Sunflowers in the Mountains

'Sunny Meadow' 6x6 pastel

I really need to go back to this North Carolina meadow this summer. Jayne and I stumbled on it last year and I have had so much fun painting from my photos. I did this little painting in preparation for tomorrow's pastel class. We are going to be talking about painting from photos and how we can make our paintings better than the photo. I will have some tips and a fun exercise for practice.

The View from Cabin #4

'View from Cabin #4' 9x18 pastel

At least I think we were in cabin #4....I will have to confirm that. This was our view anyway from our cabin on Creighton Island. I took many photos of the view, each with it's own mood. I liked the peaceful feeling I got when standing here looking out at this view! I wish this little picture showed up larger. It is hard to see when I have to crop it down.

After the Storm

'After the Storm' 9x12 pastel

One of my long time collectors admired my Stormy Sunset painting and requested a 9x12 portrait version to add to her collection. I love this scene so I was happy to paint this for her. This is on art spectrum paper which I normally don't enjoy working on but it was nice for this painting. On another note....have you seen that Terry Ludwig has a new set of light pastels? One more thing I need!

Mountain Summer

'Mountain Summer' 5x7 pastel

Here is another little painitng I did at the lake this past weekend. It is based on a photo I took last summer up in the mountains around Murphy, NC. There were no Queen Anne's Lace this time but I did manage to get a few photos of the poppy fields. I can't wait to try to paint them!

Siamese Asleep

'Siamese Asleep' 5.5 x 5.5 Pastel

It was time for another small cat painting and this pose of Tobi called out to be painted. I am often asked how I decide on my backgrounds for my animal paintings. This one happened by accident. I was planning on making it a colorful dark and I put down the purples first. I decided that I just liked it purple so I didn't add any other colors. Sometimes the painting just tells you what to do!

Poppy Field at Sunset

'Sunset Field' 5x7 pastel

Here is another painting I worked on this weekend out on the house boat. I wanted to try this scene. The colors and light were just amazing in the reference photo. Thank you to the photographer in the wet canvas image library. I couldn't resist this one even though I try to only paint from my own photos.

Queen Anne's Lace close up #2

'Against the Sky' 5x7 pastel

I just got back from a weekend up in the North Carolina mountains. The weather was perfect and I had a chance to do some small paintings. I only did one plein air piece becuase by the time we arrived at the lake the light was so flat so I ended up painting from some photos I took in the mountains. Painting outside on the houseboat was a lot of fun and very relaxing! I took a lot of photos too....wildflower fields, butterflies, sunsets...can't wait to get painting!

A Sweet Boy

This is a commission I did recently of a sweet cat named William. It is 5x7 on LaCarte paper, my favorite for animals. William was fun to paint because of his soft coloring. He was the first orange cat that I have painted. Today I am headed to the mountains for the weekend. I have my camera and pastels and a pile of books packed. I need to start finalizing the itinerary for my upcoming New England vacation. I am getting excited!

Eastern Bluebird Painting

'It's Dinner Time!' 5x7 pastel

I missed getting over to Jayne's to get photos of her bluebirds so I painted this from last years photos. Hopefully they will raise another family this year and I will have a chance to enjoy them! They come so close to get the worms Jayne puts out. They are wonderful!

Chicago Street Scene Garrett's Popcorn

'Popping In' 5x7 pastel

I have yet to try Garrett's Popcorn in Chicago. The two times I was there the lines were huge! I figure it must be pretty good and it is on my list to try on my next visit. It looked extra warm and inviting on this cold December evening!

Wildflower Demo Painting

'Among the Daisies' 8x10 pastel

Here is the demo painting I did for my pastel class last Sunday. We talked about composition and focal areas. We also talked about learning to train our visual brains and start thinking and talking in visual terms....shapes, colors, values rather than naming objects. Everyone painted wildflowers or fields of flowers and did a great job! We have one more class and then on to session II!

