"Sitting on the Stoop"

                                          6x6 $90

I have a number of old photos of my Dad when he was a boy. This one especially intrigues me. This is my Dad and his sister and father sitting outside their home.

A Grouping

My friend Linda bought this assortment of paintings to hang in her new kitchen (the cabinets arrive tomorrow- I guess we jumped the gun a bit in hanging the paintings). These are hung with a 3" square, 1/2" thick piece of mdf on the back so that they hang out from the wall with a shadow line behind them. I really like this method of hanging.

"When Orange Meets Black"

                                            5"x7" $90
I am thrilled with this painting for several reasons. One, I think the composition works well. Two, I am very pleased with the richness of the grays and how they balance the vivid colors of the oranges. Three, it displays the looseness that I want but often lose in my paintings as I rework them to get them in trying to make improvements. I think the glow of the under painting is largely responsible for making the gray work. My goal is to have more and more of my paintings achieve this degree of success fairly quickly. However, since I never intend to give up experimenting, I know that there will be challenges, failures and partial failures- and that's partly what keeps painting interesting.

"Surrounded"

                                          Sold
I'm happy with the composition on this one- and I'm still working on those neutrals to enhance the saturated color.

"Over the Line"

                                           6x6 $90
This is pretty simple and direct. It's easy for me to see the pattern and value and color in a composition like this; much harder to see when the subject becomes more complicated.

"Basking in the Glow"

                                          6x6 oil on gessoboard

Here's the translucent amber cup again, this time with some more color. I think this shade of green works, especially with the blue dots. I used to have some cad orange, and I was able to get a wonderful translucent orange that really glowed. I'm having a hard time doing that with mixing red and yellow. May have to invest in the orange again, although I'm not unhappy with the look of these oranges.

Back to the Easel

Didn't I just "learn" this lesson a couple weeks ago? Once again, I failed to use enough greyed tones to balance my color. This appeals to me much more than yesterday's posting. I was thinking the other day that I wish people would leave "constructive criticism" comments because as nice as it is to get compliments, it's more helpful to get criticism. Then it occurred to me that they are more or less "voting" by commenting (or not commenting) at all. When I get no comments I have to think about why that particular painting isn't particularly appealing. There's usually a reason....or reasons....

"Amber Cups

                                          6"x6" $90

I am still enjoying working with the transparency of glass. These amber cups cast a lovely glow on the surrounding surfaces. And who could anticipate all the lovely colors that are the result of the reflections and the light cat through the cups onto the tabletop. I can see in the photo that I didn't quite nail the shape of the upper cup on the right; the oval rim is off a bit. Does that bother anybody? I'm never sure how much that matters. Is it charming or annoying?

"A Tip of the Hat"

                                           SOLD

Again, I have no daily painting to post. I painted one but ran out of time to photograph it. So here is another of my Asian Series. There is a companion piece for it ; maybe I'll post that later.

"Ricefield Diptych"

                           60x48 (2 pc) $4600

I haven't had time to paint today, so I thought I'd post one of my large pieces for a change. I painted a series based on my husband's and my trip to SE Asia in 2009. It was a fabulous trip, and the images were just buzzing in my head for a long time afterward. Fourteen of these paintings are on more or less permanent display at Thoa's Restaurant at 96 Union in downtown Seattle. They are for sale, but have not exactly been flying off the walls. I'm not sure people actually know they're for sale; the price tags are discreet and the paintings look as though they were designed for the decor. Oh well, just another one of those things I need to address one of these days- maybe host a "meet the artist" event? We'll see.....

"Radiant"

                                          6"x6" $90
Does it get any brighter than this? I'm having such fun with this plate!

'New Car"

                                                      7"x5" NFS
Jed's grandparents were in their early 50's when this photo was taken, as far as we can figure. Their names were Beulah and Alva. I was attracted to the composition because of the way the light sky leads into her dress, because of their postures and because of that cool looking car. It's not really intended to be a portrait; I worked hard to depict faces that were believable but not too detailed- it's hard on a little 7x5 piece!

