Simple Serene - SOLD

Simple Serene Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" SOLD at $40.00 plus shipping. A small landscape with the emphasis on trunks and branches in the trees.

Magnolia 5 - SOLD

Magnolia 5 Oil on Canvas Mounted on Board, 16" x 16" SOLD. This one was a long time in getting done, as I just couldn't find single canvases in 16" x 16". I did find them at Jerry's (where I do some online ordering of art supplies) but I would have had to buy two boxes of 6 each, I think it was. I finally went to Lowes, where a very nice guy named Tom cut a huge sheet of masonite into pieces for me. (Thank you, Tom!) It took quite some time with him kneeling and measuring, and I really appreciated it, so gave him a business card for his wife and a little discount promise. I like the way this one turned out, and it feels good to have one more request completed.

Drapery Study with Plums - SOLD

Drapery Study with Plums Oil on Stretched Canvas, 11" x 14' SOLD at $60.00 plus shipping. Sometimes you have to wait a while to let a painting speak, as it were. This one never quite hit it with the pear, and this weekend it just said "plums" and so I revised it. I like it so very much better now. I also revised the background color to harmonize with the other colors, ahhh, much better now. And extended the back bit of drapery to look more natural. This is how it looked before:

Little Waterfall - SOLD

Little Waterfall, from the Creeks of Home Series Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" Sols at Sale Price. Another small creek painting. I am just enchanted with the colors of the water in creeks, where the light shines through and shows the color of the creek bed underneath. It's a nice little series for me. Thanks for looking.

Bowl of Beads

Bowl of Beads Watercolor Pencil on 300 lb Richeson Watercolor paper Image size is 7" x 11" on 11" x 15" paper Available at $40.00 plus shipping. Happy Mardi Gras, everyone! It's a big deal here in Louisiana, the kids had Fat Monday and today off school. Our first time experiencing the traditions of Mardi Gras, some of them anyway. Like King Cake, which I'd never heard of. We walked up to the end of the neighborhood on Saturday to watch a parade go by, people on horseback, people in the LA version of floats (flatbeds decorated, and toting people, barbeques, port-a-potties), all of them throwing treats to the crowds: we got plastic cups, small toys, lots and lots of strings of beads, candy, stuffed animals, you name it. People passed out beer, jello shots, yes, lots of drinking going on too. All very happy and friendly, and you're supposed to call to the folks with treats "Throw me sumthin, mista!" So we have a thousand strings of beads around the house, and I took pieces of my babysitting time yesterday while my daughter, sil, and his visiting brother went to New Orleans to draw this bowl of beads.

Rocks and Ripples - SOLD

Rocks and Ripples Oil on Canvas Panel, 9" x 12" SOLD at $35.00 plus shipping. Isn't this fun? It was fun to do as well. I guess once you do two or more it becomes a series, so it would seem that I am doing a "creek" series, which is just fine with me. I think they are wonderful to paint. This was from one of my Maryland creek photos, a small sectional of one photo. It was very swishy to paint.

Regal Onions - SOLD

Regal Onions Oil on Canvas Panel, 8" x 8" SOLD at $40.00 plus $5.00 shipping (in the US) I have been thinking that maybe I don't love my darks enough. I wanted to try something with more mystery to it, more rich dark. So I shone my light on these two onions, then built a tent with some cardboard to block a good deal of the light, and used some purple paper underneath. The back onion was actually even darker than this, but it seems to work here. What do you think?

Pink Peony in Light - SOLD

Pink Peony in Light Oil on Stretched Canvas, 16" x 20" SOLD at $125.00 plus shipping This one was not so much fun to do, I probably should have mapped it out first, but drew it in pencil and then just started painting, section by section, going at it blind. I was fortunate that it turned out as well as it did, but I'll probably do it again, and tone the canvas in blocks next time. It does have a feeling of sunlight on it, which is what I was going for.

A Couple of Medium Onions - SOLD

A Couple of Medium Onions Oil on Canvas Panel, 8" x 8" SOLD at $35.00 plus $5.00 shipping (in the US) This just felt like a part of a recipe. Take a couple of medium onions, chop fine.... Not easy colors to see and paint.

Looking Into Hydrangeas - SOLD

Looking Into Hydrangeas Oil on Canvas Panel, 9" x 12" SOLD at $65.00 plus shipping. Because I've been working with spots of paint lately (all the Broken Color landscapes), some of my hyrdrangea photos caught my eye again. But I wanted to do them a little differently than what I've done in the past, so this one is less formal, less organized. It's more like you're just glancing into the bush, seeing parts of the glorious blossoms. I like the way it turned out.

