From The Garden

 

From The Garden  oil 10x10

Purchase info here.

Last August my friend Marj invited me to pick veggies in her garden. Her onions made a nice linear element paired with my tomatoes from my garden.  I love the little brown bits.  The painting has a fresh crisp look compared to this slightly fuzzy image.  

Lovely Radishes

 

Lovely Radishes  oil 6x6 

Purchase info here.

I've painted radishes a few times, but I think this one is my all time favorite.  The green leaves wilt SO quickly that I painted them first, as fast and simply as I could.  Reflected light from the white cloth up onto the radishes gave them a soft, almost frosty look.  To me, there is a delicacy here that I don't often capture.  I hope someone will love it as much as I do.  

Really Red Radishes

oil 6x6 inches Purchase info here. A painting from June. This painting is available unframed or framed in a contemporary black floater, 1 in. wide. Purchase through link above, then email me at karenwernerart@gmail.com to purchase the frame by Paypal bill. No additional shipping.

Peppers On Blue

oil 6x6 inches. Purchase info here. Hang this on your kitchen wall and the colors will wake you up in the morning. You won't even need a cup of coffee! Well, maybe so, just because coffee is so yummy.

Garlic & Onion

oil 6x8 inches Purchase info here. This painting will be part of "UnreNOUNed", a group show at Claremont Community Foundation through December and January. Come and see "ordinary persons, places and things" painted by Jackie Knell, Martha Cowan and myself. Reception Dec. 1 6-8pm. Public is invited. The painting is framed and available for purchase online. Just click the link above. IN OTHER NEWS: UPCOMING WORKSHOPS! Painting The Lively Still Life workshops are scheduled for January 19-20 and February 9-10. These are two day intensive workshops for experienced beginner and intermediate oil painters. Two full days of structured teaching and coaching in my Upland, CA Studio. I also offer a private introductory class for absolute beginners who want to register for the workshop. If you would like to know more, email me at karenwernerart@gmail.com

Red Onion

oil 6x6 inches Purchase info here. Red onions are among the most beautiful vegetables on the planet in my opinion. This painting is framed and ready to hang. Frame: custom dark wood approximately 2 1/2 inches wide, floater with antique gold lip. This piece will be part of "unreNOUNed" a group show in Claremont, CA through December and January. Available for purchase there and online.

Demo In Yorba Linda

oil 8x8 Purchase info here. Please see the picture below for a more accurate view of this painting. I was quite happy with this demo when I finished, but when I got home I noticed that the tomatoes were floating. The next day in the studio I got them to sit down. Maybe you can see the difference in the two photos. For my fellow painters out there here are my tips to avoid floating objects: Correct shape and placement of shadow, gradating value in the shadow. The shadow is darkest right up against the edge of the object. In fact, it is usually as dark as the bottom edge of the object. IN OTHER NEWS: A "Paint the Lively Still Life" workshop is scheduled for April 21 and 23 at my studio in Upland, CA. Open to beginner and intermediate painters. If you'd like to register or for more info, just email me. karenwernerart@gmail.com

Still Life With Asparagus

oil 12x12 inches magnify/purchase info I prepped this panel myself with gesso, muslin and acrylic paint. The toothy surface gives a slightly rough texture to the painting. Thank you to my biker/painter friend Lorry for the little blue vase. I'm very excited about tomorrow's demo for Westlake Village Art Guild. For more info see my post on May 26th.

Pepper Pop

oil 8x8 inches magnify/purchase info For my birthday back in July, a dear friend gave me this old orange bowl from her collection of treasures. She went through her special things and picked out an assortment of pieces I might like to paint. She filled two large boxes. If that isn't love, I don't know what is. NEWS: HOLIDAY TREASURES EXHIBIT opening reception is 6:00 tomorrow night, Dec. 2nd at Debra Huse Gallery, Balboa Island, Newport Beach, CA. Lots of small gems for your holiday shopping. These two pieces of mine are framed and ready for purchase. Bring a toy for a child and receive 10% off any purchase. 229 Marine Ave., Suite E. 949-723-6171 The exhibit will be up all month.

