"Citrus Offering" still life oil painting fruit bowl oranges fine art and a Facebook giveaway

  

6 x 6"

oil on canvas

click to bid

I decided on a double dose of life-painting this week, and I'm glad I did. The Art Center where I paint figures on Tuesday nights has a clothed-model session on Thursday mornings, which I'm going to attend more regularly this year, as per my vaguely new-years-ish resolutions. When I was in school, my secret dream was to be a portrait painter, and I know if I want to get serious about it, I have to work work work!

If you follow me on Facebook, you've seen this morning's pictures already, and if you don't, now is the time to start! When I reach 425 followers, I'll be giving away a 12x12" print of my painting "Lilacs" to one randomly selected 'like-er.' I'm only 11 away! It's easy to tell your friends, just visit this link and click 'Share.' *Thanks!*

"Rebecca in White" figurative figure painting nude woman girl portrait

  

9 x 12"

oil on canvas

$250

click to buy

My second go at this lovely pose. This time I moved about a quarter of the way around the model. I wish the studio was large enough to place the model stand in the center of the room so that a back view would always be possible, but having it against a wall affords us the advantage of a backdrop. Below is my progression - the third image is how the painting looked when I brought it home. I refined it a little this morning - smoothing the background and the chair, mostly.

click on image to see it larger

"Heart Shaped Box" valentines day gift art oil painting candy truffles chocolates

  

8 x 8"

oil on canvas

$150 

click to buy

As one who came of age in the glorious '90s, the phrase 'heart shaped box' will always bring one and only one thing to mind: Nirvana. I feel lucky to have been in high school during an era when music was 'alternative,' and women's fashion still centered around loose fitting jeans and combat boots. Hell, even the occasional overall. Not that I went there....that often. I don't want to even think about what the advent of skinny jeans would have done to my teenage psyche, although I do wear them nowadays.

Feels strange to be speaking of skinny jeans with such tempting, high-calorie subject matter this week! These evil cherry-heart jelly beans are almost gone, and I just picked up an 8 pound bag of oranges at the grocery store (they were all out of flu shots, so I figured it was the next-best thing), so look forward to some healthier paintings coming soon.

"Sweet Romance" art painting of valentines day candy and chocolate

  

8 x 8"

oil on canvas

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I'm really not a big sweet-eater, and it's been established that I'm not much for lipstick either. But I love to paint shiny gold things, and that cherry goo was the highlight of my painting week!

"Cherry Hearts" a still life oil painting of valentines day candy hearts and chocolates

  

6 x 6"

oil on canvas

click to buy

These little heart candies are like jelly beans, and all the different flavors are a variation on cherry: cherry cola, bing cherry, cherry cheesecake (my favorite), chocolate cherry, etc. They are darn good, and dangerous to have lying around the studio! The title "Cherry Hearts" does double duty here, since these bon-bons have cherries inside. Proof of that, coming soon!

I am featured today on the blog "The Art Room" as part of a series of daily painters' favorite pieces from 2012. You can see my top two picks, as well as Taryn's picks - we each chose one still life and one figure painting.

"The White Shawl" female nude figure painting figurative art

 

8 x 10"

oil on canvas

$200

click to buy

One of my resolutions for this year was to do something about the horrible cell phone pictures I've been posting on Facebook and Twitter. So, I did. With my new-and-improved photo technology, there should be lots of quality in-progress shots (like this one) ahead!

I'm pleased with this little painting. I tried to keep in mind some of the things I liked about this one while I was working, and a couple good suggestions from my friend Farley helped me overcome some drawing issues I was having early on.

"Makeup" oil painting still life daily painting

  

6 x 8"

oil on canvas

click to bid

I figured I'd better do something with this nailpolish, since the last time I wore any was two years ago. At the time, it felt quite momentous. I also have a very new-looking lipstick that didn't quite squeeze itself into this composition. Perhaps tomorrow, as I embark on a series of Valentine's-themed paintings....

"On the Studio Table" fine art oil painting of brushes and paint

  

8 x 10"

oil on canvas

click to bid

This is what you paint when the only fruit in your house is one overripe banana and all your houseplants have bedhead.

