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Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Little Kiss, Oil 3x3

A tiny Daily Painting to start the week! A dear friend gave me a mug on which was printed paintings she had done that featured the color red (her favorite color), and it was filled with cherry hershey kisses (Oh, HELP me!). I am making good progress on my larger pieces, which are all 30x30 or 30x40, and have skies as subjects. I'll post the first truly finished one on the Studio Blog.
This little kiss is $45, email me for info.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Brown Betty Teapot, 10x10 Acrylic

There's a show coming up with a 'tea' theme, and since I love tea I've been dying to start painting for it. Yesterday I didn't get a Daily Painting in, but I did a semi-abstract about the fogbound river, and put it in my Studio Blog. This teapot is one I 'inherited' from my Dad. I actually bought it for him, thinking he'd like the deep brown color. I, on the other hand, haven't bought anything brown in decades. So I hesitated to paint this boring brown teapot, but as I painted it I saw that it acted like a mini mirror, and the 'brown-ness' just supported all the other things (cloth, windows, etc) in the room. Every time I make tea in this I think of my dad, how I miss him, and *chuckle* how he never, ever made his daily tea in this pot! The gift seemed like a good idea at the time:)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

To Your Health, 5x7 Oil


The top image is a little injection of levity... a photo of a gnome a friend 'doctored up' for me, changing the rake to a paintbrush, and now he's my 'studio gnome' for luck - and who couldn't use that? (See the paint smudges all over him? :)

Underneath is a shot glass from Frank Llyod Wright's school in Arizona called Taliesin. It's great when you do Daily Paintings, because when friends travel they bring you fun things to paint! Pretty much that's all I'll do with a shot glass... but wouldn't it look great with a little daisy in it?

Monday, March 23, 2009

Birdie #2, Oil 6x6

Today I gave this little bird another try. It's funny, but it's like figure drawing, you have to keep doing it to be ABLE to do it! And I love the shapes of birds. So I think this one's a little better, but I don't think I'm 'there' yet!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

St. Patty's Daffodils, Oil 6x8


OK, this is what I painted at what I thought was a group painting session on St. Patty's day, which turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me. (My Facebook avatar is a photo of me from that afternoon... beware!)

Friday, March 20, 2009

Little Bird, Oil 6x6

This little sparrow was a gift this week, and I thought it would be a good subject for the first day of Spring. I haven't done a bird painting in a while, and I think I'll do more of these to get comfortable again with bird shapes and gestures (not that a resin bird can have a 'gesture').

More Pink Tulips! 8x10 Oil

I painted at Denise Zompa's studio today, and didn't bring anything to paint - but she fortunately had these beautiful tulips in a pitcher. I'm 85% happy with this - I may re-do the right two flowers.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Fab-U!


I was tagged by artist/blogger Karen Rike! Thank you, Karen, for the honor! By tagging me, she is saying she thinks my blog is fabulous! Please check out Karen's blog, and enjoy her loose, lush paintings!

This tag asks me to list five favorite blogs, tell five things about myself and list the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules in your blog
3. Write five random things about yourself
4. Tag random people at the end of your post, with links
5. Let each person know they've been tagged

So here goes:
Barbara Kaciek, who does amazing paintings of fruit, skies that will blow you away, and very cool nude-landscapes (nudescapes?).
Jala Pfaff's paintings have a serenity and clarity of vision that is inspiring.
Diane Hoeptner's flowers are exuberant, colorful and lush!
Katie May because I think she's inspiring and courageous in her painting, and generous in her support of other bloggers.
Nancy Hartley, who does oils and monoprints, with a sense of fun and whimsey!

OK, now 5 things about myself (as if I don't wear my heart on my sleeve enough with my blog!):
  1. I am a cat-whisperer...
  2. I love a clean house... but never think this has anything to do with ME cleaning it...
  3. I'm so klutzy I fell off my bike going .5 mph last year...
  4. I'm a firm believer that pancakes are simply a 'vehicle' for butter...
  5. I wanted to be a nun when I was in 4th grade (I really just wanted the veil...)

Single Tulip, 6x8 Acrylic

My son Conor bought me a bunch of tulips for my birthday, and I snuck one out and put it in a little jar. The jar didn't come out exactly as I planned, but glass is so endlessly fascinating to me! I can't wait for the Spring tulips to bloom! Makes me want to go to Holland!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

You Say 'Tom-A-to', 6x8


Oh! A bit blurry! I actually painted with a group of friends yesterday, and I don't want to say we were OVERcelebrating St. Patty's day, but I actually took a photo to post of someone ELSE's daffodil painting. So here's another one, that I had done last week at Franny Andahazy's studio/gallery, and had left there. Somehow I'll get back up to her studio again and get a photo of the painting I actually did yesterday. Which wasn't bad considering I was painting with a brush in one hand and a champagne flute in the other! ;)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Peel-A-Lemon, 6x8 Oil


Inspired by the blog posts I've seen recently of tangerines half-peeled, I wanted to do one today. Only I forgot my tangerine at home and only had lemons at the studio - SO! I put it in the Black Box, and had a really tough time with the fruit of the lemon (is it white? pale yellow? orange-y? greenish? YES!) But it was a fun exercise. I did a lot on my sky paintings from my studio blog. - and OH, I forgot to mention there, that this amazing artist, Thomas Sguoro, is just about BLIND - he has macular degeneration, and his vision is extremely limited now. So check it out again, and think - .... could I do that?

