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.

Persimmons & Grapes

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

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The purple, orange and red were SOOO luscious together! This painting looks SOOOO much better in person! I say that a lot, but really it does.

Persimmons & Pussywillows

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

not for sale

This painting was done before the Thanksgiving holiday (hope you had a good one), but I've been unable to post because we lost internet service for four days! The arrangement is particularly pleasing to me because it has the elements I've mentioned before in my blog: areas, dots and lines.

Old Stapler

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
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Why are so many of us fascinated with old stuff? I don't know. This old stapler came home a long time ago from my husband's office having been replaced by sleek shiny ones that I bet don't work as well. Anyway, I love the texture of the metal filled with dust and yellowed somehow. I love the still shiny black smasher thingy. I added the mail for an interesting small object (stamp) with the same yellow ochre. When it was almost finished, it needed that paper scrap for balance. I really like how this one turned out.

Three Little Bottles SOLD

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches

Glass is appealing to me as a subject because of it's obvious sparkle and shine. In this set up I also liked the way the bottles infuenced each other's color....and then there's the light coming from behind between them. Fun to paint.

African Violets II

oil on canvas panel 6x8 inches
sold
Our recent rainstorms have prevented me from photographing and posting, but not from painting. I was glady holed-up inside over the weekend with my bookworm hubby, my fluffy assistant and my paints. These kitchen violets were painted on a pink ground to complement the greens and retain the clean blossom color. A lavender background gives it an airy feel.

Farm House, Chino Hills-sold

oil on canvas panel 9x12 inches

My new plein air buddy and I met at one of the few farms left in the area. She painted the horse and barn and I painted the house. I liked the way the morning sun filtered through the trees and shone on the windows. We had a great time!

Hummingbird & Lantana

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches

sold

The hummingbird commission is done after just some very minor finishing touches: correct the shape of the beak, add darks and lights in the greenery. This is somebody's Christmas present. Hope it gives them a sunny feeling in their cold, snowy winter.

Hummingbird Commission

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches
sold but not quite finished
I prefer to paint from life, but a few months ago I cut back my gigantic lantana bush until it looked like locust had come. So with no fresh lantana, I used my two little paintings of lantana as reference. Couldn't get the hummingbird to hold still, so I used a teeny tiny calendar picture. I'll post the finished version tomorrow.

Pear In Silver-sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
click here to bid
This was a tricky one, but lots of fun. The silver mirrored just about everything in the immediate vicinity, including light coming through windowblinds, me and the back of my easel. Simplifying the reflections into large shapes helped maintain the pear as the focal point.

Bloomin' Babytoes -sold

oil on canvas panel 6x6 inches
click here to bid
One of my favorite cactuses surprised me yesterday with blooms! Yes, the common name for this variety is "Babytoes". Looks a lot like those delicious little piggies!
In other news, I recently EBay listed "Untitled Floral" as "Sunflowers With Red" (scroll down to see). Thanks for all your great comments. I took your advice and called it finished. I appreciate your feedback so much!

Prado Study

Here's the follow-up to yesterday's post. Wondering how my landscape would improve if I took a more academic approach, the next day at home


I did several value studies on paper with markers. #3 was my favorite.


Next, I did a 6x8 block in referring to my #3 value study and painting (posted yesterday).

This is the completed 6x8 study. It was a great excercise for me, but I think yesterday's work was more successful when I was just havin' fun outdoors painting what I see!