Things Are Looking up 7"x7" oil

Things are definitely looking up for me after a year of chemo.  This is my granddaughter and the twinkle in my eye!  My sister, Laura said she applauds my artitude...I think that is a fabulous word and I am going to use it as much as possible.  Thank you Laura.  The things that got me through the last year include:  drinking massive amounts of water, exercising every day, belly laughing frequently, sleeping more than 8 hours, painting as much as possible and of  course friends and family and those who get real joy from my work.

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Sunshine! 7"x7" oil

Today I end a long medical treatment and I have sunshine in my soul!!
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Fishing Boat 9"x9" oil

I have been using a lot of complimentary colors lately....there is something so pleasing about them.  The splashes of orange dance around the blues in this.  This boat waiting to go "catch" some fish, was anchor moored where the Merrimac River reaches the Atlantic, near Plum Island.

Beached Kayaks 7"x7" oil

So many ways to have fun at the beach!  These kayaks are good for quieter waters in the bay.  I love to kayak so they caught my attention, but even more so, they are such brilliant colors against the sand.

Ding Ding Dingies 7"x7" oil $135

I love the sound that boats make clanging into one another, and also the sound they make against the moving water.  This is from Quisset Harbor which is filled with beautiful sail boats and is home to "The Knob."  The Knob is at the end of a long thin peninsula on the west side of the harbor.  You can walk out to the end which is a big round knob, giving you a wonderful view of the ocean.  If I ever do a mosaic, I think I will use this design....I can see it in my head with light glowing through it.

Sunscreen Optional 7"x7" oil

This was from the Cape.  The animals are so used to people they really show their personalities.   I was with friends walking along a pretty deserted beach occupied by this crow and his buddy.  I couldn't resist this image.

Eggs Anyone? oil 7"x7" $135

This is an interesting diversion from beach related paintings.  It is a raw egg with shells on a whitish plate.  It was a challenge on DPW.  Carol Marine is the master egg painter and I have often thought I should try it, as I know it is not an easy subject.  Anytime you are painting white on white, it is really important to relate the values to one another.  With white, you have to make the darks so that the light areas read as highlights.  I set this under yellowish lights and it gave it warm glow.  These exercises push the artist out of their comfort zone and make them really study the subject and learn something new (hopefully).

Hand In Hand 9"x9" NFS

I love this painting...the top two reasons are Samara and Ollie, but I also like the subject, the colors, the edginess...grandpa's big hat.....their posture...so I am keeping this one!  I think it is the second painting I have really done for myself!

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Red Umbrella 9"x9" oil $225

Ahhhhh!

Vacation 9"x9" oil sold

You just got to celebrate those beautiful moments when a family is all together and focused on having fun!  This is a sunny painting on a rainy day (a good day to start back to school).

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Sunset on the Bay 5"x7" oil $100

Sunsets can be spectacular with this view, but even a quiet sunset with light just peaking under the edge of thick cloud cover is an inspiring vision. I can see why some artists specialize in painting clouds and light...they are ever changing and unique snapshots.

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I had an opening at the Chaffee Art Gallery on Saturday and it was a really fun event with good food, good drinks, good music, good art, and good company.  I had 32 pieces in it...here is a photo of eight of them.

View From the Porch 5"x7" oil sold

I messed with this too much!  I liked how it turned out but I couldn't get a good photo of it because it seemed to pick up a glare on every edge.  It is the relaxing view over the bay during a sunset on a cloudy day.  I think I tried to put too much into it, and I did take out a few things, but it was a good exercise, and it does convey peace which is what I was after.

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Bucket of Sand 5"x7" $100

When you are three, you need some direction on how to build a sand castle.  This little lady is getting help from her grandpa.  I love doing beach paintings because it takes me right back to the sound of the waves.  I am so fascinated with the various colors reflected by the sand and water and sky and how they change colors as it gets deeper.

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Waves 6"x6" oil $100

This is in the evening.  The sky is hazy but the setting sun has just peaked below the cloud cover enough to shine on the edge of the wave, on her body, and touches in the sand.  Most of the beach combers have headed home while a few of us took quiet walks on the edge of the surf.  Even though sea is relatively quiet, I called it "Waves" because I like the way her skirt echoes the rhythm of the sand and waves.  This painting really captures how I felt in my quiet time at the beach.  I worked hard to give the sky a hazy look with yellows, grays and pinks and capture the color of the water.

