Blue Porch Ceiling

12x12, oil on canvas panel

Since I am a house and garden aficionado,  I rarely miss a chance to go on a tour.  It happened that I was visiting my sister, a docent at the New Orleans Museum of Art, when she was slated to be one of the hostesses at a house on the tour.  We all (sister, cousin, brother-in-law) trouped over to N. O. for a wonderful day of looking at gorgeous houses and gardens.  I even saw my first Lamborghini!  This painting is from a quick reference photo taken while we were in line.

I'm thinking this photo looks washed out.  I'll either take a better photo or paint in a bit more contrast.

Garden Paintings, Revisited (sold)

I posted these 8x8's about a week ago.  They were painted in the garden during a museum garden tour on a Sunday afternoon.  I love painting with people around--it's always interesting and a wonderful chance for showing what an painter does.  On the other hand, it's harder to concentrate and paint deliberatly.  Although the paintings sold that day, I brought them home with me to  work on a bit more and to varnish them.  I didn't do too much, just heightened the contrast and put in a little more detail.  In the pool painting there were 4 koi.  I murdered one (with paint!) because an odd number always looks more interesting than an even number.  In  addition  I  darkened part of the koi so they would look under water.

Daybreak (sold)

8x10, oil on canvas panel

Painting in Mary Lou's Garden (sold)

Our Charlotte museum,The Mint Museum, has a garden club which sponsors a yearly garden tour of about 7 gardens...always lovely.  Last year they added artists painting in the gardens as an extra enticement.  I painted last year and again this year, actually yesterday.  It was lovely weather, not too hot, but somewhat overcast which makes it difficult to show form with value.  The sun did come out at times and I quickly incorporated what I saw.  The garden's owner had only lived in the house 3 years, which was impressive enought, but she also did all the work. 


Here are a few photos from her garden which will be using as reference for future paintings.

I painted two small 8x8.  Both were sold.  Not sure why the photos are so small--I suspect my camera is possessed!  I'll touch up some spots, varnish, and then deliver to the new owners.

Blue House with Roses

8x10, oil on canvas panel

This painting is from Bay St. Louis,MS which is a charming small town on the Gulf Coast.  Katrina did wipe out many of the beautiful homes, but quite a few have been rebuilt.  Houses like this small blue house are also prominent and mixed in with the less modest ones.

The Pink House

8x10, oil on canvas panel

Mountain Stream

9x11,  oil on canvas panel
I really loved how the reflections were confined to one area.  In keeping with my desire to always improve the composition, I added most of the rocks.

North Carolina Mountain Road

9x12, oil on canvas panel

I was particularly drawn to this scene because of the "elbow" limb on the tree on the left.

I'm now in Atlanta (actually Marietta) after taking a jillion photos in Bay St. Louis, MS  for painting reference.  On Thursday I have planned a day trip to Tallulah Gorge in north Georgia for more photos.

In the Shade and in the Sun

8x10, oil on canvas panel

I'm presently out of town having a reunion with family.  We're having a great time, but I won't be back to painting until later next week.  It's beautiful, and I've taken lots of photos for painting reference.

The Two Cedars

8x10, oil on canvas panel

Steve's Pond

8x8, oil on canvas panel

I love square paintings.  I just ordered a box of 10x10's and plan to have a party painting on a square format.

This painting, done last night in the studio, leans toward the abstract.  I had planned to scrape it down lightly and work on it this morning--I didn't like how some of the white got in the transparent dark areas--a common problem when painting all prima.  A friend, whose opinion I value, liked the abstractness of it and strongly suggested I leave it as it.  I decided to follow his advice as he is quite a good painter.

Going Home

5x7, oil on canvas panel

This is a small I painted in between working on larger paintings.  

Work in Progress

9x12

Well, it's great to be painting and posting once again.

This one needs to dry for a day, then worked on, then dry for a day, then painted on again.  That's how I usually work on anything larger than 8x10's which are painted alla prima.  There are many branches on the large tree that should be painted over a slightly dry sky and the shadows on the road are not complete.

Still Sick

I had a relapse and am on the second round of a different antibiotic.  Hope to be up and painting soon.

Bill Jameson Workshop, Saluta, NC

I just returned from a Bill Jameson painting workshop.  Bill lives in Saluta, NC, and I fell in love with the town,  so charming and so much to do.  Below, in no particular order, are some photos I took at the workshop.  If you are a landscape painter, I highly recommend the workshop. 

