IN THE FOLDS

8"X8"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $120

I have friends who belong to a local arts group that moved into a very spacious studio last year. My friend Diane decided to set up a large still life in the main room of their meeting site and she invited me to come and paint with her. The set up is just beautiful. I took small panels since I knew I would only be able to paint one day and this is the painting I did first. I will post the second one later in the week.

FINALLY BACK TO THE EASEL

PRIMROSE

6"X6" OIL ON PANEL

PRICE $100

It feels like I have been away from painting a very long time and the start of this painting felt a bit awkward. A brief moment of "OH where do I start"? Primrose always starts showing up in our market at the end of December and I can't resist them. If I can keep it alive until time to put it in my garden, it will be a miracle. I'm better with cactus.

BERRY REFLECTIONS

6"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

Thank you California for strawberries in September. Not only are they beautiful but also delicious for snacking.

WINESAP

6"x6"

OIL ON CANVAS

PRICE $100

It's apple time in the midwest and winesap apples are my favorite. I bought two of them at the local farm market and couldn't wait to taste that typical sweet, tart very crisp apple. What a disappointment. Mushy is the only word for it. So the second one is in this painting.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROL

6"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

SOLD

The title of this painting comes from a Daily Paintworks Challenge. CAROL MARINE'S husband David has issued a challenge for fellow bloggers to do a painting for Carol's birthday. So here are some flowers for Carol. Carol is one of the original daily painters and bloggers. She has a huge following by now and is quite

successful.

THE GROUP 6"X6"

click here to bid

These apples look more appetizing in the painting than they do in person. They are very wrinkled and soft by now. I made another stop at a different Goodwill today to pick up some new things. Couldn't really browse because I had both of my terrified cats in the car. They had just visited the vet for their yearly check-ups and shots so I didn't want to leave them for long. New (old) stuff will be appearing in future paintings.

NEW CUP 6"X6"

click here to bid

This red cup is from a recent trip to a Goodwill store. A still life artist treasure trove. Only 49cents and a gorgeous blue interior that I will paint at another time. It's kind of funny when I think about all the stuff I have given Goodwill over the years(coffee mugs, plates etc.) and then I go buy back more coffee mugs and plates.

I have one bid on the cigarette lighter painting I posted on ebay. That means the Lung Assoc. will get at least
$25.

APPLE BOWL 6"X6"

I really like this color combination. Whenever I see grapes in a painting I think of the Dutch still life painters. You notice that I have decided to leave out the dead fish that sometimes accompany the grapes.

VIEW FROM ABOVE

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

I approached this painting like one of my larger paintings from the beginning. As a result, I had some wiping to do. I tend to forget that the spacing is so much tighter and sometimes I need to put a background color down when I start the painting. This one was frustrating but a great learning experience.

WALLFLOWER

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

Kind of looks like the flower is acting shy. I know, It's dumb. I am so tired from my week of studio cleaning, shelf buiding and organizing that my brain is a little foggy. My next project is varnishing a bunch of paintings. I do that when I know I will not be in the studio for a day so I don't have to smell it.   

APPLE GATHERING

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

Back to still life. I'm a little more comfortable painting apples than cars but the challenge was fun. We got the ice part of the big storm and I would rather have gotten the foot of snow. At least the plows can clear it away. I have been using my forced isolation for doing some more studio organizing. I may just get this place cleaned up if we keep having bad weather.

LAST VERSION

This is the version I've declared finished. This painting was a lot more tedious than I anticipated but now that it's finished, I like it alot. I've been painting the little paintings so much that I think I'm getting used to instant gratification. I was asked why I put the apple in there and I'm not sure I actually gave a good explanation. As artists most of us are looking for something to challenge us. Looking at the subtle changes that happen when part of the solid form is viewed through glass sets up the problem of how to inerpret that with paint. What color do I see and how do I show the bit of distortion that happens. And then we hope for the best.

GREEN APPLE

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

I like playing around with different perspectives and this one was a bit of a challenge. So was the color in the vase. The orange fabric was casting a very strong reflection on the lit side of the vase but when I painted it, it didn't work. So in that instance you have to make a decision about what will make the painting work. I chose to make the reflection not so bright and light.

REFRESHING

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

I'm not quite sure why this title popped into my head, maybe it's the color combination. Maybe it's the contrast with all the winter snow and very cold temps we are having right now. Anyway I love the colors in this one.

LAST CLEMENTINES

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

The last ones I'm going to paint for awhile, that is. On to something different to give my eyes a rest.

Recently I was painting and posting persimmons and saying that the name made me think they were too tart to eat. A friend from CA sent an email to tell me that they are quite sweet really and people make cookies from a certain variety. I went to google of course to check on the cookie comment. Sure enough, Connie you are right as usual. I found many cookie recipes using persimmon pulp. One more bit of food trivia to add to my already overloaded brain.

ORANGE CIRCLE

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

Back to the circular composition this time. The background cloth is really more of a turquoise color that apparently my camera didn't notice.

REFLECTING ORANGE

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

Here I am in snow covered Ohio and I can have clementines all winter. What a country! Not kidding. I love citrus, even limes with salt on them. I had some camera distortion with this photo so the cropping is not great. There is a feature on photoshop to fix that but I need a little practice with it.

ORANGE CRUSH

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

This started out as a completely different painting. I got very bored with the original and scraped the paint off. The original setup had clear glass in it and I wasn't in the mood for it. I like this one much better.

ORANGE SUPPORT

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

These are actually clementines, not oranges. I prefer them for painting over oranges because they come in such a variety of shapes. Oranges are pretty much just round and harder to stack.

KUMQUATS 2 SOLD

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

The winter solstice is past and the days will start getting longer. Christmas is over but I'm still busy this week. I am going to spend a day with my cute niece and nephew, two days with my granddaughter and a day with two artist friends. Hopefully I will also get to paint a bit.