"Spring Masquerade"

(work in progress)
Oil on 6x6 panel

I had fun painting this mask, so I wanted to try it again. I was thinking it would be nice if I had a flower to add next to the mask, but I didn't have a flower and thought I'd use my colored tissue to make a flower! Well, my tissue flowers didn't come out too good, but they added lots of color. Cheerful and pretty Springtime colors, just the thing to brighten up a gray winter day.

"Mask with Dove" or " A Little Bird Told Me..."

Oil on 5x7 inch hardboard panel



One of the things I really enjoy drawing are faces. I've had this ceramic mask for years, and I always look at it, and see a painting.. but I always put it off and do something else. I finally decided to play with it a little and found that with the addition of the blue tissue paper, it started to look interesting. I added the little dove beside it..(I have a bunch of different things hanging around on shelves, and the dove caught my eye). It's little red beak matched the mask's red lips and cheeks. I love the blue, and the way it reflected into the shadows. I played with cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, winsor violet and permanent rose in combination with white.
It took me forever to get a good photo though, the blue in every picture came out neon bright, and absolutely glowed in the shadows!! The real painting was not at all like the pictures... so I tried different settings, different lighting... tried photoshop alterations... and I have finally come up with a photo I am satisfied with. At least, on my monitor it looks right... if the blue is overwhelming on your monitor, just know that it is not quite that intense!

"Three Oranges with Leaves" 5x7 Oil on board

I think one of my favorite colors right now is cadmium orange. I used to go without it, thinking I could just as easily mix some red and yellow together, but... it's easier having the orange. It's fun to play with, mixing it with other colors on the palette to see what I get.

"Tea and Lemon"

Oil on 5x7 gessobord

I was going to put tea in this cup for the painting, but there is a rose painted on the inside as well as on the outside, and I wanted it to show. The scalloped edge, and rippled shape were a challenge, but I found that if I didn't try too hard to make it perfect, it looked better.

"Strawberry Shortcake"

Oil on 5x7 hardboard panel




I painted this strawberry shortcake from a picture I took last summer. I had set the plate on the kitchen counter, and the light from the window fell on it so nicely, I had to stop and take a picture of it before I ate it, haha. And yesterday, while I was painting it, we had a nice little snow storm blow through from off the lake. I took this picture looking out the window. I'm really getting anxious for Spring to come...

"Wine, Crackers and Cheese"

Oil on 5x7 hardboard panel

I put the tea cups away for a while. This is a glass of pinot noir wine and some crackers and cheese. Whenever I drink wine I have it in this glass, it has a pretty cut/etched design in it, but.. I just left it out. ( I chickened out, I'll have to try it again sometime) I love how the stack of crackers came out, I think that is my favorite part.

"Tea with Lemon"

Oil on 5x7 hardboard panel

I usually don't drink tea, but after I made this cup of earl grey green tea and put in some of the lemon, I really liked it! It seems to be just the thing to have when it's cold out, and snowy, and we've had lots of cold and snowy lately :-)

"Tea Cup and Grapes"

Oil on 6x6 panel.

I had a blue background on this, thinking that the blue would go nicely with the green grapes. I tried different shades of blue, and I just never loved it. So, finally I decided to just paint a very dark background, ( I think I used viridian, and transparent oxide brown). I like it much better now.