Great Black-backed Gull 6"x6" oil $100

Firstly, I give this bird a 9.5 for take-off form!  There was hardly a ripple as he lifted off.  I saw him out in the water alone and couldn't tell what kind of bird it was, although it was noticeably larger than any of the gulls on the beach.  After some research, I am assuming it was a Great Black-backed Gull that was still wearing juvenile plumage.  I did this in the style of the current DPW challenge, which was to use 2 complementary colors plus white.  I chose blue and orange.  With one of the colors, you could create a full range of shades (like reddish blue to greenish blue) but with the other color, you could only mix it with the compliment and/or white.  I could have pushed the range of the blues a lot more, but I wanted a grayish background.  I used the orange and only mixed it with the blue (creating brown) or with white, to lighten it. Here's one of our vacation sea gull stories:  We were on the beach and a gull snagged a large, unopened bag of chips from some folks near us and took off in a low flight, weighted down by the chips.  A little boy popped up and started chasing the gull who couldn't get enough lift and finally dropped the bag of chips quite a way down the beach.  The little boy was thrilled to get his chips back and be the hero of the family!

Riches 5"x6" $90 still life

I just returned from a week on the beach.  After unpacking and dumping loads of sand, doing laundry and resting up from my exhausting fun, I finally got down to the job of painting.  I haven't painted for more than a week, and as many of my fellow artists will testify, there is usually an attack of trepidation associated with starting up again.  So I cleaned my palette, squeezed my paint tubes, sorted brushes, unpacked my art stuff, and downloaded a million photos.  Three hours later, I finally settled on this little still life.  I was deliberately trying to do something a bit simple and not beach related.  One of the many riches you discover when returning home from a summer vacation is an abundance of produce in the garden.  I consider my bed, my quiet country home, my personal routine, friends and family to also be daily riches in my life.

Osprey View 6"x6" oil landscape

Another view of Megansett Bay.  One of the interesting features were all the Osprey nests and chicks.  It was fun watching the adults coax the fledglings from the nest.

Karen's Garden 5"x7" oil floral $100

Karen's gardens are a masterpiece of colors and shapes with darting birds and flitting butterflies and this overlooks a magnificent view of the bay.   After days of staring at the boats and water my eyes were strained by the sun and I wanted to do something "quiet" in the shade, so I plucked these blooms from her garden.  I worked and worked on the color of the butterfly bush ...they were the most electric of magenta/purples I have ever seen, but I couldn't figure it out, although when I compared the actual flower to the painting it looked spot on.  This is one of those weird things you have to figure out...is it the value, the contrast, the background?  This may look like just another boring bouquet to someone else, but I recall how closely I studied them, how I felt in the shade and breeze, and all the challenges I tried to resolve, and I can't help but love it!

Megansett Bay oil 6"x6" $100

This is one of those paintings that I worked on keeping loose but felt like there was a lot of fiddling to get all the details in.  I may re-do this one in a larger format which might work better.  I was challenged to get the boats in.  There masts are much higher than you might think and there were a lot of them in the bay.  I loved doing the 2 American flags! SOLD

Dinner Bell 5"x7" oil $100 plein air landscape

This is from my trip to Cape Cod with my friend Heather who did watercolors that were so charming.  We stayed with her friend (and now mine) Karen.  Karen's house is up on the bluff over-looking Magansett Bay.  I spent a lot of time just staring at the view. She had a perfect shady porch with a constant gentle breeze to entice us out there and the view was mesmerizing.  The food was wonderful, the company delightful and the ambiance was charming.

Main Street 9"x9" oil $225

I think this is a scene still evident on Main Streets across America...guys sitting on benches and watching the traffic.  I was fortunate to capture this most interesting face!

Sunday Morning 5"x7" oil $100

Quebec City early on Sunday....a man, his dog, and his cup of Joe....life is good!
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Rodeo Feet 12"x12" oil sold

I did a series of feet a while back and was asked to do this larger version.  I love the story that feet and shoes tell.

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Town Festival 5"x10" oil $140

Many towns now have "First Night" to celebrate the New Year and weekly street festivals in the summer in the downtown area.  Our local one is called "Friday Night Live" and is quite popular.

Garden Shed 6"x6" oil landscape

This is another location at my friend Heather's.  Heather and I paint together once a week usually at their beautiful homestead.

