Water Lily ACEO

This little painting is just 2.5 x 3.5 and looks great in a mat and frame. I did a few of these while I had my pastels out for my recent water lily paintings. I like the almost abstract feeling to this one but I bet I wouldn't be able to get the same effect if I tried it larger. Hmmmmm now I think I just challenged myself!

Pond with Water Lilies Pastel Painting

'Drifting' 8x10 pastel

For this painting I did a watercolor underpainting. I didn't use much pastel at all this time. I tried to let the watercolors I put down do most of the work....after all I was painting water! I know I could do more to refine this painting but I like the soft dreamy feeling and since that was my concept for the painting I decided to leave it alone.

Bird Nest Painting

'Hidden Nest' 6x6 pastel

We discovered this little nest on our trip to New Mexico. A pretty little bird had her nest in a small fir tree in the planter next to our motel room door. We hated to disturb her as we carried our luggage and gear in and out of the room but she really didn't seem to mind the activity as long as we didn't get too close.

In The Meadow acrylic painting

'In the Meadow' 7x5 acrylic on canvas

Today was spent organizing my studio. I'd rather be painting but every few months it needs a good clean out. I feel better now so tomorrow I will be able to relax and paint all day if I want! I have a few ideas I want to explore. This acrylic painting was done last weekend. I want to try some more larger ones.

Water Lily Painting #2

'Sunkissed' 10x8 pastel

For this painting I did another technique with an ink drawing and wash then pastel. I had one big lily in the middle and I didn't like it at all so I brushed the whole painting off, sprayed it with fixative which made a nice dark background with my ink drawing still there. I think tomorrow I will take out my acrylics again.

Water Lilies Pastel & Watercolor SOLD

'Letting Go' 11x14 pastel

I've been in 'water lily' mode this week as I prepare for my upcoming workshop on pastels and mixed media. Our theme for the workshop is water lilies to go along with the Monet exhibit at the High Museum. We are trying to get our classmates together to go see the exhibit before the workshop. Hopefully we can work out the timing. Summer is such a busy time it seems!

Queen Anne's Lace Acrylic Painting

'Beautiful Day' 12x6 acrylic on canvas

I was excited to paint these flowers on this size canvas. I had originally bought it to use for a marsh scene but it just spoke to me that it needed to be a glimpse of a field of Queen Anne's Lace. I am planning on doing a 20x10 pastel version of this painting. It was fun building up the texture of a field of tangled flowers.

One of my Early Paintings

I did this painting back in high school about 30 years ago. I reconnected with my high school friend on facebook and she posted this today. Seems she kept the 'Karen Taylor' original I painted for her after our high school trip to Europe. I was very much into Switzerland at the time and most of the paintings I did were of the Swiss countryside. All I can say is I have improved my painting skills since then! How fun it was to see this. Brought back some good memories!

Wildflowers on Canson

'Into the Meadow' 5x7 pastel

I am testing the limits of the Canson paper I recently bought. So far I am enjoying it quite alot to my surprise. It's just a nice chance of pace to just start painting without thinking about underpaintings and taking out extra supplies. I have some more left so I will be trying some more.

Poppies 16x20 Acrylic SOLD

'Morning Breeze' 16x20 Acrylic on canvas

Here is the second acrylic painting I completed on Saturday. I did two other smaller ones that I will be posting later in the week. I am having fun painting with a brush and having the ability to build up texture with the paint. I have heard from many that it helps to paint in other mediums....one helps you improve the other....I need to make room in my weekend schedule to do more of these.

Escape from the Summer Heat

'Summer Reverie' 8x10 pastel

Today was a hot one here in Atlanta so a cool painitng was in order. For this one I used cooler colors and the sky was overcast and grey. I remember this day...a cool summer morning with a morning fog. It would have been a welcome relief today!

Abiquiu New Mexico Acrylic Painting

'Dreamer's Chant' 18x24 acrylic

Here is my finished acrylic painting. If you read the post below you will see that I spent a nice afternoon playing with paint! I wish the texture in this painting showed up better in the photo. If I had bigger tubes of paint I would have put it on even thicker. I had so much fun with this one I did another one of red poppies. This scene is from one of my New Mexico trip photos. I believe it was at Ghost Ranch. We stopped here for some photos and tried to find the wetland hike....but the wetlands were dry!

An Afternoon's Work...Acrylic Paintings!

