Geranium Table

I love geraniums because of the beautiful red or pink color and the sturdy leaves. This painting is for a commission for the client’s kitchen. Repetition is involved here; it is kept from being boring by varying the color and size of the leaves and shadows. Since the red is so bright the gray neutral color serves as a relief for the eyes and allows the flowers to be the star.

Solstice

I love the metal lid on this mason jar used for a vase. I have a tube of paint named Pewter. I used  it as a pure color on the lid but I also use it as a color to mix with other colors to make them more neutral. I added the pewter to the green in the leaves of this bouquet. The grayed green makes a good cool color against the bright pinks and reds of the flowers.

Tipping Point

I fell in love with the colors of this bouquet. It reminded me of opening a new school watercolor paint set with the oval color pans set out in a row. I always couldn’t wait to use the brush to get those colors wet and start painting. I now know the paints in the tube are better to paint with but for a 10 year old the colors were heaven. I love the orange , red and purple together.

Here To Stay

This is another of my acrylic paintings done with my new Golden brand paints. It is true that you get what you pay for. The more expensive paints have more pigment so the colors are just more vivid and brilliant. I am enjoying working with these paints. Years ago when I first started painting I never thought I would be painting glass. Now I look forward to it because I love all of the shapes and colors I see in the glass.

Day in the Sun

I have been painting mostly with oils for quite a while. I recently signed up for an acrylic workshop in May so I bought some new acrylic paints to use in the workshop. This painting is the first painting using the new paints.One thing that helped is using the addition of a retarder to stop the paints from drying too quickly.That was the main problem I had experienced with acrylics in the past. I still love using oils but it is nice to have a painting ready to hang in a matter of hours.

Heavenly Whites

I love color and most of my paintings have a lot of it. But sometimes I try to keep them as neutral as possible while still having a lot of color barely visible. This painting is an example of that. There are a lot of blues, greens, reds and purples if you really look carefully.

World Music

I have painted many meadow scenes, allowing me to paint a landscape while still doing flowers. The title came to me because the meadow seems to be filled with music and movement. It is alive !

Coral Beauty

A good way to start off January is with a painting and only a few resolutions. I got too busy at the end of last year  and did not post on the blog as often as I had been. I was still painting a lot though. I have a small show at Playhouse on the Square starting next week that will be up through January and most of February. This painting is bright and cheerful and perfect to chase away the winter blues.

Front Porch

My husband and I volunteer every Wednesday morning to deliver meals for Meals on Wheels in Memphis. The larger organization is MIFA that serves seniors and families in all aspects. I was asked to design the Holiday Card this year for the organization that is used in their fundraising efforts. I chose the theme of the porch as a welcoming theme of coming home and gathering as a family. This is the painting that I submitted that will be used.

Garden Deep

this view of Iris makes me feel like sitting in a bed with a bird’s eye view of iris of many colors and all stages of blooming. The beauty of the flowers  just takes my breath away.

Last of Summer

At the end of summer there are always flowers that surprise us with their strength to bloom just one more time. Because they are often solitary they are often more beautiful because of their uniqueness. 

 We appreciate them so much more because we know it will be another year before we will see them again.

Jersey Turnpike

The title of this may sound odd. My family lived in Maine when I was a child for 5 years. Every summer we traveled to Tennessee to visit relatives.Our journey always went through the New Jersey Turnpike. At that time there weren’t many places to stop and eat and Howard Johnson’s was always the place where we stopped. This painting’s colors reminded me of the interior colors at the restaurant. A side note: I think I was a picky eater as a child; I always ordered a hot dog and I remember they did not have yellow mustard so I ate it plain. Why did we not bring a jar of mustard in the car?

Awards Ceremony

One of my favorite things to paint are mason jars with flowers. The informal containers are elevated by adding beautiful flowers to them so that they can be used on almost any kind of table short of a state dinner. My favorite are the aqua blue ones.The pink and magenta flowers in the painting seem to float off the pucture plane giving it a mystical feeling.

The Time is Right

I love to paint zinnias; not only for the shapes but for the colors. The colors go together so well because of the harmonious color scheme chosen. I think a painting is successful when it causes a little thrill when I look at it. One of my favorite David Gray songs has a lyric in it that says” feels like lightning running through my veins”. That is how a painting or good music should make us feel.

For Willa

This painting was dedicated to my Aunt Willa who left us more than a year agonat the age of 90. She was a smart, beautiful and witty lady. She and my mother grew up in hard times in rural West Tennessee after their father died and struggled but survived to make good lives. They were interested in reading and politics and humor. Willa loved to travel and was always looking for the next thing to do.

