Lucky Dog

oil 8x10 inches A while back, Lucky came to stay with us while his owner, Angie was traveling. He arrived wearing his tie to make a good first impression. He remained a gentleman the whole time. My dog loves it when Lucky comes over. If I say to my dog, 'You lucky dog!', she thinks Lucky is at the door. This painting will be a gift to Angie.

Grapes & Greens

oil 6x6 inches Click to Purchase This is the last so far on patterned paper. I got really excited about the subtle shifts in reds and purples against the greens. After this, I painted a few animals, one of which is the chicken posted yesterday.

Chicken

oil 8x8 inches Click to Purchase This chicken roams free at the Gold King Mine in Jerome, Arizona. Sitting on an old tractor or something, she kept an eye on us visitors. In my photo reference the light made her comb glow. I toned my canvas with thalo red rose and indian yellow which gave the whole chicken a glow, especially the comb. The image here is inadequate.

Fruit On The Vine -sold

oil 10x8 inches After painting at Galleano Winery one day I spotted these near the road. They were mostly in shadow under the leaves, but the afternoon light was striking just a few. Below, I'm in my little (I mean little!) corner of the Fair painting away. To step back and look at my painting, I release the rope, step off the platform and walk back. Haven't fallen off yet! Besides painting, I also volunteer in the gallery store where I'm learning to work the dreaded cash register. Despite that, I'm having so much fun talking to fellow artists, visitors and children on field trips.

Party Girl Tomato -sold

oil 6x6 inches click here to bid A relative of Early Girl tomato, this is Party Girl Tomato. :-) Red, pink and lime green, how could I resist putting a tomato on this, one of Elizabeth's collage papers. The gold lines were challenging. In fact, the whole thing was challenging. Elizabeth now looks at what I'm painting and sarcastically teases; "Oh I see you've chosen something simple!" Ha! It's a sickness.

Old Glory -sold

oil 8x8 inches on gallery wrap canvas click here to bid Visitors at the Fair started referring to me as the artist who paints food. Funny, since I had lots of other stuff hanging. With that and the Labor Day holiday, I decided to paint Old Glory again. Turns out they show more interest when I'm painting food! This piece is ready to hang. The pictures below show the image wrap on top and sides.

Cannoli -sold

oil 6x8 inches A fellow artist in the gallery at the Fair saw my paintings of desserts and brought me these treats from his favorite bakery. "Here, paint this." It's always a challenge to paint chocolate. I used burnt umber altered with cad yellow medium and cad red light where needed. I added some berries for color. Then Elizabeth and I ate them.

Reflecting Red -sold

oil 6x6 inches Click to Purchase

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!

Red Grapes & Lemon -sold

oil 6x8 inches Click to Purchase

It's The Pit -sold

oil 6x6 inches Click to Purchase I'm having a great time at the Fair. I'm in a big room with a few fellow painters and have hours and hours to paint. Perfect! Again, the color in this one is a lot more subtle in real life. It's like my camera ate Wheaties or something.

Fair Demo #1 SOLD

oil 6x6 Click to Purchase I couldn't for the life of me think of a title for this one. Time to paint an avocado. They were only $1 each at the store. Oil paint lends itself so well to getting that creamy texture inside. Didn't know the pit held so much rich color till I looked real hard. For some reason my camera overdoes yellow. The creamy part is much more subtle in the painting.

This painting is available at Vander Molen Fine Art, Arcadia, CA

Ruby's On The Pier -sold

oil 10x8 inches Click to PurchaseYesterday I met up with Dana Cooper, Dori Dewberry and Katie Costello to paint at Balboa. We had a great time in the cool breeze painting with our feet in the sand. First time painting the ocean, so I didn't expect anything other than to just practice and have fun. When I got home I thought about using the photos to make adjustments, but decided to leave it looking fresh, not stiff. A long time ago I heard a watercolorist say, "Do you want your painting to look like fresh sushi or well-done beef?" A very valid consideration. I want to eat my beef, but paint like sushi.

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.