A New Nest Painting

'Spring Treasure' 5x7 pastel

I wasn't able to post last night because our power was out from a storm. Then this morning windows wouldn't start on my computer and I had a mini panic! But it seems to be working for the moment. Here is a new nest painting. It was fun to paint this one. I am continuing with my city scenes. We are going to concentrate on them in Marsha's class for the next couple of sessions so look for more to come!

Dragonfly Close-up

'In the Garden' 5x7 pastel

I decided to try a close up view of a blue dragonfly. This is from one of Jayne's old photos I recently found. I am going to be on the hunt for dragonflies up in the mountains this weekend. I am out of reference photos!

Chicago Theater Street Scene #2 SOLD

'A Night on the Town' 5x7 pastel

Here is a larger version of my Chicago Cityscape #2. I took this photo while waiting to attend the show 'Wicked' a couple of years ago. I love all the bright lights of the city. It is such a change from painting wildflowers! In my pastel class I teach we painted fields of wildflowers today. We talked about focal areas and ways we can get them to be the stars of the painting. I had fun and everyone did such nice work! I am happy to say that everyone will continue on to the next sesion. I have some fun things planned for us to do!

Roadside Wildflowers

'Roadside Wildflowers' 5x7 pastel

I had a wonderful day with Jayne & Holly. We went to an area art festival and spent the afternoon looking for a place to try out our limited pastel palette. We never did find a place to paint but we did make a few photo stops....a sheep farm, a field of wildflowers and some daisies and Queen Anne's Lace by the side of the road. Just my kind of scenery! I did this little painting when I returned home while it was all fresh in my memory.

Christmas Shopping in Chicago SOLD

'Michigan Avenue December' 5x7 pastel

Here is my first Chicago street scene. My friend Cindy and I had taken our girls to Chicago right before Christmas. We had so much fun shopping, visiting the Art Institute and seeing Wicked. It was just cold enough to get us in the holiday spirit.

Chicago Street Scenes

Here is a sneak peek at some small street scenes I have been working on. Citiscapes are outside of my comfort zone so I am trying to do as many as I can so I can learn. These are each 5x7 and are based on photos I took on my two trips to Chicago. I will be posting them seperately as well. They were fun to do and I would like to paint some larger street scenes...maybe at class next week.

North Georgia Landscape

'Just Mowed' 6x12 pastel

This is a field of freshly mowed hay. It smells so good! Jayne, Holly and I are going to try to get out Saturday for a plein air painting excursion to the Canton area. I hope we have good weather. I really miss painting outside!

Wildwood NJ Boardwalk

'Summer on the Boardwalk' 11x14 pastel

Our assignment last night was to paint a street scene...not my usual subject. I thought of this scene right away. I have had this photo for a few years now but haven't tried painting a boardwalk scene so I thought it would be a good one to try. I enjoyed it and really would like to try more....I just have to go through my photos and see what other street type scenes I have!

Delicate Arch

'Delicate Arch' 5x7 pastel

I had a request for a painting of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. I was only more than happy to paint it. I went through my photos from last summer's vacation and found one of the arch in the late afternoon light with the snow covered LaSal Mountains in the distance. I remember well the 3 mile hike to see Delicate Arch...the last bit along the cliff....it was all worth the effort!

St. George Island Dunes

'Late Summer Dunes' 12x12 pastel

I loved the contrast of the dark and colorful dune plants against the pale pink early morning sky and sand. I would love to get back to St. George Island to paint some day!

My New Easel!

I finally used my Blick gift card and bought myself a new easel. I got to use it yesterday and all I can say is what have I been waiting for! Actually I hesitated buying a new easel because I liked the shelf on the french easel but as you can see in this photo I was able to rig up my own tray. I just stuck a small metal paint tray behind the knobs and I have a perfect little shelf! This one is so much more stable and no more legs to trip over!