Tomates -an oil painting of tomatoes in Paris

oil 14x11 inches magnify/purchase info I just realized I've never posted this painting I did last month. I used a photo I took at fruit stand in Paris. The photo was already a nice abstract arrangement of circles and lines, not to mention the gorgeous color. I don't use thalo blue very often, but that was one aspect I enjoyed the most; a great foil to all the reds. IN OTHER NEWS: This Tuesday night I'll demonstrate for the Redlands Art Association, 215 E. State St., Redlands, CA. 7:00 pm. Open to the public.

Golden Oil -a still life painting in oil -SOLD

oil 6x6 This is one of the demos I did at the workshop today. Painted fast because time was short, and I just realized I need to tweak the symmetry of the bottle! Will be for sale shortly. Thank you, Teri Gammalo for hosting us today. What a great group of ladies! So much fun teaching a small group. I packed in the content and worked them hard, but they held up to the end. See?

Spring Pickings -a still life painting in oil -SOLD

oil 12x16 magnify This half-head of cabbage was talking to me from inside my fridge. I might hold on to this painting for a while. It might be for sale at a later date. UPDATE: This piece is now available. magnify/bid to purchase

Mediterranean Diet -a still life demonstration in oil -SOLD

oil 8x8 inches magnify/purchase Thursday night's demo for the Yucaipa Valley Art Association was a blast! What a welcoming and responsive group of artists. Among them were my friends Carol and Joan, pictured below. Thank you, Alan for inviting me. I'm very happy with the way this painting turned out. It's always a bit tricky finishing the next day at home where the lighting is not exactly the same. The Graber olive oil was like liquid gold in a bottle! Such beautiful color. Very exciting! I had my greens pre-mixed as I do for plein air, and they worked here as well. Cad Yellow Lemon and Payne's Gray. One pile with more yellow, and the other with more gray. For the very bright greens, thalo blue and cad yellow light. As usual, the painting looks better in person. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Fruit Stand Reds & Greens

watercolor 9x12 inches magnify/purchase "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!" This line from an old sports show came to mind. Last watercolor posted seemed so fun and effortless, with too much confidence I ventured outside this time for more fun....NOT! The heat got to me and dried everything too fast. So the lovely fruit stand items were overworked, and the tomato became a large sinister tomato monster, overpowering everything else. Still, I thought the set up had potential, so I gave it another try (inside) another day using my first painting as reference. I shrunk the tomato, left out a few cherries and moved an onion. The painting has life, but is still more heavy handed than the last one posted. Might be the deeper color scheme.

Pepper Dance

oil 6x6 inches Click to Purchase Elizabeth Carr and I are sharing a space at the fair. Elizabeth does beautiful abstract mixed media work with all kinds of fun materials. She loaned me one of her collage papers for this painting. This might be my favorite so far because of the sense of movement. To see Elizabeth's work, click here. If you're local, come out to the fair and see it better in person!

Snap Peas & Tomatoes -sold

oil 6x8 inches click here to bid Mostly I like my subject to fill the picture plane, but when I painted this I thought maybe I'd plan for some breathing room. I don't know if I like it better or not. For the past couple of months I've been using a more limited palette. Cad red medium is one that I have taken off my palette and I wondered if just cad red light and alizarin would give me the reds I needed for these tomatoes. I think it works fine.

Brussels Sprout Basket SOLD

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

At Trader Joe's the other day I saw something I'd never seen before; fresh Brussels sprouts on the stalk. The thing was about 24 inches long! Still life material! We cut them off and steamed them for company, but I still had quite a few left for painting. The basket lit from the side adds contrast of light and shadow. I used a lot of transparent red oxide because even in shadow it had a reddish glow. I love that color and use it a lot.

This afternoon I painted in Tustin. Hope to post that tomorrow if I have time and can get a good shot of it.

Big Red Onions

oil on canvas panel 8x6 inches

Haven't had any time to paint lately with all the art show preparations. I offer this piece from last March with the good news that it received a Second Place award in Oils. There were over 80 oil entries, so I'm really happy. Tomorrow I'll have time to paint at the show. Yippee!

Tres Tomatillos

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

click here to bid

The little tomatillos are holding up pretty well. Anybody remember The Flying Nun?

Dos Tomatillos -sold

oil on canvas panel 4x4 inches

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The other day I happened upon a great farmer's market at a local hospital. I guess they're trying to get us to eat more fruits and veggies and keep us out of their hospital. :-) These tiny tomatillos caught my eye with their yellow-green and violet color. Painting them seemed similar to painting small pumpkins. I haven't a clue as to how you eat them.