Guaranteed Summer

i enjoyed painting this 24x30 painting on canvas. It is a meadow with flowers that are based in reality but also in fantasy. It is the kind of painting that was fun to do ; my imagination was able to let go and the flower shapes just took off. The colors complemented each other and seemed to dance across the picture plane.

Electric

I gave this painting the title of Electric  because of the lighting on the flowers. It seems to sparkle and bounce around to cause movement; certainly not a a still life painting.

Winter Dreams

This  hot August day seems  like a good time to post a wintry landscape scene.Just looking at it lowers the temperature about 10 degrees. I really don’t want snow just a little breeze and less humidity.  I think  I did not leave my house today; it is the same as residents of Buffalo must feel in January! This painting is a good practice of using neutrals though- the bright red is the only use of pure color.

Fall in Line

This time of year I tend to change the colors I use to the colors associated with autumn. Although some of the flower shapes may stay similar to the ones I make in  spring and summer paintings; it is  amazing what a game changer color can make in a painting. It can change the whole mood and temperature.

Getaway Car

This is a painting that I reworked from one that I just wasn’t happy with. There wasn’t anything really wrong with it; it jst didn’t have much life in it. I figured there was not much I could lose  by trying something different. This method usually results in something good because it gives me permission to be loose which usually results in a better painting.

Dreamscape

Hydrangeas are often a subject of my paintings; whether growing in a garden or in pots or containers.The colors vary from white to blues and pinks and purples.They are a challenge to me but I still try to paint them again and again hoping I will get better each time. I do love the process.

GARDEN WALK

This past month has been the longest I have gone without posting on the blog. We have been traveling quite a bit and spending time with grandchildren. I have been painting in between though and entering shows. This painting is for a show at the Botanic Garden next week.. I love to paint garden scenes. I imagine that I can walk right in there and smell the flowers!

Dancing Whites

The summer months are the time to see hydrangeas everywhere. I have a friend who spends the summers in Maine every year.She has gorgeous hydrangeas in her yard but doesn’t get to see them bloom. She graciously told me I could go and cut some to take home and paint. I love every color; the pinks, purples and blue. But the white ones are especially beautiful paired with a blue and white vase.

Tuesday at the Beach

Looking for shells at the beach is something that the kids never grow tired of. Some days yield more than others. They are beautiful but can a have an oceany odor to them, especially when they haven’t bee throughly washed. Our daughter was wondering why her bedroom in the beach house had a peculiar odor. Her 10 year old daughter Rylee had hidden her bucket of shells in her drawer so as not to be pilfered by younger cousins. yikes! They are now on the porch.

How Wonderful Life Is

My favorite thing to paint again— mason jars. The aqua ones are especially beautiful paired with any color flowers. I just can’t resist.

I Got You Babe

I have painted with this color combination before.Although yellow and blue are not complementary colors the two colors together are very pleasing.I did an approach to this painting in a whimsical style. This gives a feeling of movement and excitement in the painting.

Exceptionally

We have been doing some remodeling and home repairs lately so I haven’t been posting much. When I say we I mean professionals are doing it and we are watching. But it is still disruptive. A few days ago I was blocked from my studio so I worked on some watercolors at the kitchen table. I haven’t used watercolor in a long time but it all came back to me. Art is art.

I Think You’re Pretty

Of course here is another garden painting. I feel there are endless ways to paint these garden or wildfire paintings.It is mostly intuitive in that I just go with the creative flow. The end result is usually unrecognizable from the reference drawing or photo. Always a surprise!

Great Outdoors

My good friend took a photograph near the Tennessee River Park in east Tennessee. I was struck by the wonderful movement that I saw that made me want to paint the scene. The white flowers are the center of interest in the painting but other elements draw the eye into and around the rectangle ending with the setting sun. I hope viewers are drawn into the painting and enjoy time spent there.

Manor Blooms

I don’t know how many times I have painted hydrangeas, but I never tire of painting them.  At first glance they appear to be simple enough. The challenge is to give each bloom a spherical form. This is done mostly with value.The light usually hits on top or to each side so the bottom part is usually darker. I remember in college painting a live model. Our professor was trying to teach us to draw a head with volume. More than 40 years later I remember the elation I felt  the exact moment I got it! Money can’t buy that feeling. I still feel that way when I paint something I am proud of. The secret of life is always having something else to learn or discover.