Valley View with Cows - SOLD

Valley View with Cows (with detail) Acrylic on Stretched Canvas, 22" x 28" Sold at $125.00 plus $25.00 shipping. This is a larger painting, done in preparation for my mural work. I intend for something like this to be in the center of the main wall (four walls of a powder room) and extend it from there. I'll be doing at least one more of these larger canvases, for another piece of the mural. I patched this one together from a bunch of different photos, you've seen some of these cows before. I'll need to hang onto it until after the mural work is done (end of January), but I am putting it up for sale. Thanks for looking.

Winter Neighborhood - SOLD

Winter Neighborhood Acrylic on Canvas board, 10" x 12" Sold at $35.00 plus shipping The winter sky can be so beautiful, and winter colors in general. But the sky the other afternoon after all the snow we had was gorgeous, I had to go out and shoot a few photos. This is the neighbor's house against the late afternoon light. Thanks for looking.

Farm Across the Field - SOLD

Farm Across the Field Acrylic on Stretched Linen Canvas, 5" x 7" Painted as Gallery Wrap Sold at $20.00 plus $6.00 shipping. I'm discovering the capabilities of the Interactive Acrylic paints from Chroma, and this one is practice for sky painting. More subtlety is needed, I think. But it's a sweet little piece as it is, and I was able to add a tiny little group of buildings and farm equipment, even a teensy fence. The second photo is just to show the width of the painted wrap. It could be displayed on a small easel. Thanks for looking.

Dwelling Place (My Basement Studio)

Dwelling Place, Basement Studio The gallery has put out a call for photos of our studios. (Or paintings. But I'm not quite inspired to paint where I work.) This is my painting table. For the small paintings, this is where I hang out. I've got an old TV set up so I can watch some borrowed demo videos. If you're curious to see other views of my space, please go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neljansen/ I've seen some absolutely gorgeous studios lately, and they make me drool. But I am very grateful for the space that I DO have. A borrowed space is way, way better than none at all. I'll post a painting again tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

South Barre Marsh Two - SOLD

South Barre Marsh Two Acrylic on Canvas board, 10" x 12" Sold at $50.00 plus shipping. My first painting with the Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylics (yes, I know, long name) and I'm enjoying experimenting with these. I used a repeat image for this one, and mostly I loved the clean colors you can get, and the ability to overpaint. I haven't figured out "blending" with these yet, but I'll play some more. Thanks for looking. Please note: This painting, though dry, will not ship before Christmas, as I bought the wrong varnish, and will need to wait for my next order from Jerry's before I can finish it off. Thanks.

Pears of Beauty - SOLD

Pears of Beauty Oil on Canvas board, 10" x 12" Sold at $52.00 plus shipping. My granddaughter Alex, named and priced this one for me. I think she did a good job, don't you? (She's 10.) You've seen her here before, looking at goats and drinking her cereal bowl milk on the front porch in previous paintings. I have a feeling it won't be the last Alex painting. Don't these pears look green against the quiet background? Thanks for looking.

Pears on Red - SOLD

Pears on Red Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 10" Sold at $40.00 plus shipping. A simple set up, with light at the top for the cast shadows. Thanks for looking.

Winter Sketch with Oak - SOLD

Winter Sketch with Oak Oil on Canvas board, 12" x 16" Sold at $60.00 plus shipping. I wanted to do a snow painting with bright sunlight, but the sun kept popping in and out, so I never could get decent blue shadow shots. Instead, I did a color sketch of the oak tree in my daughter's front yard in the overcast light of today. I love how these few leaves are still clinging to their twigs, even with 10 inches of snow on the ground. I call this a sketch because it's very loose and "sketchy." Thanks for looking, and stay warm, wherever you are.

Moss Pond Fog - SOLD

Moss Pond Fog Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 16" Sold at $50.00 plus shipping. Nice to play with an image two days in a row. Same essence, same colors (with a little more blue) but basically the same set of reference photos to work from. I included a bit more of the shore on this one. Thanks for looking.

Moss Pond in Fog - SOLD

Moss Pond in Fog Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 16" Sold at $50.00 plus shipping. I've been wanting to work with some beautiful grays (greys?), so a fog picture was the perfect answer. Viridian and Quin Rose make a really lovely gray, and can then be adjusted darker or lighter, warmer or cooler. Fun to do the mixes. Thanks for looking.

