BROWN EGGS oil on canvas on board, 5x7

SOLD I've been wanting to paint these eggs ever since I've had them and these are the last three. I really enjoyed painting them on the embroidered cloth in front of the window in my studio. I used a limited palette--only ultramarine blue, raw sienna, and white. It's a beautiful day, cold and clear. How wonderful to be able to paint!!!

EVENING SHADOWS 8x10 oil on canvas on board

Back home and then to my dad's farm in central Texas for Thanksgiving, I painted this Wednesday evening as the sun was setting. I was looking up the hill toward the house which is out of view on the right. Yes, it is a beautiful place.

BLUFFS AND WATER 6x8 oil on canvas on board

Same location on the Basse Ranch, but looking the opposite direction toward the white bluffs above the stream.

RIPPLING WATER 12x16 oil on cavas on board

This is also the Basse Ranch near Fredericksburg. This stream rippled across rocks and down the little waterfall as it made its way across the ranch. It was heaven to stand here and paint this beautiful place and listen to the rippling water

BASSE RANCH ABOVE THE CREEK 8x10 oil

This is the view from the hill above the creek on the beautiful Basse Ranch where 40 OPA members painted all day. It was cool and mostly sunny.

RAIN COMING 6x8 oil on canvas on board

I did this one evening as the sun was setting and the sky began looking stormy. It started to rain about midnight and rained most of the next day. On the rainy day we visited several art galleries in Fredericksburg.

TOWARD BOERNE 8x10 oil on canvas on board

I attended an OPA (Oil Painters of America) Paint Out last week in Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country. I borrowed my dad's RV and had a wonderful time painting and taking photos for 5 days around the area. I got to meet many oil painters and see some beautiful country. These are all plein air paintings.

BRIGHT PASTURE oil on canvas, 8x10

After I painted this, I realized that I had painted almost the exact scene before. I was looking through some previous paintings and, there it was--the same scene. It's a little different, but the same place. I used a palette knife for this and the paint is really thick. For some reason, I just kept piling it on. I'm not sure why.

EMPTY oil on board, 6"x4"

This is a painting I did last night using a palette knife. I can get a lot more paint on the canvas with a palette knife than I can with a brush. This has a good bit of impasto.

STANDING WATCH oil on canvas, 9x12

SOLD I finally have something to post!!! I'm having a lot of trouble finding enough time to paint and finish anything. But, this is finished--I think. It's a donation for our museum fundraiser. The John James Audubon exhibition opens at the Museum of East Texas this weekend and everything donated for the auction has to be about birds.

I love humming birds! A hummingbird feeder and this dreamcatcher hang about a foot outside my kitchen window, so I watch them a lot and photograph them often. This is a Ruby Throated Hummingbird. He's guarding the feeder.

CHOLULA WITH FRUIT & FLOWERS acrylic, 8x10

The Museum of East Texas Art Camp is over for this summer. This is the last demo I did for my students, so I thought I might as well post it, even though it's not a finished painting. I'm, now, working at the museum temporarily, filling in for the Curator of Education while she's on maternity leave. So, I'll be busy, but I think I'll have a little more time to paint than I did during Art Camp. Teaching of any type is all consuming. I've always taught--high school, college--and it takes over you life. I'm not saying teaching's bad, it's just different than other jobs. Teachers are entirely responsible for what goes on in their classroom and they must plan at home, purchase materials, take items such as still life contents with them, and pay close attention to everything and everyone at all times in their classes, then often take home papers to grade and plans to make for the next day. It's all consuming. Teaching is very difficult and stressful (if done well) and good teachers deserve more respect than they get.

VIOLET IN WHITE watercolor, 12x9

YOUTH watercolor, 12x9

GLADS AND ROSES watercolor, 6x4

TOMATOES WITH LIME watercolor, 9x12

These 4 paintings are watercolors, not my medium of choice, but fun to do. I thought I'd post these since I haven't posted for a while. I'll get back to my oil paintings as soon as I have time.

INSIDE LOOKING OUT oil on canvas, 8x3.5

It was fun painting this little flower on the window sill in my studio. I love how the light comes through the clear glass and how the colors look through the glass. The flowers came from my neighbor's yard.

LOOKING UP oil on canvas, 6x4

I did this plein air palette knife painting yesterday afternoon in 100 degree heat! Can you tell how hot I was? I sat in the shade in front of my house and looked up at our flag waving in the breeze and painted as fast as I could. I started out in the shade, but finished with the sun on my legs and my palette, actually getting sunburned legs. I know--you're saying, "Why didn't you paint early in the morning before it got so hot???" I don't know... Anyway, here's the finished painting.

GREEN ON BLUE oil on canvas, 3 1/2 x 8

I couldn't resist painting these delicious grapes. They're so much fun to paint. If you look closely, you can see many colors and translucency in them.

