Zinnias in the Flower and Garden Show

12"x12"x1" deep oil on cradled archival panel

  This time of year, the zinnias are the showiest things in our garden.  I love the oranges, reds, and bright pinks all vying for the most brilliant of the bunch. I'm trying to paint them as often as I can before the frost takes the last of them. 

I'm also hosting my own online "Flower and Garden Show" with an auction, which is a wonderful opportunity to select some very nice gifts before the 'holiday crush' begins in the local shopping centers. I hope you'll take a visit, and share this with friends who may enjoy this as well! Some of these are fresh off the easel (the zinnias above), and some are ones that were tucked away "in the vault" and still need to find 'their forever homes'. They are sold unframed, but I offer framing - contact me for available choices and prices. Or you may have a favored local framer. Or, some may be displayed unframed.  Your choice.

Click on the image to go to the auction page for that painting:

 

Mid-Summer Festival in Old Lyme-Saturday-July 30th

I hope you can make it!! For those of you living in traveling distance, take exit 70 off of I-95 in CT. Go to historic Lyme Street in Old Lyme. There's lots of events happening in several places here. I'll be outdoors under the BIG tent at Lyme Academy College of Fine Art with the other alums with many of my recent paintings; florals, landscapes, small, medium and LARGE.  

And, if you haven't seen my solo show "Touching Water" at the Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, now is a great time to visit! The weather is supposed to be fabulous, so come on out!  

For the full schedule of events, go to:

OldLymeMidsummerFestival.com

Please do come by and say "Hi"! I look forward to meeting you! 

Blossom Connoisseurs, Commissions, and painting during winter

5"x7" oil on archival panel

For more information or to purchase, click here. 

As you continue to send out love, the energy returns to you in a regenerating spiral... As love accumulates, it keeps your system in balance and harmony. Love is the tool, and more love is the end product. 

- Sara Paddison, "Hidden Power of the Heart"

One of the things I love to do is complete commissions for others! There is nothing like collaborating on a project to help someone satisfy their vision - whether it is a commemoration of a special event, an anniversary, a birthday, a new home. 

These kitties are a small study for a larger painting that was commissioned as a birthday gift for her dear friend. I kept it under wraps for a long time...so as not to "blow the surprise".  It makes me so happy to be a part of this...especially to watch the giver and receiver, and the joy they experience.  The larger piece (in a square format), is now hanging in her home! 

 This winter I've been painting orchids in my studio while the snow continued to pile up outside. I did take a couple trips down to Florida to visit my mom, once for a beach trip, then to stay with her during cataract surgery. 

While my 2 orchid plants are blooming, I'm getting a lot of mileage out of them! And in the middle of these, I've begun the process for another commissioned piece that I'm VERY excited about! 

 

Weighty Matters- SOLD!

16"x20" oil on canvas mounted on archival panel

Oh, the flowers of summer are but a memory at this point in the year. Here in New England, the leaves have been swirling - letting go from the trees and dancing their last hurrah! This morning I opened the window blinds and thought I saw big fat snow flurries, much to my relief it was actually those twirly little seed-pod-leaflet thingies off of the maple trees. Thank goodness. 

I've got lots to share with you, so I'm putting it all in a newsletter tonight. I've been finishing up a humongous commission. If you missed seeing my post on Facebook, here's a preview of how big this one is. I'm laying in the underpainting here.

Hope your Fall has been colorful, and a great delight!

 

Round The Bend In Dingle Town

6"x6" oil on gessoed Masonite board

For more information, or to purchase, click here!

So here's an experiment.... This evening I'm blogging on my iPad, just to make sure I can figure this out without too much frustration. So in between laying out clothes and paint gear today, I had to sit down and at least paint something small.  So this little scene is from one of my previous trips over. I had been looking through old photos of travels to Ireland and decided I may as well get a quick bit of painting time in, too.

For the sake of sharing some quick news and carrying less heavy stuff, this may do the trick. But I have a feeling I'm going to miss having my laptop. What I won't miss is the shoulder strain from carrying too much.

To make this work, I got a card reader from the Apple store, so I could download photos into my iPad. Now these gizmos only hold so much data, so it won't be something I do all the time, but for travel, I hope to make it work. Once you get your photos downloaded into your ipad, you can alter your photos a bit by cropping, etc.  In order to load your photos from the photo file on your ipad, you need to have downloaded the 'Blogger' app. That will allow you to access your photo file.  

Well, it's a good deal later, and I'm back to edit this on my laptop. Center the text, re-size the photo so that it's not over-run by text from the side-bar, as well as add a link. Whew, that feels better!