrsboro to Truro we cross Economy 'Mountain'. This is the view from the summit which expands as we descend the hill, to a vista of water and red mud, depending on where the tide is. I never get tired of this area and if it weren't so darn far away, I'd be going up there more often than we do. Stay tuned for a larger canvas I'm working on. I'm busting out!

Geraniums

 "Geraniums" 6x6 $125 Plus $10 S&H

I am toast after spending the entire day vacuuming and washing laundry and rugs because 'the girls' have fleas :(  It's not their fault though, they picked them up on our vacation to the Cape, the only place they've been outside our home, but trying to eradicate them is a cyclical nightmare. Neither of them is too keen on the combing and powdering ritual and they run when they see me. Fleas are the creepiest, most disgusting insects EVER.

This is my painting from Saturday's paint out at Kennedy Country Gardens Fall Festival which was great fun. Click on the buy link to purchase.

 we are SURE that the vacuum cleaner is coming to get us

Take Me Out #2

Click to Bid

I love these little take out cartons that are sold in the party stores. My favorite kind of food is already cooked (not by me) and just lands on my table.  The painting is, as always, more subtle and fresh in the 'real'. I don't even want to talk about the difficulty of taking and resizing photos ;(  Be sure to check out the Fresh Paint Daily Painters site to see the work of some of my fellow artists.

The Boss

SOLD

On our recent trip to Nova Scotia we visited That Dutchman's Cheese Farm in Upper Economy. It sits high on a hill overlooking the Bay of Fundy and they have walking trails and an array of animals including chickens, roosters, turkeys, emus and even peacocks! Fabulous. We watched them make the cheese and of course sampled some and came home with a few wedges. It is a blissful place.

This painting is for the Girls Just Wanna Paint monthly challenge the theme of which is Fin, Fur or Feather. This fabulous white rooster had all the hens chasing after HIM!!

"Cherry Scramble"

Click to Bid

 How is everyone enjoying the New England heat wave so far? I'm sequestered in my a/c studio room at home. Every now and then I run out to water or do some garden chores and run back in when I start dripping. It's cherry season and I bought two kinds. The red and yellow ones and the dark red ones. Delicious!  For some other beautiful cherry paintings check out Dana Cooper's blog  and Claudia Hammer's blog. These ladies rock.

Syncronized Swimming

These slices of Golden Delicious apples reminded me of those Olympic swimming competitions. This one was painted in the ambient light from a window. Kind of flattened the values.

Apple Madness

Shaking the rust off of my brushes here in Parrsboro. The weather for the drive up was stellar. The skies were blue with big puffy clouds and the light driving into town at about 8:30 PM Monday evening  was spectacular. It was the summer solstice but It stays light longer up here anyway because of the latitude.
Today I broke out the gear and was going to paint a sweet bouquet of wildflowers in a jelly jar....but quickly came to my senses and settled on these apples, which were difficult enough!! You can't stay away from painting very long before you lose your mojo ;)

"Green Tea"

Click to Bid

I try to start a painting knowing basically what my color scheme will be, but sometimes a painting takes on a life of its own, colorwise. As this one did.  I also had to photograph this about 30 times and kept tweaking and tweaking because when you see a photo any flaws pop right out. Finally, I had to just STOP because I kept seeing beautiful colors in every aspect of this painting.  

By now, you all know that I can't resist a beautiful prop and everything is a prop to one degree or another. These cups and saucers came in a variety of colors and I bought 4 sets, so......you'll be seeing them again. I am also announcing a painting give away to be posted when my counter at the foot of this page reaches 40,000. I added that counter 15 months ago and I'm delighted that my paintings are reaching that many viewer out in the world! Stay tuned!

Kelley's Jellies

Click to Bid

 Yesterday I called Kelley, the Queen of jellies and asked her if I could paint jelly donuts and she said, "of course you can, I don't own jellies." But she is kind of famous for her paintings of donuts. Anyway, these are GLAZED jellies from a local shop called The Coffee Shack and believe me when I tell you they put the Giant Donut chain's mass produced product (which used to be great) to shame. When Kelley came to stay in my neighborhood a few weeks back I steered her towards this place and she hasn't looked back. These are to die for. Seriously.