Sunflowers with Blue Mug

12" x 24"
Oil on Linen
Click Here to Purchase
$500.00

This was a lot of fun to paint, especially the cherries. On this one, the challenge for me was to keep the sunflowers from competing with the still life objects, and force your eye to be lead through the whole painting.

View of the Farm

8"x10"
Oil on Panel

A perfect day in the life of an artist:

• Invited to paint on the property of a beautiful family home/business with a group of artists.
• Fresh baked goods and coffee when you arrive.
• Iced Sweet Tea after working a few hours in the sun.

 Thank you to Elaine and Durwood Ball at Yellow House Florals and Gifts, Raleigh NC. Your sincere, southern hospitality was a real treat.

Granny's Flowers

6"x6"
Oil on Panel
Not Available

Every year, I look forward to seeing the beautiful Hydrangea's in bloom at the home of my husband's grandparents. This year, I finally got to set-up my easel and paint in the backyard.

Painting at the Arboretum

8" x 10"
Oil sketch on Panel
"Pond Reflections"
$60.00
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8" x 6"
Oil sketch on Board
"Peonies"
$50.00
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There is only one thing better than painting from life - painting from life outdoors! I really enjoyed being surrounded by beautiful gardens, capturing the sunlit landscape. After about 2 hours at the pond, my paint and I were melting in the sun, so I packed up my stuff and sat in the shade to paint the Peonies. Check out my Facebook page, I posted a photo of my easel set-up by the pond.

Sunflowers with Pears

18" x 14"
Oil on Linen
$400.00
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After working on a few paintings from photos, I have decided to get back to painting from life. In this painting, I tried to capture the strong sunlight coming in from the window, which illuminated the still life from behind. In the end, I am fond of a few areas in the painting, but not sure it all comes together as a finished piece. The composition was a challenge, along with harmonizing the colors. A friend suggested that I add something blue, hence the little vase, which turned out to be my favorite part of the painting.Thanks - E!
Tomorrow I head outdoors again for some more plein air painting!!

Yates Mill Pond - Plein Air- Sold

6" x 8"
Oil on Board
Sold

The beautiful spring weather has been making it hard to stay in the studio and paint from photos, as I have been itching to be outdoors. One of my goals for this year is to paint en plein air, a french expression that means "in the open air". Recently, I found a group of artists that meets weekly at various locations to paint outdoors; I finally had a chance to join them yesterday at a local park. It was challenging to paint the scene with the constantly changing light, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to try it again. It would be well worth it to open up my copy of Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, by John F. Carlson, before my next outing. Also, I will be sure not to forget my Yellow Ochre next time!!

On My Easel

Painting in Progress
24" x 24"

I am finally back! It has been too long since my last post. I have been very busy painting a different kind of "Interior View" - my entire kitchen including the cabinets! It was a big job, but it needed to be done. I have uploaded "before and after" photos on my Pinterest Home Decor board, if you are interested in seeing the results, click here.

After a wonderful trip to New York to visit family in March, I returned with some great photo reference for a cityscape series. My goal is to complete 10 - 12 large paintings for my exhibition in December of this year, four of them being NY city scenes. It has been quite an adjustment to go from the smaller format that I have become comfortable with, to this latest painting, which is 24" x 24". I am not quite done with the figures in this one, but I am getting close. I welcome any constructive criticism - please.

Other news - my "Between Shifts" painting was accepted into the Cary Small Works show, and sold.

Between Shifts

6"x6"
Oil on Panel
SOLD

This is the last little painting in my "Interior Views" series. I managed to shoot some stills of the painting in progress and put together a little video of those shots - see below. I will be entering this one in the Fifth Annual Small Treasures Juried Exhibit show, along with my "New York State of Mind" painting.
Also, some exciting news - "Serendipity" won 3rd place in the Johnston County Food and Arts show.
Enjoy!

Aunt Ann's Place

8" x 10"
Oil on Panel
NFS

Taking a break from my "Interior Views" series to paint an exterior. This house has special meaning to my sister-in-law, it is located in Gilgo Beach, NY. Unfortunately, I think it sustained some damage during Hurricane Sandy. Happy Belated Birthday Cheryl!
This week I will post one more interior, and introduce my next series.

To-do List

6" x 6"
Oil on Panel
SOLD

I am notorious for creating too many to-do lists on little pieces of paper and then losing them! Thankfully, I now use my ipad for organizing all of my lists, which makes it harder to lose - it's a great tool, unless one of your kids deletes the app you were using to maintain the lists (this really did happen). Sigh....
I had a long list of to-do's today, so I thought I would focus on painting from life, in timed segments, and force myself to limit the number of strokes. I like the result, it is more painterly, and fresh.