Was that 140 characters or less?

"Broken Brown Egg" colorful kitchen art still life oil painting and new years resolutions

 

8 x 8"

oil on canvas

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Well, it must be a new year, because I just made a folder for my highly specialized desktop archive entitled "Paintings '13." Geez. This is usually the time of year when my motivation dips. The last year sweeps to a close with so much momentum - shopping, parties, champagne, more shopping, drinking champagne and online shopping...and then January comes. Well, this year I'm going to try and keep my engine running, and step number one is get back to the easel! Step two is to stay on the treadmill, so, no shortcuts combining steps one and two, I guess.

I painted this last night in front of a lovely little group at Oregon Art Supply. My work will be hanging there through the end of January, so stop by and see it - and replenish your stock of paint, rubber stamps, wooden manikins, whatever, they've got it. I just bought myself a shiny new French easel, bringing me one step closer to my yearly plein-air painting resolution. Will '13 be the year?

"Suzanne's Daisies" A top-secret Christmas commission!

16 x 20"

oil on canvas

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Merry Christmas! I am blogging to you from the warmth and sunshine of my in-laws' place in Florida. Our orgy of giving is complete, and since a certain lucky friend of mine also received her gifts today, I can now share this painting with you. Back in July, when these daisies were blooming in their garden, her husband commissioned this piece - and then, somehow, he had the willpower to wait five months before giving it to her! Now, they will have daisies all year long, and you can, too, since my preparatory sketch is up for auction:

"(sketch for) Suzanne's Daisies"

5 x 7"

oil on canvas

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I'm already excited for all that's to come in 2013 - but hey, it's still Christmas Day, so, from my family to yours - Happy Holidays! 

"Tahni" figure figurative art nude woman portrait large oil painting

 

18 x 24"

oil on canvas

$1000

available in my Etsy shop

 To say I had fun painting this would be the understatement of the year. Our model was amazing, and the studio was alive with creative energy. I wish I could start every day with three hours of figure painting!

I'm truly satisfied with this piece, and I keep noticing little things about it - like the way the line of light on one leg corresponds to the line of shadow on the other - that make me even happier! I think of that quality as "lookability" - something you can gaze at every day and not get tired of. 

"The Black Robe" nude figure painting woman girl portrait life drawing oil on canvas

 

8 x 10"

oil on canvas

collection of the artist

I'm having trouble writing a post about this painting. I did it in the last 90 minutes of our 15-hour figure painting week, and it's one of my favorites of all time. Why do I like it so much? Some of it has to do with the memories it will always be connected with - of spending time with friends, of feeling the paint flowing so readily off my brush - and some of it has to do with where I'm heading as an artist. I can almost see my future in this piece. I can certainly see my past - the past two years of figure painting work, distilled into these brushstrokes. 

So, I'm going to hang onto this one for a while. I'll be posting my large painting from the week tomorrow!

"(Sketch for) Tahni" female figure painting nude woman girl original oil painting for sale on Etsy

  

9 x 12"

oil on canvas

$150 

available in my Etsy shop

Here is the preparatory sketch I did for the 18x24" piece I'm making this week, which you can see on the easel below. Isn't Gabriella's studio gorgeous? What you can't see is that the window on the left is actually a wall of six windows and the black cloth is covering up two more. Birds, squirrels, and, I'm told, a hawk frolic (and slay one another) in her backyard all day long. Bliss! 

 

 

"Nude with Black Scarf" female figure painting woman girl portrait oil on canvas

 

 9 x 12 x 1.5"

 oil on canvas 

$250

available in my Etsy shop

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you might be wondering what's been going on this week. A LOT of figure painting, that's what! My friend Gabriella hired a model at her gorgeous home-studio for five mornings in a row, and let me in on the fun because I know all the good podcasts she's a sweetheart like that.

The above painting is from last night at the Art Center. Here's a WIP, courtesy of Twitter. And I promise lots of shots of the private model session soon.

