Peter's Peppers

8" x 8" acrylic on 1.5" deep wrapped canvas w/painted edges

SOLD

I love my art group!  We continue to meet almost every week and it's the very best way to stretch and grow for me!  I painted this one on Thursday.  Here's how the day went....9:30 meet & greet at the depot gallery in Barnesville, set up painting station, lay-in sketch, cup of coffee, paint, critique each others' progress, walk to 'Slices' pizza  and meet up with three other friends for lunch, talk, laugh, plan our new year-long art adventure(more later), hurry back to the depot, paint some more, call for critique, finish painting, gel time & place for next get-together and start breaking down around 3:00. Peter was busy framing his paintings for our Fall Line Painters show coming up while Eleanor, Bambi & I were painting.  He was telling a funny tale about some jalapeno peppers at a tailgate party, so I named these peppers after him.  They aren't as hot as his story!

"Sun Spot" - Challenge 13

Sun Spot     8" x 10" acrylic

There are web sites out there that offer challenges which I do occasionally.  This one was of a small grove of aspens.  Since I have never seen aspens in person, I chose to make my trees a generic variety and concentrate my attention on the bright spot of sunshine filtering into the autumn grasses underneath.  After finishing this exercise in "realist abstraction",  I had the feeling that my best result was about 3/4's of the way into this painting.  In other words, I kept going when I should have stopped.  That is what these lessons to self are all about... learning.

Tree study

 

 

 tree study     6"x 6" acrylic

This little plein air study was a lesson I gave myself.  Time limit of 20 minutes and leave out all but the basic shapes and values.  It's nothing to write home about, but it did serve it's purpose... I was tense starting it and loose when I finished.  It warmed me up to work on the oil portrait that's on my easel in the studio.

Winter Comfort

Winter Comfort     8" x 8" acrylic

Muffin has found a comfy spot tucked into my favorite afghan on the sofa.  Our house has a bank of southeastern facing windows that lets the winter sun shine almost completely through the house.  She uses it to her advantage.  Isn't that what cats do best... use their environment and their owners to their best advantage?  I gotta admit that it's gonna be hard for me to sell this one, as Muffin is my favorite of our six cats and this is "her".  She sleeps beside me at night and curls up next to my computer keyboard in the studio.  She is now over fourteen years old and still acts like a kitten.  Her favorite toys are my white erasers.  I can't tell you how many I have rescued from the vacuum cleaner!  I've painted her many times and only kept one for myself.  H-m-m-m.... 

Errant Feather

"Errant Feather" 8x10 acrylic

The first day of this new year was spent with family, food, the Rose Bowl Parade and football games.  I couldn't let the day go by without a little paint, so I did this one in my lap in the evening while yet another football game played in the background.  I call it "Errant Feather" because of that one whacky skewed feather in Rose's tail.  It was so comical looking that I took a photo of her this past summer while she sported it around for several days before it molted.  Now she looks much more dignified...that is, if a chicken can look dignified!

Imminent Flight

 

"Imminent Flight"

16" x 20" acrylic on canvas

I pushed and pulled this one back and forth until I got the lack of detail that I wanted to express the feeling of the scene... specifically the bright moonlight when things are seen almost mystically.  I did not want the viewer to get bogged down in minutia.  This can be tricky when dealing with wildlife painting.

Little Snoopy

 

"Little Snoopy"

8" x 8" x 1.5" acrylic on deep gallery-wrapped canvas

It was a cold rainy day here today and I felt like painting something in my lap instead of at the easel... cozier.  One of the grandchildren had left Little Snoopy out of the toy box, so he became my target.  This little guy is OLD!  All of my children played with him and now he's making my seven grandchildren happy with his wagging tail and whacky wheels that make him wobble.  He has been pulled miles and miles and terrorized generations of cats.  He'll probably still be here for the next generation... our great grandchildren.

$125 USD plus $6.00 shipping

Grainery Daybreak

"Grainery Daybreak"
11" x 14" acrylic on gallery wrap 3/4" deep canvas
Macon Arts Gallery

There is a HUGE grain mill in my little town that takes railroad cars full of corn and other grains and processes them into chicken feed. There's usually flocks of birds eating the spillage along the railroad tracks and greenery sprouts up through the ties. It was still a little early for them on this morning! The pale gray concrete and metal structure reflects the vivid colors of the sunrise and the tracks are polished from use to a mirror sheen. I DO love color!

Hard to Camouflage

"Hard to Camouflage"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite
Xanadu Gallery

The cry a peacock makes is eerily beautiful when heard in the distance, but when a wandering neighbor's bird hops up on your deck rail and announces his presence just as you're fixing your first cup of coffee in the morning... well, that's another story! Thank goodness some of his buddies answered and he found his way home.

No cigar!

Very busy last week but 'no cigar"! I actually spent 26 hours of pure painting in front of the easel. I have three incomplete paintings to show (or not show) for it. Also, I couldn't resist going back into the cowboy painting and noodling around on a few details that needed refinement... and fix where I had to wipe off the white paint my 3-yr-old grandchild added to wet paint! After putting the Indian painting away for several days, I saw some changes I want to make before I post it finished. Two more scenes based on reference photos I took at the community ballfield are coming along nicely. All are in oil, which is why I have 3 going at the same time. I don't have that aggravating wait time in acrylics, but oils are so much easier to leave and come back to... and since I never know when I'll be interrupted at the gallery, this is a good thing! Hopefully this week I'll be able to post the finished products and start some new ones.

The three workmen paintings together

"Floating"

"Tethered"

"Stepping Up"

I know that I have posted these separately as they were coming off the easel, but I thought it would be a good idea to post them together like I intended for them to show. Otherwise you would have to scroll and hunt for them.

Each is 20"x20" acrylic on gallery wrap canvas and are selling as a group of three for $3000 unframed. Email me if interested, please, or contact

Xanadu Gallery.

Floating

"Floating"
20" x 20" acrylic on visual edge canvas

This is the second in the series of three workmen paintings from the huge school construction site that my husband monitors for the architect. Here the workmen are hand floating concrete. The wet slab has already been machined with a circular troweling machine. They only have a short 'window of opportunity' with concrete, as it begins curing soon after water is added at the batch plant inside the truck. Time and temperature all play a part.

Muff

"Muff" SOLD
8"x10" acrylic on panel