Serendipity

16" x 20"
Oil on Panel
$500.00
Click Here for Purchase

Here is the final on the cupcake shop. Unfortunately, the image is not a good representation of the glowing colors in the original; there has got to be a setting on my camera that will do a better job of capturing bright color, I just don't know what that is. By the way, I did not have my camera with me to take this shot for reference, I used my iphone, it is a very discreet way to shoot photos in public.
This painting came about quite by accident, as my daughter and I were spending a Saturday morning out and about together, I suggested going to this shop since it is only a few doors down from a great art store. I just love the decor of this place, it is very inviting, not to mention all the wonderful cupcake flavors to choose from. The wonderful antique register is just for show, the girl rung up our purchase on a tablet.

Rainy Day Monday

6" x 6"
  Oil on Arches Paper
Click Here to Purchase
$60.00

"Interior Views" is my theme for the month of February.

This is the view from my living room window on a rainy Monday; it really is a reflection of my mood for the day.

On Saturday, a box of art supplies arrived, including a pad of Arches paper made for oil painting. I have been wanting to try this paper for a while, but I think it will take some getting used to....

View this painting in my DPW Gallery.

On My Easel

The last few days I have been working on a larger painting that is not finished, but I thought I would share it's progress as I complete it over the next week. This is the interior of a local cupcake shop, which is in keeping with my "Interior Views" theme for the month of February.

I typically start all of my paintings with a Burnt Sienna underpainting, working out the drawing and values. This time I used a grid, then added the drawing in paint, and lastly put in transparent blocks of color for the underpainting. I am hoping that the finished painting will result in more vibrant color and life. The inspiration for this approach came from listening to the Artists Helping Artist radio show that featured artist Hedi Moran . In the interview, Hedi describes how she lays in the underpainting with transparent colors, so I thought I would give it a shot. What do you think so far?

16" x 20"

Detail of underpainting

Morning View

8" x 10"
Oil on Panel
Click Here to Purchase
$125.00

I would like to introduce my new series for the month of February - "Interior Views". I enjoyed painting the two interior scenes I did in the "A to Z" series, so I thought I would explore this theme a bit, and why not start in the bathroom. Moving forward,  I am hoping to post 2 small paintings per week, as I am starting some larger works for exhibition I will be having at the end of the year.

30 Day Challenge Collage

30 Day Challenge
"A to Z" series

It's kind of neat seeing all of the paintings in one collage! I have never worked in a series before this challenge, and it seemed to provide the structure I need to remain focused, not to mention the interest it created around seeing what I would paint next - even my family wanted to know.
A cool side note to all of this, I sold 6 paintings this month and the "A to Z" series was mentioned on Leslie Saeta's, "Artists Helping Artists" radio show yesterday.  There were many inspiring stories shared about the artists that took part in this challenge, and how it has motivated so many to paint on a daily basis. Thank you Leslie!

"Z" is for Zen

8" x 10"
Oil on Panel

Since I started this 30 day challenge with a self portrait, I thought I would end with one.

While I do not practice Buddhism, I do feel like I have been enlightened by 30 straight days of painting, probably more than I can articulate at the moment. I do know that getting my priorities straight, and then making the commitment to follow through, was the biggest change I made this past month. I started each day reading scripture and praying which helped me gain some clarity. I even went as far as not allowing myself to check email unless I had my prayer time first. The other biggie for me was that I exercised 3 times/week. To pull this off, I had to learn to say "no" to other distractions and time wasters that I usually fall prey to each day.

Thanks for following me on this journey - stay tuned for February's series.......

#24- "X" & #25 "Y" is for Yellow Pepper Peeking

6" x 6"
Oil on Panel
$60.00
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This yellow pepper still life was sitting on a top shelf, out of the way, next in line to be painted after "X". I was amazed at how good it looked on the shelf, and I had not fussed with the arrangement at all, just threw it up there. It even looked like the pepper was peeking over the side of the bowl, so I left it as is, and enjoyed painting this from a different perspective.

Below is my entry for "X", I am not pleased with the result, so I will have to revisit this one when there is more time. It has been difficult to post the ones I am not satisfied with, but it does force one to pick up and move on.

4' x 4"
Acrylic on Panel

#23 - "W" is for Walk

8" x 8"
Oil on Canvas
NFS

This is my husband and son taking a stroll in the park about 12 years ago. For many reasons, this image is very dear to me, but the one that stands out for this challenge is that my son is walking. Due to development delays, my son did not start walking until he was 2 1/2 years old, so you can imagine how excited I was when he finally took his first steps. At this point in my photo reference, he had only been walking for 6 months. I really enjoyed getting lost in this memory while painting, and didn't want to stop, but I must move on to the letter "X".

#22 - "V" is for Valentine

6" x 6"
Oil on Canvas
$60.00
Click Here to Purchase

 Vino and chocolate, it doesn't get better than this. Happy Valentines Day - early!

Just 4 more to paint in this series/challenge, and then it's time to celebrate - with a little chocolate, of course.

#21 - "U" is for Umbrella

5" x 7"
$60.00
 Click Here to Purchase

I'm in the home stretch of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge, and coming up on one of the hardest letters of the alphabet - what to do for "X"????? Any suggestions?