Early Spring

Early Spring, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

The weather is like none other this year. Call it what you will, but it's not normal. These jonquils sprouted quickly and bloomed in February. Regardless of time of year, they are always beautiful, and welcoming...a definite ushering in of spring.

"Fair and Balanced"

"Fair and Balanced" oil on gessobord, 6x6"

#stradaeasel, day 27

I expanded on yesterday's carrots with the rest of the root vegetables. I like to call them soup vegetables! They are even more fun to paint then fruit.

A Little VItamin A

"A little vitamin A"

oil on gessobord, 6x6"

Day 26 of the strada easel, paint from life, 31 day challenge.  Whew. This challenge has been very... challenging!!  I have reverted to still life for most of the challenge which in the past caused me to break out in metaphorical hives.   I am finally getting more comfortable after spending more then half the challenge in the world of fruit and vegetables.  All my paintings from this challenge have been posted to my FB studio page.

Turkey Run Meadow

Turkey Run Meadow, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

#stradaeasel, day 16

Yay! I finally got outside - no rain until this evening, so I took advantage of it. After my dog and I took a 3 mile walk at a local park, I sat in my car and painted. I think I was smilng the whole time 

Opposites Attract

Opposites Attract, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

A second still life for day 11, with different apples. Yesterday's apples were consumed immediately after posting, with wine and cheese. It was a great dinner 

Three's a Crowd

"Three's a crowd",oil on gessobord, 6x6"

I'm one third of the way through the painting challenge, and unfortunately I am running out of gas. The weather doesn't allow me to go outside to paint. I am getting off work so late there is no daylight left, therefore, I am tired and lacking the ability to concentrate very long. Here is a still life, fresh off the easel. Now its time for a glass of wine.

"The Introvert"

"The Introvert, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

Day 2, Stada easel 31/31 challenge

We have had fog in the morning (and into afternoons) in the Ohio valley for several days now. It makes for interesting subject matter, and the colors are still. This painting has more color in it then just black and white if you look hard enough you will find blue, pink and orange.

Harvest

Harvest, oil on gessoed watercolor paper, 6x6"

day 8,  30 paintings in 30 days

This is the first painting I have done with this color palette and it felt very foreign to me. I actually enjoyed working through the issues I was having and liked having to twist my brain a bit.  

Walkabout

Walkabout, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

My 250th painting I have posted since beginning this blog and so fitting that it was painted at Bernheim!

This is the second painting I started at Bernheim over Thanksgiving days. I turned my easel 180° from the location I was painting "Roundabout" - yesterday's post. It was a meandering path that lead from the perfect locations - the forest to the lake!
The light was fading and lovely. I did not take a reference photo when I was forced to stop painting but finished it from memory the next morning in the studio. It was a liberating feeling not to be tied to a photo reference, for a change. It is how I formerly painted, and may try and force myself to do that henceforth.

Sun Cruise

Sun Cruise, oil on gessobord, 6"x6"  

Pink Ladies

Pink Ladies, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

We are having nonstop rain and I had a hard time photographing this one.  I may repost with a better photo; for now I just to blog about it.  Echinacea are in bloom and so fun to paint.  The combination of colors, along with the dark background make them very photogenic :-).

Corner House

Corner House, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

I pass this house frequently, and I have always loved it. Besides the Arts and Crafts bungalow style, which I love, it sits on a corner lot which really shows off it's beautiful landscape. 

As I have been doing consciously with the last few paintings, I did not sweat the small stuff, and worked with broader goals and strokes.
To purchase click here

Two's for Tea

Two's for Tea, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

I was definitely was in the middle of an aggravating block not too long ago, not that I feel that it has completely passed. Regardless, I had bought bags of lemons, and limes because just having them in the house makes me feel better, and they remind me of California and sitting on my sister and brother-in-law's deck in Napa.