Bay Arcade

oil 12x9 inches not for sale When the kids were little we made frequent trips to Balboa Island. Here in the Fun Zone we'd visit the arcade where our little girl got really good at Skeeball. We'd take the three car ferry to the island and let the kids swim in the bay. I took the photo for this painting about a year ago. It's one of those rare places that thankfully, hasn't changed much. Lots of nostalgia, and I like how the painting turned out too. Fair News: I'll be demonstrating as well as volunteering in the Gallery Store. Here is my basic schedule for demonstrating: Labor Day-10-7, Fair closed on all other Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesdays-4pm to 10pm, Thursdays-10am to 5pm, Fridays-10am-4pm, Saturdays-10am to 4pm, Sundays-12pm-7pm(excluding the 16th).

Gala & Grapes -SOLD

oil 6x6 inches Click to Purchase I had a good week, but alas, not much time for painting. I managed to paint this one before I went to bed last night. Tomorrow I'm off to the Pasadena Museum of California Art to attend the symposium on Edgar Payne. Yay! The LA County Fair opens a week from today. Preparations are still under way in the Millard Sheets Gallery, but the "Art Store" within is ready and full of beautiful work from paintings, to art glass, sculpture, ceramics and jewelry. Elizabeth Carr is graciously sharing her gallery space with me. We hung some pieces yesterday and our booth is looking fabulous! I'll try to post some pictures and specific demo times soon.

North On Haven

oil 8x8 inches Click to Purchase While driving up Haven Ave. last week at dusk, the light was so beautiful. I saw everything in yellows and violets. At a red light I snapped a photo. My red traffic light arched way into the center of that beautiful sky, so I left it out. I toned my canvas with Indian yellow and while I left some showing in the sky, it is a lot more subtle than this image shows. LA County Fair News: Looks like I'll be in the Millard Sheets Gallery Thursdays through Sundays. If I get more specific demonstrating hours, I will let you know.

Crimson Floral

oil 20x16 inches Click to Purchase This larger painting became quite a learning experience to put it mildly. I was done with the painting before it was done, if you know what I mean! Bigger brushes and piles of paint was the easy part. I guess I need to develop a longer attention span. :-) Below are the various steps I took to get a background I liked.

Here the dull color doesn't enhance the painting, and the drapery folds are a distraction. Yuk. I carefully wiped it off, and retoned the wiped areas.

Simpler design and the color enhances the flowers better, but now it seems unbalanced and the background seems too close to the vase.

I clipped a flower and added it for balance. Then I pushed back the division of surface and background. (See finished, at top.) I could have avoided all this if I'd taken more time with the background in the beginning. I find it irritatingly amusing that I can paint objects, but have a hard time with backgrounds! I'm open to suggestions if anybody has some. Thanks, everyone who commented on the last post.

In Progress

oil 20x16 I've been working on this larger piece and thought I'd show the progression as of today. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I've been painting only small paintings for three years. I knew I needed to start painting larger, and seeing the Edgar Payne exhibit at PMCA on Saturday gave me the kick in the pants I needed. Bigger brushes and bigger piles of paint feels SOOO good!!!

The arrangement is backed by an olive drab drape, which I will use for value and shape but alter the color a bit in my painting. That jug is not part of the painting, it's just to weight the front of my platform because the vase is so heavy. I toned the canvas with alizarin and cad yellow.

I started with the flowers first because they'll move and die. I did have to wipe out one whole section of alstromerias because they got overworked. I like to do flowers almost like Chinese brush painting, just a few strokes. All these shots were taken with my beloved iPhone. :-)

Loved painting all the subtle colors in the vase. Maybe the sides aren't perfectly matching, but i think I can adjust when I paint the background.

Early on I decided to place the vase slightly off center which necessitated another object for balance. Grapes seemed perfect. Not wanting to go to the store right then, I grabbed some fake grapes I had laying around, a bit concerned that they'd look fake in the painting. I think not. After painting them, I sprayed them with water so I could see where the highlights would be. So glad I've painted lots of real grapes. It helped.

Island Alley -sold

oil 10x8 inches click here to bid On Thursday five artsy friends and I got out of the 108 degree heat by heading down to Balboa Island. We had a fabulous time. Several passers-by and my husband too, seemed surprised that of all the sights on the island we'd pick an alley. It's the shadows and lines that lead you right into the painting. It's the telephone poles and the subtle color in the distance. We all agreed that the residents were super friendly and we could paint there every day for a year and never paint the same thing twice.