I've tried for 2 days to write this post and add photos of the workshop.  Something is not working with the pics so I'll try again later.

Got sick coming home from the workshop, but couldn't see the doctor until Monday.  I'm on an antibiotic, but still feeling pretty crummy.  Will be up and painting soon, I hope.

3/19
I'm doing great.  Nothing like cipro!  So here goes another attempt to upload the photos.  Next posts will be paintings.

This is Bill's studio, also his wife's, Ann, who is also a painter.  Quite spacious with skylights-a dream for any studio artist.  The commute's not bad either.  Their house is just across the driveway,

Here is Bill's set up for painting.  A large glass for mixing colors and a large assortment of brushes.  You can see his paint along the sides.   Bill uses a medium of half stand oil and half liquin. 

This painting was on his easel when I first arrived,  Beautiful, isn't it?

Here's Bill during a teaching moment.  He's a wonderful artist and teacher, also enthusiastic, funny, and congenial.

This photo shows how he begins a painting (after making a sketch on paper and a small painting study).  He uses cobalt blue to draw just the  main shapes on a tinted canvas.
For some reason, blogger does not allow a longer post, so I shall work on this some more later.

Silos at Dusk

8x10, oil on canvas panel

This is absolutely my favorite time to paint outdoors.  In this case the light was to the back which creates that wonderful rim light that you see on the edges of the silos.  The silos themself are almost flat, although I did add a bit of warmth to the rim light side...artist priviledge, right?  The sky has slightly more blue than the photo does.  Just couldn't get it all the work together, so I sacrificed the sky.

An Apple a Day

8x8,  oil on canvas panel

You'll be happy to know that I ate the apple after painting it and am feeling quite healthy!

Union County Arts Gala

The art work was arranged on tables.  Boxes were at each work for guests to put in bought tickets.  The winner for each work would be drawn.  Last year there was just a sheet for people to write down their bid.  I think they made more money this way.

I saw these guests looking at my painting, so I quickly snapped a photo!  You can see their tickets in hand.

I would estimate there were over 100 people there.  At 100 dollars a person, quite a bit of money was made for the Union County Arts.  I don't know if the country club donated the space and of course, dinner had to be paid for, but there were also corporate sponsors.  All in all I think they must have made 10 thousand dollars.  Yea art!!!!

Sprouting Garlic (sold)

5x7, oil on canvas panel

As you can see, I keep my garlic way too long, but it does make for a better painting with

a few green sprouts.  I'm sure a really good blogger would include a recipe for garlic in this post.  So here's my recipe, put garlic in anything that's not sweet.



Linseed Oil

5x7

Some oil painters use a medium and some use the paint as it is out of the tube.  I am

a medium user.  A medium, depending on the kind, will thin the paint and

make it flow better and often add a bit of gloss. 

When I painted in college (the whole 1 semester I had!)  we used copal.  I really liked it, but

I doubt it was very healthy for our young lungs.  However, we did not

worry about those things then.  I don't think anyone realized the importance

of handling the materials with caution.  To make a point, almost everyone paints

wearing gloves, something I did not see years ago.

About a year ago, I only used linseed oil mixed with a little gamsol (orderless turps), hence the

half empty bottle.  Then someone introduced me to liquin which I had always

resisted because of the way it looks.  I'm such a princess!

Liquin thins the paint, provides a soft gloss, and hastens drying--so I am

now a convert.

Someday I'll probably dig out the linseed oil again...we painters are like that. We go

back and forth with out supplies.



The Yellow Door (sold)

8x10, oil on canvas panel

A Lazy Afternoon at Home



8x10, oil on canvas panel

I picture this family sleeping in on a Saturday morning, then having a big breakfast before starting their day.  Sounds like a good idea to me!

Small Spruce

8x8, oil on canvas panel

The reference material for this painting was a photo I shot while driving (slowly!) on Fairview Road with my window rolled down.  Sometimes it's fun to see the reference and then the painting, so below is the photo.

A Day on the River



8x10, oil on canvas panel

This painting will be auctioned at the Union County Arts Gala at the end of this month.  I decided on a silver frame to pull out the different blues.

Valentine Rose

6x8, oil  on canvas panel

Happy Valentine's Day.  This rose, not a usual subject for me, is a painting using the Daily Paintworks Painting Challenge.  I am also working on the gridded 10 minutes painting.

Here's a link to the challenge.   http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenges