Sunday, August 29, 2010

Painting Peaches

The peaches this season have been especially large and delicious which brings me back to painting peaches, my favorite subject, next to dogs.

I decided Sunday is my day to paint what I want for fun - everyday I paint commissions or something for a competition or whatever, which I enjoy very much, but sometimes I just want to be free and paint for fun, no pressure, just expression. This is my Sunday painting, which isn't done yet. 

Maybe I'll finish it Monday. 
:)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Emma

10" x 10"
oil on wood panel

Thursday, August 26, 2010

One More Cup...

Hello everybody, I found out this morning that my painting "First Day of Summer", which I will now rename back to "Leap of Faith" did not get into the Oil Painters of America's show. I'm trying to figure out how to "get around" the disappointment. I had high hopes with this painting and really worked hard on it. I will try again next year and of course, forge ahead!

Maybe next year I'll do something a little more traditional.



Here is a watercolor I did in Florida.
"One More Cup of Coffee"
 11" x 13"

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Joe or Emma & Abby

Joe or Emma (working on two cats and not sure which one this is because I lost all my emails from the past month due to an Entourage crash)
10" x 10"
oil on wood

Abby
12" x 12"
oil on wood

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Watercolors

The Juggler
13" x 15"
watercolor on paper

When it All Falls Apart
9" x 13"
watercolor on paper

One More Cup
13" x 11"
watercolor on paper

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Charlie

Sorry to say, a dog I did a portrait of last year, passed away yesterday, peacefully.
Charlie, you will be missed!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Blue Bottle

16" x 19
Oil on canvas

I had this canvas laying around and wanted to do something quick and expressive. May add more later, but I kind of like it.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Springer Spaniel in Progress

8" x 8" 
oil on wood

The humidity in Florida has been relentless - I saw rain three times today. I guess it's great for mosquitoes which is awesome for frogs and dragonflies, which there seem to be mass quantities of all. I can't open the backdoor without a tree frog jumping on me, which makes me jump no matter how many times it happens!

On the other hand, it is not good for paintings in oil. They take forever to dry to paint new layers. Normally it takes about a day in NC, here it take four days and it's still not completely dry. 

I'm not complaining, though. It's been a great retreat and I'm getting a lot done.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

On the Easel

Here are some of the paintings that I am working on at the moment. There are more, some are in final stages, some are too awful at this point to post.... wouldn't want to embarrass myself. :)

I just got one more commission today and two more yesterday - things are really starting to crank!






Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Peach in Napkin

8" x 8"
oil on canvas

This painting was inspired by  Michael Naples - I love his work.
You can see some here:

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Lots of Stuff!

Wow! So much has been going on. 

First, here is a new painting that I finished for the Artwalk in Florida. This is based on a past commission and a hat by Jan Wutkowski who owns AMUSE Artisinal Finery hat shop. Her creations are gorgeous and she is a REAL hat maker. 

I started the painting when I did the Dog Days Downtown in Wilmington and was painting in front of her shop. I just recently decided to pick it up again to finish for the show. I hope to do a whole series of these with different dogs and have a show at the end of the year or beginning of next year. 

12"x 16"
oil on wood

The Artwalk Downtown was fantastic! I could not believe how many people attended.  Someone told me an estimated 10,000 people attend the Artwalk in Jacksonville! Which is such an improvement since I lived there - Downtown Vision has done an amazing job!
I sold some books and met a lot of interesting people and even saw a friend from Wilmington!

Lastly, I have an article in Encore Magazine - here is the link:
http://www.encorepub.com/articles.php?i=read&article_id=1267&section_id=3

Chumley at Artwalk living like a rock star!
Earlier he spend his day at the spa getting poofed up, trimmed up and fixed up at Pretty Paws Doggie Salon. Later he said to me "never do that again!".