"Patience"

SOLD
Somehow, some way, this painting decided to change course. The present just no longer looked as if it wanted to wave and flap about, suddenly and wonderfully it just seemed still. I suppose sometimes on some days you desperately want to flutter about, and sometimes on some days
you are willing to spread your wings and simply wait - content.

"Sprite"

SOLD
Well this was just four square inches of fun! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

"Sprite" in process

As could be expected after looking intensely at orange for so long, I've been craving blue. This tiny blue glitter bow was just the what the doctor ordered! I do love a stick on bow, maybe not as glamorous and elegant as the silk, satin, and velvet varieties, but boy are they loads of fun! And that's just how I wanted to feel today... cute and fun.

I'll be able to post the finished painting tomorrow, it is too dark now to get a good picture, but I could not wait to share my joy filled day!

"Flame"

SOLD

I do so hate being away from painting for an entire week, I was so glad to get back to my brushes and the smell of oil. I had plenty of inspiration for the feeling of heat in Alabama while I was there! My goal was to have this painting convey that sense of heat we are feeling from our summer days and maybe a secret flame or burning passion.

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire, and must be ready to be consumed by that fire"....Auguste Rodin

Varnishing Day

Don’t you just love varnishing day??!! Wow, what a difference varnish makes in the colors, like sparkling jewels. This has been a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy day. I needed to varnish my most recent little paintings for an “Open Studio Night” I am participating in at the Fine Arts Building this Friday. If anyone reading this lives here in Chicago, I’ll be on the fifth floor. Please come by and introduce yourself! Oh… and I got my haircut today and to my receipt they stapled a little piece of yellow paper that said, “Wherever you go, go with your whole heart”, just thought I’d pass it along. Oh my, the sun is coming back out!

Woops, forgot to add one of my favorite new spots

Seeing Spots

"Every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love"....(Alfred Sisley)

These past several days I've been working on a painting that has not been coming together for me. I've loved the color and composition, but just could not make it happen.

I have a book titled "A Painting a Day" which is basically a calendar with a painting and a quote that accompanies the painting. Today's quote for the day was the Sisley quote above. It made me realize that the painting I was so frustrated with did not have a "spot". I looked back through some of my past and recent paintings and thought I would share the spots where I fell in love. Maybe if anyone is reading this out there.... you might share your spots.

"Exist"

SOLD



"There can be no blue without yellow and without orange." --Vincent Van Gogh

"Presage"

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It only took me all day to figure this out. The colors in the shadow painting's photo are off, in person the paintings are exactly the same, but just getting the pictures to line up properly was enough for me to handle today. Whew! This blog world has taught me a lot more about computers than I ever thought I wanted to know!


Thanks to Carol Marine for helping me figure this out!

"Presage"

I must be taking my vitamins, because this painting just painted itself. This painting is a diptych, with one of the canvases containing this present, and its companion canvas containing the present's shadow. The above post shows the two together, but the zoom capability is not very clear and I wanted you to be able to see the thick brushwork in the velvet ribbon. (which you can do by clicking on this picture for a close up view)

So what's in a present?

These paintings of presents represent for me the unseen, more specifically the soul. If the eye is the window to the soul, is it a two way street? By that I mean, if someone looks into our eyes they can see into our soul, right? So can our souls also be revealed, and maybe just to ourselves, by what we take in through our eyes? Do we let our exterior world affect our interior world?