Spring Mix

I’d love to get some mastery over this new I pad of mine, but I’m impatient and want instant success. I need to remind myself that in all things there is a learning curve and I just need to relax and not be so hard on myself.
All the artists I know are self critical and I want to look at the positive aspect of that. Without striving to be better, to want the next level of understanding color, or even to see on a deeper level- without these things I am satisfied with “good enough”.
It’s not the same as being a perfectionist, but it will surely lead to artistic growth if I push myself out of my comfort zone.

5x7 on panel

My inspiration

Painted while gallery sitting at Spring Bull Gallery

Margaret's Iris

While they were still blooming, I painted a few iris in my neighbors garden. They welcomed me to sit and become totally absorbed in my work. The big challenge is to distinguish flower bloom from background, so I played around with finding the right value contrast between the edges of the flower and the background. 

One & The Same Saguaro

Painted this on a 5x7 toned grey panel which appears very blue with the oranges/reds of my under painting. The next day I established a truer color picture- can't help but love the red saguaro!

Las Cruces, NM

We are visiting Las Cruces, NM and I was so happy to meet with fellow blogger, inspired artist and perfectly lovely Julie Ford Oliver! As we are traveling this winter in our RV, and headed to Arizona, I wanted to reach out to Julie and see if we could meet. 

She was completely welcoming with a wonderful studio tour, visit to one of her galleries M Phillip's Fine Art Gallery and we met up again for lunch at one of her favorite spots in Las Cruces to talk about art, goal setting and so much we have in common.  Julie has a love for all things avian and since this bird was nesting in the tree right outside my window, I know I had to paint her.

In gratitude for your generosity and the time we spent discussing ART, thank you Julie! 

Battery Park

The humidity broke on Friday giving me the inspiration to start a plein air series for Wet Paint, the annual fundraiser for the Newport Art Museum. I wanted to be in the shade so I headed to Battery Park on Washington Street overlooking the harbor and the Pell Bridge. It was blissfully quiet and I soaked in gratitude and appreciation for the abundance before my eyes.This little painting is oil on gessoboard 5x7.

Green Egg

This is my submission to the color challenge from The Daily Paintworks. I thought it would be easy. Hah.1st attempt was a wipe off, hadn't even got the drawing right! 2 days later, back in the studio, and it started to come together for me. It's a split complementary color scheme, which is, by definition, takes one color from the color wheel (my color was purple) and then uses one color on either side of its' complement. (which would be yellow) with orange on one side and green on the other side. I used the basic color wheel, but  it still sounds more complicated than it actually was! I have the blue and purple eggs to paint next! Ha Ha.

Abe Works

Here's my submission to The Daily Paintworks Challenge. This came from Raymond Logan and was meant to be done using A) ultramarine,burnt umber,and titanium, B) full color, C) do both and post together,or  D)Do your own thing. I kept it simple and chose A but then got utterly and sadly, bogged down. Ready to start scraping at it today, I said what the heck and submitted as is. I will use the challenge to paint some more portraits and see where it goes, rather than labor painfully over fixing this one. Always a lesson to learn from honest Abe! Thanks Raymond and DPW.

Cutting Board

Natural light coming in from a smallish kitchen window that faces west. The days are getting longer but spring feels far away, we've had so much snow. Keep saying I want to paint it, but haven't yet. Thinking of trying to paint from my car. Anyone have any experience with that?

Pear 3

Same pear seen from another vantage point. Hmmm,do I continue with the pear or move on to something else? No pears at home and it's so cold I don't want to leave the warm house.Really cold spell here in the Northeast. Am I changing the subject? Yep, how do those daily painters do it?