Mountain Cabin

'Cabin in the Mountains' 8x10 pastel

I painted an oil version of this scene months ago and thought I'd share the pastel. I spent Mother's Day cleaning and organizing my big pastel box...I can't believe how filthymy pastels were! It is like I just bought a box of new colors! I can't wait to paint with them....maybe after dinner.

Bowman's Beach Sanibel Island

'The Blue Umbrella' 5x7 pastel

I wish I was the one under that blue umbrella! Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island is one of my favorite spots. It seems like you can walk the beach forever! I have to get to work cleaning my studio and setting up my new easel! I finally bought a more sturdy easel...I have been using a french easel which is great but not the most stable thing especially for larger paintings.

Clematis Flower

'Clematis' 7x5 pastel

I love my new little camera! I was playing with it last night and took some macro shots of a clematis flower. It was very hard to get the color right. Dare I say I don't have the right hot pinks??!!! Since I just discovered a box of darks I didn't know I had I don't think I can buy any more pastels until I organize what I have! I used several pearlescent pastels in this painting so that is what the sparkles are.

Siamese Cat Relaxation

'Relaxation' 5x7 pastel

Here is a recent painting of Tobi. My new camera arrived today so I plan on going out later for a walk and try it out. I wanted a new digital Elph with image stabilization. I had been borrowing Corey's but he is using it now so I had to get my own!

Sanibel Shells

'Beach Colors' 5x7 pastel

It was the day after a fierce storm and I went to the beach to see what treasures may have washed ashore. It was amazing! The beach was covered with shells and colorful seaweeds and sea urchins. There were many sea birds feeding. I took many photos of this colorful collection of shells. I would love to make this a series..arranged by Mother Nature and painted by me!

Sanibel Island Week

'Sanibel Sandpiper' 5x7 pastel

I am going to try something different this week. I am going to paint to a theme all week and I have chosen Sanibel Island...one of my favorite places. I have looked through my reference photos of Sanibel and I have chosen some images that I feel represent the island. Today's painting is a sandpiper I photographed at Bowman's Beach. At least as far as I can tell he is a sandpiper of some sort. I studied the pictures in my 'Florida's Birds' book and I would guess he is a Western Sandpiper.

50,000 Blog Visitors! Thank you!

My blog had a milestone today when I had visitor number 50,000! I want to thank all of my visitors who have enjoyed viewing my paintings. It has been a wonderful experience painting and posting and I know my work has grown as a result. I will look forward to another 50,000!

This little 5x7 painting was done for my Sunday class. Today we talked about landscape painting and aerial perspective. I think that understanding how to achieve aerial perspective was so helpful to me when I was new to painting. This marsh is at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ. The first landscape I ever painted was a similar scene so I thought it would be an appropriate landscape to demonstrate.

Dragonfly Painting sold

'Golden Beauty' 5x7 pastel

Here is another painting in my dragonfly series. I enjoy painting these and I especially love creating the lacy wings.

More Good News!

In today's mail was the envelope from the Southeastern Pastel Society's 13th annual juried International Exhibition. I was afraid to open it up....but I am so excited to share that two of my paintings were accepted! That means I am now offically a juried member of the SE Pastel Society and one more show to go before I can be a Member of Excellence. Of course I am glad that Tobi got in but I am very excited that the marsh painting was accepted. I don't think this little photo does it justice. It is 12 x 24 so now I need more frames! I am sad that I will miss the Opening Reception June 12th, but I will be on a plane to New England for our family vacation.

Sunflowers in a copper pot

'Pot of Sunshine' 8x10 pastel

I felt like painting sunflowers today. I would love to get some sunflowers and paint them from life. That is on my list. Also on my list is a new project I'd like to tackle. I was preparing for Sunday's pastel class and came across Richard McDaniel's book on landscape painting. In his chapter on 'skies' he recommends doing 45 sky paintings. I can see how that would be a good thing. I think if I precut my paper I can try to paint a few small sky studies each week. Stay tuned!