"Ah, The Rose" small painting on gessobord

Roses, I find, very difficult to paint. So much form with translucent light passing through the petals. I still try to paint them once in awhile. I'm off tomorrow to Carol Marine's advanced painting workshop in Santa Fe. My suitcase is filled with tripod, palette, things to paint, lights, camera, backdrops, paints, brushes, bulbs, medium and a few clothes. I plan to post a few "experiments in learning" while away for the week. Yikes! I almost forgot to pack my confidence and patience. Carol is a wonderful teacher, for I was lucky enough to get a spot in her first workshop 5 years ago. I'm looking forward to meeting some wonderful painters there.

"Royal Pie" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

I just couldn't resist. Not about painting the pie, but having some to eat. Though under the lights with the color background I used, this pie was more than royal for an hour or two. The pedestal I used I got from my mother-in-law, and I find it one of my favorite silver pieces to paint. I love the shape of the base and pedestal. Here the pie is resting on a white plate, which covers all but a piece of the silver rim. I'm really working on forks now. I prefer to paint them foreshortened, but just getting the shape correct I find a challenge. 

"Mirror, Mirror" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Well, my stainless steel bowls arrived....even in different sizes! I know that I will be learning a lot about reflections in Carol Marine's workshop coming up in two weeks. Like what dominates? The reflection of an item or the actual item? Something has to play the dominant roll, and it's not both. Stay tuned.

"Stack" 8" x 10" oil on gessobord

So, it was late yesterday afternoon and I had attempted 3 paintings and wiped them all off already earlier in the day. I had an hour before the cats came begging for dinner. My kitchen counter top was full of things I've been listing this week for my vintage Etsy shop. And there I saw my next painting. Although often painted by others, I had never painted a stack of cups before. My goal on this painting was to say what I have to say in one hour. That's it! I was so pleased with the way the handles turned out and how the cups "rounded" well. Think I won't sell these in my shop now, but hang onto them for another try. My plums just passed their prime and carrots and orange popsicles are about all the food I have left in the house. So today is another "Well, what do I paint now."

"Eggs and Oranges" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Once again, I love to paint eggs-in-the-raw! I was trying, in this painting, to make the eggs on the plate more a part of the background....in the dark...coming into the light. But I just got carried away with the eggs and kept going back in to make them more important than I meant for them to be. I am still happy with the painting, but some how got off track with my excitement.

"Tomato Parade" 12" x 12" oil on gessobord

I've been wanting for awhile to paint something reflected in a bowl. Well, I finally got up the courage to set something up and just used my mixer bowl. I, being a quilter, have a good selection of solid half-yard pieces of fabric that I use in my still-life set ups. I really wanted to work with this piece of fabric which is called "chartreuse" by the manufacturers. Actually it's a Shot Cotton put out by Kaffe Fassett. The warp and the weft of the woven cloth are different colors. Up close the fabric looks quite different than seeing it from a short distance, when your eyes mix the two colors. I highly recommend this fabric for painters to use for still life set ups. But there are so many online quilting stores which supply hundreds of beautiful solids. I like to shop here for fabrics. anyway. I really wanted to challenge myself with mixing this chartreuse color on my palette, especially since I use no greens directly out of the tube. I work with blues and yellows. At the moment I could not recite to you the colors I used, but I had fun in the process.

"Tree in the Hedge" 10"x 10" oil on canvas board

I am a member of a plein air painting group that meets every week from spring to fall. The locations are pre-selected early in the spring. It's just a matter of showing up. I've gotten rather bored with painting boats in the water, not that I have that much experience doing so. But I love to paint architecture and big shapes. I was not feeling up to even getting out of the car this day to set up my easel, so I painted, in oils, from the front seat of my rather small car. Across the street from where i was parked was this huge hedge engulfing this tree. The thing on the right is part of a stockade fence at the foot of someone's driveway. I went home and painted another version of this without the fence and gave more detail to the hedge. 

"Painting Tomatoes" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Tomatoes are not as sweet tasting as they used to be when I was young. But these came from my local market, so I knew they were fresh picked and ready to eat. In the South we really knew how to make a great tomato sandwich!

"Four Plums" 8" x 8" oil on gessobord

Recently there have been a lot of firsts for me with my painting. Today I painted plums for the first time! I know there are many different kinds of plums in the market, but today I worked with what I had in the refrigerator. These plums were more purple than red, so I tried to use the red just for the lights, though I didn't begin that way. Ugh. I think that I must try them again tomorrow and begin with purple instead of red. I'm so happy to be painting most every day again. It's what truly brings me joy.