High Bay View -sold

oil 11x14 inches, gallery wrap canvas (sold) With this painting I have done some experimenting. My photo reference for this piece had a nice abstract quality. I turned my photo upside down for the entire painting process. I thought doing so would be a fun exercise and would help maintain the abstract quality. I also painted without any initial draw-in. Instead, I focused on laying in the shapes on canvas. Also, I painted on an oil ground for the first time and without any toning of the canvas. The painting dried quickly and opaquely. Needs a good coat of varnish. I submitted this to Carol Marine's "Try Something New" challenge.

Lemon Light -SOLD

oil 8x10 inches click for purchase information I really enjoy painting lemons. Love the translucency. I submitted this painting to the current Daily Paintworks Challenge: paint fabric.

Little Blue Vase

oil 8x8 on gallery wrap canvas I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on a big overdue home project: reorganizing our garage. Would much rather paint on canvas than the inside of a three car garage! A few days ago I responded to the DPW challenge with this piece. Qiang-Huang challenged us to let blue be the focus of the work, so I neutralized the other colors. Quite different for me. On another note: I recently have gone through my DPW gallery and added a PayPal Buy Now feature to many of my recent pieces. In doing so, I reduced the previous auction price a bit. So if you're looking for an original piece of art for a gift, visit my Daily Paintworks Gallery here. Thanks for looking.

The Lovely Egg -sold

oil 6x6 inchesclick here to bidMy submission to the Daily Paintworks challenge. This color combo excited me right away, but I thought I'd be nuts to try and paint that pattern with the glass and all, and my painting time was limited. Tried other simpler things, but went back to this because it still excited me the most.

Red Truck -sold

oil 6x6 inches sold I couldn't resist Carol Marine's Daily Paintworks Challenge. Love painting anything red.

Mini Creamer

oil 4x4 inches not for sale When I have just a little time to paint I paint a little painting. My mother gave me this individual creamer she had purchased long ago in Amsterdam. The white glaze is a kind of cool yellowish leaning toward blue. That's what I love most about it. So subtle. A very limited palette of TWhite, UltBlue, CdYellowMed and CdRedLt made painting this one simple. Tomorrow I'm off to Happy Jack, Arizona for a few days visiting loved ones. Painting and internet access are unknowns at this point, but I'll be back.

Gamblin's Jailbreak -sold

oil 6x6 inches click here to bid This week DPW challenged us to paint stripes. I may have taken this a bit too far. Looks like a convict's uniform in an old prison movie! :-) Really it's just a piece cut from the inside of a White House Black Market shopping bag. I love that store, but not the prices. I had fun painting on a black ground.

Suburban Squeeze -sold

oil 8x8 inches FRAMED sold I went out one afternoon shooting cows...with my camera :-). When I got close to the fence a herd of young cows came rushing over so close I had to back up. This one stuck his/her? head up just like this. I had a hard time getting a good shot of this painting. It looks so much better in person. I'm beginning to think some colors photograph better than others. I find it sad that the dairies continue to be pushed out by housing, but hey. 20 years ago we moved into one of those houses. Hmmm..... The Chino Festival of Arts is this Saturday from 10:00-4:00. Come on out to the Civic Center Lawn for a fun day of music, dance and art. Stop by my booth and say hi or hang out with me while I paint.

On The Level -sold

oil 6x6 inches
click here to bid

One day my hubby was going to Home Depot. I asked him to buy me a level. "Find me a pretty one," I said. He did. It's a bluish silvery aluminum. Turns out the screwdriver and hammer are kinda pretty too.

Measure First -sold

oil 6x6 inches
click here to bid

Here's my submission to the current DPW Challenge; paint tools. Often these are the first tools used for many trades. My dad was a sign painter who was never seen without his tape measure on his belt and a pencil in his pocket. In fact, when he passed away more than twenty years ago we buried him that way.
Today marks the two year anniversary of my blog. I want to sincerely thank all of you who have taken the time to look, make a comment, purchase or show interest in my work. Your feedback means more to me than I can say. Lots more paintings to come!

Chocolate Hearts -sold

oil 8x6 inches
click here to bid

My last chocolate painting for now. What a nicely designed box. The bits of gold and dark silver shining here and there made it even more interesting.