So what's left to do but paint them. I decided beforehand I was not going to fret the small stuff, so once I got the composition where I wanted it, I used a big brush and the rest is history.
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Murky

Murky, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

A small cattail painting from a cloudy day.  These were brand new spring cattails, and extremely green with freshness.  I realized as I was working on this small painting that this is one of the subject matter that, for right now, I enjoy painting on a larger scale. May go out today in search of more cattails. They are like a little village all their own.

To Purchase click here

Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon, oil on gessobord, 6x6"
SOLD

After lining up the last four paintings I have done, I realized  they are all of vast fields I've photographed while flying through in a car, on a highway trip.  As I looked at them together, they all seem.... moody; a testament that one's state of mind does reveal itself into the creative process.  I've been working on two larger paintings incrementally but have been unhappy with the progress.  When I take a break and grab a smaller surface, these smaller paintings seem to work. Not sure why I'm having this block but it's not fun!! :-)

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linocut in progress

Linocut (in Progress)

I have been wiped out, sick the last few days, and when I have gotten out of bed, I have been attempting a small linoleum cut. This is another idea encouraged by number one son, Hugh.  I used one of my favorite subject matter (vineyards) combined with one of my favorite countries (Italy) and to create this image. With lino cuts you loose a lot of aspects you get with painting - space, color value, wiggle room with mistakes.  After completing paintings in one sitting for over a year now, I found this to be an interesting challenge and plan on printing it and then watercoloring on top.  I am not quite finished with the cutting, but will post a picture once I print and paint it.

Philosophical Questions

Philosophical Questions, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

Today is my birthday and this little painting, which I recently discovered had never been posted, looks like something I would like to be doing today... having a discussion of philosophical stuff, on a blanket with friends and turning 25 again!! Instead, I get a birthday concert played by the Louisville Youth Orchestra, with my youngest daughter on stage. 

Here is the original post that I wrote back in September when I painted this:

Three people sitting on a blanket, engaged in the art of conversation.  This was a fun, quick painting that turned out gestural and sketchy. These small paintings are difficult to  create the detail of a scene, AND abstract it to the extent that it conveys what you, the artist, sees.  I like being both detailed, and abstract and often the hard part is deciding which would be best for your own portrayal. Either way, I need to keep painting :-)

Grandfathered In

Grandfathered In, oil on gessobord, 6x6 inches

I have been extremely busy making frames and varnishing paintings for the up-n-coming art fair. And, in the middle of that came Spring Break. I was able to go to Washington DC for 4 days, during which I visited the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Nation Gallery of Art, both of which were extremely enriching and inspiring. I regained my love and appreciation for Dutch Masters, especially Frans Hals, who's paintings and subject matter always seemed to have a twinkle in their eye.

"Grandfathered In" was painted just before my trip, during which we were having constant flooding rains in Louisville. I needed a bit of sunshine and sprawling landscape. The setting is from Louisville's newest park, which was the result of land donations along a long, wide and meandering creek. The barns were there prior to the establishment of the park and are on one of the few private properties that still exist.  They're like big blocks of color on an otherwise flat and treeless part of the landscape. 

Winter Park Road

Winter Park Road, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

Here is another painting I took while being navigated through my local Olmstead Park during the last snow we had in Louisville. I actually painted this exact spot during the fall, because at the right time of the day the sun blasts the trees and all their color.View the Fall version here . It's hard to drive because you are too busy looking at the leaves changing!  I thought the snow was equally as beautiful so I painted it too.

Crowded

Crowded, oil on gessobord, 6x6"

I attempted over the weekend to paint outside. Or I guess you could say, I DID paint outside for over 2 hours, took what home what I worked on to try and tweak them in my studio. Not satisfied with the results, I wiped the paintings away with turp and tried to get on with the rest of my day. 

At midnight I was frustrated that I had not "accomplished" anything so I went back to painting.  What resulted was two relatively loose and quick sketches. I used a limited palette and zoomed in to a tiny portion of a photo I had taken on site. This made it a bit blurry which helped in the end to paint quickly. And that is the end of the story.