finished

in process

my palette

I spent yesterday oil painting and so enjoyed it. It had been a long time. So glad to be painting again! I joined an online painting group to get me motivated.  Here is where I joined. 

 

one of my favorite paintings

I painted this a few years ago and it's one of my favorites. I may paint it again as I sold the original. It is small, 4x4 oil on panel. I took the picture in France in Nice at the flower market. It was a cloudy day and the sun was not out. I love the "French" box the garlic sits upon. I also love how each fruit has complementary colors in them. Nature is amazing like that.

happy painting!

The Evening Rise

The Evening Rise

Oil on panel

8"x 10"

My niece's husband took this photo on a recent fishing trip. As soon as I saw the photo, I knew I would use it as a reference for an oil painting. It just grabbed me. I love the setting sun, the bent rod, the story it tells.  Steve, who took the reference photo told me that this time of day is called the evening rise, because the fish rise up to eat the bugs that land on the water. I am happy with this painting and how it turned out.

soon to reveal

This is a WIP (Work In Progress). My niece's husband snapped a shot of his friend about to catch a fish. This is the background for that oil painting so far. I have since finished it, except for the bent rod. I am waiting for this to dry and then will paint in the rod. The overall image just captured me and so I felt compelled to paint it.  More to come...

Butter Pecan

 Butter Pecan

4" x 4" 

oil on panal

Ice cream and cupcakes represent happy times to me. I guess because I only

eat them when I am with my family or celebrating a special event. Those are 

happy times for me. I don't eat cupcakes or ice cream cones when I am by myself.

Do you? 

 cone refine to only dull out next

(I thought it was competing too much with the actual ice cream,

so I dulled it out.)

 highlights

 start to refine

block in 

Rocks in oil

Rocks

4"x4"

oil on board

Still getting my feet wet again in oils...round organic objects seem to work for me. Yesterday was an egg, today is rocks.  I had company for about 10 days and did a fair amount of traveling so I have not painted lately. It feels good. My new home has this great big center island and it is perfect to set of my table easel and paint. I can stand or sit on a stool and move around.

back to basics

egg in a cup

4"x4"

oil on board

It's been a long time since I painted in oils so I felt the need to get back to basics. Painting an egg is about as basic as one can get. I put it in a ceramic egg cup. It felt so good to mix oils and spread paint. I forgot to add a shadow. My reference was sitting on my granite counter and I didn't see much of a shadow and then forgot about it. Ah well....

under painting of class oil painting

oil on paper

9"x12"

I am taking an online oil painting class over at Craftsy. I am really enjoying it! The class I am taking is a class on painting sunsets. This is an underpainting for my homework. The class provided the reference picture. 

value and color studies for a painting in oil

 Value study for a class painting.  

I used color pencil on colored paper for this. 

He suggested markers, but I don't have them.

I used black and two grays on the toned paper. 

Color studies for class painting.

I signed up with Craftsy for an online oil painting class of painting sunsets. Just what I was looking for! These are the first two lessons in the class. The reference photo was even supplied. The idea of the studies is to work out all the value and color decisions ahead of time. I like the idea, as it give me a map from which to work.  I am painting on oil paper. Very cool, as it's a pad of paper made for oil painting. Much cheaper and easier! I may do this painting on the paper as well. It is made by Arches. 

Daily painting # 3 Pear

DP#3 from life

6" x 6"

oil on board

I've always loved painting pears. All the bumps and shadows for endless interest. This pear had company when I first set up the still life, a Chinese lantern plant. But as I got into the pear, the lantern was interfering way to much, so it had to go. That's the beauty of oils, just wipe it away and keep painting! 

Oil painting, small and quick(er)

Apple from life

6x6 oil on board

I started a new weekly painting class today. I am blessed to live in an area where there are many great artists. A few years ago I took some drawing classes with Susan Hope Fogel. Today I started her weekly painting class. I want to focus on oil painting, fast and loose. So today was an apple, a perfect starting place for me. The painting class is from a real life set-ups. I have limited experience with real-life painting.

I don't have the room to do live set-ups in my home studio. I paint from photos except when I do plein air painting. I know that painting from real life will improve my from-photo paintings as the camera cannot see all the color and values that our own eyes can see. The camera also flattens objects. 

Since this is a once-a-week class, I plan to also paint at home between classes, probably using photos, unless I can find room to set up for real-life painting. 

red and green peppers at the market

peppers at the market

oil on board

4" x 4"

I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make the peppers smooth and shiny. Also the bottom red pepper is more orange than the top red pepper. I tried to recreate that as well. NFS

Purple Garlic in France

Purple Garlic at the Nice flower market in France

oil on board

4" x 4"

SOLD

This is from a photo I took while at the flower market in Nice, France. It was an overcast day and rained at one point, so the light was not great, but hey, I was in France so I was taking pictures! I made the back ground much darker for effect as there wasn't much going on there. 

These are purple garlic bulbs. I loved how they all lay in the same direction and the blending of colors.  I also love the red tomatoes beside them. Basically, there are two sets of compliments going on- purple and yellow in the garlic and then red and green in the tomatoes. And the box- I love that it had the French colors,, like the flag...sort of set it all up for me as a great painting!

Not only are there beautiful flowers at this weekly market, but tables of local vegetables, cheeses, mushrooms and hand made soaps. 

new oil painting

red velvet

oil on board, 4" x 4"
SOLD

Cupcakes are a theme (and cookies) in my realistic painting journey. I love them! To me, cupcakes are celebrations, fun times, and happy family get togethers. So, here's to the lovely cupcake! 

sunset oil painting

Sunset on Edisto Beach, SC

5" x 7"   oil on board

For several years my sisters and I (and various other family members) have traveled down to SC to an 'other world' place called Edisto Island. We started going there because of family history as we were do family research. When we visited this remote sea island, we fell in love and started coming each October for vacations. 

This is a sunset on the Edisto River Inlet. We would come here at sunset to take pictures and see an amazing light show. Each day was very different, depending on clouds. The more clouds, the better the sunset!  Anyway, this is the view. The wonderful thing about Edisto is that it is an island, so there is a sunrise over the ocean and a sunset. The best of both worlds!

moody and dark oil painting

Carolina Low Country

oil on canvas board

11" x 13"

click to see it larger

Very moody and dark...I used a very limited color palette. I hope this is the first of many. I put on Pandora and just painted. It's out of my head. I was just on Edisto Island last month for a time after my husband passed away and so I have visions of the low country in my head. It is a dark and dreary day and it fits my current mood of loss.