Cup Of Irish Breakfast Tea, 6x6 Inches, Oil

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I guess painting the Fiesta cup reminded me how much I love tea and teacups! This is a Wedgewood "Nantucket Basket" patten for the cup and saucer.  What did I love most?  Confession time:  while the teacup is a wonderful challenge, with the warp and weave indications, I love painting the TEA!   The reflections, the deep colors, and let's be honest, teabags are so cool to paint!

And I got this cloth when I was like a 'painter gone wild' at the fabric store last month.  A foot tall stack of fabric swatches and about a dozen different colors of buttons.  The checkout lady screwed up her face and said "What ARE you making?" 

:D

I'm taking a class with Shawn Kenney at the Providence Art Club and we are doing plein air urban skyscapes.  These paintings are from last week - when the evening started out grayish, but suddenly the sun came out when the sun was setting.  We paint on the rooftop terrace - it is absolute heaven. The point is to paint a lot of 'starts', no real finished paintings - and it really lets you loosen up.

These paintings were done from one spot - I never moved my easel.  

Fiesta, 6x6 Inch, Oil

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This is in response to Carol Marine's Daily Paintworks Challenge.  I used a triad color combination: blue/green, orange and red.  And speaking of 'challenges', Linda Popple responded to my own challenge to paint the Eiffel Tower from my photo.  She did a fabulous job!  Here it is, below!

Chicky Chick, 6x6 Inches, Oil

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Oh, I had such fun with this little Rhode Island Red Chick!  His/her baby feathers were so soft and richly colored. Yes, even a little fuzzy!

This was one of those paintings, regardless of the subject, that reminds me why I just love to paint.  The creamy strokes and paint that just glided onto the surface of the panel as smooth as you could want.  *Joy*

Field Of Sheep, 8x24, Oil

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My son has asked for a sheep painting, so I'm playing around with designs.  This is one workup, but I don't think it'll make the final cut.  I do like the two fluffy sheep in the front, facing us.  I just think it might have too few sheep, or maybe I'll do it in more sepia colors, or find a photo with more clusters of the sheep.  It's a difficult format - 3 times as wide as high...  I actually like it better if you put your finger in the middle and make it two paintings!

Yesterday my daughter ran the Boston Marathon again - so proud of her!  When we saw her, at a little past the halfway point, she was smiling while running - the complete opposite of what I would be doing (crying) at that point.

Them Chickens' 'Jackin' My Style, 6x6 Acrylic

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Credit for the title goes to the Black Eyed Peas... it's a song that gets stuck in your head, called "Boom Boom Pow" (or Boom Boom Boom.. ).  Anyway these little guys are very curious about each other, aren't they?  They are, of course, Rhode Island Red chicks.  It was great fun painting their fuzzy feathers and their soft little bodies...

White Pansies, 6x6 Inches, Oil

Today was the first day of a new session of painting classes in my studio.  We worked on edges, and the importance of having different types in the painting.  Everyone got to take home their pansies!  The painting above was the demo, and the flower in the front was in the light, and was my focal point - the edges are crispest there.

 The unexpected fun thing was the foliage - we used big shapes, then calligraphy with the points on the back of the brushes, which you can see if you make it larger - I should have made a close up, I'm sorry!

We missed two of our pals in the class - but everyone's busy this time of year, and we'll be painting together soon.  

We're busy planning a 'painting Safari' this summer, every week plein air at a different location, and a different lesson, perhaps at late afternoon to maybe get sunsets in!  I'm psyched!

My Peeps, 6x6 Inches, Oil

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Are you a Peeps fan?  I am.  All of the colors... I could not choose a favorite. I am humbled when I look at Oriana Kacicek's work.  I cannot understand how she does it!  My favorite part of these  is their little dip across their foreheads. and the tiny beaks...

Red Gerbera Daisies II, 6x6, Oil

Here's a second take on those red Gerbera daisies.  I couldn't figure out why they were so stiff looking - and I realized I put them in the vase with the green plastic tubes on their stems which keep them from wilting! *sigh* Pay attention, Kelley!

Beyond Thrilled

I am thrilled (well, actually, read the title of the post - BEYOND thrilled) to have had 3 paintings chosen for the 6 Inch Squared Show in Costa Mesa, CA.  Would that I could get out there for the Opening!  If any of you do go... check out the 3 that got in, below, and let me know if it was a wild and wonderful time!  The artists I will be hung alongside are heros of mine in the art world, so I have to keep reminding myself to breathe!

The opening is Saturday, April 16th 5-9 at Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa.

Now... I'm off to paint!  See you tomorrow!

Clouds Over Paris, 8x8 Inches, Acrylic

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Maybe it's because someone I know is in Paris right now, and another blogger 'friend' who blogs about Paris is on her way(fabulous blog, check it out!), or maybe because it's "April In Paris"...  I have a longing to go.  For our 30th Anniversary my husband and I went to Paris and Madrid - a trip of a lifetime, I tell you!  OK, he actually worked most of those days, but it was an unforgettable memory nonetheless.  The art, the food, the way people took such care and pride in what they did... the clothes... well... suffice it to say I'd love to take you ALL!

This was the view if you hung over the scaffolding on our balcony and looked right.  Literally I was risking life and limb for this view... 4 floors up.   Worth it?  I'd say so!  At night, as you probably know, the Eiffel Tower is lit up, but there was no way to put a tripod on the thin air outside the balcony to take a night shot!  The values in this were extremely challenging.  Here's the photo, below .... go ahead - take a shot at it - I'll publish it on the blog if you send it along to me!

