"Lemons and Strawberries" Oil on 5x7 board

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I had painted a painting of 2 lemons and green leaves over a week ago, and every time I passed by it, it looked more and more boring to me.  Close up  I liked it, but from across the room, it wasn't much to look at.  So, today was my first chance back at it, and I added some strawberries to liven it up, and deepened the background color.  I had some new lemons to use too.    I love the color of strawberries when they are still unripe.  They don't taste all that great, so better to use them as painting props.   The yellow in this finished photo is a bit too bright, but it's not too bad. 

That was so much fun :-)  What a great Saturday!  Crappy weather outside still, but it's a great day when I get to paint something.

"Cups with Ace of Hearts"

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An espresso cup, sake cup, spoon and ace of hearts.   Items that don't really go together, but I like it :)
It was fun to paint.

"Simply Lemony" Oil on 6x6 in. board

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I wanted to paint some limes today, but it just wasn't working out.  I cut one open, and they'd been sitting around too long, and it was sort of dry inside.  So.. I went back to the lemons and spiral cut the peel of one, and forgot all about the limes for now.   I thought about adding a knife or something else to this painting, but I decided to leave it alone, and keep it simple. 

"Lemons like Sunshine and Green Leaves" Oil on board, 5x7 inches

I bought some lemons, limes and grapefruit the other day because they remind me of warmer weather.   I miss the sunshine and green leaves!  Still only snow outside and empty trees.  

I started this painting on a toned gessobord.  It's the first time I used an orange tone, I mixed some red and yellow ochre acrylic paint, and thinned it down with water.  I didn't think I'd like painting over the orange color.  I mixed  a nice light (oil) color for the background and when I put it over the orange it clashed so much I was tempted to change it.  But, on my palette the color looked like what I wanted so I stuck with it, and once the painting was filled in, it looked really nice with the faint bits of orange showing through.

I liked it so much, I toned a couple more boards with the same color.  Maybe I'll try a painting of those limes next!

"Apple with Playing Cards" Oil on 7x5 inch canvas board

I thought I would like to try a different process with this one to get a more detailed look.   I go back and forth between wanting to do something with a bit looser feel and something more detailed.    I started on a toned gray canvas board, with a drawing and an underpainting.  I used black, terra rosa and a little white painted thinly.  It was nice to start this way, because I wouldn't have had time to do a complete painting.  Then during the next couple of days while I had to work, it was a good feeling knowing I had something started that I could look forward to finishing when I got the time. 
 
It was dry when I got back to it, and I started painting in with thicker paint. 
I was near the finish when I thought that all the empty white space of the ace card needed a change.  I thought to bend the card to make more interesting shapes there. 
I liked the triangle shaped shadow it created.  It interfered with the stem though, so I wound up turning the stem in the other direction.

Note:   The painting is signed with my initials, it isn't in the photo because I signed it after I took the pictures.  It took so long to get a good image, I didn't want to re take them :)

Also, the framed image below is only for an example, the painting is not actually framed.

"Blue Glass and Orange" Oil on 5x7 in. canvas board

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I hesitate to post this photo, for some reason it appears very washed out.  I don't know why it is coming through this way only on blogger.  I've tried a few times and can't seem to figure it out.   The same image on ebay and Daily Paintworks looks like it should. The blue mug is much darker.

  Below is an image of my painting in progress...
That cut orange smelled so juicy and sweet, I had a hard time not just eating it and forgetting about the painting.  (it didn't go to waste though, I ate it anyway, even after sitting out for hours, it was still good:)

"Eggs, Cup and Spoon" Oil on 6x6 in. board

We had a very snowy day here today... I'm really getting tired of all the snow, but I have to admit, it's fun to watch a snowstorm if you don't have to go anywhere.  I think the whiteness outside has been influencing my still life subject choices.  I like the whites in this painting along with the neutral tones of the background and spoon.  The rose on the cup makes a nice touch of color. 

"Eggs and Decorative Papers" Oil on 6x6 in. board

 

 

 I started this one thinking the simple black, white and grays would be nice.  It didn't take long before I lost interest, and left it for a few days.  When I got back to it, I tried a few ideas to make it into something I wanted to paint.   When I added the red piece of paper, that seemed to do it for me.  I think I must see enough black, white and gray outside,  and I needed some bright color!

"Kings and Queens" Oil on 6x6 board.

I've been wanting to do a painting of playing cards and wondered if I would like to make the designs on the cards with lots of detail, or if I would just do a looser version.  But, as I was drawing the image on the board, I felt like it would be fun to do all the details.  

Below are a couple of  in progress photos.  The first shows the board I started on.  I first painted over the gesso with a gray mix of acrylic paint.  I drew the design with pencil and then painted it in with acrylic raw umber.  Once that was dry, I started painting in color with oil.  I had the cards close by to copy from.

"Egg, Salt and Spoon" Oil on 7x5 inch canvas board

I set up this still life and noticed how my choice of color,( mostly white), was probably caused by the constant view of snow and gray sky I see every day. 

Although, we did have a few days above freezing recently that melted most of the snow.  Now there are actually patches of green to look at :-)

"Peeled Orange 2014" Oil on 7x5 in. board

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Happy New Year Everyone!

 I painted this orange yesterday, and finished it up today, so that makes it my first painting of the year! 