I don't know what got into me today but I just felt like doing a painting with a brush! I didn't feel like waiting for oils to dry so I took out some acrylic paints. I ended up doing two paintings, an 18x24 and a 16x20. Did I ever have fun! I was actually inspired by the paintng that was in my room where we stayed in Taos. It was loaded with thick paint and I have been wanting to try it ever since. Mine aren't quite as thick. I was somewhat stingy with the paint. I will try to get a better photo of each one. I was happy with my attempts at mixing colors....I didn't get too frustrated which was nice.

Water Lily Painting

'Water Play' 8x10 pastel

I am about to start a commission of a house so I thought I'd have some fun and play first! If you know me than you know that architectural things are not my favorite things to paint but my clients are giving me free reign to play up the mountain landscape so it will be a good challenge. I did these water lilies in preparation for my upcoming mini workshop on Juy 12th. We are going to play with some other media in our pastel paintings. It should be a lot of fun! If you'd like to learn more about my workshops, I have a page here with information and soon some more photos.

Queen Anne's Lace painting #2

'A Simple Place' 8x10 pastel

This second painting is done on Canson paper, moonstone color. I had a piece cut and my pastels out from my first painting so I wanted to see what would happen. I am so used to the sanded papers and boards and doing underpaintings. This time I wanted to see what it would be like to just paint...no underpaintings. I found that I actually quite enjoyed it. I really don't use many layers in my paintings so the Canson had plenty of tooth for me. If you look closely you can see I have left some of the paper showing in some areas. I think overall I got a softer look than I get on the sanded papers but I think it works for this subject. I will probably play with this paper some more. It was a nice simple change of pace.

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New Queen Anne's Lace Painting

'Summer Heat' 8x10 pastel

You know the kind of hot summer day when it is so steamy you can even see the heat rise? The kind of day when you welcome even the tiniest breeze and long to be somewhere near the water to put your feet in for some cool relief? That's the kind of day it is today here in Georgia. The Queene Anne's Lace is blooming in force around here so I was inspired to paint this today. It is 8x10 on Uart pastel paper. I did a value underpainting/turpenoid wash using orange pastels and got new use some of my new Sennelier darks I got at IAPS.

Low Country Marsh Oil Painting

If there only were more hours in the day I would experiment more with oil paints. I know I would enjoy it. Pastels are just more convenient for daily painting because I can leave my supplies out and paint whenever I have free time. I don't have to worry about set up and clean up. Maybe someday! This is a 5x7 oil I did a few months ago. I love to paint marshes and wide open spaces as much as I love to paint more intimate views of nature like my wildflowers!

I have more good news to share today. I am now be represented by Frameworks Gallery here in Marietta, Georgia. I am excited to be included with their wonderful group of artists. I will be updating my links shortly so please visit them or come in person if you are in the area.

Summer in Taos

'Summer in Taos' 8x10 pastel

I finally had a chance to paint from some of my New Mexico trip photos. This is actually the second painting I did of the same scene. I did three versions each one using a different technique. For this painting I did a value underpainting/turpenoid wash. I will be posting the others. If you are familiar with the Taos area, this is on the way to Arroyo Seco. It was a stormy gray day but the clarity and color of the scrub was very striking.

Flowers by the Pond

'Contemplation' 8x10 pastel

This pretty spot at the edge of a pond was the perfect place to spend a relaxing afternoon just daydreaming and making vacation plans. I didn't actually do that today. Instead the day was filled with errands, cleaning house, framing......whew. I did manage to get to paint though and it felt good!

Smoky Mountain Morning Pastel Painting

'Smoky Mountain Morning' 8x10 pastel

Last Sunday we drove the Miata up to ride the 'Tail of the Dragon'. It is a road at the border of North Carolina and Tennessee and it has 318 curves in 11 miles! Before we got there we had to stop to take photos of this wonderful field of purple flowers. (Thanks Carolyn) I have tried to look them up but I'm not sure what they are. They were tall and came in various shades of purples...not lupines...and had very fine 'dill like' leaves. Anybody know what they are? They sure made a statement though! Oh, the road was fun too!

Exceptional Merit Award!

I am excited to share that my painting 'Dance of the Wildflowers' won an Exceptional Merit award at the Southeastern Pastel Society's Members' show last night. It is a great show and I am honored to be included and to win an award! I am thrilled with my prize which is my choice of a 78 piece set of Great American pastels and two art dvds of my choice. I hope they let me pick the new Richard McKinley set of pastels I wanted to buy at IAPS! For this painting I used museum glass for the first time and the difference is amazing! You couldn't even tell there was glass on the painting! It will be hard to use anything else now!