If two of these images show up - I apologize ... Blogger told me only one was there, but I see two!

Red Gerbera Daisies, 6x6, Oil

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Don't you just love the perkiness of Gerbera Daisies?  The photo does not do the painting justice - the red is really bright!  My students painted these last Thursday, and I blithely assumed that red would be easy to capture.  Well they struggled (but did really well) and I assumed it was the reds they were using.  Then I tried it myself, and... huh!  It took a long time to get the red, and then I found it a bear to photograph and capture the color!  I'm nothing if not determined, so plan on seeing this color daisy again!

And LOOK what arrived in the mail today!

My book by Carol Nelson, my favorite abstract artist!  Now I'm going to go make a cup of tea and bring a napkin to my chair, because I plan on drooling...:)

Maggie's Day (NYC Carriage Horse) 6x6 Inches, Acrylic

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I'll admit to being a bit of a spoilsport about stuff like this, but even though I desperately wanted to go for a carriage ride in Central Park, I insisted on picking a driver who was kind to his horse.  You see them shoving and yanking the horses into a parking line - never patting them, never talking to them, never making eye contact.  Yeah, that's right, I said eye contact.  Ever since I was a child I sort of blurred the lines between people and animals - and the term 'beasts of burden' just makes me cringe.  I see that we need animals to help us with things - but it doesn't kill us to be kind or grateful that their lives are subject to our will.  OoooooooK!  Getting off the soap box!

I loved the design of this, and the straps were something I didn't notice until I started painting.  I actually eliminated a couple of straps and checks - really - do we need to tie their heads in 5 ways?  But this is Maggie, and her driver was caring and kind to her. Just why there was this pouffy thing on her head I don't know, but it did catch your eyes!

Family Favorites, 8x8 Inches, Oil

This is a commission - and the pink here is a bit bright!  At first the photo was a bit pale - so... it's somewhat lighter than this!  It is a painting of the favorite donuts of a family - with a bite out of one of the chocolate frosted.   I learned something - 'glaze' is just as fun to paint as jelly!  This took 3 trips to the donut shop (Paco was very happy about this) because the first time the frosting got stuck to the bottom of other donuts,  the second time the donut girl, staring vacantly and slack jawed as I told her WHY I needed them to lay flat and not touch each other, jammed the top of the box down on the donuts crushing all the tops....  Hey, I did my time as a Bess Eaton Donut Girl - 11-7 a.m. 5 days a week, so I could work a day job, too, to help pay my senior year tuition... so I know all about that job - I have, actually some very interesting stories from that time.  

OK...  I'll tell you one.  (I know you're dying to know!)  Picture me, cop and schoolteacher's daughter,  been in a Catholic all-girls' school all my life, at a very nice college (scholarship girl, but whatever)... pretty much 'walking the line'...  I take this job over my parents' protests.  They lose sleep, because they KNOW what I'll see.  I learned that about 3 a.m. the local pimps and prostitutes (I didn't even realize we had them in our town) go for coffee and donuts.  Yup.  So I 'met' them all.   My parents were horrified.  I was terrified when they came in, to tell the truth.  One really big guy tried to be funny and 'take' my new earrings from my ear.  I was such a baby, I called the police!   But seriously?  He probably weighed 300 pounds and was about 6'5".  But my boyfriend (now husband) had given me those earrings and I was not about to give them up for anything!  TMI?

Tales From The Button Jar, 6x6 Inches, Oil

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I hope you are all well and enjoying a little bit of Springtime where you are!  My Challenge Group last month was all about '3', and I kind of thought that three colors of buttons would make it for me.  But something pulled me towards the last painting I did of my cat.  Here's my 3 colors of buttons on a green cloth.  When I was a child my great great aunt (no grandmothers but an abundance of 'aunties') used to 'mind' me for short periods of time.  In my eyes she was ancient, and I was slightly terrified.  She was the oldest person I'd ever seen (must have been around 80...).  She would put her big jar of buttons on the floor and tell me that if I moved or talked she would take the buttons away - which was a threat enough for me - I LOVED those buttons - only thing in my life I've ever enjoyed sorting.  So... silent and immobile I sat on the linoleum sorting out all the fun colored ones, then all the interesting shaped ones, then the shiny ones, then silver and gold... it went on and on.  I don't have a button jar today, these fun colors came from a fabric store!

Three Cheese-Its Cat, 6x6 Inches, Oil

$100 & $10 S&H

My Challenge Group, Girls Just Wanna Paint, chose as it's subject this month "3", and we post today!  Check it out HERE.  I do three of things a LOT, so I wanted to get a little creative on this one.  I had shaken a few Cheese-Its with letters (thank you Jody Reagan for letting me know about these!) and I got T, A, C.  And I had the idea of taking a painting I did last year of my orange kitty, Harry, and putting the letters on the painting.  He's a cheese FIEND, and he's orange, so it was a natural!  Here's my set-up below:

It for some reason was impossible to get a photo without glare on the painting today or last night.  When it dried up a little it will be easier!

Today was the last session of painting classes in my studio - we have a week off before we start up the last Spring session.  We had a little party - everybody brought wonderful food and we had some wine and some 'chat' time.  These women enrich my life so much!  They are fun, and kind, and interested in really getting their work advanced.  I'm so lucky.  I can accept a couple more for this next session, which starts Thursday, April 14.  The hours are 9:30 - 12:30, and it goes for 8 weeks, with a make-up session at the end.  Email me for more info!