Darling Sparrow, 6x6 inch Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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Do you love her?  I do.  I have always been drawn to the soft, pouffy rounded shape of a Sparrow.  I think if you sit and watch them you just have to fall a little bit in love with them.  Notwithstanding my cat thinks my love for sparrows includes dead ones,  which it most definitely does not.  I love their lively little eyes and dancing way of hopping around.  

I have somewhere (packed, and I'll find it) a sculpture of 3 sparrows on a branch.  When I get it out I'll include a photo of it. 

HUGE apologies for a post I wrote (it was a long one) on the 1st.  It disappeared - and didn't even go to the Drafts folder.  Shaking my head.... hope this guy gets out to you all.  Hey.... Spring is VERY close!  Reason to celebrate!

My Little Chickadee, 6x6 inch Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

Today I woke up feeling like I just jumped off a spinning carousel … 2 weeks of frenetic shipping, delivering, setting up, etc. and going to Openings - not to mention the 6 weeks prior of fast paced painting!  I told myself that I would just take it easy today, do what flowed, read a bit, walk with the dog without hurrying him along, meditating, etc.  Well, the morning kind of drifted, but then I walked into the studio, saw my sketches for some upcoming commissions, and the pull to the easel was irresistible!  

I wanted to paint something that I just had been dying to paint…. little birds.  I love the shapes of the little birds - kind of round as we head into winter.  And in doing this I found out that the chickadee is the state bird of Massachusetts!  Yes, the Wild Turkey is the state 'game' bird, but the chickadee is the regular one.  Voila!  I think there are more chickadees in my future.  Maybe yours, too. :D

One striking thing floated to my mind today… at two different openings two different people (so, doing the math, now 4 people in one week) told me they felt my paintings were painted joyfully, that they also brought joy to people who enjoyed them.  And I heard about one woman who bought one of my paintings and is taking it everywhere she goes as she fights a courageous battle with cancer, saying that the little painting makes her smile and she thinks that's good for her healing.  Moves me more than I can say!  And well, I've said enough for today.  Thanks for listening.

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.

Seagulll II, 6x6 Inch Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$100 & $10 S&H

Click HERE to Purchase

I am really getting into these seagull paintings.  I love how they're just black, white and gray with yellow beaks, pinkish legs and a bright red dot on their bottom beak!

And they can be placid or crazy looking, like here.  It was fun painting the action shot.  Had a busy day in the studio today.  In order to put off making ONE phone call I worked on 8, count 'em, EIGHT paintings.  Finished 2.  Started one new one.  If this keeps up, making my goal for Spring/Summer inventory will be a snap!

I'm giving a talk at the North River Arts Society in Marshfield on Wednesday night.  The topic:  Blogging Your Art Successfully.  Come on over - I love to share info!

One Leg Up Sea Gull, 8x8 Inch Acrylic Painting by Kelley MacDonald

$150 $ $10 S&H

Click HERE To Purchase

I love the gulls.  I love photos of gulls, and paintings of gulls, particularly Jamie Wyeth's.

So, be advised, there will be many showing up here... in different formats, medium and style!

On a very fun note, I can say now, one of my cocktail paintings, of an Old Fashioned, (below) went to a 50th birthday party on Saturday.  Sounds like a feisty party in Louisiana - and was presented, I believe, on a 'party trolley'.  It was rushed there to be on time, and I can tell you I was thrilled to get the call from LA that "The Eagle has landed..." so I knew the Birthday Boy would get a painting of his favorite beverage.  How fun!

Shall We Dance?, 6x6 Inch Original Oil Painting by Kelley MacDonald

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Sticking with the 'birds' theme, I guess.. the Birds show at Lovell Studio at 4 Corners in Tiverton is over this Saturday - and it was a huge success!  About 50% of the paintings sold!

These gulls we at the beach across the street.  I'm always amazed at what seems to be the different KIND of gulls there.  I always thought the brown gulls were babies.  Now there seem to be giant brown gull, dwarfing these dark and white gulls - no way they are offspring!  I enjoyed the brushwork doing this one.  And in my research I'm finding there are more than one kind of Rhode Island Red Chicken - there is the 'old' style and the 'new'(lighter) style.  Also there are Rhode Island Whites.  I find chickens and gulls fascinating... sparrows, too.. guess I'm a Bird Girl at heart...

And for my friend Mary, who missed this sunset tonight, believing the weatherman....

You could've painted THIS!

Soft Landing 6x8 Inches

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This is a little chickadee landing in the snow - I've had a photo of this for a long time, and this time of year there's so much whiteness and gray... Here when I look out the sky and the water are all gray, but the little birds are so cheerful (to me, anyway).

I loved al the colors in the 'white' background.  I used a palette knife, and then got involved with the whirling of the snow and wind.  I don't usually use the knife, but I liked the calligraphy of the whorls.

Almost Done...

Finished up my submissions big and small, and continue to wrestle with Photoshop (I really should quit painting for a week or two and just TACKLE that).   This mailbox is almost done.  I don't want it to look too 'finished', so some edges need to be softened, and I think I need to make some of these birds female!