Princess Tulips, 8x8 Inches, Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

This month, the Girls Just Wanna Paint Challenge group painted "White".  Actually, for me the problem was not WHAT to paint, but what to NOT paint.  There were so many white subjects I'd love to do... clouds, white houses, white dishes, white ice cream, white dogs, cats, well, you get the gist.

But tulips were my big obsession this month, so, here we are.  SO much going on, and I want to thank each and every one of you who came out to the Sea Rose Cottage last week in Bristol, RI.  It was fun, right?  Lots of interesting artists studded the local businesses.  I made new friends and some of my favorite paintings found new homes :)

But coming up.....

I'll have 3 gull paintings at Spring Bull for this show.... and Newport is always interesting!

Flowering Quince, 11x14 oil painting by Kelley MacDonald

$350.00 & $15 S&H

Click HERE to Purchase

OK, it's much bigger than my usual Daily Paintings - 11x14 inches! This painting kind of came to me in a dream.  In that I dreamt about a design like this, knowing my two gorgeous flowering quince bushes were just bursting with blooms.   So, coincidentally, I stumbled on the glass panels I purchased TWO YEARS ago and promptly lost.... I knew it had to all come together.  I found a beautiful ultramarine tissue paper and put it under the glass, popped the little vase on top...and just reveled in the reflections. 

I put this up on Facebook and got record numbers of 'likes' (for me, anyway!).  I had been planning to save this painting to put in the Gallery this summer, but ... I was just so tickled that it got such a rush of good responses, I thought I'd like to offer it online.  Normally, framed, this would go for double this amount, but I just get such a KICK out of people being enthusiastic about a piece I LOVE, love, love, I am happy to offer it at this price.  So, I'd be happy to see it go to a 'good' home with one of my blogger friends, I guess is what I'm saying!

Be well, all... be happy, and enjoy the blooms of Spring!

Join Me, 5x7 inch Oil Painting of a Blue Martini by Kelley MacDonald

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OK, I mean it, join me for some fun tonight at Sea Rose Cottage (on Constitution) in Bristol tonight (Thursday) for the Bristol Art Walk!

You can take a virtual sip of one of my cocktails, enjoy a virtual bite of my donuts or see 'my' pugs in person!  Chickens on the walls!  I'm pretty darn excited.  I love Bristol, and I love the design/decor/paint that Nancy Chase at Sea Rose offers!

It's a case of "be there... or be square...."

xo
Nancy had nice things to say about the evening, too, HERE.

Two Dirty Martini's, Coming Right Up, 6x6 Inch Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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Girls Night Out, right?  2 Dirty Martini's and an appetizer to split.... if this makes it to Thursday, it will be part of the 'cocktail collection' at the Sea Rose Cottage at Bristol Art Night, in Bristol, RI.  I will be the Featured Artist, and will have a fun group of paintings to share.  There will be the Cocktails, the Donuts, the Pugs and the Flowers, all small, around 6x6 inches, as well as a few larger pieces I've done over this past Winter.  I thought painting the 'dirty' liquid would be the hardest part of this painting, but it wasn't bad at all!  And olives.  I love my olives. :D

(I'm noticing the tiny edge of the painting at the bottom needs to be cropped a little better, you an see the tiny line of the panel holder.  Will shoot another photo tomorrow and replace it on the blog!

All's well here.... hope you all have a fabulous week - and stop by Bristol on Thursday form 5-9 if you can!

Do Not Adjust Your Set... 4x4 Inch Forsythia by Kelley MacDonald

$65 & $10 S&H

Click HERE to Purchase

A different pink background, a different size.  I love exploring a subject in a series!  I have one other background I'd like to explore, as well... coming up Monday!  Two rather big happenings in the next couple of weeks:  

April 25, Thursday, from 5-9

I'm the Featured Artist at Sea Rose Cottage on Constitution Rd, Bristol, RI

Bristol Art Night 

Come, be a friendly face, and view the gorgeous decorating ideas at the Cottage!

 And for the month of May I'm one of the South Coast Artists showing at Spring Bull Gallery on Bellview Ave in Newport!

Forsythia In Pink, 6x6 Inch Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & $10 S&H

Click HERE to Purchase

Had a hard time painting today... all my work on my big paintings has to be done over.  I could manage this small one, though, and am very happy with it.  I was talking it over with my daughter and she said she, and others with ties to Boston, is having the same issue.  It's like a hangover of grief.  Everyone will work their way through it, but yesterday and today it seemed like I was standing in wet sand up to my knees.  So PINK was the perfect remedy.  Be well, be happy...

Greening Up, 6x6 Inch Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

This was the painting I WANTED to do for my Girls Just Wanna Paint Challenge for Sunlight.  But being me, I 'lost' the photo before I could paint it.  And as it usually happens, as soon as the Challenge was done... you guessed it, I found it.  This is a big old tree in our neighborhood.  I've love the shadows on grass as well as snow.  I started this as a demo for my Providence Art Club class as an example of 'negative space'.  Took it home and completely reworked it, so I'm happy now.

During my class Monday I started getting tons of messages, and phone calls - unusual, since everyone I know KNOWS I teach Monday afternoon.  It wasn't till I spotted the message that flashed on the screen  that said "I'm OK Mom, don't worry..." that I decided to look at the other messages, and realized something was very wrong in Boston.

Took a long time to be certain my kids and friends were safe, as cell phones were not working from Boston due to the bombing.  Texting, however, still worked, and I literally spent over an hour texting everyone checking to be sure... 

