Primarily Paint -sold

oil on linen panel 6x6 inches
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The title came to me first with the idea of using the three primaries. A neutral gray might show off the pure color bands, but how to tone the canvas? I thought if all three primaries were peeking through the gray, that would be cool...so below is a shot of my beginning. It's an interesting approach that I might try again.

Paint Tubes -sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
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What do you do when you don't feel like painting? Paint anyway. Keep it loose, not laborious. Yesterday's painting was a bit laborious. I had fun with this one.

Tangerines With Jug -SOLD

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

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I used natural daylight for this set-up. I like the softer light quality, but I'm learning that I have to start early enough and have a large enough block of time to finish. This is the second time I've painted the jug, and it was still difficult. The reflections on the top are from the nearby window.

Galleano Winery Plein Air

oil on canvas panel 8x6 inches
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The Galleano Winery is about 5 miles from my house in Mira Loma. This was my first visit, and it's a gold mine of plein air subject matter! I can't wait to go back! When I found this old gas pump the morning light was hitting those horseshoes and the blue made a nice foil to all the warm reds and oranges. Please forgive the glare in the upper left corner. At least it's not gnats like yesterday's painting! Three fellow artists were there with me...thanks, Ellen for shooting pics, Mary Jo for showing me what my camera can do, and May for our interesting discussion on greens. Just now I noticed I forgot the tail on the pegasus! I'll add it tonight. One of the Winery owners pronounced my painting "Damn good!". That's a first!

Plein Air Chino Hills

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

This morning I painted on a Chino Hills hillside with my plein air partner, Lisa. Plein air is not my forte (yet...but I'm making progress), so I approach every outdoor session as practice. On this one I practiced getting atmospheric perspective: distance, middle ground and foreground. The grasses in the foreground were problematic. They were almost white--as light in value as the distant snow and sky. I never did solve that problem, but it was a great day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, a nearby hawk kept an eye on us while flying from tree to tree. Three gnats came home with me stuck in the painting--(upper left). I felt so thankful to be out there painting.

Studio Flowers

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches
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I placed this grocery store bunch next to the north facing window in my new space. Thought I'd try painting by natural light indoors. I liked the red and white flowers against the neutral walls behind. Usually florals tend to be high key paintings, so perhaps this is an unconventional approach, but there's something about it I like. It looks better in person...the red violet flowers are really beautiful...not blackish! I don't know what my camera does to my darks!

Pear & Cherries SOLD

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
sold
This is the second painting done in my new little 10x11ft upstairs-former kid's-bedroom- studio. It feels odd painting in there...seems like a boy should still be playing legos in there. The walls were a yellowish white which gave everything in the room a yellow glow--not good for painting! So I found a neutral made by Behr called "Gallery Taupe", and it's perfect! My work will look good on the walls, and the wall color doesn't influence color judgement. Lighting has been an issue, but I have daylight lampstands on order. Next will be shelving and a rug. My family says my art has taken over the "whole house". I just smile. At least now we can all eat in the dining room.

Notions

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
not for sale

Back in the days when I sewed, thread, buttons, elastic and the like were called "notions." I guess they still are. Our daughter made this pin cushion while learning to sew. It has seen better days, but I still love it. The painting was quite a challenge. I almost wiped it off several times, but I'm glad I didn't. The details on the tape measure were painted with a Silver Bristlon Flat #4. I love these brushes! The edge is so cleanly formed I was able to "stamp" the lines and hint at the numbers with the corner of the same brush.

Cherry Baby Granny SOLD

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
sold
I'm running out of titles for paintings that are nothing but fruit! I put the lavender under these fruits and said WOW!...red with violet--yum! Yellow-green with violet--yum! Red and green too! Whoopee!!! It's a fruity paradise of saturated color.

Cherries On Silver -sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
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I cooked up this painting in my kitchen. Really, there's fabulous lighting in the kitchen, plus a huge window. I felt energetic and ready to tackle reflections on silver. The cherry on the left has an upturned stem. Can you see it? Getting that to read right was tricky. I tried not to overwork the silver plate...not sure I succeeded. There's thalo blue in the lightest parts of the silver...so yummy with the dark red, that's my favorite aspect of this one.

Cherry Trio

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

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Happy New Year, Everyone! I've been blogging for almost a year, so it's a good time to sincerely thank everyone who visits regularly and those of you who take time to comment on my work. A special thank you also to those who have purchased my paintings. I love to paint, but when others enjoy my work and say so it really makes me feel that what I'm doing is worthwhile. You help keep me going! Thank you all so much! May your year ahead be filled with love, joy and peace.

