Backyard Serenity - SOLD

Backyard Serenity
Oil on Canvas board, 12" x 16"
SOLD.
 I'm studying greens, can you tell? I feel like I put too much yellow in most of my greens, so I'm trying to correct that. This grass is much better also. And yes, this really is the backyard here at my daughter's home. On another note, I was awarded a "Creative Blogger Award" by Helen Read, whose web site is here: http://www.helencread.com/, and that's very cool. Now I get to pick five creative friends to mention and send awards to. Isn't that fun? Thanks for looking.

Gladiola Stems - SOLD

Gladiola Stems Watercolor on 300 lb rough Arches paper 15" x 22" Sold at $80.00 plus shipping. Some gorgeous stems of gladiolas from the Farmer's Market, and have they ever lasted. The advice I'm taking is to draw tight and paint loose, so this is not as exacting in execution as I normally would do. I do like it, it turned out soft and floaty. Thanks for looking.

Into the Light - SOLD

Into the Light Oil on Canvas board, 9" x 12" Sold at $45.00 plus shipping. I like this one. Playing with the idea of light shining out from clouds, and the sky starting to show blue again, and also trying to think in terms of mass instead of leaves, or cornstalks or what have you. It's a pleasant and successful little piece, I think. Thanks for looking.

Pink Purses - SOLD

Pink Purses Oil on Canvas board, 8" x 10" Sold at $35.00 plus shipping. Practice with people. These two ladies were in the Barre Farmer's Market painting, but I wanted to try them again on a smaller piece. I love the sunshine on them, and the fact that they were carrying matching pink purses. Maybe they got them at a craft fair together? Fun to speculate. Thanks for looking.

Road to the Hayfield - SOLD

Road to the Hayfield 10" x 12", Oil on Linen board Sold at $45.00 plus shipping. First I drove right on into the field, but the grass came up to the car door, and I was scared about "snakes in the grass", so I parked here instead, and fought with the mosquitoes for the shade. Bug spray is a plein air painter's best friend sometimes. (My daughter makes a really good one, called "Bug Away" which is available at http://www.lotionsbymieke.com/ her website.) Thanks for looking.

Scrappy Sunset - SOLD

Scrappy Sunset Oil on Canvas mounted on board 6.25" x 12" Sold at $25.00 plus shipping. Using up more scraps, and enjoying playing with clouds and colors. I like the little ray of light shining up too. Thanks for looking.

Autumn Collage - SOLD

Autumn Collage

Oil on Canvas board, 12" x 16"

Sold at $60.00 plus shipping.

I was thinking about missing the fall colors in New England, and so then thought of salvaging this old fall painting (the small one of the two boys walking), from early in my blogging days last year. It got misplaced in the move to Massachusetts, and I thought it was sold, so marked it gone. It served as a good base for this imaginary fall scene. And I did have some lovly leftover colors from the peaches to use up. I'm calling it "Collage" because there is such a lot of color here. Thanks for looking.

Peaches on Blue - SOLD

Peaches on Blue
Oil on Canvas mounted on masonite
6" x 9.5"
Sold at $20.00 plus shipping.

Since the kids want to eat these peaches, better get done with them. Here's a quick one on scrap board from Home Depot, using up what I have before the move to Louisiana. I have a ways to go on doing drapery, it's harder than you'd think. But I do like the peaches. Thanks for looking.

Pitcher, Peaches and Glads - SOLD

Pitcher, Peaches and Glads Oil on Canvas board, 9" x 12" Sold at $75.00 plus shipping This was one of those magic paintings that happens every so often. I don't know why, but it just seemed to paint itself. I didn't have to fight with it, struggle with it, or argue with it (which is normal.) I just love how it came out. The glads in the back I had just stuck in a plastic pitcher and hadn't intended to put them in, but they were there, so in they went. I wish painting could always be like this. Don't the peaches look nice and fuzzy? Thanks for looking.

Barre Farmer's Market - SOLD

Barre Farmer's Market 24" x 30", Oil on Stretched Canvas Sold.

This is a composite painting from photos taken at the Farmer's Market. It actually represents only one litle corner of the market; there are many more vendors. It's a very colorful event every Saturday morning, and it has that wonderful small town feel about it. Lots of people know each other, and are friends with the vendors. Kids romp, perfectly safe. Dogs trot around with their shoppers, babies get toted. This was a difficult and fussy painting, eleven people, imagine! I'm thrilled to be done with it. It's large, 2 feet by almost 3 feet. Thanks for looking.

Blue Pitcher and Peaches - SOLD

Blue Pitcher and Peaches
12" x 12", watercolor on 300 lb paper
Sold at $40.00 plus shipping.