Peanut Butter Kisses -sold

oil 6x6 inches
click here for purchase information and magnifier

Maybe I shouldn't admit that this is one of my favorite late night snacks. Who needs Reeses? I guess I'm painting a chocoholic series. This painting is available at Vander Molen Fine Art, Arcadia, CA

Fudgy Charm Bar

oil 6x6 inches
click here to bid

This lump of gooey deliciousness came from Stater Brothers Market. The title is theirs. I thought it was kinda funny. The bakery girl packaged it up so carefully after I told her not to smash the whipped cream 'cause I'd be painting it. (What a weird customer.) Then it fell over on the trip home and again on top of the green beans in the fridge. Oh well.

Strawberry Kisses -sold

oil 6x6 inches
click here to bid

If there were a twelve step program for chocoholism I would not go willingly. Here we have chocolate dipped strawberries without the dipping. Just peel'n'eat. I enjoy these throughout our long strawberry season. Two kisses per strawberry. See this and the other entries on the new DPW Challenge by clicking here.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Little Bird-sold

oil on canvas panel 4x4 inches
click here to bid

A little white ceramic bird on a white surface, my second for the DPW challenge. Rather than use two complements as I did for the previous painting, I decided to use three primaries. Grays mixed with three primaries seem more lively. I like this one much better. To see the other submissions, click here.

White On White-sold

oil on canvas panel 6x8 inches

Night before last I left my photo references and attempted to take the DPW challenge; paint white objects on a white background. I started with Q-tips on a white surface, wiped it out and went to bed. Yesterday I painted this. Blaaahhhh. I saw a lot of orange thanks probably to my orange T-shirt. I used blue and orange to make the grays and swing them warm or cool, and yellow in the lights. I really missed having a colorful subject and pondered the act of painting something I'm not particularly excited about. Not being one to give up easily, I painted another one I'm a bit happier with which I'll post tomorrow.

Did You Say "Walk?"

oil on canvas panel 8x6 inches

not for sale

The current Daily Paintworks Challenge is to paint man's best friend and his/her favorite thing. This is my own little studio dog, Sandy. She's a lovable bundle of love, fur and dog kisses. She waits patiently while I paint and knows exactly the moment I'm finished. Here she is on my studio rug at just that moment hoping for her favorite thing: a walk. When I talk to her about anything she cocks her head like this. Yep, she's adorable. Oh, but back to the painting!

She's white, which I knew would be a challenge, and that maltese (silky) and poodle (curly) hair was a challenge too. Luckily for me, my studio lights both cool and warm showed up in her fur. The color seemed to tie in with the rug, so I used consistent paint application throughout to further unify the painting. A limited palette helped too: burnt umber, yellow ochre, alizarin, ultramarine, cad yellow medium and T white. I really enjoyed painting my own little sweetheart.

To see the other entries to this challenge, click here.

Tie Dye Toaster-sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

click here to bid

Here's my "paint your toaster" entry to the DPW challenge. I have never owned a pop-up toaster. This toaster oven has toasted for us since 1974. As for the color reflections....uh....I was wearing my tie dye T-shirt. It seemed fitting on the '74 toaster so I went with it and just had fun.

Favorite Shoes

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

click here to bid

Daily Paintworks gave us a "paint your shoes" challenge recently. These are my favorite shoes for style and comfort. I live in flip flops, so I don't wear these very often, but still they're my favorite shoes. I thought about leaving out all the gold stitching to simplify the painting, but the stitching is part of the style, so I decided to paint it in a simplified way. The color palette was enjoyably limited: burnt umber, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, cad yellow medium and Twhite.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Stretch your imagination a bit, and my shoes could be 21st century pilgrim shoes: black leather with buckles.

Ten Minute Pears

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches

click here to bid

Last week's Daily Paintworks Challenge was to paint a simple object several times with exactly 10 minutes for each "pose". Since I'm a born fusser with an eye for detail (blessing and a curse), this is just the kind of exercise I need. Except for maybe some abdominal work! :-) I toned my canvas with a mix of alizarin & cad red medium. I stuck to the rules and quit when my timer went off. 40 minutes of fun!