"Garden Store Dog"

"Garden Store Dog"
14X11
Oil on Linen Panel
Available


It was an adorable scene that day. My daughter and I were at Pike Nursery in Charlotte, picking out plants for her yard, when a lady was pushing her cart with this great little Cairn Terrier in the basket. After asking about him, we found out his name is Frasier. He smiled nearly the whole time we talked ...I wonder if he knew we were saying the nicest things about him. I took several pictures of him and then a bit later, as I looked across the aisle in the store I saw this one and snapped another picture. I think this one is my favorite.

You never know where inspiration will find you....I thought I was going to be taking pictures of flowers...instead I came home with pictures of this happy little fellow!!

"Garden Store Dog" In Progress

This one is later this afternoon..
The bottom pic is from this morning.



"Garden Store Dog" In Progress
14X11
Oil on Linen Panel

As I am wading my way through the leaves and details, I am asking myself if I should have cropped this further and just painted our little fellow in the cart. But the idea might have been lost in that case, since I really wanted a sense of place. Atmosphere means something to me, giving a subject a place to be in this case especially, getting the feeling of a good and patient dog sitting in a place unlikely for a dog, yet good as gold just waiting for his owner to finish shopping. So while I would have found it easier to paint less of the scene, to me, the scene contributes so much to the feeling of this one.

From here out, I am going to be working on the bottom third and working the whole painting in a way that, hopefully, won't lose the dog in the landscape. All paintings are about values...but this one is killing me with values...how much dark, how much light, how many shades of green .....oh my gosh. Very challenging.

Daily Painting, "Vespa 4"

"Vespa 4"
10X8
Oil on Linen Panel
Available (As a collection...Unframed @ 150.00 each)

Right about now I am thinking Sausalito. What do you think?? Venice Beach? La Jolla? Monterey? East Coast....Boca? Where ever you are you can put your mind on this Vespa and tour someplace wonderful......You name the place!!!

Now I've finished my short Vespa fetish for the time being. The collection includes Yellow, Blue, Green, and Red! My daughter liked the green one best....I think because of the white wall tires. And now that I think of it, she had a little scooter when she was a small tyke that was green with white wall tires. Maybe that's why. Anyway, they are all 8X10's and make a really fun collection for the Vespa lover .....or for anyone with Vespa dreams!! It has been a lot of fun doing these and I hope whoever decides to buy them has as much fun looking at them as I did thinking about them while painting!!! They will look good hanging together, or in pairs, or individually.

Above are the four for you to see! Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge the view!

Daily Painting, "Vespa 3"

"Vespa 3"
8X10
Oil on Linen Panel
Available

Green means "Go!" Ah, dear petrol loving friends, how doth your vehicle go? It goes on roads using oil and humming along, getting us gratefully where we need to go. Somehow I don't remember people resenting this in earlier years of my lifetime. In fact, we were proud of our car manufacturing industry and, as I previously mentioned, my Dad the tire dealer made a good living selling those wonderful round rubber things that meet the road!!!

I love to drive and, I suppose this will not make me popular, but I love the smell of gasoline. I love energy. I love mobility. My carbon footprint is not that large, people. I don't owe anybody any carbon credits. I don't own a hummer and I don't fly places even once a year, though I would if I had the opportunity. I am good for the earth and I only use what I need, so don't go crashing on me for telling you this, but oil is good for engines. (I never did buy into those stupid plastic bags at the grocery store because I happen to know they are made from oil and that trees are a renewable resource, plus I reuse the paper bags and they bio-degrade. You can count me on the cutting edge...ahead of the curve on that one!)

So here is some food for thought today for my thoughtful friends who can read and write and know the difference between corn oil and sweet crude: Washington, May 9 - Gas prices have soared from a $2.33 per gallon average on January 4, 2007 – Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) first day as House Speaker – to a record high of $3.67 per gallon today, according to AAA. This recent gasoline thing is NOT "Bush's fault!" The price of a gallon of gas went up only .90 from the day he took office in 2000 until the Democrats took charge of congress in 2006, a year and a half ago.

