Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Help

8 x 10 oil , NFS
This is my contribution to Adebanji Alade's book for our Flying Moleskins site. He chose homelessness as his theme. This man was by the side of the road on Highway 71 on the way to Houston a few weeks ago. I had the feeling he hadn't been panhandling for a long time; he looked like he could have been anyone I see listening to live music at Threadgill's or at ACL Fest in Austin.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Beached Sailboat

8 x 10 acrylic on paper
I almost chose animals to paint for Dean Haven on our Flying Moleskins site, since he and I both like to paint them. But something, I'm not sure what, made me feel like doing a seaside scene. This summer we were in Port Aransas, Texas and I saw this catamaran on the shoreline. My husband thinks it was either a Hobie 18 or a Nacra. But it reminded me of when he and I were dating and we would go out on his Hobie Cat and oh man, we had so much fun. I wasn't a sailor but he was, and he did all the work and I lounged and got a tan. Not really, I held the rudder sometimes, and when we came about I'd duck the boom and jump to the other side. That's helping, right?

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Geese 1

24 x 48 oil on board
Five beautiful, huge geese crowded around me at the lake one night, so I dropped some food for them and a feeding frenzy ensued. These geese had no fear of people at all, honking loudly and looking at me like they knew me. So beautiful, and I wondered where they had been. All I am saying... is give geese a chance.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Keep Paddling

12 x 12 x 1 1/2 oil on canvas
Here are two more of the ducks in the group I saw that day at Canyon Lake. I remember having the impression that the white one was the mother of the group, and she looked tired. I felt a connection to her! I was glad her young offspring were being fed, even if she might have chosen other fare for them, at least they wouldn't be as hungry.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Ducks

8 x 10 oil on canvas
I saw these ducks at Canyon Lake this past Sunday afternoon. They had just caught sight of people with french fries, which they love, and they also liked my hulled sunflower seeds. I'm a huge fan of ducks; we used to have some that hung out in our back yard in Dallas that overlooked Turtle Creek. We had a treehouse, and not a care in the world. I guess ducks take me back to that time. I remember listening to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and my dad would grill burgers while they ambled around our yard. This one is for Edward Burton on our website The Flying Moleskins.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Almost Ready

8 x 10 oil on canvas, private collection
This is a small rough study for what will be a bigger commissioned piece. Same dad and baby models as the last painting but this has the mom also. The larger one will have about twice as much water on the left.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Flying

12 x 12 oil on cradled wood panel, private collection

My daughters' childhood friend has grown up, married and she has a new baby. I have memories of my own girls at this age at the beach. Their dad could always make them laugh the hardest.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Mmmm...Margaritas

12 x 12 x 1 1/2 oil on cradled board
We've been making Alton Brown's fresh margaritas around here lately. It requires that we keep a nice supply of limes on hand. I was working on a study for a dog portrait commission earlier today and when I came to a stopping point on it I decided to keep the painting party going. So here are tomorrow night's margaritas-to-be... and maybe the next night's too.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Thanks, Matt

7x5 oil on canvas
This is my tribute to Dana Cooper's son Matt, who is currently serving in the Air Force. Since I'm so far doing all figurative work for our Flying Moleskins project I hoped Dana would like seeing a painting of her handsome son. It goes without saying that he's courageous, and I can see from his photo that he's also handsome and strong. I can't imagine how proud of him Dana must be. So if I had a hat, I'd be taking it off and saying "Thank you, Matt for all you have done and are doing for our country." And I say the same to anyone else who has served in our military.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Self-Portrait


16 x 20 oil on canvas
I painted this for a self-portrait show. It is painted thinly so it would dry fast and I could roll it up and mail it in a tube.

