Roses and Phlox - Tender Mercies

20"x16" oil on 1" deep gallery wrapped stretched canvas

For more information, or to purchase, click here. 

This one was finished sometime in April, though I haven't spent much time blogging. I've been working on a rather large commission (and traveling here  and there, too)! These were florist flowers, which I had bought because nothing was blooming in our yard at the time! Now things are busting out all over, weather is finally looking great, but I am working hard to finish a rather large landscape/gardenscene in my studio, that I'm rather excited about!! I'll be talking more about that in the next upcoming posts! Hope your Spring has been a beautiful one, and you have plans for some great summer fun coming up! 

Peonies Bouquet

6"x6" oil on gessoed masonite artboard

For more information or to purchase, click here. 

As Spring shows itself a bit more, I'm so excited for the 'full-fledged' reality of it, I've been going through old photo files finding things to paint. Trying to remember what blooms when, my peonies aren't even showing nubs out of the ground yet! I'm amazed that all that energy stores up under ground each winter, just waiting to burst forth in fragrant, fluffy glory!! Bring it on Mother Nature, I'm ready for Spring to be here!!

Flowers and Fechin (sold)

8"x6" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

For more information or to purchase, click here.

By the time mid-winter sets in, I am snow weary.  I'm getting antsy to be outside, but either it's too cold, or as in yesterday's case, it was possibly warm enough, but there was no place for me to park in my usual painting spots without risk of getting my little car hung up on an ice berm. (and doing some permanent damage!).  By the time I got to the 4th place of looking yesterday, I did find a place to park in a safe place, where I could actually walk out to a safe place to paint, without falling into a deep drift of snow....I was tired, hungry, and seeking 'facilities'. Yes, I shot the whole morning looking for a 'place' outside to paint. By the time I got home, my husband had delivered flowers for Valentine's day! - Yay!!! Some wonderful painting material and beautiful colors to cheer up a dreary winter case of 'ice-blues'.  

Painting ...and learning to paint, is all cumulative. You spend years learning, experimenting, combining some techinques, eliminating others.  All of it eventually comes into play at any given time to make up you 'the artist'.  I have been toying with combining several different techniques that I have employed over the years, using both brush and knife, laying some thick & thin areas with transparent oils in the darkest areas, topped with ever lighter layers.  Thanks to my hubby for the wonderful flowers. I usually never stack things on my art books in my studio, but I had placed this bouquet on top of my Nicolai Fechin book (that was on top of the large Edgar Payne book).  So of course I decided to paint them this way as well!  I hope these flowers last, I think I might spend the next several days painting more bouquets!

Hydrangea Heaven ACEO Floral Oil Original

3.5"x2.5" oil on fine canvas board

 

Bidding starts at just $1

If you've followed my work for a long time, you know I'm a garden painter. From early spring to late fall I'm out there (with my hubby, the main garden guru) planting for painting! Every surface in my garden is a topic that I've painted.   Hydrangeas are such wonderful blossoms - and when they are in bloom, who could not feel they were in heaven?

For those of you not familiar with the acronym ACEO, it stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals.  The miniature paintings are the size of a baseball trading card, 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  This category of art has become increasingly popular on eBay the last couple of years.  These can be displayed on their own, or with a tiny little easel (like the kind you can find in Michaels Arts & Crafts type stores) on a display shelf, or these beautiful gems can be elegantly matted and framed with perhaps a mat of 4 inches wide.  ACEOs also make wonderful gifts!  

Zinnias & Daisy Riot Floral ACEO Oil Painting

3.5"x2.5" oil on fine canvas board

Bidding starts at just $1

 If you have followed my work for a long time, you know I'm a garden painter. From early spring to late fall I'm out there (with my hubby, the main garden guru) planting for painting! Every surface in my garden is a topic that I've painted. To check out what I'm up to, visit my web-site and blog!!! We had a great gardening year - which made it very inspiring for painting.The zinnias were outstanding this year, and the daisies just outdid themselves. These were among the last batches that I cut before our first big frost! And yes, I am indeed enjoying painting these small ACEOs... between painting breaks on a large one that I'm working on. 

  

For those of you not familiar with the acronym ACEO, it stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals.  The miniature paintings are the size of a baseball trading card, 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  This category of art has become increasingly popular on eBay the last couple of years.  These can be displayed on their own, or with a tiny little easel (like the kind you can find in Michaels Arts & Crafts type stores) on a display shelf, or these beautiful gems can be elegantly matted and framed with perhaps a mat of 4 inches wide.  ACEOs also make wonderful gifts!

Autumn Bouquet, Trying a new triad of paints

6"x6" oil on gallery wrapped stretched linen

$150 includes shipping/insurance

Buy It Now

or, contact me here for more information

In between painting ventures over to Barn Island, and working in the studio on a bigger piece, it's fun to take time for these little ones set up in the studio- mainly an exercise in shape and color. Trying out a new (to me) triad of color, Prussian Blue, Indian Yellow, & Perylene Red, all by Gamblin. Oh yeah, add a bit of Titanium white - you can get an incredible range of color from these 4 tubes! The triad is transparent, but you can get opaqueness from the white.