I'm looking forward to this year and hope to continue painting, learning, and exploring lots of new things. Thanks to everyone who has collected my work, and also to all of my art blog friends out there who comment and keep me motivated.  I appreciate it very much!

"Forelle Pears" Oil on 5x7 in. board

Happy Holidays everyone! :-D

Here are two colorful Forelle pears.  I love the beautiful ruby red color beside the yellow/green.

I started this painting on a board that had a dried unfinished painting on it.  I had spread some thinned raw umber paint over it and let it dry so I could start this new painting.

"Madonna and Child with Candle" Oil on 8x10 in. canvas

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 Sorry for the glare in this picture, it's lightening the upper background a bit.  I'll try to get a better one soon.  

I had some Christmas postage stamps that had this image of Raphael's Madonna and Child on them, and I liked it so much, I thought I'd try and use it in a painting.  I looked for an image of it on the internet, and found that it is actually a larger painting, and it's called "Madonna of the Candleabra".  It has a couple of angels faces, and tall candles on each side.  I printed a cropped version of it, and added a candle.   I've always wanted to try to paint a lit candle. 

 Below is a picture of it in progress.  

Thanks for looking!

"Candy Cane and Holly" Oil on 5x7 board

work in progress photo

"Pomegranate and Pears" Oil on 5x7 board

This is still the same pomegranate as in the last painting.  I set this still life up days ago, but didn't have time to paint it.  I took some pictures of it then, which was good, because now the fruit is over ripe, and I had the photos to refer to. 

"Pomegranate" Oil on 6x6 board

I looked though all of the pomegranates at the store to find one with the little tips still on the top.  I found this one and wrapped it carefully and got it home with the tips still on.  That made me happy, because so many times they break off before I get home!  Anyway...  it seemed like painting it took forever, I felt like every time I looked at it, there were more colors of red to try and figure out.  They are so pretty. 

"Fruit with Persimmon and Cranberries" Oil on 8x10 board

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Here is the finished painting!   There are so many different textures and colors in this painting, I learned alot as I worked on it.  Thanks for looking :-)

Fruit with Persimmon... 8x 10...work in progress

 

I've been looking for a white ceramic pedestal bowl to use in my still lifes for a long time.    I finally spotted this one at the Goodwill store!  Yesssss!! I was so happy!!!   I wanted to do a larger painting with it, and arranged some fruit in it, including a persimmon I bought just for the occasion.  I did this little pastel drawing before starting the painting. 

I started the painting on a  gessoed board using some acrylic raw umber for the sketch.  Once it was dry, which didn't take long, I colored in with oil paint.

I added a small seckel pear, cranberries and some green leaves to fill in the space better.  I haven't quite finished it, but hopefully will post the finished painting soon.  :-)

"November Apple and Grapes" Oil on 6x6 inches

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Well... it's been a little while since I've posted anything.  First because I was disappointed in 2 or 3 little paintings I did.. and  gave up for a while.  I became interested in making artwork with paper.. collage.. mixed media.. I experimented a bit and had fun.  Then, one day I suddenly suffered a back injury that kept me lying down for about a week.  It's better now, but still aches a bit.  I'm finally ready to paint something, and feel like I don't know where to start!  I bought some colorful grapes, pears, and a persimmon that I thought would be interesting to try and paint.  I spent some time drawing, and then I did a small study in oil on paper, a mixed media paper by Strathmore that I drew on and then coated with clear gesso before I painted.
And finally, I did a small painting of an apple and grapes on hardboard.

"Apple and Oak Leaf" Oil on 5x7 board

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I found this oak leaf while on a a walk, I liked the shape and color of it and wanted to paint it. 

"Banana, Book and Tissue" 6x8 inches, Oil on Paper mounted on board

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This little painting started as a drawing on paper.   I decided to try something different with the drawing, and mounted it onto a piece of illustration board.  Then I coated it with (acrylic)  matte medium and added the decorative paper as a background.  After the layer of medium was dry, I painted it in with oils.  I like how it came out!
  To see a more detailed description and picture of the drawing I started with, look at my post here
 The illlustration board is sturdy, and about 1/16 inch thick.  It is varnished and can be framed as any other oil painting. 

"October Apple" Oil on 5x7 board

This is a cortland apple from the store.  The leaves are from an apple tree in my back yard. 

"Two Pears" Oil on 6x8 board

Paper Cutting

Every so often I see an artist that does paper cutting, or "scherenschnitte".  I find it fascinating, and I get inspired to try it.   I have some silhouette paper, which is paper that is black on one side and white on the other.  And also, some parchment paper.  I don't know if there is a proper way to go about this art, but I suppose there isn't one certain way to do it.  Last year I used the parchment paper to cut a Christmas tree design, and put black behind it.  This time,  I decided to cut a design out of the black paper, and have the parchment behind it. 
I drew a design on tracing paper, and transfered it to the white side of the black paper.

drawing design

cutting with an x-acto knife on a cutting mat.

This what it looked like on the right side

 What I like best about crafts like this is that it isn't messy, there's almost nothing to clean up, and you can leave it and come back any time.  And it's very relaxing. 
Here it is, finished with the parchment paper behind it.  It's about 6x8 inches.  I was tempted to color in some of the spaces with watercolor, but I thought it might be better this way, simple.