Artist Celeste Bergin just emailed me to tell me she painted herself this afternoon after being inspired by this painting earlier today, and she said so on her blog entry and linked back here. So take a look at her cool self portrait in black and white - I love the half-glasses and un-self-conscious attitude of it. Thank you for the plug, Celeste :0) She does such arresting work; my favorites are her landscapes with bigtime drama or just really cool moods. I love this painting of herself from today, too... really striking. Maybe I'll have to do a black and white one myself as a tribute back to her :0)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

B&W&Red Self Portrait Tweaked

I decided I needed some darker values so I decided to darken my shirt. While I was at it I shortened and hopefully softened the neck. And I made a few tiny changes in the face that probably no one will notice. So I hope I made it look a little better. Same 16 x 16 oil on board as below. And I see what Vern was talking about... that upper right corner keeps photographing as ochre-y. But it's just the same warm red with a touch of black, Scout's honor, guys and gals!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

B&W & Red Self-Portrait

Choosing one color for this self-portrait wasn't an easy decision, but those were the rules at Alice Thompson's new challenge site, Calypso Moon Artist Movement. Black and white plus only one other color. I almost used transparent oxide red which is a warm brown. I chose Rembrandt's Permanent Red Medium because it is a nice warm red (has some yellow in it), and I thought black plus white would be close enough to blue. Therefore I had something close to the three primaries to work with. It's funny I chose red because it used to be (decades ago) my least favorite color in the world. Now I have come to embrace red and I enjoy the punch of it. To me, red really delivers a nice zing with black, gray and white and I thought it would give good skin tones. I wish I could say I chose it for some deep, symbolic, intellectual reason. Nope!
Alice also wanted us to include some shoulder area. Next time I'll do a pose that is less frontal because I've got broad shoulders and this has sort of a Ten-HUT! feeling to it. But it was fun and I'm glad I participated. 16 x 16 oil on board.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Portrait of Karin Jurick

I joined 117 other artists to honor and thank Karin Jurick for all her work on the DSFDF website (the idea of artist Jill Polsby). I know that many, many other artists would have wanted to participate but this was done in secrecy in a brief time span and not everyone knew about it. Anyway I used the photo she submitted for the last portrait challenge, as did the others. So far I have not resorted to using a projected image as a guide for any artwork but I was tempted by this project. I'm still learning to wrap features around a turned head in a realistic way. Trying to capture her flawless, peachy skin was a challenge but I enjoyed the effort immensely. Hope you enjoy this 10 x 8 oil on canvas.

Also, thank you so much to Trish Siegel and Millie Nguyen for giving me the Sunshine Award for creativity and positivity in blogging. The other artists in whose company I find myself make me feel very humbled. Please visit their sites to see their wonderful work. Thank you again, Trish and Millie!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Michelle Burnett as a Baby

This is my latest entry on The Flying Moleskins site (link at right). Michelle Burnett requested a theme of snapshots or postcards from our lives, but I saw this photo of her as a toddler and couldn't resist it. The colors are more golden and less pale in person. I was attempting to get a "faded photograph" (like the song) antique snapshot feeling. This 5 x 16" piece is done in oil on the gessoed watercolor paper of Michelle's moleskin sketchbook. In about 6 months or so it should finally reach her after the other 11 artists sketch or paint their own work in it. (13 of us in all) Michelle, you were a joy to paint. And you must have been a beautiful baby, 'cause baby, look at you now!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Portrait of Richard Olsen, 8 x 5 study

As some of you may know, I have just begun participating in an artist challenge group called The Flying Moleskins. Thirteen artists will be playing "pass the sketchbook (or moleskin as they are called)" through the postal service, each of us painting or sketching according to whatever theme was requested by the original owner. For my own book's first entry I painted my husband Richard from a photo. It was done in just a few hours in acrylic so that it would be dry in time to mail and it is smaller than I'd prefer so I really think of it as just a study. He and I have been together for over 30 years and I've never painted him before -- ??? Well, for one thing, it's really hard to get him to "strike a pose" and be still. I look forward to doing a larger version in oil that really catches his essence. This one does come close I think but I believe I can do better.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

AFG Group Art Show




My painting of Kelli Bland has been on display at the United States Art Authority the past few weeks. About 10 artists were represented in the group show for Austin Figurative Gallery.