West Cave Preserve

This is slowly getting the depth of field that I wanted. The main thing that inspired me to do this painting was the light, so I have to work at getting the light on the ground brighter and lighter. I think the contrast is okay elsewhere, but am willing to work as slowly as I have to to really see what's going on with the composition.

Hibiscus Sure Is Colorful!

I worked on this for a few hours (palette knife) and may not get to it again for a while. My daughter is moving to Brownsville for 10 weeks and I am caught up in her preparations. In the late afternoon sun, in my dining room, the colors in this are soooo vibrant! It's definite eye candy.

Hibiscus is Bloomin' Fun!

The blocking in of this painting is still a lot of fun. I'm trying very hard not to get into detail yet, but sometimes it appears just from the change in value/color on some of the leaves. I already changed the composition by getting rid of a big patch of white sky on the upper right. The pool might be next, or maybe just the patio whiteness that is so distracting. I have so much green in this painting that it is nice to have a little bit of something breaking it up, but right now it's battling with the hibiscus for viewers' attention. The West Cave Preserve painting is also slow going, but I'm okay with that. As long as there is positive direction each week, I consider that important progress. Both paintings are being done with palette knife and fun! What's not fun is the pain in my hip which will start to limit my painting sessions in the next year or two, until I get another hip replacement. I bet you thought only big dogs had Hip Displasia...little women can have it, too, as I found out. It eventually causes arthritis in the joint because it has too much pressure hitting too little area. It's not life threatening, but does impinge on my quality of life when it gets to the bone on bone stage.

Studio Painting and Finished Painting

I just realized that I haven't put up the finished version of Aloe Flowers. And, I started a new painting for working at Noel Robbins' studio (West Cave Preserve) from a photo of trees that my daughter, Sami, took. She takes some lovely dramatic shots that I appreciate so much!

Starting A Fun One

Last week, my brother Ski sent me a few photos of an hibiscus in his yard that I could use for inspiration. I absolutely loved how open and lush this bloom was and felt it needed a big canvas to express how fun it was. Fortunately, I had taken advantage of a sale at Aaron Bros. a while back and had a 36x36x2" canvas just waiting for something this strong and vibrant. I'm still blocking in, but of course can't help but use my paintbrush to describe the shapes and lines within the shapes, so it's developing form already. Fun!!

Mother's Day Painting

Howdy Fellow Painters! Just thought I'd share this little painting I did for my mother for Mother's Day. It's actually from a photo she took of some tulips last year. I was going through some old emails and came upon the photo and the light just spoke to me, so I figured it would be a wonderful tribute to her artistic photo if I were to paint it for her. My back-up plan, if the painting refused to cooperate with me in time for Mother's Day, was to do a really good print of her photo and mat and frame it for her. That would actually be a better tribute to her work, but this painting needed to be painted. You know how that is? Sometimes the subject just won't let you alone until you do something with it. I'm a little surprised at how it turned out. I've been working with a palette knife so much that I expect something rather painterly with everything I do. This has much more the look of something by Andrew Wyeth (out the window) and "I don't know who" in the foreground, but I don't hate it.

New Rendition...Hope You're Not Disappointed

I gotta be meeee! I realized that is what was bothering me so much about this painting. When I have a paintbrush in hand, I tend to get into details that aren't important to what I'm trying to express. So, out came the palette knife and I got started on the background. Then, I blocked out the flowers with cad. light and came back in with all the colors you see now. And it was fun! Not a struggle anymore. It's not done, but getting much closer and then I can frame it in my new black Illusions frame from Jerry's Artarama. I am so freaking stoked to have these frames for nearly all my paintings. I hit their online sale and ordered as many of the black ones as I could fit to the paintings I've done in the past year. Illusions look like floating frames and I love that look. I already have one painting framed that way, that Davis Gallery charged me $199 for. I feel like such a chump because none of these frames cost more than $40 and I know they're not that hard to install a painting in and wire the back. Live and learn, I always say.