"Jewel Toned Ornaments" Christmas painting xmas art oil painting holiday decor gift for the artlover

 

8 x 8"

oil on canvas

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I had a fantastic time last night! Our excellent local art store invited me to show some work and paint in their store during the First Friday Artwalk. Today's painting was my trial run. I painted the very same ornaments in a slightly different configuration for the live demo, and the painting (which I finished in just under three hours) is on view at Oregon Art Supply.

 I want to say a huge thanks to Rebecca and Robin at Oregon Art Supply, for hosting me, and to the M. Graham paint company and their awesome sales rep Dan for coming out! M. Graham is my paint of choice, and they're also an Oregon company, so it was great to meet a member of their team and find out even more about their products.

"The Red Christmas Ornament" festive holiday decor still life oil painting and, of course, persimmons

 

6 x 8"

oil on canvas

$100

click to buy

Will these persimmons ever rot? If I hadn't risked life and limb to pick them myself, I'd be starting to suspect they were plastic by now. If you've been reading this blog awhile, you might have the impression that I live on a farm, with my home-grown grapes, plums, and sunflowers. I don't! My mother happens to have an extremely productive yard/garden, which she inherited from the previous owner. Persimmons are the last fruit of the year....

"Decorating by Candlelight" Christmas ornament oil painting holiday xmas art gift

 

6 x 6"

oil on canvas

$100

click to buy

While "Decorating by Candlelight" doesn't necessarily sound like a fire-marshall-approved activity, I've certainly begun my holiday decorating. Basically, I pull a huge plastic bin of ornaments out of my garage and dump them all over my studio. Then my daughter comes in and helps distribute them in totally random locations throughout the house. Like under her bed, and in the cat food bowls. Ah, Christmas!

Because Zazzle always has killer deals this time of year, I ordered myself some calendars. I'll have them for sale at my Oregon Art Supply show and painting demo next Friday, and it's also good to have some last-minute gifts on hand, right?

more pictures here

   I'm really happy with the quality of the printing, and the shipping couldn't have been faster. It reminds me of a joke we used to tell about a chinese-delivery place growing up: you hang up the phone and the doorbell rings!

"Dana" female figure painting nude portrait woman girl

 

12 x 16"

oil on canvas

N/A

I felt pretty good about this painting after the first sitting, but a couple of days went by and I wasn't so sure. I think of this as the "morning after" effect. How many of us have had the experience of working late in the studio, feeling like a total rock star, only to wake up the next morning to find a disaster on the easel?

Before the second sitting, I sanded down my painting. This smooths out any chunky brushstrokes and just generally prepares the surface to be reworked. Plus, you get to inhale all kinds of rare minerals. Cadmium, anyone?

"Persimmon and Christmas Ornaments" not my most original painting title to date, but hey.

 

6 x 8"

oil on canvas

Sold

December is right around the corner, which sounds kind of depressing right this moment, but on the bright side, another First Friday Artwalk will soon be upon us! I'll be all over it, with a show of new paintings at Oregon Art Supply, where I will also be painting live in the store all evening. In addition, I'll have several pieces in Eugene Storefront Art Project's winter invitational at 224 E. 11th. Plus, I have my usual great stuff at Imagine Gallery, and if after all that, you still don't think I run this town, why not stop by Noli Italian Cafe for dinner? The pasta is spectacular. And I have 15 pieces on display.

Don't say I didn't give you advance notice: make plans now to come downtown next Friday evening!

"Persimmon Harvest" fruit persimmon apple pomegranate still life oil painting

 

8 x 10"

oil on canvas

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Wow, there's been a lot going on this week. All of it good! On top of the Thanksgiving celebration/my husband's birthday festivities, I got invited to be on the radio last Tuesday! It was really cool to see the recording studio and meet one of the dj's that I listen to in my studio almost daily. I was kind of nervous, but I ended up having fun. Just don't make me listen to it! It's ten times worse than having to hear your own outgoing voicemail greeting, plus it lasts for seven minutes. Here's the link, if you think you can take it.