We'll all be driving Vespas if this keeps up. I recommend drilling in Anwar and building a few refineries, using nuclear power and "clean" burning modern coal plants. And for God's sake, let me have my incandescent lightbulbs!!! I am not causing the world to fall apart because I use ENERGY!!!!

One more Vespa to do....what color next? I'm thinking red, the color of passion!!!

Daily Painting, "Peony Buds"

"Peony Buds"
7.5X11
Oil on Gessoed Masonite Panel
Available


In my previous post I was waxing rhapsodic about my peonies and saying how much I love them like babies.....when, as I finished this painting this morning, it dawned on me how symbolic it is that I picked this composition for Mother's Day! I have two children, both of whom I adore and cherish tons!! One older. One younger. As I finished this today, my eyes saw two burgeoning buds...just like my own children. So Happy Mother's Day today to all of you...and Happy Mother's Day to me!! Nurture nature!! It's a good thing!!

Daily Painting, "Vespa 2"

"Vespa 2"
10X8
Oil on Linen Panel

Click picture to enlarge the view.


One yellow and one blue. The question is which is next, black or red? Still deciding. If I can maintain my focus on this I plan to have four total to make a group for the wall of some hopefully Vespa crazy customer who lives to zoom around the urban jungle. (or anyone else who just loves to dream of wheels) I have frames in mind that are perfect for this collection, but will purchase them when I have all four finished.

The focus problem is that the outdoors is absolute heaven here lately and I am going to head out there for some garden chores. The peonies are just opening up, honeysuckle is blooming already, and my hydrangeas are full of budded promise!! It's intoxicating just to have the windows and doors open! I do want to paint peonies, too, and the window of opportunity is NOW. So that means the other two Vespas may have to wait a bit.
Stay tuned!! :-)

Daily Painting, "Vespa 1"

"Vespa 1"
8X10
Oil on Linen Panel
Available

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Grab it and GO!!!! Would that I could!!! Run away.....today! But instead I am going to a landscape workshop tomorrow and then I will be working on the next Vespa..first of next week!!!

Daily Painting, "Irises"

"Irises"
12X9
Oil on Raymar Panel
SOLD

Click on picture for a larger view.

This was the first Iris to burst forth in my garden this week..and as you can see, there are more coming! Happy Spring!
I was thinking about how formal Irises are and wondering why I think so. While painting this one I realized the reason. They have padded shoulders with epaulets, all dressed up for a military parade!! They seem so elegant, don't they?

This was a very complicated composition. There are many areas of different textures and a thousand shades of green. The flower itself is full of nuances and challenges of light filtering through with soft lines and areas that are graduated from purple to pink to white. Then there was the boxwood background with the saber-like spears of the Iris leaves in front. Tricky.

Confessions of a Color Obsessed Artist

"Blue Saucer with Apple"
5X7Oil on Masonite
Available

I have a confession to make. I have been obsessed with a color again. It's an elusive color, or maybe I should say it's a variation of a color with nuances, subtle yet so enticing it has had me looking for it everywhere. I first saw it at a designer showhouse about four years ago. A decorator had painted a bedroom in this color and then hinted at it in other areas of the room with linens. I almost swooned. Then I saw it a couple of years later in a painting by Julian Merrow Smith. It was a tea cup tucked into the upper corner of the painting. He also used the saucer in a couple of other paintings and, again, I found myself coveting that color. It was the perfect compliment to it's opposite. So the search has been on. I've looked everywhere for just that cup and saucer, or something more or less like it....a pottery bowl, a ceramic anything, fabric, anything, everywhere. Couldn't find it ....and then a couple of weeks ago I was shopping at one of my favorite antique venues and, out of the "blue," there it was. The very cup and saucer I had been seeking. And blue it is. But it isn't. It's between the sea and the sky, between aqua and heaven somewhere. I've always loved blue. I have collections of blue and white china pieces that I have gathered over the years. But those are the deeper indigo / ultra-marine blue. In printing this is called "reflex blue." Simple, like ink. But the coveted blue I sought and found is somewhere else. It's Caribbean blue maybe, like the water you see in those commercials for cruise lines, the blue that makes you swoon and crave a trip to the ocean in some tropical paradise.

