A Eureka Moment

SOLD  Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 x 1 1/2 inch gallery wrapped canvas.  (The painting continues around onto the sides of the canvas.)  We have lots of ruby throated hummingbirds right now.  I think it's migration season.  I took pictures of many of them and of my hanging baskets and put pictures together for this painting.  I am donating it to the auction at the Museum of East Texas fundraiser, Dinner and Dancing, which is this weekend.

Blue Vase

14x11 acrylic on canvas board. Yes, another demo for my painting classes at the Museum.

Summer Flowers

11x14 acrylic on canvas board. You guessed it--another demo for my painting classes at the Museum. It's fun to paint shiny objects. Paint the shapes and colors you see in the reflections and not the object itself.

Museum Bouquet

10x8 acrylic on canvas board. This is a demo I did for my Museum class this week. I don't know for sure what these flowers are, but I bought them for my students (and me) to paint.

SUMMER BOUQUET

8x10 acrylic on canvas board--a demo for my Museum class.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

TULIP AND LILLY oil on board, 6x6

This was painted from a photo I took of the flowers in the pink vase. I'm glad I took pictures before the tulip lost its petals.

PINK VASE oil on board, 6x6

This beautiful vase of flowers belongs to Danita, but she loaned it to me to paint. And, they smell as good as they look. I set the flowers in front of the window in my studio and thoroughly enjoyed painting them. There was a tulip in the arrangement, but it lost it's petals before I painted this--they're on the table.

BOUQUET OF ROSES oil on board, 8x10

I painted this from a photo I took of some Valentine roses my mother received. They were so pretty! I loved painting this. I'm thinking of doing a larger painting from the same photo.

FADING FLOWERS 6x4, oil on board

Yes, I'm back and I'm starting to paint again. It's been a difficult 10 months with my mother's illness, treatments, declining health, and her death on March 14. It all still seems like a very bad dream.

I plan to paint every day, although I may not complete a painting every day. There are so many paintings in my head that I have to put on canvas. There are competitions I want to enter, paintings I want to do for galleries, and some I want to do just for myself. Guess I'd better get to work...

PYRACANTHA oil on board, 6x8

2/2/09 These are some shrubs in my parents' back yard. They have beautiful red berries on them this time of year.