"Ripening Persimmons" art still life fruit bowl original oil painting one dollar auction

 

oil on Arches Oil paper

6.5 x 9.5"

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      I was skulking around an art supply trade show on campus a few weeks ago, mostly dropping my name in various door-prize boxes (but not winning anything, for the record), when a friendly Canson paper rep offered me some samples of their new Arches Oil paper. "Do I have to gesso it?" was my first, skeptical response.
     "Nope."
     "And it won't buckle?"
     "Nope."
     Thinking, 'Yeah right, buddy," I took the proffered samples.
     I taped the paper to my drawing board, as you can see here:

  

     And it didn't buckle! End of story. For more info on this new paper, and it's secret-non-buckling-sauce, go here.

     How do you feel about paintings on paper? Do you think they are inherently less valuable than those done on canvas or panel?

It's beginning to look a lot like...Thanksgiving

 

"Poinsettia and Pomegranate"

11x14"

oil on canvas

$200

click to buy

How many people have you heard say "I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week" today? Well, make that one more, because I'm a bit incredulous myself. In fact, it kind of feels like we're about to skip straight to Christmas with all the holiday cheer in the air.

I haven't gotten into the studio this week, and Tuesday's figure painting night was a total bust (no pun intended, ok maybe a little one), so the painting I'm sharing today is actually from two years ago (speaking of time flying), but hey, it's a fave. And it's so not seasonally appropriate.

If you're in Eugene, or coming in for the holidays, you are in luck! I'm going to be all over this town for the next couple of weeks. The annual Maude Kerns Art Center member show opens tomorrow night (reception 6-8 pm, 11/16), and I gave The Eugene Weekly a few quotable lines in honor of the occasion. I got a sneak-preview of the show, and it's phenomenal, so even if you can't come out tomorrow, try to see it. This town has so many talented folks!

More on the rest of my upcoming adventures as an artist-about-town to come.

A screen shot teaser. Go here for the whole story!

"Tawny" nude female figure painting portrait woman girl oil on canvas

 

8 x 10"

oil on canvas

$200

Available in my Etsy shop

I painted this last night while listening to election results on my headphones. I had fun playing town crier, keeping everyone in the studio updated, since no one else wanted to paint and listen to political commentary. For some reason, I concentrate really well with talk-radio in the background. 

Below is my progression. You can see that I started out intending to keep both hands in the frame, but had to lose the lower one during hour 2 because I'd drawn the torso too short. It was either chop off the hand or repaint the head smaller, not exactly a difficult choice, since I was pleased with my rendering of the face at that point. Next week I will try to get both hands in.

 

The DPW auction to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy has raised almost $5,000 so far, and I'm proud to be part of it. My donation auction ends tonight at 6 pm PCT. Please place a bid, if you can, and support the American Red Cross. Thanks!

"Two Matches" still life candle flame fire lemons daily painting oil on canvas

 

8 x 8"

oil on canvas

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I had to revisit this setup. I couldn't stop looking at those spent matchsticks lying next to the other objects and thinking they should have been worked into the painting somehow. I sized up to an 8x8" canvas and zoomed out just a bit to slip them in. 

A mention of the presidential election seems almost unavoidable today, and I've succumbed to the coverage as much as any American. My studio days are passed listening to NPR, and while I've never consdiered myself an activist, I had a lot of fun painting this guy four years ago.

I'll be painting a portrait of some as-yet-undeclared candidate tonight at the Art Center, and live-updating it on Twitter and FB, though I'm sure my efforts will be absolutely swallowed by election results. I can't complain - I'll be glued to my headphones.

"Candlelit Quartet" still life daily painting candle flame original oil on canvas

 

6 x 6"

oil on canvas

$100

click to buy

I'm convinced the color palette for this one was subliminally inspired by the view from my studio window today. Wet leaves, green shifting to yellow to rust red...forest-green fur trees and their greyish-lavender trunks, everything damp damp damp. I'd supply you a real picture to go with that mental one, but I'm a little bit camera-challenged right now. I need Santa to bring me a really gorgeous (or just reasonably attractive) digital SLR this xmas!