So now you know the secret life of a color coveter. I'm relieved I found it...now I can paint it when ever I want to!! Maybe I just need a trip to the Caribbean!! :-)

Daily Painting, "Gerber Daisies"

"Gerber Daisies"
10X8
Oil on Canvas Panel
Available








First attempt at a plein air painting....which usually would not be a still life, but this was a demonstration at an outdoor event. Kind of a long story...but mostly this was due to arm twisting by one of my art guild friends named Scott Boyle. He is a veteran plein air painter and he came to the event all geared up for two people to paint. He had the two pochades, the paints, brushes, canvas, turps, the pot of flowers,all of it. I have never painted outdoors before, but I admire Scott quite a bit, so when he asked me to pitch in I felt privileged to paint along side of him. It was fun for me to give this a try, not my usual controlled environment and painstaking detailed effort. More like painting on the fly.
Well, here is what I ended up with and I hope you will like it! Thank you, Scott!!


Scott working on his version of the Gerber Daisies.

Daily Painting, "Speedo"

"Speedo"
14X11
Oil on Board
NSF

You can click on the pictures and get a larger view.

My son and family will be visiting soon. This is their cat, Speedo, and the photo reference for this painting was taken by my son. I wanted to get it done before they visit in order to give it to them. Speedo, according to my son, is a rascal. He has clawed the furniture and wakes them up at all the wee hours to go scavenging outdoors. To be fair to Speedo, he was a feral cat picked up by the pound and that is where my son found him. In other words, Speedo has a checkered past and learned to fend for himself at an early age.

I could have named this painting, "Halloween Cat," (Halloween in April?) due to the black and orange color palette. By the way, Speedo is all black. The light from the lamp shed a reddish gold color onto his fur and made such a statement in the photo. I am finished with this one....and on to the next.

Daily Painting, "All Ears"

"All Ears"
10X8
Oil on Canvas Panel

You may click on the picture to view a larger image.


I really had a lot of fun doing this one. Sometimes it just all comes together... and this one did. Usually that is the case when a painting has been lurking around in my mind for quite a while and then, when I get after it on canvas, it seems like all of my thoughts of it just come to life. I don't mean to be too mushy over a common backyard rabbit, but ....well....I just get so silly over any of our little critters who visit our yard.

Daily Painting, "All Ears" In Progress

"All Ears" In Progress
10X8
Oil on Canvas Panel

It must be spring!!! This little fellow is a backyard visitor I managed to capture with my camera. He gives our dog, Bosley, a merry chase every once in a while....gratefully he gets away. In this pose you can see how alert he is, ears up in all directions! How could I resist painting him?

Daily Painting, "Easter Egg Radishes"

"Easter Egg Radishes"
9X12
Oil on Linen Raymar Panel
Available

Please click on either picture for a larger view.


To re-cap, I bought these beautiful radishes from a very lovely young farmer's wife at the local Farmer's Market last year with every intention of painting them. (as opposed to eating them...artist's do that....buy food just for painting it, silly us!!) Well, as usual, life gets in the way of spontaneous explosions of painting, and I ended up setting them up in a still life so I could get to them even if they collapsed from age. Sure enough, it has taken me many months, but here they are!!! Worth the wait and fun to paint!!

The farmer's wife told me they were called "Easter Egg Radishes" for their size, shapes and colors. I had never heard of this before, but I do think they are gorgeous. I did throw in the smaller red one for bright contrast.

Detail of "Easter Egg Radishes"

Daily Painting, "Easter Egg Radishes" In Progress

"Easter Egg Radishes"
9X12
Oil On Raymar Panel
In Progress

Getting there...the little roots coming off of them all over the place have been a bit tricky to do. There is a bit more to be done on the plate on the left and nearest foreground, but then it will be finished. Next time!!!