Tulips Open To The Sun, 6x6 inch acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

Hey beautiful…. yes, you!  You are making the Spring flowers bloom!  These are Passionate Pinks! I am always torn by my tulips (actually got the bulbs on a painting trip to Holland a few years ago)… whether to cut them and have them in the house/studio, or let them open up in the sunshine.  I usually dither so long they stay in the garden.  I completely understand Tulip Mania.

"Look here in the garden bed

Something beautiful is growing…

Bright, shaped like a cup - all red

Tulips open to the sun…."

When I was a little girl we sang this song in school, and I had no idea what a tulip was.  We lived in a multi-family house and there were no flowers in the yard.  My husband made sure I fell in love with all kinds of flowers, and now I can't see my life without them!  I think gardening is mind-expanding.  

These are fun, and they are the Girls Just Wanna Paint submission for the topic this month of "Open".  Check out the other paintings HERE.

How Fun Is This?

Do Not Adjust Your Set!

A friend of mine who is very talented took my recent image of a triple stack of jellies bound for a friend (BVL) and made this image - I just got such a CHARGE out of it.  There was actually more, but I couldn't make a screen shot out of the whole thing - it looks like such a fun pattern - are they really jelly donuts?

I'm very inspired, and thankful for your emails and inquiries… I see some more donut stacks in my future this week… Let's see if I can be creative with them!!!!

Dusted! 6x6 Inch Oil Painting of Jelly Donuts by Kelley MacDonald

Well, here we are, dusted with powdered sugar!  That is ALMOST my favorite part.  The jelly, always, is my favorite.  Same with doing dogs or faces - the eyes.  Because there are so many levels of light and color! So I'll let you know if the collector chose this one or THIS one:

*update* he chose the stack of 3 jellies*

Now, like a lot of artists… I can procrastinate with the best of them!  When I have a deadline I will do almost ANYTHING but work on the piece.  Why?  Why do we do this?  I think because, although it sounded like a good idea at the time, we are wrapped in fear.  FEAR that we will somehow screw it up.  Well, you know, don't you, that the only way to get rid of that fear is to FACE it.  And let Fear know NOT to MESS with YOU.

So… what did I do this morning?  A bad 6x8 selfie:

I was fighting bad brushes and dwindling supplies of paint.  Bad combo. I look really fed up, don't I?

Well, I put down that bad girl and went to the easel (I do the 'selfies' in the bathroom mirror) and finished the sugar on the donut, and finished an Archangel commission, and started another.  *BAM*

WIP, 6x6 inches, oil (or, Life And Death In DonutLand) by Kelley MacDonald

This painting just may be spoken for (a good blog friend has dibs), but I thought maybe you'd like to see a bit of the process of a donut painting, and to hear a bit of a saga that JUST MIGHT make you cry.  

OK, so this wonderful fellow artist/blog friend requested a 'triple decker' donut painting that was already spoken for.  Now, I believe donuts each have a personality, and individuality, so even though, after painting HUNDREDS of them, I could definitely 'phone it in', and just paint from my imagination, I don't.  I go get new donuts every time.  And no, I don't eat them afterwards.  I usually buy 4 and one doesn't 'make the cut' in the beauty pagent of Jellies. (THAT gets eaten, and I share with Paco)

So for this painting my husband offered to pick them up.  I agreed, since I was a little wobbly from the flu.  He's a darling man, but he came home with SQUARE donuts. ????  How could this be?  Well, some Dunkin Donuts shops are careless and squash those tender fresh lumps of dough, that's how.  So…. no painting them.  I actually threw them OUT.

A day or two later I got out early and picked 4 perfectly plump jellies.  Only…. I wasn't nearly really done with the flu, and the simple SIGHT of them made me run for the bucket, and nausea overtook.  

Fast forward to Feeling Better.  Yes, I've discovered, you must yield to the flu.  So I did.  And I got new donuts (let's just say my purse was empty after this particular trip to the donut shop, and I did not know when it would be replenished.  Let's just leave it at that.)  Well, of course I had my dog Paco 

with me, and as we arrived home the dog next door went wild (a lovely Rottweiler) started flinging himself against the windows of his house, howling and scrabbling to get to us so he could eat Paco.  Which caused Paco to jump INTO the box of donuts, dumping them all over the driveway, with me trying to catch him before he jumped into each and every one.

Yes.  I curled up in a corner of the bathroom and howled my despair at EVER getting these donuts painted.  For about 5 minutes.  Then I went into the driveway and found 3 that had not been squeezed jelly-less.  And I started PAINTING the DARN donuts.  And you know what?  I LOVED how they came out.  All that's left is a sweet dusting of sugar and the tablecloth that they sit on.

INSPIRATIONAL?  I think so.  I will not be daunted!  I'll show you the finished piece in a day or two! 

Be happy!

First Tulips, 2014, 8x8 inch Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$150 & $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

Last week was my birthday, and one of my children gave me these beautiful purple tulips.  I've spent a lot of days recently trying to catch up on commissions, and putting bids out there for work.  But I just had to paint these heralds of Spring!  I wanted to keep it fresh and uncomplicated.  I love the dance that tulips do!

I'm working on some larger pieces, and maybe I'll give you a peek, although right now it's a struggle!  Be well!  Enjoy the warmer days!

So Long Gone

I apologize for being absent but I've been laid low with the flu. But while I've been 'down', a rather significant number of folks looked back and back through my blog, asking for paintings that caught their eye. These boots went a-walking to a new home, as well as a couple more. There were some I KNOW are still available, but couldn't put my hands on. This has prompted me to think about an e-commerce site. Which, frankly makes me want to run far and fast! 

I'm giving a talk Wednesday on artists blogging at the Providence Art Club and I will be sure to mention how a blog 'works' even when you can't! I love helping other artists get their Social Media 'game on'!

Hope you are all staying healthy! Spring is just around the corner.

Martooni Time, 10x10 Inch Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

I made one more swipe at this one today after I photographed it, but couldn't get a photo without even this much glare!  So hopefully I'll get a better image tomorrow by noon, and replace this one.  This is another 'Recovery' Painting.  A painting that did not 'make the cut' getting another chance at life with a new painting over it.  I leave little strips of the old painting, which looks like colored stripes, peeking out… to remind the new painting that it has roots.  Hoping that the new painting is one that sticks, and gives it a new lease on life.  It's exciting and fun, and I can't even remember what the old painting was by the time I finish the new. 

I'm on a martini kick these days.  Lemon garnish coming later this week.

Blue Moon…. 8x8 inch Mixed Media painting by Kelley MacDonald

When my children were young, I sang to them every night.  They each got a story (or 2, or 3) and then a song or two.  My youngest, my daughter, got to a point where she only wanted me to sing "Blue Moon", which would have been fine, except I couldn't really remember the verses.  I knew about 4 lines, which she had me sing with more and more emotion and vigor… until I think my neighbors must have thought I was a little soft.

This month my Girls Just Wanna Paint Challenge was to do a mixed media piece.  Here's the story:  At some point this was a reeeaaallly bad painting I had done.  I painted over most of it, leaving bands of color in strips here and there.  I called paintings like this "Recovery Paintings", and in my mind I was thinking of the people I knew who, through illness or situations, were re-making their lives.  What I saw was that their recoveries made them stronger.  I thought… maybe my 'recoveries' will have a new lease on life!  So I took a 'recovery' painting, and used ink to place the moon.  Then painted over most of the recovery painting.  Then added text and some images of birds (returning to us now that the winter is waning).

So, though layers and layers of paint, ink glue, paper, and even on the 'snow' some iridescent glitter, I hope there is strength to be found here!