My daughter was supposed to be running the Marathon this year... for a couple of reasons she decided not to... but that was right around the time she usually crosses the finish line, and we've been IN that crowd, waiting, and were 'supposed' to be there this year....  angels watching over us, I guess.

  

Evil is resilient .... but goodness is even more so.  The messages from friends and strangers across the country in support of Boston was... incredibly moving.  From a day filled with heartbreak, I am coming away with hope, and strength, and confidence that goodness will prevail, that we are One.

Exuberance, 6x6 Inch Oil Painting of Forsythia, by Kelley MacDonald

 This week in my Saturday class we discussed composing a painting with Negative Space in mind.  That's the space BETWEEN the branches, the shapes being determined by their relative distance from other shapes.  I think Forsythia is an excellent example, although chairs, trees, and such do a great job as well. Well, too, the blue jar was as fun as the flowers to paint!

I hope you enjoy these lively flowers!

Joyful, 6x6 Inch Oil Painting of Forsythia by Kelley MacDonald

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 There's something about Forsythia that lifts the heart.  Those cheery yellow bushes reaching for the sky, and the vibrant blue of a Spring day provides the perfect backdrop for these symbols of new life.  I can never fathom the urge to crop them into little rounded bushes, because what I love about them is their reckless reaching out, the irrepressible nature of their outstretched limbs.  

Which, of course, I cut and put in jars and vases around the house!

So... a new spring, a new season, and new and interesting things to come, for each of us.

April In Paris.... 8x10 Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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I've only been to Paris once, and it was really not enough!  My dear husband lured me out for a walk one evening, which ended up being like the Trail Of Tears (for my poor, blistered feet), but his destination was romantic, and so was immediately forgiven.  We were quite a distance from the Eiffel, but it looked close because it's huge - surely dominates the landscape.  By the time we got there it was lit up - my very favorite view of it.  And I think its synchronicity that my friend Leslie Saeta also painted this scene (although daytime) this week.  Check hers out!

Along those lines, this month there will be an opportunity for locals and their friends to get together as I walk them through a Paris painting - Thursday, April 18th, 6-8:30, BYOB, fun supplied, as well as all art supplies.  Pure non-artists welcomed and encouraged!~

On My Easel

Two shows need work for later this month, so I've been working on larger pieces.  This one is 20x24, Oil on canvas.  I had the design from one of my zillions of photographs of gulls, and I just concentrated on design and paint application... It is agony (in setting up the design and that 'math', as I call it) then fun (digging into the paint and using free, expressive strokes), then agony again, as I look at it with a cold eye and decide what does and doesn't work and doing the 'editing'.  

First show is at the Spring Bull Gallery on Belleview Avenue in Newport, RI.  It's called "A Sampling Of The South Coast Artists" and will run the month of May.  I will have 3 pieces in this.  Then I will be  the featured Artist at Sea Rose Cottage Thursday, April 25, from 5-9 in Bristol, RI on Gallery Night.

Fun Time Tulips, 8x8 Inch Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$125 & $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

Painting today was frustrating.  I wanted to paint shore paintings, gulls and plovers and children in the waves.  But after 3 tries, nothing was working.  Why?  I had great reference material... I had new-ish brushes and all my favorite colors laid out in front of me.  I had time and space to myself.. good music on....  I complained on Facebook, 'got it all out', meditated, took a walk, looked at other art I like...  Then I decided to clean up and forget today's work.  But I had a bit of paint on my disposable palette and I thought, I'm just going to design a painting of my tulips, and it can dry and I'll work on it tomorrow.  But when I got the design in I decided to pop in a few color notes, and one thing led to another and I was IMMERSED.  I had a blast!  It's a little different in technique, but hey, experimenting is good!  So thrilled with it I want to share it.  So instead of the usual $150 for this size work I'm offering it for $125.  And I'm going to do more like this!

My other title I was going to go with was "Exuberance!"  Do you like it better?

Renewal, 6x6 Acrylic Painting of Tulips by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & 10 S&H

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Springtime MEANS tulips to me.  I adore all the different variations.  A few years ago my friend Paula Villanova and I went to Holland the week the tulips were supposed to be peaking.  Well, when we arrived there had been a historic heat wave in the Netherlands, and the temps hit 90 many days in a row - which is a death knell for tulips. We managed to paint a lot and have a ton of fun anyway (right?  of course right!)  You can check our blog about it HERE.

This painting just thrilled me.  Who would have ever thought that violet would be a good background for red tulips?  I tried it out tentatively, and then went right into it, full force - loving how it came out.  Dedicating this post and bouquet to a friend who is dealing with caring for her husband's mom, navigating all the options of best care, with her open heart.  I keep her in my prayers, as I know how hard it is on that road.

Seeking Balance, 6x6 Inch Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 &n $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

Again, one of my favorite themes.  I spent some time collecting NEW rocks last weekend with Tim and Paco.  Unbelievably, on the beach, there was only one other car.  Turns out it was friends of ours from Boston.  What a great surprise... and Paco recognized them first....

I think we are all in need of a reminder to keep balanced.  I love these cairns so much I often wear tiny ones as earrings.  An artist in Maine makes them.  Throughout the day when I touch them I am reminded.... seek a balance.  These paintings never last long, but I am never sorry to see them go to someone who also knows about the importance of balance in our lives.

This was a demo last Saturday, and the lesson was about edges, values, texture, and .... yes, balance.  When you zoom in you can see the 'freckles' and 'scars' that makes each stone unique.