Permission 5"x7" oil $100

I did this painting before I went to Cape Cod and will be posting paintings from that trip soon.  I titled this "Permission" because I was talking with my friend about how I felt like I needed permission to take any serious time to read, which is something I love to do.  Don't these waiting chairs just invite you to sit down with a book?

Self Portrait with... 4"x4" oil sold

Don't laugh!  I was going to title it "Self Portrait with Paint Brush"  but that seemed kind of long for a 4"x4" painting.  Then I thought of "Self Portrait with Crazy Hair"  but that was too revealing and it's not my fault anyway!  Then there's "Self Portrait with the Big-eyed Stare"...well you get the picture.

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Fourth 6"x6" oil $100

Keeping Time 6"x6" oil $100

Mauve 4"x4" oil sold

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Aiden 4"x4" oil sold

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Julia 4"x4" oil sold

A couple of friends told me they didn't like how I made Julia look like a grumpy Buddha so I re-did her!
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Peek-A-Boo Butterfly 5"x7" oil $100

Another butterfly with a completely different palette.  I love the value changes on the asters and the peek-a-boo butterfly at the top.

Dressed for Success oil 5"x7" $100

I struggled to get the proper shape of the flowers and the right values but still keep it loose and breezy.  I think it worked.

Habitat 5"x7" oil $100

We went to a song bird banding with a National Audubon Society guy.  It was so interesting and was sponsored by the Vermont Electric Company (VELCO) which maintains the land under the high power lines as habitat for songbirds, bears, moose and other animals.  In the past I thought of electric companies along the lines of the evil empire, but have learned all kinds of interesting things about transmission and some of the good things, like providing needed habitat which have softened my attitude towards power lines and substations.  My husband likes to stop and take photos of transmission lines when we are on a road trip!

Contemplating the Tree of Life 5"x7" oil $100

This is at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, with a lovely museum and entertainment facilities.  The background painting is by Susan Abbott....I didn't remember the sculptor's name.

Saturated oil 9"x9" oil $175

The oranges look very uniform on my monitor when in fact they are more varied.  This was a Daily Paintworks challenge, but it was fun to do a landscape after so many portraits.

Juli 4"x4" oil sold

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Multitasking 7"x5" oil $100

Some days everywhere you look something is interesting and beautiful.  I snapped a photo of this street lamppost one gorgeous blue day and when I revisited the photo it just looked like "Multitasking" to me.  It was fun painting this simple composition.  It sorta looks like a robot tourist with lots of luggage!

Holding On 6"x6" oil sold

I painted this from a black and white.  The things I loved about it included the way little Marilyn is holding her mother's dress ribbon and both of their expressions.  It is a portrait, but it was fun to do something larger and more involved than the little mug shots I have been doing.
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Emily 4"x4" oil sold

Julia 4"x4" oil sold

Winding down...I only have about 4 more of these little portraits and then I am moving on to other subject matter.

RoseMarie 4"x4" oil sold

My granddaughter and the sweetest baby this side of Greenland.
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Mom/Grandma/Greatgrandma 4"x4" oil sold

This is another version of my mom..this looks more like her.
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Sammy 4"x4" oil sold

I already did this portrait  and I really liked the facial expression and pose, but it looked a bit harsh and she is a beautiful woman so I softened it and brightened it.

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Tom 4"x4" oil portrait sold

Tom is a sweet man who smiles perpetually...well, most of the time.
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Patty 4"x4" oil portrait sold

I think the hardest portraits I did were of my sisters...too much to capture I guess!
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AG 4"x4" oil portrait sold

Painting a beautiful face is a lot of fun, but it adds its own pressures.  I have found that using a really good reference (either photo reference or painting in person) helps me relax and feel more confident.  Poor reference photos can sometimes encourage me to keep it loose and not sweat the details, but more than likely, I find myself fiddling with it.  Poor photos of people or animals that I do not know, seem to work better than for more familiar faces.
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Jordan 4"x4" portrait oil sold

This young man is going to marry my niece and I haven't met him yet so it was a lot of fun doing his portrait as I didn't have any emotional feelings tied up with and confusing my vision.  I played his hair really loose and fun and all in all, I am happy with it...I also hope it resembles him, but the jury is still out on that!

In another note, I got scammed, or rather was almost scammed by someone posing as an interested purchaser of my artwork.  I was pulled in fairly deeply before I realized it was a scam and I felt pretty violated by it.  Hopefully there will be no other repercussions from it, but I did learn an important lesson and will be more cautious in the future.  I would like to warn other artists of this possibility.

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