 Colors of Autumn 

all in one bouquet,

Mimicking the foliage

 of the surrounding trees. 
 

Zinnia Party

6"x6" oil on archival panel, $150

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or, contact me here.

This week I've been working on a larger painting of our zinnia garden. It really bloomed to abundance this year! Today I had to wait for the sun to come back out before continuing on it, so...I just cut a bouquet to bring inside and paint!  

Rush Of Spring

8"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

"The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring." -Bern Williams

I'm always so happy to get outside to paint on a sunny day in Spring, even if there's still a bit of chill in the air. We have a wonderful stand of daffodils that I gathered these from, creamy white with showy yellow centers! They should be named HOPE, as they mark the end of winter for me here in Connecticut. Pushing things a bit toward the expressionistic on this one, trying to incorporate that feel of excitement when the air is a bit warmer and sunnier than the day before, yet there's still a bite of cold in the breeze. Things are warming up!

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Life Savor!

6"x6" oil on gallery wrapped linen

It feels so good to be back in the studio again, with lots to do to start off the new year. Fresh flowers in the house during the holidays made me realize how much I've missed these. During summer, I always have fresh flowers cut from our garden. For now, the grocery store variety will do just fine...they do brighten your outlook on a cold day.

Savor life....is what I've been spending the last two weeks doing. The week before Christmas, I spent some time with my brother who was hospitalized for a long term illness. The week between Christmas and New Years, our daughters came up to visit from Virginia. It was so much fun to reconnect with family friends over the holiday! Our loved ones (family AND friends) are the best gifts of the holidays or any time!

Lots of things I'm excited to be working on: a new commission, more 'little faces', small still-life, and some larger landscapes.

For the folks that have been following me for a few years, you may remember that I had quite a series of paintings of Ireland. I am in the process of making some of these available as prints! More news on this later in the week!

Happy New Year 2012 - and remember to take a deep breath, ....and savor life!

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Price: $150 USD plus $10 USD s/h

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Strawberry Splash

8"x8" oil on gessoed masonite archival panel

"An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable invented to make them laugh."

- Will Rogers

Tuesday I stayed in the studio making good use of this batch of flowers, as well as catch up on laundry, and clean up before I head down to Norfolk, VA this week. It's been a while since I pulled my dragon-fly teapot down to use with some flowers. It makes such a nice contrast against the pink cloth. I also enjoy getting the lighting such as to leave part of the daisies in shadow, it makes such interesting effects. I haven't opened the little jar of strawberries, in fact I can't ever remember buying canned/jarred strawberries before- but they looked interesting enough to paint! To purchase online, please visit my DailyPainters.com gallery.


*****Just a reminder for my Hampton Roads friends; this week I'm headed to Norfolk! Saturday, April 30th I'll be demo-ing palette knife techniques and speaking about "Finding Your Artistic Voice" at London Square Gallery from noon to 2pm. I'd love for you to join us!

Sundance To Spring

12"x12" oil on archival board

"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what is is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" - Mark Twain

This quote made me laugh. Is it the wishing for Spring that makes me so restless? I've been on a de-cluttering kick the last several days. I wonder if that is just part of wanting the 'newness' of Spring to be here, or if it's just good to "clear the house - clear the head" kind of thing. Which I think works, as I finished the painting I started the day before!

"Sundance To Spring" is a 12"x12" oil on archival board. Contact me at this link for more information about this painting, or to purchase.

Looks like March is going to come in "like a lion". They're calling for wind gusts of 50mph, with rain and there's likely to be lots of snow melt-off. Crossing my fingers that there's no flooding around here!

Welcome to my latest new subscribers! I do hope you enjoy the paintings, photos & stories! I always love hearing comments from my readers!!

Citrus Flowers (Commission) - sold

10"x10" oil on stretched Belgian linen

"The question is not....what is life? The question is...what is your experience of living?"
- Bob Burridge

After returning from my San Diego journey, I was home long enough to do some laundry, frame some finished paintings going into the Norfolk "Ballet Virginia International" show, ready my plein air supplies for "Out & About Norfolk" (the plein air portion of the two event show), AND...finish a commission that I had the sketches already prepared for. One of my repeat collectors requested a painting of a favorite bouquet- it had orange roses, red-orangey gerber daisies, and yellow Peruvian lilies (alstroemeria) in a big green glass vase. Lemons & limes in a bowl and a favorite 'kitty' mug (we both have been 'owned' by a big orange cat!) brought all these citrus colors together. It made me think of Florida (where I'm from, and) where she lives! Thanks for the honor Kathy! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I'm thinking that once the weather gets too cold to be out painting, I'll be bringing home some bright colored flowers to paint in my studio! They are so cheery when the skies go gray and cold. My neighbor says there's rumors of snow flurries this Saturday?!?! ACKKK- I'm not quite ready for this kind of cold yet! Guess I'd better be thinking about what kind of flowers I'd like to paint!