Two Silhouettes


I took a couple of days off to celebrate my birthday (something I highly recommend) with my family, but at the end of the week last week, instead of the usual little Daily Paintings I became fascinated with silhouettes. Now, I couldn't have told you that's what I was thinking of, I was thinking 'shapes' against a background. The top image was from a photo I took from a hotel room last year looking down in the early a.m. with filtered light - no shadows - of an intersection and a lone pedestrian crossing. The dark shape of the man, with the grid and cross patterns behind him was something I really liked. I could definitely do more with this, but I just liked doing it to this point. The bottom photo is of a family at the beach last year, and they were back lit. When I was done what I really liked was the water, surprisingly!

On my actual birthday (Saturday) my husband does this thing where I get to decide everything about the day*, and one of the things we ended up doing was going for a long walk in Bristol, RI. We noticed the Bristol Art Museum had a show of Thomas Sgouros' work, and we went in. I couldn't stop saying "WOW." On my Studio Blog I've posted some images of his, as well as another study I did of a mother and babe at the beach.

*One of the other things I decided we'd do is see Slumdog Millionaire, which I had to watch with my hands over my face - I don't 'do' torture! Fair warning about that movie!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Two! Two Posts In One!



SOLD
Apologies for no post on Monday's painting - it is coming. I painted with my friend Franny and left the painting with her without taking the photo. So it's coming. Today I painted Marachino (sp?) Cherries, and I couldn't decide which way to go with them. I actually painted 3 6x6's today, but wiped one off and painted the 'cherries in a row'. I couldn't decide which way I wanted to paint the 3 last cherries in the jar, so I did them on a plate and then without the plate.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

No Daily Painting Today


Just fooling around with this painting of my cats hesitating at the doorway, when they see snow still on the ground. I'm calling it "Who's The Decider?" Acrylic, 20x24.

Underneath is my cat Isabelle taking a nap(?) but HOW can she be comfortable like this? Both cats camp in dining room chairs right near my taboret while I'm painting acrylics at home. I love having them nearby, and they seem to enjoy having me around, too. When I take a break (to put laundry upstairs or something exciting like that) Harry bounds off the chair and follows me, wherever I go, and I love that.

I painted a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee today, but after one wipe off, and 2 hours, the elipses did me in. Sorry - better tomorrow!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Peep Double Date, 6x6 Oil

My son named this one for me. I'm back in the saddle, back at the studio (well, I was there yesterday, too, but 3 wipe-offs later I called it a day). I want to thank all of you who commented on my last post, on the blog and through email - it was overwhelming, the wonderful support from all of you, artists and non-artists alike. What a wonderful community the blogsphere is. It meant so much to me. I have centered myself, and am focusing on painting what I like, with an EYE to doing a series, and I'm just going to see where that leads. I'll post one of these on my Studio Blog.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Harry Sketch, 8x8 Acrylic

Ever feel lost artistically? I've been floundering for the past few days. I had a few really good, happy days in the studio last week, and then Friday I had a very nice woman who runs a local gallery, and is a good artist herself, come by and look over my work, for possible portfolio submission. She was as nice as could be, and gentle (for the most part ;) in her criticism but I saw my work through fresh eyes and said to myself "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?????". I seem to be all over the place in subject matter, style, etc. I used to joke and say I had MSD (Multiple style disorder) but it seems less funny now. There's a local art league that I tried for last year and didn't get into (2nd submission). Their advice: paint, paint, paint and don't give up. ( Ok. If one more person now tells me I'm "prolific" I'm going to run screaming from the room. They say "prolific"... not 'good'.)

This same art league had a portfolio submission talk yesterday AT the gallery run by the woman I mentioned, and 4 people talked about what it 'took' to get a 'yes' from them. Although they all agreed there must be good 'bones' - composition, value, color, mastery of medium and 'heart' - they all emphasized different things. One was primarily a 'formalist' painter and had a sort of checklist of requirements (thick and thin, light and dark, etc) that had to be there for her to give a 'yes', another said it was the energy, and whether or not the art 'hit' him (I think I agree that this is the way most judges go, to be honest), and the other two - well, it was a little rambling, and to tell you the truth I can't even remember what their points were.

Now.... why did this get me so low? Well, for one thing I went on their website and looked at their members, and there were some early members who I think would not have passed this rigorous selection process. And I find this often. And I have such fragile self esteem that I have a hard time rising above this and just going forward. So. No oil painting today. Just a little acrylic sketch of my baby, Harry, napping next to me as I paint. This, actually, is what makes me happy. I probably should just let the rest go, and just do what makes me happy. How boring was this??????? V-E-R-Y! Sorry!
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