Apple with Morning Glory

Oil on 5"x5" hardboard

I made this painting after looking at my color wheel. I was attracted to the section that runs from yellow green to red orange.

"Grapes on the Vine"

Oil on 8x6 hardboard panel

These grape vines grow like weeds around here, especially along fences, in wooded areas and places like that. I"m always cutting them out of my yard. If left to grow, this time of year they are full of little grape clusters. On a walk the other day, I picked this little sprig off a vine growing along a fence. I'm sure they are not good to eat, but nice to paint. I liked the shape of the leaf, the colors of the fruit, and especially the little curly stems.

Vintage Baseball

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Oil on 18 x24 canvas

My son asked me to do this painting for him. It is a picture of a 1961 World Series game between the NY Yankees and Cincinnati Reds. Whitey Ford is pitching. Also in the picture is Reds first base coach (#2 in foreground), Yankees third baseman, and an umpire.
I love the different poses of each figure, how they are all awaiting the action, focusing on what's about to happen.
I used raw umber, black and white.. and a little yellow ochre to warm up the white.

"Italian Cookies"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard panel

I just love cookies. I kept having to scrape this painting off, and every time I did, it looked better with the paint scraped away. It left an interesting ghost of the image and a nice texture that I wanted to try and work with somehow. I like how this one came out, finally.

"Joker in the Deck"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard panel

I made this little house of cards, and took pictures of it to paint by. It was a good thing, because the little steeple collapsed after only a few minutes. The rest of it stayed together, so I could still have my real life view to paint from as well. I had fun painting this one.

"Strawberries and Orange Slices" 6x6

Oil on 6x6 in. hardboard panel.
I love the combination of orange and red in this one. It smelled great too while I painted.

"Four Aces"

Oil on 6x6 hardboard panel

When I visited the National Gallery of Art earlier this year, I saw a painting by Jean Simion Chardin, called " The House of Cards". It pictured a young boy setting up a row of folded playing cards on a table, and ever since then it was in my mind to try to do a painting with cards in it. So, recently I decided to try and make a house of cards, and take pictures of it to paint by. This little formation of aces is about as far as I got before things started falling over! It was fun to try though, and with a little practice I got better at balancing the cards. Now, I'm working on a painting with a few more cards in it. I'm excited, I really like how this one came out.

"Lil Crab Apples"

Oil on 8"x6" stretched canvas

While out for a bike ride the other day, I came across a tree full of what I thought were some sort of cherries. They were so colorful, I stopped and pulled off a couple twigs full of the fruit, and rode home to paint them. I was a little puzzled, since cherries are usually ripe early in the summer, not at this time of year, but, what do I know? When I got home, I discovered that they weren't cherries at all, but tiny little crab apples! Cute colorful little things.

I usually stain the white gessoed surface of my panel, or canvas first with a thin film of raw umber and wait for it to dry before I paint, but this time I was so anxious to paint them, that I just started right in on the white canvas that I had nearby. I used some stand oil as a medium, and was very happy with how the paint worked on the canvas. I think I'll try this method again, it seemed to work well, and it was a nice change.

"Empty Pots with Leaves" Oil on 6x6 gessobord

It's that time of year again. It's getting a bit cooler, and even though the trees here are still very green, there are a few dry leaves on the ground. I picked up a few colorful ones the other day while out for a walk, and added them to this painting.

"Lemon Peel"

Oil on 5"x5" hardboard panel
I've always wanted to try to paint a peeled lemon. I've never peeled a lemon before, so I just used a knife and cut the peel in a spiral shape. It looked so juicy, and smelled wonderful. I hoped my painting would give that impression.

"Lemon, Plum, Cherries"

Oil on 6"x6" hardboard panel

The contrasting combination of dark violets and yellows is what attracted me again to paint this version of my lemon, cherries and black plum. The more scattered composition happened sort of by chance. I began with the lemon and plum by themselves, but couldn't help wanting to fill the negative spaces around them with those dark cherries.
Have a great Holiday weekend everyone!

"Black Plum and Banana"

Oil on 8"x6" Linen Panel
This is a linen panel I made from a piece of Old Holland linen that I took from a sampler pad. I mounted it onto a hardboard panel. I have to say, it was a lovely surface to paint on! It's so interesting how differently paint feels when putting it on a different surface. It seems I'm always searching for the best way for me to get control of the paint. I want to be able to make the marks I want to make, and not wrestle with the paint! It seems like I get lucky sometimes, and the paint goes on nicely, and it makes me happy :-) and other times, I'm chasing my marks around and correcting things endlessly, and I get disappointed. And I wonder, what did I do different? One of these days I hope to figure it out.
Another thing I have to figure out is how to get rid of the fruit flies that I've attracted with all of this fruit I've had sitting around! lol.