Little Shiny Shoes

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
not for sale

I had a great time with this one! What girl doesn't love to wear patent leather at least sometime in her life? These shoes have been worn by two of my girliest grandaughters. Set on pink, we have a painting that's about being a girl. I used two colors not normally in my palette: chromatic black and quinacrodone red...plus T. white and a smidge of cad yellow medium. Using just four colors made it even more fun to paint...and just looking at it makes me happy!

Camellias -sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

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Flowers are a real challenge. Pink flowers in particular seem to have a glowy pink that doesn't come in a paint tube. For this one I tried quinacrodone red and radiant magenta. I liked the dark burnt umber stems contrasting with the pinks.

Under The Tetons -sold

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches
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It's SO good to get back to painting! Sorry I was gone for so long. My painting space in the not-so-formal dining room was lost to actual dining (imagine that!) for twelve. It was such a chore to move all my oil stuff out, that I've decided to convert (this week) a bedroom in the house to an oil painting studio. Until I get that set up, I'm carrying my EasyL in from the gargage
to paint in the kitchen or wherever the subject is. I managed to finish the above painting in little snippets of time while doing all this moving around...and..oh yeah...shopping wrapping cooking nurse-maiding babysitting cleaning decorating...but it was ALL GOOD! The best part of this Christmas was that my hubby made it through prostate surgery, is recovering well, and is most likely cancer free. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Men, get your PSA blood test every year, and women, tell the men in your life to get it done. My husband had NO symptoms, but the PSA test caught it early....thus a 95% survival rate. Oh yeah...this is supposed to be about the painting!!! We visited Jackson Hole, Wyoming two summers ago and took a fabulous bike ride winding through Teton Valley. I used a photo reference.

Winter Twig

oil on canvas panel 4x6 inches

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Sorry I went missing for a few days! I'm getting ready for Christmas and on Tuesday my hubby will have major surgery, so for right now painting and posting are put on the back burner. I'll paint and post when I can. In the meantime I offer this humble little painting. Another subject gathered while walking, I plucked this twig right off a bush. The leaves and berries are very very tiny...smaller than peas. It's a quiet little painting.

Fallen

oil on canvas panel 6x4 inches
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The sidewalks in our neighborhood are sprinkled with nature's confetti. I gathered these pieces while walking my dog and placed them on blue linen. The burnt umber against the clean blue got me right away. On the linen the objects seem important...worth more than just a glance. Then I noticed there was a cross in the linen. How fitting...as I painted I thought about falling leaves, the cycle of regeneration, and how Christ came to offer us spiritual regeneration. I like this little painting.

Grapes & Clementines -sold

oil on canvas panel 4x6 inches
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Red and orange again...I can't stop myself! This time I went with blue instead of violet. Painting translucent grapes is a blast. Sorry about the spots of glare on the photo.
The Randy Higbee's "6 Squared" show in Costa Mesa is fabulous! We had a great time at the opening on Saturday night. It was so exciting to see the work of some daily painters I've been following for a few years such as Michael Naples, Justin Clayton, and Carol Marine. It was great fun meeting fellow Fresh Painter Dana Cooper and seeing her beautiful work in person . The show will hang until Dec.23rd. Don't miss it if you're in the area!

Floral Persimmons -sold

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches

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The red, violet and orange color combo of a couple days ago was so fun I thought why not keep that going, but with more objects? This time I added a flower stem with large leaves and for small shapes, a couple of little leaves from the front yard.

Ruthie

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

not for sale

This chihuahua with her unusual markings belongs to a dear friend of mine. She's named after the Baby Ruth candy bar and attracts attention wherever she goes. My friend worked hard at socializing and training her. As a result, she is a little sweetie-pie. I hope I captured her sweetness.

6" Squared Exhibition & Sale

SALAD STUFF oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches


FUJI-COLOR oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

FAKE oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

This week has been crazy and it's only Wednesday! Sadly, no time to paint... but I am very happy to announce that my three paintings above have been accepted into The Randy Higbee Gallery's 6" Squared Show in Costa Mesa, CA. The show features over 300 6x6" paintings from artists across U.S. and runs from Dec.4-23rd. Randy introduced himself to me at the Tustin Plein Air event in October. Besides having a huge gallery, I think he's the king behind King Of Frame...a great source for plein air frames!

For purchase information on paintings above, contact Randy Higbee Gallery 714-546-2156.