"LOOK'IN FOR LOVE"

4x4, oil on 3/8 panel, $50.00

Working this small is fun because it goes with my love for small things.  I have always collected little things, like thimble size.  There is something personal and sweet to a painting so small.  I have been working with bigger brushes to make me stay loose and I am lov'in it.  They are a little abstract to me.  Anyway this rose was pulling way over and made me think it was look'in for something.  So why not love.

"FIRST OF THE SEASON"

6x6, raymar panel, $75.00

This perfect little tomato is the first for the season in my small garden of hierlooms.  They say he is an "Avalanche" tomato.  I expected a really big guy to flavor up a few sandwiches.  Instead he was just a bit.

"THREE PART HARMONY"

6x6, raymar panel, sold

Here is another of the paintings completed on the Dewberry/Cooper Paint A Thon day.  I was so happy to push my colors beyond my comfort.  Love days like this.

"LOV'IN COLOR"

6x6, oil on raymar panel, $75.00

This was a great day of painting and chatting.  Dana Cooper came to paint with me for the day.  It was a little crazy as my house had lots of activities going on and in the middle of everything easels and still life set ups.  Having another painter to bounce ideas off of and simply have a fresh eye is wonderful.

"SINGING THE BLUES"

4x4, oil on 3/8 panel, $50.00

Oh such fun must come to an end.  This is the last of my pear series for the moment.  Just a little different in it's setting.  I love experimenting with blues lately and relationships around the color wheel.  I find there is always something new to knock my creative mind for a loop.

"A PEAR OF MANY COLORS"

4x4, oil on 3/8 gesso panel, $50.00

I am really enjoying playing with color in the creation of these pear paintings.  They are great exercises in fearlessness and a small format to complete in short sessions.  Lots of fun.

"A PEAR'S LIFE"

4x4 oil on gessoed 3/8 panel, $50.00 

Another pear painting in my series.  To this sweet and juicy pear that has served me well.  Just one more and then fruit salad it will be.

"MY BEST SIDE"

4x4, oil on 3/8 gesso board, $50.00 +$10.00 S&H

I just love all the colors in pears and of course their shapes.  I equate them with the female form.  They are just so voluptuous.  I love painting and drawing from life and this fruit is the closest thing to the human form I know.  My sense of humor might be playing into this.  I am sure there are others you might think of and want to share.  I would love to know what you think.

"ODE TO THE PEAR"

4x4, oil on gesso 3/8 panel, $50.00 + $10.00 s&h

I need to sing the praises of the pear.  It is a lovely fruit with a beautiful shape.  The pear has been my subject on many occasion.  In those times of creative block the pear has offered itself to pull me through to get to the part I love most ...to PAINT.  Subject can be difficult on many levels and can stop the paint process completely.   Looking for something inspiring that might also inspire the viewer can be stressful, which is a very left brain place and messes with the head.  So when I am feeling that way, I paint pears.  I let go and paint...  And then I eat the pear, yummy.

"DREAMY AFTERNOON"

6x8 oil on canvas panel, $85.00 + $10.00 s&h

This painting started from a walk I took through a local park where there are houses that are built right up to it's borders.  The vision is that these houses have land that goes on forever.  The truth is that it is only a dream.

"WALL FLOWER"

6X6, oil on canvas panel, $70.00

This little flower was pushed to the wall which was a box that kept moving.  I was sort of taken with the light on the glass reflecting in the water.

"BRIGHTEN THE DAY"

6x6 oil on canvas panel, $70.00

These little flowers grow beautifully in a friends front yard.  She brought me a bouquet and i thought I would paint them.  I had such trouble with the perfect symmetry of the flower and how the petals go straight out like a helicopter propeller.  They just don't look real.  After playing with them for a while I just thought I would go with it and paint them that way.  

"JUST DOWN THE ROAD"

5x7, oil on canvas board, $65.00 + $10.00 S/H

On one of my trips up the coast of California I got to get off the main roads to see the more rural areas of the state.  There were lots of farms and dirt roads that lead to barns like this one.  I don't see many barns in the O.C.

"JUST ABOVE CIVILIZATION"

16x8 oil on canvas panel $185.00+$15.00 S/H

Not very far from where I like is a wonderful park called Peter's Canyon.  It is a hiking park and the last stretch in an ever growing housing area that connect the City of Orange to the City of Irvine.  The wonderful thing about being in the canyon is civilization seems to disappear.  Then as you reach a pinnacle point and have a clear view, there it is.  The world and all the people and things I walked away from for just a moment in time.  I am grateful for the hour or two I wander on my hikes in the canyon.  It is peaceful and refreshing.  I love the serenity.

This painting was lots of fun.  I loved the paint application and found myself using a palette knife and just feeling free as I do when I am there in the canyon.

"SAILING CLASS"

16x12, oil on canvas board, $195.00

Every once and a while I catch the sailing school getting ready to sail.  All the kids on the dock are waiting their turn to get out on the water.  The group in the foreground are seting the sail and preparing to join the crew on the dock.  It is very entertaining because all the parents are crowded up on the boardwalk to watch and take pictures of their children.

I almost abandon this painting.  I found it very difficult to paint from a photo with the strange light of an overcast bright day.  Don't know if that makes any sense.  Everything looked bright and defused with very little shadow.

 

"ALWAYS CUT THE STEMS"

8x6, oil on canvas panel, sold

I bought these sunflowers to paint and they immediately started drooping as I meantioned in my last posting of "Cut Flowers". I realized that I brought them home through them in water to paint and did not cut the stems. So this time I cut the stems quite a bit to see if I could bring them back and sure enough it did.

 

"CUT FLOWERS"

8x8, oil on stretched canvas, $100.00 + $12.00 S/H

Cut these lovely sunflowers today to brighten up the house.  I was amazed at how fast they were drooping and thought if I had any inkling to paint them I best get right on it.  They look very cheerful and I hope they last a few days.  Flowers, like vegetables and fruit, are a bit of a gamble.  You just don't know how long they will last.

"IT'S A DOGS LIFE"

6x6,oil on canvas panel. $70.00 + $12.00 S/H

Back in May I went down to see the Balboa Island Art Walk, which a few of my artist buddies from Daily Painter Originals were participating.  It was a great people watching day and of course, dog watching too.  Everyone was out walking their dogs and checking out the artwork.  Except for the cold weather it was lots of fun.