Stay Well - for those who love you...

Just a note to say why there's no new paintings the last few days..or the next few. Last Thursday evening we got word that my mother-in-law was admitted to the hospital through the ER and would need an emergency bypass the following day. So we left CT Friday morning to begin the two day drive down to Atlanta. She came through a triple bypass 'okay', and was just moved out of the cardiac ICU today. She'll be in the hospital four more days, most likely. Hopefully she'll continue to recuperate...I'm learning what a long process this will be.

So it looks like we'll be here for the week. Lots of decisions to be made, some work to be done, and even some exasperating times here & there. But just a reminder out there for those who are trying to 'ignore' obvious signs of a problem, see a doctor- for your own sake as well as those who love you.

I do get some limited wireless time while I'm visiting down here, so I thought I'd let you know what's going on here....check back in a few days to a week for more updates and hopefully a new painting!

Marshes of Barn Island

12"x16" oil on canvas mounted on archival panel

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow."
- Helen Keller

I find that the best way for me to cope with a cold dreary winter is to paint the places that I love to be in summer. I've been doing some color studies and this painting was an effort to really express the feeling of the sun warming the land that the tidal inlet runs through. Oh if I could just feel some of that heat right now! So I paint it...and get lost in it....for the moments that I am painting. I wonder if those "speed-walkers" that I might hike with, get annoyed at me stopping to stare at a view, or take pictures if I've brought my camera, or going to the same place over & over again until I can store that "memory of place" in my brain. I am so looking forward to better weather to get outdoors, to paint, to hike, (or to stroll as my daughters say I do). With each minute of longer days & the closer we get to spring, the anticipation is growing!

Marshes of Barn Island

About This Painting:
Barn Island Wildlife Management Area is the state of CT's largest coastal property managed for wildlife conservation. I find it so beautiful out there- and it already has me thinking about summer!!

Media: oil on canvas mounted on archival panel
Size: 16 in X 12 in (40.6 cm X 30.5 cm)

How to Purchase:
send me an email

Sail Away

8"x16" oil on canvas mounted on archival panel


"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
- Marcel Proust

If wishes were horses? no, if wishes were boats, I'd be sailing back into summer. Just a bit of escapism, thinking of late summer, watching this gorgeous sailboat on the CT River past Old Saybrook. I'm not a sailor, don't own a boat, not even a canoe....but I do like to watch them. There is this incredibly beautiful sailboat that looks like one of those old wooden ones. It is so glossy, well cared for, and I know that it is the same one I've seen several times. It just makes me think of summer!

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Price: $256 USD plus $15 USD s/h
Or, send me an email

Kerry Cow With Doulus Head & Dingle Peninsula Beyond, Ireland series

8"x10" oil on Belgian linen mounted on panel (Raymar)

"There is nothing so good as the wind and the sun for driving the foolishness out of one."
- Roycroft Epigrams

On my last trip to Ireland, this past summer, I hiked up to Bray Head on Valentia Island. From this point I turned back to look behind me, with the cows grazing all around me. You can see so far, all the way to Doulus Head and even the Dingle Peninsula rising up far beyond on the other side of the bay! On a sunny day you can get quite the sunburn in a short time. I had seen others get fried on previous trips, so I learned early on to wear sunblock every day! Even if I wore a long sleeved cotton shirt while painting, I'd come home with the brownest hands- a farmer tan or a painter's tan?

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Price: $150 USD plus $12 USD s/h
Or, send me an email

Welcoming Window in Waterville, Ireland

6"x6" oil on gessoed masonite artboard

"Joy is a flower that blooms when you do."
- author unknown

Even on a rainy day, a tiny stone cottage can be 'brought to life' with simple nasturtiums and geraniums! Another one of my favorite views while over in Ireland. I really loved the simplicity of the lace panels in the window, the pretty iron gate to the tiny yard, and the colorful blossoms against the very old stonework of the cottage.

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Price: $100 USD plus $10 USD s/h
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Passing Storm, Long Island Sound pleinair - sold

6"x8" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."
- Charlie Brown


I am participating in a group of artist bloggers called "The Artist Challenge" by invitation. The current theme is "Unrequited Love".....which I thought might be tough for a landscape artist to fit in to this one. However.....
if you happen to be one person from Florida...living in a cold place like Connecticut....well the feeling is much the same. It is so easy to "fall in love" with the place over spring, by summer you're head over heels. Fall is quite beautiful, comfortable, and just oh, so nice. Winter starts and at first it's interesting, sort of pretty, a big change, sort of exciting. But then it gets to be very 'wearing'. It starts to grind you down, sometimes being outright abusive. I can't take it anymore. There, it's given me the 'cold shoulder'. Should I have left when I had the chance? My daughters and I speak of it as having a "case of the Februaries". It's the shortest month, but feels oh so long up here. Ugh, what misery. March isn't a whole lot better. Then that hopefulness starts, magazines show loads of spring flowers. The wind starts to whisper to you, "I'll be back with flowers, I promise". You know if you fall for it again, you'll just be paid back with winter all over again.

I painted this from the comfort of my van while over at Harkness Park, just outside of New London, CT. The gale force winds (well, they were rather strong gusts) were buffeting the van, but I had a great view of the Sound & the stormy clouds rolling by. The sea was covered with whitecaps, it was pretty rough out there. The water was an angry green-grey in color. Typical late winter....sort of exciting to watch, and luckily it was warm enough to tolerate the wind (perhaps in the low 40s?). It did feel good to get out of the house to paint, even if I was couped up in a van!

Last of the Calla Lillies, Inishmor, Ireland

8"x 10" oil on Belgian linen mounted on professional arboard (Raymar)

"One may have good eyes and yet see nothing."
- Italian Proverb

On much of the southwestern part of Ireland, tropical plants usually grow quite well- including these calla lillies I saw in a lovely, tiny garden during our visit to the island of Inishmor. They are some of my favorite flowers, we grew them when we lived in San Diego. They grow beautifully on most parts of Valentia Island, too, where my friend lives. She got an email the other day while back here in the states, from her neighbor on Valentia.....there in the photos he sent along was SNOW! Oh no, snow! It 'never' snows there, they get lots of wind, fierce winter wind that will take out some plants if not protected by a wall on the north side. But this winter, I'm afraid these tropicals will be too tender to handle this kind of cold for this long. What to do when 'old man winter' takes your favorite plants? Paint them, over and over, so as to keep them for ever, the invincible gardener has paintings as proof of her beautiful plants!

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $150 USD plus $12 USD s/h
Or, send me an email

Love Notes - sold

12"x16" oil on canvas mounted on professional artboard (Raymar)

"You don't marry someone you can live with. You marry the person who you cannot live without."
- author unknown

At Daily Painters today we are painting and posting our Valentines Day theme today! Notes come in so many forms- the hand-written, a musical note, color notes, a thought,....flowers are another form of expression, and convey so much, a sharing of natural beauty. Happy Valentines in the form of a floral love note! Click on the image to see the palette knife work up close!

Contact me regarding availability of this painting or to commission a favorite view of your own! roxannesteed@gmail.com

Sailing Around The Giant's Head; Valentia Island, Ireland series- oil sketch- sold

6"x8" oil on canvas mounted on archival artboard (Utrecht)

"Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them."
- Anne-Sophie Swetchine

There is a sleeping green giant at the end of this island that can only be seen from a few spots. There he lies all the day long, by the sea, arms folded on his chest. The land here has such a sculptural quality, and as the weather changes from clouds & sun, the features of the sculptured places change. I am always amazed at every turn here. In this view, you can see his head as the boat in the distance passes by the channel & out to sea.