Green on Blue
8" x 3 1/2" (20.4cm x 8.9cm)
Oil on canvas

LILLIES oil on canvas, 8x10

My son, Russell, brought me this bunch of lillies from his garden when he came to visit over the weekend. I'm glad I took pictures of them because they don't last long. I painted them yesterday and some of them were still pretty. I looked at a photo to get the composition and the actual flowers for the colors.
Lillies
10" x 8" (25.4cm x 20.4cm)
Oil on canvas on panel

MORNING AT THE FARM 20x24, oil on canvas

This is another view of my dad's farm which I've painted from numerous locations over the years. This view is looking northwest from the pond. The house where my grandparents lived is just past the buildings you can see up on the hill. This is a beautiful and very peaceful place in every season of the year.
Morning at the Farm
24" x 20" (61.0cm x 50.8cm)
Oil on canvas

CARLOTA oil on board, 6x6

NFS This is my mother-in-law, a precious little lady. She's not even 5 ft tall, but before she became ill, she was a volunteer grandmother and a hardworking bundle of energy.

ROWING oil on canvas, 11x14

I used the photo on the Different Strokes site to paint this. I love painting water and this subject really appealed to me.

GIRL WITH BLUE BOW acrylic on canvas, 8x10

This beautiful little girl was a student in one of my Art Camp classes last week and I couldn't resist painting her. She was one of the youngest in the classes of ages 7-14. I used acrylics and painted very fast. As I've said many times before, I love oil paints!

QUIET ELEGANCE oil on canvas, 6x6

I haven't had much time to paint lately with Art Camp going on, but I'm off today and I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to finish this little portrait. And, the day's not over, yet.

BLUE VASE acrylic on board, 6x6

This is a demo for one of my museum Art Camp acrylic painting classes. I enjoy teaching painting, especially when I get to paint, too. I bought this bouquet of flowers on the way to the museum and it was painted by students in my 4 classes today.

SUMMER SUN acrylic on board, 8x10

This is a demo I did for a group of kids at our museum Art Camp. It's an acrylic painting class that I'm teaching and they are doing some nice paintings. I don't normally use acrylics. Oils are my medium of choice, but sometimes acrylic paint has it's advantages and it's necessary in this case. I could almost call this a plein air painting, but not quite. My class area has a huge window and I painted this of the view outside the window--from inside. My students also painted their view out the window.

Mural Repair

Here's what I've been doing the past 2 days. No, not creating this mural, (I did create it 3 years ago) but cleaning and repairing it. Vandals sprayed graffiti on my mural and another mural (painted by Lance Hunter) a few blocks away. So I helped a City Parks official remove the varnish, which removed most of the graffiti. Then I had to repaint parts where some graffiti remained and put an acrylic varnish on it. I'll go back in a few days and reapply Soluvar, a removable varnish. I don't understand why people vandalize.

OLEANDERS IN FOG oil on canvas, 4x6

My neighbor, Lucille, has such pretty flowers that I've painted them many times. This morning it's very cloudy and foggy, in fact, it started sprinkling rain before I finished this. But, since it's oil paint, I went ahead and painted while it rained. A "cold front" is coming and it's only supposed to be 85 the next few days. It's been in the low 90s for the past week.

WEEDING AND WATERING oil on board, 6x6

My husband is such a good painting subject! I don't know how many times I've painted him. I did this from a picture I took of him out the dining room window on Saturday. He was weeding and watering the plants (cactus) beside the mailbox.

THE LAST FLOWER oil on board, 6x4

This turned out to be rather surreal. I just sat down and quickly painted this scene in my studio and when I finished, I was surprised. It isn't how I had planned to paint it at all. I didn't really think about it or concentrate on it like I usually do.

KALANCHOE FLOWERS oil on canvas, 6x4

This is a cactus type plant growing in my back yard which has pretty little bell-shaped flowers on it. The common name for it is Maternity Plant because it has little baby plants growing on the edges of the leaves. These little ones drop to the ground and grow where they land. Although sunny earlier, it's now cloudy and looking like rain here. Hope you all had a nice, patriotic Memorial Day weekend.

LANDSCAPE FOR DSFDF oil on canvas, 4x6

This little landscape is from the Different Strokes from Different Folks site. It was fun doing this from a black and white photo.

ROSES BY THE FENCE oil on board, 6x6

Ok, here's today's plein air painting. I'm still not very happy with it. For some reason, I just can't make it look like I want it to. Actually, it looks like the subject, but that's not how I wanted to paint it. The brush seems to have a mind of it's own...

SUNNY RED FLOWERS oil on board, 6x6

5/20/09 This is the painting I did yesterday (Wed). The flowers are from the same arrangement as the daisies I painted Tuesday. Sometimes it seems like I've forgotten how to paint. I'm not very happy with any of the paintings I've done this week, today's included. Maybe I will rework today's and post it--and maybe not.

