Clouds I

I plan to do more clouds so this is clouds #1!  It is inspired by an actual place...the sky over Lake Monona from the Olrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI.  But really, it is about the clouds. We had a sky very similar to this one today so I studied it and wrote out a plan for painting it....and I have to say, I really love the results!  It is more impressionistic than usually do, and I softened a lot of edges which I seldom do, but I love how it turned out.  You can see the texture of the painting in this photo, which in person, really works!  I hope you like it too!

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Companions

7"x7" oil

The top one was inspired by the bottom one!

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Friendly Conversation

8"x10" oil

Finally I got into a few hours of oil painting again.  I finished this piece and tweaked several others I was never happy with.  All in all, it was a good session and this piece worked out alright. I am feeling the need for a painting sabbatical....paid leave away to just paint.  Ah, that would be lovely.  In the meantime I will have to just carve out some time and do it here with all the distractions.  Well...off to the next thing....

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A Good Place to Live 3"x5" watercolor

It has been over 2 weeks since I last posted!  I am feeling very negligent about my blog, but I have been busy traveling, and teaching, and as a result, doing little watercolor paintings and drawings instead of oil paintings.  I will get those going again, but I have really had fun with these.  This one is a house portrait.  I couldn't decide which angle to get all the fun things in and have it look like the house.  They spend a lot of time in the evenings drinking wine pool side, they have some lovely colors in their gardens out front, and the mountain sticks up behind, but each of those features can only be seen at different locations, so I combined the suggestion of them all with an entry-way view.  I have a bunch of little watercolors to photograph so I think I will do that while I warm up to oils again tomorrow.  I am teaching a painting (acrylic) class tonight.  I really am enjoying the teaching, but it takes a lot of preparation.  I am also getting ready for my first art fair.

SOLD

Not a Whisper

5"x7" oil

This is not a new painting but one that really speaks to today.  We have had a really long bout of rainy weather, with a small break yesterday.  It was cool and there was a slight breeze this morning, with hope that it would dry a bit, but alas, the air is still and there is the promise of coming thunderstorms which could be quite severe.  They tell us that Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be sunny, and of course hope springs eternal.  The flooding is pervasive and our crystal clear rivers are muddied with silt...still, it is a gorgeous landscape.  I am working on an artist's journal for my class this Friday.  It is really fun!  I have kept sketchbooks and journals over the years, but I never actually planned one out the way I am doing this one.  I will post photos as I complete pages.  Today is Wednesday; something tells me I won't be done by Friday!  But, I love new projects!

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Negative Space10"x12"

10"x12" charcoal

Camping....I used to love it.  That is all I have to say.  I have been teaching drawing at the Middlebury Studio School and this was my demo for drawing using just negative spaces to define the shape.  It is a challenging exercise and one of those that is really good to do occasionally.

Fireworks

6"x6" acrylic

Happy Fourth of July! I am camping and won't post again until next week.  This was a fun experiment that didn't work out exactly as I had planned, but it still looks cool!

He's Home

7"x9" oil

My nephew is home from his tour in Afghanistan and we are thrilled as you can imagine.  I decided to hang the flag everyday he was gone to remind me to think of him and the other young men in danger for our country.  Then I planned to paint it when he got home, so I am really happy to post this one.  This is the side of our house where we have a little porch, bench and wood pile with a lovely crab apple tree to host lots of birds.  Today is also my husbands birthday so he is going to celebrate by taking off work and golfing with one of our sons.

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A Savory Day

5"x5" oil

More garlic.  I love these carnival squash.  They are really fun to paint.  Onions offer a unique challenge too, even though they are perfectly round, their skins reflect so many beautiful and warm hues.  It is very easy to make an onion look like an orange.  This still life makes me feel sunny and warm, which is not what the weather has been bringing.  We are surrounded in every shade of gray that exists and loads of water to-boot.  Generally the weather doesn't get me down.  Days like this remind me of school days when it seemed like the sun never quite got up.  I would be lulled into day dreams by the patterns made by water dripping down the huge old windows of Madison Elementary School.  We had really old desks with initials etched into them and places for ink wells. Even though we didn't get to go outside on days like this because the mud puddles were just too tempting, I liked them because we would frequently get to paint!

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Reflections

Reflections 5"x5" oil

I think I have finally come up with a pretty good method for photographing my work...yeah!  I am currently in love with garlic.  I have always loved garlic for its culinary deliciousness and medicinal uses, but now I am studying it for its aesthetic contributions.  Although this looks like 2 bulbs, it actually is one with a reflection in a mirror.  I decided to leave out the mirror reference and just go with the two bulbs.  I worked hard on creating interesting grays in this, something I struggle with.  It is also a different size.  Sometimes it is so soothing to paint a very simple but beautiful piece of our world!  Funny thing is, right after I finished this we went out to eat at a new (for us) restaurant and there were 2 framed watercolors above our table of garlic...very lovely.  I couldn't read the name f the artist.

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