Lovers' Lane, 5x7 Inches, Oil Painting of Blithewold

Don't you just love "lovers' lanes?'  In the beautiful little town of Bristol, RI, there's a gorgeous 'summer home' mansion that's open to the public as a kind of museum.  They're preserved the house as it was long ago, with the gorgeous grounds, as well as furnishings inside.  On the side of the property leading down to the private dock, is Lovers' Lane.  When I first painted this, I knew I had a problem, because the camera could not focus - my values were all in the middle!  So I deepened the darks and lightened the lights, and now.... take someone's hand and go strolling beneath the canopy!

Birds On A Fence, 12x12 Mixed Media

This is another for my show at Nest in Dedham, for the month of September.  I painted on the Cape last week for a few days, and on our way home, Sally Dean and I attended a talk on mixed media by artist Mary Moquin, who is one of my favorites.  She is doing oil and cold wax medium work, and I was completely inspired.  So I picked up some cold wax and mixed it with my oil paint in this.  It makes the paint thicker and 'waxy', and leaves it a little translucent. Still fiddling around and working it out, but I was happy with how this came out.

Cerisnolla Olives, 6x6 Inches, Acrylic Painting

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There's an Italian section of Providence called Federal Hill, and there are tons of restaurants lining the main drag (Atwells Ave.).  One of my favorites is Constantine's Venda Ravioli.  You can eat outside (al fresco?) facing a little square with a big fountain, or indoors, literally tucked into the shevles and bins of food prep utensils and cappuccino makers.  The entire center of the shop is a huge rectangle which sells cheeses, olives, prepared food and meats.  I was there last week and was captivated by the large, meaty black, red and green olives called Cerisnolla Olives.  A plate of different kinds of olives, some crusty bread, excellent olive oil and some cheese... what more could a person want?

Daffodil Days, 6x6 Acrylic

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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?

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

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*

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!

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!

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

$100 & $10 S&H

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?

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!

The House On The Rocks, 6x6 Inches, Oil

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As you go over the Newport Bridge towards the island of Jamestown, RI, if you look to the left you will see, perched on a tiny island of rocks, this beautiful house.  It is, in good weather, surrounded by sailboats, with the lights of the bridge (the Pell Bridge is the actual name, although I've never heard anyone call it anything but the Newport Bridge) serenading it in the evening.  I imagine living there, with no car to pop into to run errands, being isolated and surrounded on every side by views of the water, Jamestown, the West Bay, and Aquidneck Island (Newport +).  I took this shot on a hazy day - everything was kind of blue - it was hot AND overcast.  What I enjoyed were the close values, with the hulking house dark and dominating the scene.  The challenges of painting architecture are exciting to me.  I don't know why I don't do it more!

What I'm Up To....

I've been AWOL for a few days.  Aside from the dizzying annual event that is Kelley's Birthday, I've been focusing on developing some paintings from my NYC trip - and I'll show you one small study, it's a 6x6, but I want to do it bigger - just wanting to see about composition, etc.

This is a little girl whose parents, with me, were resting their feet at the edge of Central Park, and she was ANTSY to go-go-go~  She was rocking, tapping, humming...  backlit, with traffic in the background, and pigeons at her feet.  I adored her little outfit and her cute hairdo.  Well, I like this (and I know what you're all going to say) but my husband thinks her face is too much the same value as the building in the back.  I said that her actual face had lighter parts that I didn't paint in because it's a Work In Progress- not the finished piece.  And besides, what's wrong with a lost edge here and there?  

Anyway, between this and the 2 'wipers' this week, it LOOKS like I'm on vacation - HAH!

Frenchies, 6x6 Inches, Oil

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French Bulldogs, or 'Frenchies', are just so darned adorable.  Similar to pugs in that they have a smaller snout, they have bat-like stand-up ears, no tail, and sturdy little legs.  They are very sweet, as a breed.  They come in lots of colors - fawn, brindle, white with black or brindle markings, etc.

Anyway, these two were from the Dog Show I go to in December...

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes!  I am a birthday celebrater - getting older is an option I want!  I took in a matinee, had my favorite dinner,  and enjoyed the evening with my older son, Paco and the cats, (husband is traveling).  Pretty great!

I Love New York, 5x7 Inches, Oil

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Ok, today is my birthday.  My treat this year was my trip to NYC last weekend.  In Times Square I spotted - and couldn't believe it - a sign of a Dunkin Donuts coffee cup.  Below that were words flashing on a red screen. When I snapped the photo the word was 'GREAT'.  So the cup, and 'GREAT' were stacked up - I couldn't resist!  It was quite early, so the crowds were kind of thin, and there was this installation, below, of ... sheep... maybe that's what got me in the 'sheep' mood last week!  That's me and them, below....

I think they thought I was their leader, in my puffy white coat...

Just Amazing II, 6x6 Inches, Oil

This is a 3rd go at my favorite subject: the sunset across the river from my house.  I think this time I like the brushwork the best.  When you do a subject a number of times, it's very freeing, and eventually the essence of the subject comes out.  There's a confidence from knowing you're not re-inventing the wheel, and you can concentrate on what interested you about the scene in the first place.

And, for those of you who are not (yet) my 'friends' on Facebook, this is my (she says) oft neglected oldest kitty (8 yrs), Isabelle, in one of her favorite poses:

Cozy Under The Eaves - 2nd try, 6x6 Inch, Oil

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Here's my 2nd run at that interior I posted yesterday.  When I showed it to my husband, his comment was "But it's like just blobs of colors next to each other. No lines."  OK, I'm STILL trying to figure out what that meant - but I dreamed of the painting last night :) and I thought - maybe it's more the colors are competing and the values need more definition!  So for the class today I did it again (with feeling, of course!).

Here, below, they are, side by side...yesterday's left, today's right.  Your thoughts?

                             

North River Members' Show 2011

What the Juror, Joseph McGurl, said upon bestowing an Award Of Excellence:

"Lively brushwork is interesting to look at in its own right.  Great color choices.  Nice, careful observation"

Honestly, I am thrilled.  It is my very first award at North River, where I have been a member for most of   20+ years.  Not that I can bring myself to believe what he said, being 1/2 Irish.  But since I had my sons over for dinner that night, I couldn't make the Opening, and found out about my prize via Facebook.  So you won't hear ME slamming Facebook!  I also got the hours the show was open via FB, as it wasn't readily evident (to me, anyway) on the website. 

So my friend (and fellow award recipient) Jody Regan was kind enough to re-enact the Awards Ceremony, and I had my Sally Field moment:

I do want to thank all of your who share my artistic journey, which is so very important to me, by reading, following, subscribing to and commenting on this blog.  I never knew when I started it 4 years ago how much of an impact it would have on my art career, my friendships and... really, my life!

Muchos gracias...

Come Sit With Me, 6x6 Inch Original Oil

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There's a spot in a little town called Bristol, RI, where you can sit and watch the sunset on a wrought iron and wooden bench.  In winter, at a certain time of day, the sky is yellowish, the water is ice blue and the snow is lavender.  The fishing boats wait in the harbor off to the right for the tides and fish.  It's beautiful in it's loneliness.   I just wanted to share that place with you.