PAUL'S DAISIES oil on canvas, 6x4

These are some of the beautiful bouquet of flowers my son brought me. There are several kinds of flowers in the arrangement and I had trouble deciding which ones to paint first.

LILLIAN'S FLOWER BED oil on board, 8x10

This is a plein air painting done from my back yard, looking through the fence at my neighbor's yard. Lillian's flower bed, once immaculate, is now overgrown since illness forced Lillian into a nursing home. I hope the new owners will also take pride in their yard like she did, providing beauty to the neighborhood.

Gracie, my outside cat, lay on the grass beside my easel while I painted this and 2 mockingbirds fussed at her the whole time we were there. Maybe you can see my frustration with the constant noise in this painting.

PEDERNALES RIVER oil on canvas, 4x6

I painted this from a picture I took several years ago near Austin. It's the Pedernales River in the Pedernales Falls State Park, a beautiful place in the Texas Hill Country.

Pedernales River
6" x 4" (15.3cm x 10.2cm)
Oil on canvas on panel
$79 plus $6 shipping and handling in the US
E-mail me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

SPRING CREEK oil on canvas, 16x20

I painted this from a photo I took a while back. The scene was very busy, so I simplified it quite a bit.

Spring Creek
20" x 16" (50.8cm x 40.7cm)
Oil on canvas

MOTHER'S DAY CARNATION 6x4, oil on canvas

Yesterday, my husband took me out for breakfast and the waitress gave me this carnation. How sweet! I have it in a pretty bottle and I spent quite a while making sketches before I decided on this composition.

Most of my paintings begin with sketches and value studies. Then after I've chosen the composition, I draw on my canvas with a paintbrush and paint thinned with terp. Then, I do a 3 value painting usually with a complementary color of the main subject. Then, after it dries, it's time to apply thicker paint.

Happy Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day and hope all of you did, too. It was a beautiful day here--sunny and about 90 degrees.

ALMOST IN THE SHADE oil on canvas, 6x4

I took a picture of these two guys at a festival I went to last fall. I love the backlight and couldn't resist photographing them.

Almost in the Shade
4" x 6" (10.2cm x 15.3cm)
Oil on canvas on panel
$79 plus $6 shipping and handling in the US
E-mail me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

TOURIST oil on canvas, 6x6

I painted this from a photo I took in Mexico about a year ago. We always enjoyed going across the border for the day to shop and eat until it became too dangerous. We don't go over there any more because of the violence along the border. This is Nuevo Progresso where shops line the streets for several blocks. I imagine they have lost a lot of tourist trade in the past year or so. I wonder if it will ever be safe again.

TAXI! oil on canvas, 6x4

I did this from a photo on the Different Strokes site. It's the first time I've painted a subject like this and I didn't think I'd like it, but I did really enjoy doing it. I think it's good to change subject matter occasionally.

SELF-PORTRAIT STUDY oil on canvas, 6x6

I guess I must be in a strange mood today seeing how this came out. I did it very quickly looking in a mirror and decided not to change or "fix" it. Instead of reworking this one, I'll just consider it a study and go on to the next painting...

M'S IRISES oil on canvas, 6x4

I painted this from a photo my dad took last week of my mother's irises in their back yard. For some reason, the photo seems washed out. The colors are richer on the painting.

Book Illustrations, 3x2, oil on canvas

VIOLETS, BLUE MESA, BROOK BESOR, CHRISTMAS TREE, POPCORN, ANGEL IN CLOUDS

Friday night: I've spent most of the day working on book illustrations. These are some of the oil paintings, and I've also done some watercolors which I'll post later.

WHISPERWOOD IN SPRING

Ok, I think I'm finished with this painting. I'll have to look at it for a few days to be sure, though. This is such a beautiful place and a place I love. I hope it shows in the painting.

Work in Progress, 20x24, oil on canvas

This is a painting I've been working on the past 2 days. I'm still not finished, but I thought I'd post it anyway. I'll post the finished painting when I'm done. The colors are a little darker on the painting than on this photo.

Two Studies oil on canvas, 2x3

WHISPERWOOD IN MARCH oil on canvas, 2x3


MISTY LANDSCAPE oil on canvas, 2x3

I've been trying to decide what subject to paint for an upcoming show, so today I did 2 studies. I painted them in oil on a scrap of unstretched canvas on which I had drawn several 2x3 inch rectangles. I like both studies, but I'll probably paint Whisperwood in March first.

It was nice doing these tiny paintings! I used a #4 bristle flat brush and burnt siena to lay down a value sketch. Then, I painted on top of the value sketch, leaving the burnt siena showing in places. I don't remember ever painting this tiny before, but I like it. It's a great way to plan a larger painting.

WATER STUDY oil on board, 6x6

This is the same creek I painted Thursday. I like painting water, especially shallow water. In shallow water, you can see the bottom and there are usually ripples where the water flows over objects in the water. I didn't paint the tire that was a little further down stream from this...