Teri's Trio

                                             Sold
My friend Teri bought the panting in the middle, entitled "Under the Knife." She wanted to buy 2 more pieces and hang them together. She liked the Japanese Vegetable series I did a few weeks ago, so I painted some modified versions for her. The lotus root became zucchini and the colors tweaked a bit to work with this group. She likes red. Can you tell?

Painting Problem Analysis

SOLD

The last still life I posted "In a Yellow Bowl" was not pleasing me at all as I continued to look at it. As I see it now, there were several problems. One was that it was too color saturated- not enough neutrals. It  looked garish to me. Two was that it was too "middle value"- needed more dark (or light). Three was that the composition was too boringly linear. It marched straight across the picture plane with little to draw the eye around the rest of the space. That's a lot of problems! But I liked the elements that were there, so I decided that it was worth saving. As you can see, I added a plum as a dark element. With its reflection in the bowl, it creates a connection with the end of the spoon (which reflects the plum as well). Its placement in the lower right also serves to move the eye around and to create more interest in the shadow area. I also toned down the cup a bit so that it picks up some of the other colors and it integrates into the shadows, allowing the bright yellow bowl with the glass of water to be the primary focal point. Now I think it finally has the cohesiveness I want in my painting. The down side is that nearly all the under painting is now covered, so I've lost the spontaneity I'd like in my daily paintings. That's OK though; I learned some things and I'm quite happy with the finished piece.

"In a Yellow Bowl"

                                          6x6 $90

My husband built me some shelves for my studio and now I have all my props out where I can see them. I can see all kinds of paintings in there! I haven't painted this yellow bowl before- nor the green cup. The purple in the shadows is actually more neutral, but I can't seem to get it to photograph that way. . I loved painting the glass of water and the spoon.

I also finalized the painting of my husband. It took a little tweaking, but I think I'm quite happy with it- and it does look like him.

Jed

I've been wanting to do a "portrait" of my husband Jed for quite awhile now. I'm not sure this is quite done; I'll probably work on it a bit more. Jed isn't sure he likes it; he says it looks like Lucien Freud got hold of him. That's a compliment, isn't it???? I don't think he intended it as such...

"Cup on Glass Plate"

6x6 $90

Here's that glass plate again. I can't seem to get enough (and I admit I was encouraged by all the positive comments).  I keep wanting to see what colors show up when I set up a still life...starting to look like a series, huh?

I still don't know why it happened, but I accidentally erased all of my "Blogs I Follow"!!!! I meant to edit one and  had to delete it and re-post it...but somehow I deleted the whole darn thing! I'm trying to re-construct it, but if you don't see your link when it used to be there- or if you are a painter/blogger who wants to trade links please contact me! I'm bummed about this setback, but I guess in the big picture it's no big deal. It will get resolved soon enough.

Thanks to all of you who commented on "Grandma". I enjoyed reading them partly because it wasn't just about art, it was about memories. That was nice.

"Grandma by the Wood Stove"

12x9 NFS

My Grandma died in 1996 at 96 years of age. A black and white photo  was taken when she was in her early 80's, and I have always liked it. I thought about creating a painting using that photo as reference, but never quite got inspired. Then I say Katie Wilson-Bernatas' paintings, and they gave me the kick I needed. I remember this dress so well; it was checkered, but I didn't think that added to the painting. Normally, I would generalize the face a bit more, but I felt the need to make it look like her as much as possible. That was hard! I went through quite a few old lady faces before I got close. This is close. She had this expression where she pursed her lips, making a perfect little "O". The posture is definitely Grandma. She wore corsets and when you hugged her she was hard as a rock. She never wore pants- always dresses. This was a nice experience, enjoying all the memories while I painted. Thank you, Katie!

"Fork on Glass"

                                          6x6 $90
Do you think I'll ever get tired of this glass plate? It's just so fun to see how it breaks up the color. It's more opaque in the center section than the outer part, so that makes it even more interesting- or more confusing maybe, depending on your perspective.

'"Bowl in Harlequin Setting"

                                          6x6 $90

I've been wanting to paint something with a harlequin design for awhile. This is more or less "made up" in that only the bowl, spoon and shadow were actually there.

