Loving Lemons

When life gives you lemons on sale at Krogers for 99 cents a bag, you buy them, and if you like to paint- you paint them! Then you make lemonade or lemon bars!

9" x 12" oil on panel

Kate's Family Painting - A Surprise Gift for Her Husband!

Kate, who live in New York, recently commissioned a painting of her house as a Christmas gift for her husband after seeing one I had painted for her friend in May. She wanted her family included too, so this is what I came up with. At 24" x 30", it's one of the larger house paintings I've done but Kate says they have plenty of wall space in their new home.

Kate's House

Final Painting Class

I taught a group of artists on Tuesday afternoons in October and November and the class ended with this painting of a swan. I am always amazed when I see the progress students make over such a short period of time. This session I had two people who had never painted before along with some of my 'regulars'. By the fourth class the new people had caught on to color mixing. We worked with a limited palette so there really weren't many choices.

This painting, on the surface, appears difficult, but the key is the shape of the swan, so I had them spend a half hour on the drawing to get the swan in the right place. The values are stark, and there isn't a huge variety of color so everyone finished in the two hour window.

I know some artists who have the painting completed when they arrive and do another demo in front of the class. I really hate painting the same thing twice though, so I figure out what I'm doing as I paint, and it's easier for me to explain WHY I'm doing it that way, because the experience is fresh.

Tuesday Painters

Sharon, Art, Cora, me, Diana, Cherie, Clara and Scott-(missing Donna and Angie)

The Swan (after I touched it up at home)

Sophie's painting of 'moi'

Sophie has a lovely impressionistic style and I am in love with the painting she did of me for the annual wetcanvas portrait exchange.

Sophie

Sophie, from France, was my partner in the annual wetcanvas portrait exchange this year. The photo she sent me had two light sources, a warm and a cool, so I decided to change it to one light source and eliminate blue from my palette entirely.

There was some violet reflected light in the reference that didn't add anything, so I deleted it.

I used a limited palette consisting of titanium white, cadmium red light, cadmium yellow light, raw umber, yellow green and ivory black. The absence of blue kept the portrait on the warm side and I liked the result.

9" x 12" oil on canvas

Prize Winner

You never know what a juror will pick. That's for sure. A painting that I entered in a portrait show only because I knew my friend would be attending, won the top prize in the show. It's a painting of her, viewing a painting at Art Prize in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I couldn't attend the opening of the show so she accepted the award for me. This is a picture of Char in a gallery viewing a painting of Char viewing a painting. That's a bit confusing and it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, which is probably what Char felt like when they announced she (I) had won!

Photo courtesy of Jim White