Maureen's Irises - SOLD

Maureen's Irises Watercolor with Pen and Ink, 13" x 19" SOLD This one was supposed to be 11" x 15", but it grew beyond it's own edges. Luckily I had started with a large sheet of stretched watercolor paper. I like the dramatic lights and darks in it. Done by request.

Red Letter Day Pears - SOLD

Red Letter Day Pears Oil on Gesso Board, 8" x 10" SOLD at $25.00 plus shipping. Two of "my girls" have birthdays today. Kate Johnson and my sweet grandaughter, Alex. I looked up the derivation of what is a red letter day, and it seems to come from way back, when Holy Days were marked in red in the First Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and then subsequently to mark Sundays and Holidays on printed calendars. Isn't that interesting? Happy Birthday, Red Letter Day girls!

Shadowed Iris - NA

Shadowed Iris Oil on Canvas Board, 12" x 12" Not available.. I've done this one before, and the results were quite different. Interesting that at different times, the attitude and maturity we bring to the easel makes for a similar but wholly new painting. Thanks for looking.

Frosted Black Irises - SOLD

Frosted Black Irises
Oil on Stretched Canvas, 14" x 14"
SOLD at $80.00 plus shipping.

Does anyone remember Brenda Starr, and how her Mystery Man was always looking for Black Orchids? Yes, I'm dating myself, but that was in the back of my head today as I was painting these guys. Not an orchid, but dark and frosted.

Riverside Overcast - SOLD

Riverside Overcast Oil on Gesso Board, 8" x 10" SOLD at $25.00 plus shipping. Just a little landscape today. I think this might be the Ware River or the Prince River, at any rate one of the little rivers that runs through Barre.

Awning Apples - SOLD

Awning Apples Oil on Canvas Panel, 12" x 12" SOLD at $85.00 plus shipping. Another fun painting with patterned fabric. This one was a little harder than yesterday's, more accuracy involved in the width and direction of the stripes. The red and white just reminds me of an awning. Don't the folds show up nicely?

Apples on Pattern - SOLD

Apples on Pattern Oil on Canvas Panel, 12" x 12" SOLD at $85.00 plus shipping. Isn't this one fun? The pattern was surprisingly easy to do, like doing a puzzle really (and of course, I fudged it some.) The really interesting part of painting the fabric was playing with the shadows in the folds and under the apples, which is subtle, but gives it some form. I'll use this fabric again sometime, very cool to paint.

Pears on Crazy Pink - SOLD

Pears on Crazy Pink Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" SOLD at $50.00 plus shipping. What do you think? I grabbed some magenta, almost hot pink paper to put under the pears, and had fun with the color. I was actually thinking about yellow and purple, green and red, and wondered if this would work together. It's interesting, but I'm not sure where you would hang it, with all that crazy pink in it.

Wine Apples - SOLD

Wine Apples Oil on Canvas Panel, 9" x 12" SOLD. A painting I'm oh, so pleased with. It's got strong values, a solid composition, great colors, and the style I'd like to paint in every day, if I could. I have to be in a certain, almost devil-may-care frame of mind to pull it off, with certain brush strokes and bold application. I'm working on it.

Fat Pears

Fat Pears Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" Available at $50.00 plus shipping. In the pear bin this week were really round, fat pears and I picked the fattest, roundest pears they had. With this set up, I liked the blues in the shadows. Thanks for looking.

Glads NA

Glads Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" Not available, repainted canvas. There was a huge bucket of pink and white gladiolas at the Kroger the other day, and I couldn't believe that they were $2.50 for a bunch of seven stems. So of course, I had to get a couple of bunches. They are so graceful. I wanted to try just focusing on the middle of the bouquet, see what I could come up with. Thanks for looking.

Birds of Paradise - SOLD

Birds of Paradise Acrylic on Watercolor Paper, 13.5" x 18.5" SOLD at $85.00 plus shipping. I've never painted these before, but see today that there are actually four orange petals. Several of them were hidden in the bud when I was painting them. The leaves are not real bird of paradise leaves, but came with the stems in the grocery store, and I liked them together. This is another in the experimental series, and although I do like this technique (acrylics as watercolors), it's very painstaking, with all the layers over and over each other. I think I'm done with it for the moment. Thanks for looking.

Sunflower Survivor - SOLD

Sunflower Survivor Oil on Stretched Canvas, 10" x 10" SOLD at $50.00 plus shipping. I'm happy enough with this last of the sunflowers. I think it's the closest I've ever gotten to being correct about the yellow shadows. I really wasn't going to do anything more with sunflowers, the rest have died and been tossed. But this last survivor pushed his way into a painting, to the exclusion of the pears that were actually set up. That's sometimes how it goes. Thanks for looking.

Sunflowers in Acrylics - SOLD

Sunflowers in Acrylics Acrylics on Watercolor Paper, 13" x 20" SOLD. Using acrylics as watercolors, and building up thin layers. I do like this technique, but I'm thinking that it may be more effectiive on florals with larger petals. Thanks for looking. Detail below:

Sunflowers on Black - SOLD

Sunflowers on Black Acrylic on Watercolor paper, 140 pound Richeson, 11" x 14.5" Sold at sale price of $35.00. I really like the look of these rugged sunflowers, so when I saw them at the grocery store, I decided to try painting them again. I have been reading through some of my artbooks, and came across a terrific artist named Barbara Buer who uses acrylics are watercolors, so I wanted to try it. This is an experimental piece, but I like the drama. Thanks for looking.

Poppies, Second Generation - SOLD

Poppies, Second Generation Oil on Canvas Panel, 11" x 14" SOLD at $45.00 plus shipping. There were such favorable comments about the poppies posted yesterday, and I had a lot of mixed paint left over, so I decided to do a small painting just to use up the paint. It was actually more troublesome than the large paintings, go figure. I had more freedom with the color, that may have thrown me off. A limited palette is a good thing. Thanks for looking.

Pink Poppies Set

Pink Poppies

Oil on Stretched Canvas, 24" x 24" each panel

Commissioned Work, SOLD

Sometimes my collectors wait a very, very long time for their pieces. I am very glad to have this set done, for a very patient and very cool collector. These are both good size canvases, and the work took a lot less time than you would imagine, all day yesterday, and all morning this morning, but that's really not bad, considering. I am going to post the steps and photos of the process on my sketch blog, if you are interested in seeing the start to finish. (The cropping of the photos made these look askew, but they do line up.) Thanks for looking.

Simple Landscape Two - SOLD

Simple Landscape Two Oil on Canvas Panel, 11" x 14" SOLD at $30.00 plus shipping. Another little landscape, still in the purples and greens. What a wonderful color combination! I am working on two large pieces right now, and so I'm glad to have these simple landscapes to post for my daily work. I am taking progress photos and will post the steps on my sketch blog for the large twin paintings. Thanks for looking.

Simple Landscape - SOLD

Simple Landscape Oil on Gessoed Board, 12" x 16" SOLD at $30.00 plus shipping. A simple road, some shady trees, a sketchy landscape in mostlypurples, blues and greens. A nice change after the angles from the house paintings. The color scheme and the composition are copied with my own adaptations from the book by Elizabeth Mowry, The Pastelist's Year. Thanks for looking.

The Awning

The Awning Oil on Canvas Panel, 11" x 14" Available at $50.00 plus shipping. Same image as yesterday, but with a tighter drawing to begin. I haven't decided yet which one I like better, but for now, my inclinations to do buildings is satisfied. Buildings are hard to draw, hard to paint. But I really do like this old house, old houses in general. Thanks for looking.