I bought gorgeous peaches at the Farmer's Market today, and bartered for this little pottery pitcher. The challenge here was to make the peaches look like peaches (with watercolors), and not oranges. Thanks for looking.

Harbor Island Watercolor - SOLD

Harbor island Sunset in Watercolor 14" x 18" Watercolor on 300 lb rough paper Sold at $45.00 plus shipping Since I'm working on a large canvas, and it's going slowly, I pulled this watercolor to post as a daily painting for today. (The progress of the large canvas is posted below. ) I had done this one as a lesson for an online friend for mentoring purposes, and didn't think it was quite worthy for selling. But when I looked at it again this morning, I thought "Hmm, it's not bad at all." So here you have the same scene that I did previously in oils, done in watercolor. Thanks for looking.

Farmer's Market in Progress

Farmer's Market in progress 24" x 30" Oil on Stretched Canvas This is the progress on the large painting so far. Working on the people first, and a general block in. I thought it might be interesting to show the unfinished piece, and along the way. My granddaughter wanted to be in it, so she's there under the round green umbrella. It's good for me to see it like this too, since now I see where the lady in blue needs to have a longer skirt to make sense. (Where'd her legs go?) Thanks for looking.

Jimmy's Tomatoes - SOLD

Jimmy's Tomatoes
Oil on Gessoed Card Stock, 8" x 10"
SOLD at $25.00 including shipping

A quick color sketch in oils today (with a large brush) of the tomatoes my 8 year old grandson is growing. He picked these and brought them to me to paint. Also I am working on a large 24" x 30" painting with people, so wanted to spend time on that today. This one is done on card stock, so could be cropped with scissors to any size you like. I've shown a crop possiblity. Thanks for looking.

Double Painting Landscape - SOLD

Backlit Tree Version 2 (with leaning tree) - SOLD Backlit Tree Version 3 (with straight tree) - SOLD Oil on Linen Board, 10" x 12" each Available at $45.00 each plus shipping As an experiment of sorts, I wanted to see what would happen doing two paintings at one time. I used the same size canvas, and exactly the same resource photo as yesterday's painting (there was interest in the image), and the same palette. I kept them at the same pace, sky here, sky there, alternating them on my easel every 15 or 20 minutes. It was fun to see how each emerged a bit differently, depending on brushwork and colors chosen, and the difference in the drawing. I did feel a little distracted though, as I was also taking photos to do a process entry on the other blog. The mini tutorial is on my sketchblog, Nel's Art Marks (link on the sidebar). Thanks for looking.

Backlit Tree - SOLD

Backlit Tree Oil on Canvas mounted on scrap board 9" x 10.5" Sold at $35.00 plus shipping. Some Home Depot scraps for mounting canvas, my leftover limited palette colors, and a photo that only printed half, but didn't get tossed. Ingredients for this little gem that mostly just painted itself. I think the limited palette colors really work well for this one. Thanks for looking.

Washday - SOLD

Washday Oil on Canvas mounted on board 6" x 12", Sold at $25.00 plus shipping. Using up the limited palette colors and some scraps of Home Depot masonite, I did this one quick this morning. Yes, there really are folks who still hang out their wash. I took a photo of the neighbor's wash from down the street, and wondered how many of us remember doing this? Thanks for looking.

August Sky Puddles - SOLD

August Sky Puddles
12" x 16", Oil on Canvas board
Sold at $80.00 plus shipping.

Back in March, I did a sky puddle painting, and wanted to do another in summer foliage and colors. I like the way everything looks wet in this one. It was nice today to work on something comfortable, ie. Landscape. Using the limited red-green palette again here, no yellow or blues. Thanks for looking.

The revised version is shown at the top. I think it looks a bit more realistic, since the puddles feel more natural.

Coneflowers on Green - SOLD

Coneflowers on Green Oil on Canvas board, 6" x 8" SOLD at $30.00. Okay, I think I've got it now. This will be the last of the coneflower paintings, and I think, the best one. What I'm looking for: clean, interesting, painterly, composition and color working well. This one is less hesitant, maybe because it's smaller. Thanks for looking.

August Profusion - SOLD

August Profusion Oil on Canvas board, 10" x 12" Sold at $60.00 plus shipping. At the Farmer's Market yesterday on the town green, our booth-neighbors (organic farmers) had these gorgeous bouquets of August flowers. We bartered: they got a painting and I got flowers and bunches of veggies and fruit. I think this one has a flavor of all that color and shape, some of the individual flowers are better painted than others, but by and large, I'm happy with it. Thanks for looking.