"Perfectly Plum"

                                          Sold
This one gave me fits. I liked the little bowl and the spoon, but I kept trying to work with darker neutrals for the rest, figuring that the focal objects were so bright that they worked better against a neutral background. Wrong! Each time I adjusted the color, I thought I liked it- and then I didn't. In one last act of desperation, I consulted the color wheel and went bold with the limey green. Pow! It balanced the brightness of the bowl and spoon. Then I lighted the cloth to the right, and that made the perfect backdrop for the glow emanating from the bowl. Today some friends came over to buy some paintings, and this one was one of those selected. I'm glad I stuck with the task of making it all work!

"At Your Service"

                                          SOLD
I got a commission to paint several pieces for a local hospital. They are 16" square versions of my daily paintings. Out came the larger brushes; other than that the process was surprisingly similar. The larger paintings have a whole different impact. While the little panels are cute and intimate, these are larger than life and kind of "op-art" looking. I wonder what 24" or 30" square would look like? I don't think all compositions and subjects are suitable for all sizes....I plan to try a bigger one soon.

"Pigtails"

                                                

I had a compulsion to paint figurative again. I'm pretty happy with this little painting. It captures a mood and the composition is pretty strong. I would love it if the things I learn from composing still lifes could transfer over into all the genres. Not sure it's that simple, but I think there is some transference.

"Plum on Glass Plate

                                          6"x6" $90

I'm still playing with glass. The weirdest colors show up with this plate- like the green shadow under the plum.
It forces me to consider all kinds of unusual color combinations. I had a good day painting yesterday, but when I took the photos I wasn't happy with any of them. Thus no post yesterday. They're coming up soon!

"Playing with Glass"

Today was a colorful day. I got this really interesting plate that I didn't realize was actually iridescent. In a way, it's an ugly thing, but it does the most interesting things with the light it casts. Here, I used 2 different colors in the ground and placed a cherry colored glass cup in the upper right side. It also cast some interesting light on the adjacent surfaces. I can see using these elements for a series of paintings, just playing with the breakup of color.
I'm also doing some larger versions (16" square) of my daily paintings for a local hospital.It's pretty interesting to see the difference the format makes. The larger format has, as one might guess, a less intimate feel and a more commanding presence. And they don't take significantly more time (larger brushes!). I really like working larger- but then I like working small as well. Guess I just like painting!

"Still Life After Morris Graves"

                                                    SOLD 

A couple months ago I painted a still life inspired by a portion of a Morris Graves painting; this is a smaller version of the painting with a little different palette. It's interesting to me because so much of what I've done recently involves light sources and shadows, and that is entirely not part of the equation here. It's all about shapes and placement of an odd assortment of objects. It's good for me to approach a painting from a different perspective. Shakes things up a bit.

"Juicy" again....

                                          6"x6" $90
I posted this before, but the background was darker and didn't "read" as reflective. Now you can see the shapes of the reflections and the spoon no longer looks like it's floating. I don't know why I don't spot these problems when I complete the painting...I guess i am looking at different things and need time to gain some perspective.

"Pile of Peaches"

                                          6"x6" $90
More peaches with a border......

"Competing for Attention"

                                          SOLD
I got a pair of these bowls with the lovely conical shape. It was surprisingly hard to capture the right angles to the right and left of the bowl, It kept looking skewed. this is kind of an unusual color scheme for me; I think i like it!

"The Three of Us"

                                          6"x6" $90
I rather like this border concept- especially with the spoon breaking into it. I'm still loving painting peaches...more to come

"Peaches and Plums" new version

                                          SOLD
I liked this painting, but something was really bugging me- and I didn't know what. I'm sure you fellow painters know what I mean. Well, it finally hit me that the bowl was too linked to the peaches (by color and value) and needed instead to link the dark shapes of the plums. I also darkened the knife a bit to facilitate this. Now all the darks are linked. Much better, I think.

I'm leaving Monday for a 6 day womens retreat- hiking and otherwise enjoying ourselves in Northeastern Washington. I am scheduling posts during that time- including this one.

"Japanese Vegetable Series"

     SOLD





As promised, here's the commissioned series of Japanese vegetables.