The Creeks of Home - SOLD

The Creeks of Home, in memory of Ben Oil on Stretched Canvas, 12" x 12" SOLD at $75.00 plus shipping. I still had a lot of greens left over from yesterday, so wanted to do a water and green scene. Found one of my creek photos from Maryland, and as I was working on this one, I was thinking of my brother Ben, who was always to the creek first, did amazing feats of daring, and built the most incredible "forts" at our childhood creek. I hope you were fortunate enough to grow up in and around creeks, they are a special set of memories.

Grogan Road 2 - SOLD

Grogan Road 2 Oil on Stretched Canvas, 11" x 14" SOLD at $60.00 plus shipping. A smaller version of the landscape from the other day. "Broken Road" again. I also wanted to be able to use this as a step-by-step, so took lots of photos, start to finish. We are studying landscapes right now in the class I'm teaching, a very big subject indeed, so I need lots of demos. I am still really liking these trees.

Simple White - SOLD

Simple White Oil on Stretched Canvas, 12" x 12" SOLD at $40.00 plus shipping. It's been some time since I worked on this odd canvas. It's called "Yes!" canvas, and it's very fine weaved, but treated to be used with all and any wet media. So it's different. My paint felt "stuck" working on this canvas today, and so it didn't feel right. It resulted in a somewhat rough and tumble piece, since my paint didn't want to flow, but someone may like it.

Grogan Road, Barre - NA

Grogan Road, Barre

Oil on Stretched Canvas, 18" x 24"

Not Available, revised.

The little ones used to call this "Broken Road" since that was what they heard in the name. It's a dirt road off Wauwinet, back in Barre. My large piece was going so badly that the collector and I agree to scrap it, and the purples and whites in it became the underpainting for this one. I think it's one of my best yet. Nice to do a large landscape, with plenty of room for brush work.

Blushing Pears - SOLD

Blushing Pears Oil on Canvas Panel, 8" x 8" Sold at sale price $15.00 plus $5.00 shipping.. I am working on a large and difficult piece that is not going very well. It was a relief to set up some pears and grab a small canvas, and do something easy. This one is simple, clean and bright. I was glad to be able to do it today. Now to decide whether or not to abandon the large painting midway through the mess. It IS good to stretch beyond your abilities, but you also have to be able to say, okay, and admit that you're not quite at that level yet.

Broken Color Landscape 4 - SOLD

Broken Color Landscape 4 Oil on Stretched Canvas, 11" x 14" SOLD at $65.00 plus shipping. This one was done on a base of orange gesso, so there is a lot of orange showing through. These are just so much fun to do, and I remembered that one of my collectors had asked for this size in the Broken Color landscapes. The little spots of color are just so easy to manage.

Drapery Study with Pear - NA

Drapery Study with Pear Oil on Stretched Canvas, 11" x 14" Not available. I haven't really tackled drapery per se. I've fudged by doing drapery with patterns and stripes, but I wanted to see if I could paint plain drapery. I found some deep blue fleece at Walmart and took home a quarter yard, shone a bright light on it, and plopped a pear at the top. What surprised me was the purple tones in the blue under the light. Pretty cool. I don't expect anyone to actually want this piece to hang, but figured I'd show it anyway. Do you think the background would be better in a dark umber color?

Peony of Many Colors - SOLD

Peony of Many Colors Watercolor on Arches paper, 13.5" x 18.5" SOLD at $90.00 plus shipping. Another peony, just because I like to work sometimes in series. I worked even more slowly on this one than the painting from last week. It's actually pretty big, for a watercolor. And it has so much color in it, it's amazing that it reads like a white flower, but it does.

Thoughts of Early Spring - SOLD

Thoughts of Early Spring Oil on Two 6" x 8" Canvas Boards, Overall Size 12" x 8" SOLD at SalePrice. Another revival, from last spring. I punched up the colors, and deepened the shadows in the leaf area. Overall, it has more oomph now. This is actually two small paintings, intended to be framed and hung side by side. You can see the small dividing line down the middle of the two little canvas boards. I'm posting them as a set.

Pears with Glaze - SOLD

Pears with Glaze Oil with Glazing on Canvas Panel, 8" x 10" SOLD at $45.00 plus shipping. Glazing is something I've been wanting to try, especially since we did a value study in black and white for our online class (the one I'm teaching) and it seemed logical to try out some glazing. It isn't as easy as it sounds. The tricky part is getting the right amount of glaze, and not letting your colors turn to soup. The other hard part is the waiting between coats, almost like watercolors, but way slower. It's a technique that requires much patience, but gives an interesting and subtle effect. This one started out as below: Neat, huh? But many steps in between. The background turned into a mauvey purple tone, very nice. Thanks for looking.