Cosmos

'Cosmos Color' 8x10 pastel

Another painting from the workshop and again using a bright colored underpainting. I have some new pastels from Jack Richeson that I can't wait to try on another version of this field of cosmos. They are all very intense colors and should work well for these flowers.

Stormy Sky over New Mexico

'Stormy Sky' 8x10 pastel

Here is another painting from the Deborah Secor workshop. I did a brightly colored underpainting with the Creatix pure pigments. I also used some of Terry Ludwig's new confetti pastels. These are pastels with bits of pastel in them so that when you make a mark you get instant broken color...what fun they are to play with. I used them in the distant mountain in this painting.

Tomorrow night is the opening reception for the Southeastern Pastel Society's juried show in Athens Georgia athe the Lyndon House Arts Center from 7-9 pm. I have a wildflower painting in the show and I hope to get over to Athens for the reception!

Aspens In June

'Aspens in June' 8x10 pastel

I finally had some time to unpack my things from my New Mexico trip and photograph the paintings I did while away. This painting was done at Deborah Secor's workshop. The topic of the workshop was the 'Playful Landscape' and Deborah showed us some ideas to help us loosen up and just have fun. I did a brightly colored underpainting for this using Creatix Pure Pigments. It definitely was fun to start out with such happy color so I wanted to retain that feeling.

Maine Meadow Painting

'Meadow Magic' 16x20 pastel

This is the painting I did at the IAPS convention in Sean Dye's workshop. We used a variety of media including ink and acrylic paint. Many in the workshop left a lot of the underpainting showing but I managed to cover most of it up with pastels. I do want to work with the technique Sean presented and I bought the ink. Now to just find the time to practice everything I learned!
I got some great news today. I found out that I have sold six paintings in the gallery that I am now represented by. I am really excited that it has been a successful first month.

Another Plein Air Chicken

It's been a whirlwind weekend...family functions, a drive in the mountains and a day at the lake. So I am posting late today. This is another one of the chickens at Casa Gallina in Taos. It is painted plein air so it does look a little different from my usual work. Chickens move so they are hard to paint from life!  I had so much fun painting them though so even though it isn't a polished painting I hope my enjoyment shows!  This painting is 5x7.

Sleeping Kitten

Today's painting is another mini aceo size 2.5 x 3.5....a quick impression of a kitten asleep. I am working on a cat commission today and I am happy that it is coming along well. Next week I will have time to play with my new pastels from IAPS!

Sunset Flowers Miniature Version

'Sunset Flowers'    2.5 x 3.5   pastel

This is the study I did for the larger version of this painting. Sometimes I do these to work out my colors before doing a larger work.  I am currently working on a new painting of Taos using a watercolor underpainting. I may not get to work on it this weekend...busy time with family and catching up on a couple of commissions.

Miniature Poppy Painting

These little 2.5 x 3.5 paintings are always fun to paint. Here is an impressionistic field of wildflowers. It is easy to stay loose on such a small surface! I am slowly digesting all of my notes from IAPS and the workshop aftewards with Deborah Secor. I read some good advice today where it was said to try just two new things you learn at a conference. Sometimes you are so overwhelmed with information that you don't do anything at all. I think that is great advice so I have my top two things I want to try first. I will be keeping you posted!

Clover and Dandelions

'Common Beauty'      8x10       pastel

There is beauty everywhere we look even in a patch of grass....which is where I found these pretty little flowers that many consider pests.  We can find beauty no matter where we go which is why I will embrace the South and the 'Land of Green'!  I am sad to leave New Mexico and the wide open spaces and arid land that I love, but I am also looking forward to finding new inspiration here among the trees!  It's so funny how we see things and I had to smile as my plane landed today in Atlanta. The woman behind be was so excited to be coming home from the desert to 'Her Georgia Trees' !  It was great to be away but nice to be home too!

Sanibel Island Beach Scene

'Sanibel Island Beach Day'     12x36     pastel

This painting is much more striking in person than it is in this little photo. It is large for me and the panoramic format really works with the subject. This is a commission I did and I am waiting for the go ahead to ship it to my collector's new home. I can't wait for them to see it!  

I just finished a wonderful 2 day workshop with Deborah Secor here in Albuquerque. It was great to finally meet her and what a treat to be in her workshop. It was everything and more than I had hoped for. Thanks Deborah!!! Sadly I am headed home tomorrow but with many photos, memories and new art knowledge to motivate and inspire me.