A Walk in the Woods

Diptych in Oil 36x96--sold

 

This was painted for (and sold at) the Arizona Fine Art Expo.  The painting is of a beautiful spot my husband and I hiked through in Glacier National Park.  

Although you won't be able to see this painting--it's found a new home--I hope you will stop by the Expo in Scottsdale.  The show will continue until March 30th, and I've painted lots of new paintings that I haven't had time to post yet.  In addition to seeing this incredible show with 100 artists, you can sit in the sculpture garden and enjoy 80+ degree weather.  What a double bonus!

Daniel Sprick and Backlighting

The Artist / 8x8 / Oil on Panel

I was quite fortunate to attend a two day workshop last weekend with Daniel Sprick. The first morning was spent with a slideshow and lecture as well as a drawing demo, and the rest of the time was spent painting from the model. In addition to helping people with their paintings, Daniel also began a painting of our model with backlighting. This was just beautiful, and I learned so much not only watching him paint but also seeing how he mixed his colors and used various mediums. When he put the rim light on the figure I knew I had to try my own backlit painting. The 8x8 painting above is a study for a larger version I hope to finish soon.

Hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Ken Caryl Valley 8x10

Ken Caryl Valley 8x10

I am fortunate to live quite near this lovely valley in Colorado, and this painting is the result of an early summer morning's plein air experience. The spring green created by the sunlight shining on those distant trees is hard to imagine.

This valley is full of beautiful red rock outcroppings and has been inhabited for a very long time. In fact, if you started digging on the southwest side of any of the larger rock formations, you would be amazed at what you would find. For many years I taught anthropology to high school Seniors, and I always brought my classes to a dig site very near here that was being worked by the Colorado Archeological Society. We'd spend several Saturdays carefully digging in the dirt, learning all the ins and outs of what it meant to be an archeologist.

The students never failed to find artifacts, and over the years as the digging got lower and lower the objects got older and older. The look on their faces as they held their newly-found object was full of pride and amazement, and I remember one student saying of his artifact, "I'm the first person to hold this in 1500 years." Many of my students became hooked by this experience and went on to study anthropology and archeology in college.

So this is a very special place to me for many reasons--lots of good memories, beautiful scenery, and much pondering about the people who lived here so very long ago. You should come and visit sometime.

Spring Bulbs and Quang Ho's Still Life DVD

Spring Bulbs / 9x12 / Oil on Linen Panel

OK, I know in my last post I said I was going to do more landscapes and cityscapes, but I guess I lied. I spent lots of $$ and several hours last fall planting new spring bulbs, and they finally started blooming about a week ago. I simply couldn't resist painting them. I'm not sure if this is finished or not--I always have to look at it a few days later--but for now I think it's done.

If any of you are interested in learning how to set-up, light and paint still life, I would highly recommend purchasing Quang Ho's latest DVD "Painting the Still Life." I just got my copy on Saturday and have already watched it a couple of times. I'm a sucker for art instruction DVDs and I own a lot of them. This one has lots of good information and is appropriate for beginner through advanced. It is well worth the price.

Windmills at Kinderdijk, the Netherlands

Windmills at Kinderdijk / 6x9 / Oil on Panel

Yesterday I tried to channel my inner Ken Auster and paint the New York Taxi challenge for Different Strokes from Different Folks. Today I was "working" on Mike Workman and trying to create more of a tonal landscape. Even though the sky is overcast, I wanted a feeling of warmth and light coming up through that grass, so this one has a yellow ochre underpainting.

When I started this blog I was getting a little tired of painting traditional still life, and so my original purpose was to give myself a chance to experiment with different subjects and styles of painting in order to choose the one I liked best. So far what I've found is that I like them all, but for right now I've decided to focus more on landscape/cityscape paintings.

For the past two years I've been doing a lot of plein air painting, and although I think that's the hardest kind of painting there is--think bugs, quick moving light, wind, people looking over your shoulder, etc.--I also think that's the best way to learn. You're painting from life and you have to move quick. No slow-pokes in that arena! You're constantly trying to judge values and mix color, pick it up on your brush and plop it in the correct place. Not an easy feat, and when I went out last week I actually had someone standing behind me snapping photos while I painted. At first it really bothered me, but then I decided that it was forcing me to focus only on the painting. Yet another learning experience...

So my current goal is to continue to paint looser and work on landscape/cityscape paintings that convey a sense of place and (hopefully) a definite mood or emotion. Stay tuned, though, because I'm also taking a bunch of figurative workshops in the next few months.

Finally, I truly appreciate all your positive and kind comments about my art work. You are all so talented that it means a lot to me that you even look at my work, let alone take the time to comment. But if there's something you notice that you think could be better, please don't hesitate to make a suggestion or two for improvement. I'm all ears, and I'm here to learn.

New York Taxis

New York Taxis / 8x6 / Oil on Cradled Panel

I missed the last two challenges for Different Strokes from Different Folks--just too busy getting the new studio together and catching up on some of my own paintings. I love the photo that Karin Jurick posted for this new one, so I decided to get it done now rather than wait. The buildings were a bit of a struggle, but painting the taxis was great fun.

I painted this on black gesso, and the black really helped with the shadows under the taxis, etc. Because I started with a black surface, I found myself painting the lights first and then working into the shadows. Very different for me, but something I'm sure all you watercolor folks are used to doing.

Narcissus and Green Vase

Narcissus and Green Vase / 8x10 / Oil on Linen Panel

Here's yesterday's attempt at narcissus. I always get the edges too hard and then have to go in and soften everything. It's much better to do it the other way around!

