Iris in a small bottle, 7x5 linen on board

I painted this iris today. It'll be up on eBay soon.

"Cup with 2 Strawberries", 5x7 oil on panel

Here is the finished painting. It is for sale on eBay. This painting is Sold.

Cup and Strawberries, Oil on 5x7 board.

I added some color to the cup in my painting, I took the idea from a little tea cup I have, that has gold trim, and some blue around the top. It also has other designs on it, but I decided to leave those out. This isn't a great picture of it, but I still have some little adjustments to make on the painting, and I'll take a better picture of it once it's finished. I like the cup much better this way, rather than just plane white.

Iris in a bottle, sketch in oil on linen

I found a little glass milk bottle in the basement today, and I thought it would be perfect to put an iris bloom into, and do a sketch. This was a quick sketch, I wanted to try and use as little paint as possible, scumbled thin with no medium, on a linen panel. I sketched it all in using burnt umber, and then added color with alizarin crimson and u. m. blue, white and some yellow. I wiped it off afterwards, it was just for practice. It taught me something though, I'll try this method again.

Strawberries and White Cup

I worked a little more on the cup/strawberries painting today. I wanted to brighten the colors a bit. I still don't know if I'm finished with it... I thought about putting a design on the cup, but, I'm not sure what...

Peeled Mineola Tangerine, Oil on 5x7 linen panel

I went back to this tangerine painting, because I wasn't happy with it the way it was. I wanted to change the shape of the cast shadow, and give the background some depth. Well, I'm much happier with it now, and I think I leave it this way.

This painting is Sold

Cup and 2 Strawberries painting

Here's the finished painting. Cup and 2 Strawberries, Oil on 5x7 panel. I think it still needs something, though... maybe a design on the cup... it looks too plain, and I don't care for the design that is on the real cup... I'll try and think of something soon, and finish it.

Strawberries and Mug

I set up this little still life today...
and started to paint it... It's a good start, but needs more work. I like it so far.

3 Violets

This is the finished violet painting. I had reworked it a bit too much, so I scraped it down, and re painted it. This painting is sold.

White Violets. Oil on 5x7 linen panel

This is a painting of some white violets that are blooming right now in my yard. They are so small, but they have such elegant shapes for such a tiny flower. Sorry about the glare in the picture from the flash. I'll take some better pictures of it tomorrow, in better light.

Iris

Here is a picture taken in outdoor light of the finished painting. This painting is sold.

Finished Iris

I'm finished with it for tonight. I'm happy with the way it came out, I just love the inside of irises, there's so much going on in there, and you don't usually see it when the flowers are just standing in the garden. Here is a picture of it from my easel.

Iris, in progress

I spent most of the day today taking pictures of my irises, and making some drawings, so that I could do a little watercolor of one of them. I did one small w/c painting, then another, and got frustrated because neither one of them looked like I wanted it to, and I didn't know how to make it look like I wanted it to look. So, I decided to try something different, and paint with oil instead on a panel... and I was much happier with how it was coming out. It's not done yet, but I think it looks very interesting. And I discovered, that it looks good either upside down or right side up! I took pictures of it before I was finished because if I wait until I'm finished with it, it will be dark out, and I won't be able to get a good picture of it today.

Orange

I worked on the orange painting again today. I thought I could improve the colors a bit. I lightened the background and changed the shadow color, and some of the colors in the orange too. In the photo, the orange color is much redder than it actually is. I'm still working on my picture taking.

new picture

I tried a different setting on the camera and different lighting... what a difference it can make.

Peeled Orange

This is the painting I worked on last night. I think that if I intend on painting at night, I should get some better lighting, because this morning when I looked at it, my colors were duller than I had thought. So, I mixed some new brighter colors in the light of day, and repainted. So, here it is...
Peeled Orange 5x7 oil on linen panel.

I also have been working on my picture taking. I have a very nice digital camera, I just can never seem to take a good, clear, straight picture. Also, one with color matching the real thing. It's trial and error, it takes almost as long to get a good picture as it takes to paint the painting!

Painting on linen

I thought I'd try painting on my new linen panels I ordered from ASW art supply, I've never tried painting on linen before, so I thought this would be a nice treat! and, it was. But, of course, as I'm painting- I always seem to start off ok, and then somewhere down the line I find that I am not focusing, and just making a mess. My palette is a mess of mixtures... my painting has too much paint on it, and I can't control what I want it to do... so, I wind up wiping off, and starting over... and over...
So, that's what I did today. I tried to paint a peeled orange. What I wound up with isn't too bad. I learned alot while I painted it, but I think I'll put my little painting away, and look at it again in a day or two. Then I'll be able to tell how I did.

Forsythia, 5x7 oil on board.

I went back to my forsythia painting, and this is going to be the final version. I like the brightness of the flowers, finally. I changed the background color a bit, to add more contrast. Now, what can I paint next???? This painting is sold.

Apple Paintings

This painting of the 2 Apples is Sold.

Click here for a link to the auction page for the first painting and here for the second as pictured above.

Wooden box with painted antique lock and key

Using acrylic paints

Here's what I worked on yesterday, a little painted wooden box. I primed it white, then painted on the "wood grain", and painted the key hole and then the little antique key. Once I've finished varnishing it, I will add it to my etsy shop for sale.