Gulls, 6x6 Inches, OIl

SOLD

There's a little beach across the street from me with a little building - white with a blue trim... and a cedar roof.  Often the gulls hang out up there, watching for someone to walk away from their blanket so they can grab their lunch.

Ptown Bike Ride, 6x6 Inches, Oil

$100 & $10 S&H

Once again on the black background - it's so different, but makes me really think!  Everything is so exciting right now.  My friend Nancy Colella is in NYC taking Karin Jurick's class.  I can't wait to see  what she does there!

And on Friday I'm off to Sedona for a painting week.  I'm so excited I can hardly think!  Please send grilled salmon and steak tips to Paco to comfort him in my absence..... (that's his favorite, along with pizza bones.... :)

Thursday's Demo

This was a demo from this week's class.  It was all about painting on black canvas or panel.  I was reminded how much I like using a black canvas - and letting little snips of lines of the black paint act as kind of an outline.  This painting is a loose copy of one by M. (I think) Svob, from his book "Paint Red Hot Landscapes That Sell".  I like his a LOT better, but I am pretty sure he wasn't trying to do his in 45 minutes, as a demo :).  My students absolutely, positively ROCKED using this method, which had you use the correct value, in any color you wished.  The paintings had a mosaic feel.  We worked from black and white photos and let our imagination run wild.  Fun, fun, FUN!

Red Ribbon, 6x6 Inches, Oil

This silver bowl was a great lesson on reflective surfaces.  I put it together to paint as a demo for my class last week, then I thought "Holy Cow, I haven't painted a shiny silver surface in, like, a YEAR - why am I doing a DEMO with one?"  Something like this really puts you through the paces, which is a good thing.  And the ribbon was just fun, and gave a nice reflection inside the bowl.   I just have to say... I have such a GREAT group of artists in my class... I'm so grateful for their enthusiasm and focus!

Anchor Hocking Green, 6x6 Inches, OIl

Sorry for the lack of posts last week - every once in a while you just need to step back, you know?  On Friday I went to the Brimfield Fair - it was my first time - and I was in Prop Heaven, I tell you!  My favorite 'fields' were the ones where the tents had a little of a rough look to them, not too polished, no entire sets of highly polished items.  For example, there were six of these cups - the woman clearly wanted to sell them as a set, but she kindly let me buy just one.  If I bought entire sets of all my cups, etc - I'd fill my whole studio!  This was a challenge because usually when I paint something green it's foliage  - something from nature.  And there were so MANY greens in this glass -it was so fun to paint.  And, also, it was square-ish.  Why do I torture myself?  I hope I made it look square-ish :)

If I Had A Halo... 6x6 Inch Acrylic

I'm humming "If I were a rich man.... yabba dibbi dabba... "  See., the Daily Paintworks is sponsoring a Challenge, a sort of unconventional self portrait challenge.  I was roaming the house, looking for a hat, when I saw my 'halo' (yeah, I have one... don't you?) and decided to paint myself wearing it.  Well, one wing led to another... you get the drift of what happened when I put the halo on!  So here I am, ageless, thinner, and looking... well, like I don't believe the story you're telling me!  How'd this happen?  Too much time alone, I guess :)

I didn't paint over the Mothers' Day weekend, I gave myself the gift of family and friends.  Friday night I attended and Opening of a show in Norwell, MA at the James Library.  A number of my friends were in the show and my husband and I made a night of it.  We bought a gorgeous painting of birch trees by Valerie Vitalli, (and here I'd LOVE to put in a link to her amazing work, but .... we're waiting for that web site to show up!).  I think on Facebook I'll post a picture of it.  ('friend' me if you want to see!)  I think, actually, that artists buy a lot of art.  I know I'd love to fill my house to the gills with fabulous paintings.  They never get 'old', every viewing of them reveals more... and they make you happy!  Win-win-win!

The Truth About Family Favorites, Oil, 8x8 inches

Commissioned Piece

Now a while ago I painted a donut painting called 'Family Favorites'.  Well, I guess they may have been SOME family's favorites, but I had totally blanked out the absolutely necessary 'Sprinkle' donut!  And in the meantime I bought 4 different boxes of donuts and they were all unsatisfactory in some way - crushed by the delicate hands of the 'donut lady', skimpy frosting (shame on DD's in Warren - people who want a frosted donut... LIKE frosting!), old, cracked glazed on the 'dipped' donut... uh, you NAME it.  So finally - old die-hard Dunkin fan that I am, I went to Sip and Dip donut and explained what I wanted (you see, I'm even happy to pay for TWO donuts to get extra frosting on one!) and Tina, the lovely waitress, took these back and gave them extra wonderful, gooey frosting and RE-DIPPED the honey dipped one.  I love this girl - she GETS it!

I hope my customer and her children enjoy this painting!  Susan Roden is only HALF expecting this post - kinda like our recent raid in the country that beings with 'P'!  She'll have chocolate frosting all OVER her!  heh heh heh... the Donut War resumes.....  She has been killing me lately with her pastries!

And I'm going to post some 'Challenge Meeting' photos from my Girls Just Wanna Paint group - some are hysterical, some I may have a 'hit' taken out on me for.... but I'll put up a 'page' on my blog for them!!!  Last month's theme was 'Fluffy'!

Daffodil Days, 6x6 Acrylic

SOLD

There's something so cheerful about these flowers, and they are the sure sign, for me, that Spring has arrived.  I was left in the dust by my inspiration here, but like the result anyway.

My Challenge group, Girls Just Wanna Paint, had our meeting this week and we had a 'prop swap'.  I got a Dreamcatcher, which will be a challenge to paint... but I am up to it!  I was thinking of posting some photos from the meeting, but only a couple of us are photogenic ( NOT me).  Would you like to see them?

Negative Space

Been super busy with commissions lately.  This is a demo I did a couple of weeks ago for my class. I was explaining negative space, which is the space between things.  In this piece it is the 'air' inside the cup handle.  It was a rough, quick demo, just to give them an idea.  They got it, all right. I think I must have super-geniuses in my class - look at their pieces below.  These guys have only had the feel of the brush in their hands for LESS than 4 months.  They were painting my husband's great grandfather's lunch pail.