Acorn SQ

The next in my series of simple fall squares. These look really good sitting on my shelf together. I am going to take these to Tennessee for the Jr League Market. I am also making jewelry for the show, so I am very busy with demands for the show and family demands. I feel likely Gumby, pulled in many different directions. Good thing I'm flexible!

White Pumpkin

This is my interpretation of Karin Jurick's Different Strokes Challenge for the week. I am doing my small series and I was going to buy a white pumpkin today. Instead, I used her photo for inspiration. I may do the three pumpkins later. I love her interpretation. Check out the link to her blog on the side bar.

Fall Square I

This is the first of a series I am doing of small (5"x5") square paintings for a series. These are on deep canvas panels that can sit on a mantel or counter. They will be painted in oil on black gesso for more punch. They really lend themselves to the daily painting theme since they are quick sketches. I really like to have paintings sitting on my kitchen counter.

I went to a demo with Dennis Johnson, a very dynamic Oklahoma City artist, last night. He does wonderful abstractions, but I loved most what he said about painting in general; basically, paint profusely and edit deeply. I am a firm believer that in order to improve, you have to paint a lot. Some are keepers, some are not. Hopefully the more you paint, the more you keep!

Hefner Sails

I saw a story in the Saturday paper about a race at Lake Hefner this weekend with an accompanying photograph. I drove by Saturday night and saw the boats and was sparked to paint sails, an unlikely subject in Oklahoma. I am beginning to learn that there is not an unlikely subject that can not be found in Oklahoma. (Now that's an unwieldy sentence!) This little loose painting is done with oils on watercolor paper with a black gesso ground. I love doing quick sketches on black gesso; it makes for instant drama.

Waiting for the Bus

Karin Jurick's weekly photo challenge was a figure photograph today. Check out the challenge at http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/
Outside of my current comfort zone, although I have done my share of portraits in the past. I also tried to challenge myself to limit my strokes. Difficult because I wanted to put a lot of the beautiful highlights from the photo into the painting. I will continue to work on this aspect of my painting going forward. Always striving...

God's Garden View

I am working on a large painting from Garden of the Gods, but this is a small one of the panorama, a very quick, loose painting on a 5"X7" panel in oil.

Fall Flowers

I have decided that I will also post photographs on my blog, even if they have just been manipulated by photoshop. I took some photos of the beautiful sunflowers on my way to the Fine Arts Institute yesterday. This morning I played around with them briefly. I have so many projects in various stages of completion. Hopefully, I will be finishing up some of them soon. I am going to post again today with my painting of the day.

Spring Barn

I have finished the painting that I did for my brother. We spent a lot of time exploring and playing in old barns as children and I am drawn to their colors and textures. This is an oil, 12 X 36, on canvas.
I am working on the really large oil painting and several mixed media pieces. I want to continue to paint one small oil painting each day in addition to the other work I am doing.

Beach Strokes

Karin Jurick, an artist that I greatly admire, has posted a weekly challenge on her new web site Different Strokes From Different Folks. This is my interpretation of that photo. I love looking at Karin's and Carole Marine's work. I am looking forward to seeing the other paintings every week.
I started a very large painting and finished a barn painting for my brother, which I will post tomorrow.

Bonaire pier

I did quite a bit of work yesterday, but the work was too wet to move! This is a 5X7 on birch panel (which I love working on) but I used so much paint on the small canvas that I was afraid to move it to my photo panel in the garage. It was still so wet this morning that I made a mess that I will now have to fix.
Today is the first day of my critique and studio time at the Fine Arts Institute in Edmond. I am looking forward to painting most of the day and seeing what other people have been working on.

Cloudscape

I have a lot of photographs of clouds. Where we moved from in Virginia, cloudscapes were hard to come by. If you wanted to see clouds from a distance, you needed to go to the ocean. I do love the ocean, but there is something special about the way the clouds look in the mid-west. There is a sense of distance that you just don't get in the east. Sunrises on the Atlantic are spectacular, but sunsets (and sunrises for that matter) in Oklahoma

are very stunning. This is a 5 X 7 oil painting on birch panel.

Pastel Coneflower Transfer

I did another acrylic transfer from a photograph. This time I covered the transfer with a clear gesso and added a loose pastel punch over the top. I love being able to use all of the media I have spent a lifetime learning.

Looking West

I have been busy all morning with matting and framing pieces for the Paseo Photo Fest. This is a mixed media piece that I sent to the framers last week.

It is one of my recent favorites. I reworked a piece of collaged watercolor with acrylic and oil. It has a lot of depth because of the paper applied to the watercolor paper. I love experimenting.