I received the "Passion for Painting" award from several wonderful artists over the past few weeks. I apologize for not getting to this sooner, but here goes:

First of all, go to Gwen Bell's blog and read her latest--it's guaranteed to make you laugh! Scroll down to see all of her amazing paintings and sketches--especially her latest entry into Different Strokes from Different Folks. (I must admit, Gwen, I decided to take a pass on that one. Good for you!)

Next, please visit Liz Holm's blog to see her beautiful work. She is currently showing "Trixie," her latest painting in the Art for Animals Project. It's such an amazing painting that you think you could reach right out and give Trixie a hug. Don't forget to scroll down to see all of her beautiful portraits!

Finally, visit Arthur Simo's blog. Arthur is a teenager with autism who creates some of the most amazing artwork I've seen in a long time. Arthur's work has a folk art look, and we can all take lessons from Arthur on color, composition and simplicity. His mom writes the blog for him, and I'm sure we could take a few lessons from her as well.

Seven things I love:

1. My family. I don't know what I would do without them.
2. Painting. I'm not sure what I would do without that, either.
3. Chocolate. Ditto on the can't live without part, although I periodically try...
4. A good book. Novels, non-fiction, whatever. I'm a life-long learner.
5. Travel. Kinda goes with the life-long learner part.
6. Good food. Especially if someone else cooks it.
7. Warm weather. Gosh, it's still getting down to the 30's tonight. Where is spring???

I'll post my seven blogs to award tomorrow.

The Road Home

The Road Home / 8x16 / Oil on Linen Panel

I spent the morning working on a still life of narcissus in a glass vase with chiaroscuro lighting. Although I love narcissus, I should know by now not to paint them. I become obsessed with all the ins and outs of the petals, and before you know it the painting is tighter than a rubber band on a pony tail. Accuracy is good, but more and more I'm finding that it's much better to be interesting--perhaps even mysterious--than accurate.

To compensate for all that intensity, I decided to have some fun and play with an old unfinished painting. The first version of "The Road Home" was a light and shadow landscape with okay shapes but not enough light and shadow to make it work. I put away all my reference material and focused only on shapes, values, composition and color. My goal was to create an emotional response instead of a photocopy. I'm really happy with this tonal version. More importantly, I had fun doing it!

Tea Party and New Studio Photos

Tea Party and Hydrangeas / 18x24 / Oil on Linen Panel

This is my first painting in my new studio--finally! :-) I'm trying to create a softer look but am still tempted to go back into the flowers a bit. I want this painting to be about the tea pot, though--and not the flowers--so I've decided to leave it the way it is for a few days. I'll probably find a few things to touch up, but I think it's mostly finished at this point.

This is my new studio. It's 14x28, and this is the west end. I'm in the basement, but the good news is that the previous owner installed 9 ft. ceilings. What a bonus! There's a 9x4 storage closet with shelves for panels and frames beyond the sink.

I've got three fluorescent fixtures in the studio with a mixture of warm and cool bulbs in each. Each fixture is on a separate switch, as is this bank of four recessed lights. There is another bank of four recessed lights at the other end of the studio, plus an additional three over my desk. I'm sure the contractor thought I was a bit wacko with all the lights and switches--you might, too--but since I'm in the basement I wanted as much flexible lighting as possible. The under cabinet lights are also on a separate switch.

One of the things I did in my old studio area was rip apart a cardboard box and nail it around the lights over my easel. That way I could have plenty of light to paint with and still keep it off the still life set-up. I've purchased some black-out roller shades and am planning to install them in the new studio on the ceiling around my easel--the idea is that I can raise and lower them as needed. The first painting worked okay with the spotlight on the set-up, the east end lights on and the west end lights off, but I know it will be better with the shades. I'll post a photo when I get that accomplished!


This is a good view of my painting and set-up area. In the far corner (hidden by the easel) are a couple of old bookcases full of still life props.

Several years ago I purchased a couple of hospital bed tables and have used them for a variety of things. They are really versatile since they raise and lower plus roll. I've used them for still life set-ups as well as my palette, as you can see here.

I plan to put a couple of 8 ft. long ledges (1"x3") on the back wall so that I can get wet paintings out of the way. I'll post a photo when I've got that finished so you can see. Also, for those of you who gave me all your wonderful flooring suggestions, it's hard to tell what I wound up with from this photo but this is the garage flooring from Lowe's. It comes in 20"x20" tiles that interlock, so it was easy to install (no glue) and added some comfort plus warmth to the cement floor. Best of all is that I'm not worried about messing it up. If worse comes to worse, I can easily replace a tile.


This is the east end of the studio with my desk, file cabinets, etc.


This is the other corner of the east end. I plan to install a hanging system on this wall so that I can showcase framed paintings.

Thanks for taking the "tour." This studio has taken fourteen years of dreaming, three months of construction, and way longer than I thought to actually make the move. I've been busy!

Bluff, Utah

Bluff Sunrise / 8x8 / Oil on panel (sold)

Our basement/studio remodel is still not 100% complete. I guess that's just the reality of construction. My studio is about 98% finished. Still a little flooring to do and some lighting issues to resolve. I've moved in but haven't painted in it yet. My husband and I decided to get away from it all for a few days and go someplace warm, so we drove to Phoenix on Thursday-Friday.

We spent the night in Bluff, Utah, and as we walked across the street to a little coffee shop for breakfast the sun was coming up. High fog, and lots of dust in the sky created the scene above. I quickly snapped a bunch of photos and yes, I finally got to paint today. Phew! I'm better now.