Wonky Apples - SOLD

Wonky Apples Watercolor on 140 pound Cold Press, 9" x 11" Sold at $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping. At night, when I feel like doing something with watercolors, my daughter's fruit plate is quick to grab. So here are her apples, (again) done in a wonky style in pen and ink with watercolor. Oh, and a gourd is tucked in there too. Thanks for looking.

Winter Colors - SOLD

Winter Colors
Watercolor on 140 pound Cold Press,
8" x 11" Sold at $10.00 plus $5.00 shipping.

Winter colors are subtle and beautiful, even though I'm not a cold weather person. I played around with this made up, simple landscape, just trying to use some winter colors. It's not really "a work of art", but I never know what appeals to people, so decided to put it in the blog anyway. Thanks for looking.

Star Fruit in Blue Bowl - SOLD

Star Fruit in Blue Bowl 8" x 10", Oil on Canvas board SOLD at $45.00 plus shipping. I wanted to paint on the Pintura panels again, and here's my little report for fellow painters who are interested: Rigidity is fine, no warping (the mugs and tomatillos painting dried fine), the surface is nice, but I'm not sure it's actually fabric, ie. canvas. It has a smoother tooth, and the surface is more absorbant that my RayMar panels. Which is nice in the beginning stages, but makes for tacky overpainting at the finishing stages. I think that once you got used to that, and adjusted to it, it would be fine. Star fruit again, I know, I just couldn't resist. Thanks for looking.

Star Fruit with Apple - SOLD

Star Fruit with Apples Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 10" SOLD at $20.00 plus shipping Don't you love the shapes of star fruit? Such a cool color too. (I have no idea how they taste, just bought them for their shapes.) I was going to do these in watercolor, but changed my mind and worked in oil today. These do call for a watercolor though, so maybe tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

Apples on Yellow - SOLD

Apples onYellow 10" x 12", Oil on Canvas board SOLD at $60.00 plus shipping. I was actually more interested in the shadows and the different subtle colors in them, than in the apples themselves, although these are beautiful. Apples mounted on yellow craft paper, with the same paper behind them. Thanks for looking.

Crown Farm with Truck - SOLD

Crown Farm with Old Truck - SOLD

12" x 16", Oil on Canvas board

Sometimes it's fun to go back and paint the same images again, after a time. I had a request awhile ago from the children of the man who recently bought the old truck, and these folks are friends of the owners of Crown Farm. They had wanted the original painting, which was sold. So here's the painting again, and it's kind of neat to see how much easier this one was for me, after 7 extra months of painting since the first one:

posted on April 29th this year.

I think I've improved a lot.

They tell me that the farm is being parcelled and the buildings are coming down. Sad, that, since it was the last working farm in Gaithersburg, and marks the end of an era there.

Thanks everyone, for looking.

Mugs and Tomatillos - SOLD

Mugs and Tomatillos Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 10" Sold at $50.00 plus shipping. Two shiny new mugs from Walmart and some of these little tomatillos. (No idea how they taste, but I like the skins.) It was fun to paint these today, since I'm also trying out some new canvas board (called Pintura, from Jerry's). This is a smoother surface than I normally use, very nice. Enough tooth and grab, and much cheaper than my usual boards. Hopefully it will stand up to the paint. Thanks for looking.

Path with Pines - SOLD

Path with Pines Oil on Canvas board, 12" x 16" Sold at $60.00 plus shipping. I enjoyed painting this one today, nice summer feeling while it's cold and overcast outside. This was done from another set of photos from the summer, where this rest stop on the other side of Browning Lake caught my eye. Thanks for looking. Also I wanted to mention that on January 1, I'll have been involved in daily painting for a year (minus July, that is) and am planning to raise my prices. I thank all of you for bearing with me during this year of practice and learning. Not that learning or practice will stop, but I feel that I've improved enough to start charging "the going rate" starting in January.

Walnut Hill in Gold -NA

Walnut Hill in Gold

Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 16"

Not available, revised January 5, 2009

During soccer season, when I was dropping Alex off for practice, the afternoon light would often turn everything to oranges and golds. This is done from some photos I took on Walnut Hill Road during one such afternoon. It's always the light that makes paintings exciting. Thanks for looking.

Gourds in Basket - SOLD

Gourds in Basket Oil on Canvas board, 12" x 16" Sold at $60.00 plus shipping. I found this cute little basket at the Country Gourmet Gift Shop the other day, something to pop my gourds into. The front gourd actually looks like a swan when you hold it the right way. The rust and oranges in the background just sort of happened. Thanks for looking.