Personal Art Blog

Sharing the lessons I teach at the Artist Guild and the personal discoveries in my art.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Sunlight On Rose

Sunlight On Rose 
6x6 oil on canvas panel 

Artist Note.
This one is for the 
Daily Paintworks Challenge.

The Rose Challenge was submitted by
 an artist whom I
admire greatly and I have followed
her for quite a while.
Her name?
Drum roll....
Kaethe Bealer

She is brilliant at nailing her values
with beautiful, rich colors.
Here is a link to her

Be prepared to have your 
socks knocked off when you 
see the rose she painted 
from the photo.

You will see many other 
beautiful rose paintings
this challenge has inspired. 

 Here is a link to 
her gallery page

You can see she paints a variety
of subject matter
but all of them, magnificently.

Still putting together my workshop post.


Thursday, June 22, 2017

Silver, Red & Turquoise!


Silver, Red & Turquoise!
6"x 6" oil on gesso board $125. SOLD


Artist Note.
I am proud of this one.
Big beam and a happy Julie!

Tomorrow is the last day 
of the 
Fracturing Technique workshop. 
(The cherries were painted before it.)

What a great group of
talented artists, I was lucky
enough to have.
I will ask their permission 
to show some of their work
in my next post.

First, I need to relax.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Mums, Picasso & Cherries


Mums, Picasso & Cherries.
8"x6"  oil on linen panel  SOLD

Artist Note.
 The cherries are still
inspiring me, so I went into a 
different color palette
and am happy I did.
I find the color harmony
in this one very appealing.

This is an extra personal painting
because I used 
an old and much loved
Picasso top
as the background.
The challenge of this was
how to do a "busy" painting
but still manage to
keep a focal area.

It was fun to paint.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Spilled Cherries


Spilled Cherries
6x8inches oil on canvas panel $140. SOLD

Artist Note
This went thru several incarnations,
starting off with a silver bowl.
It became a fight of reflections!
I know when I am beaten 
so I went and got a white bowl
off the shelf.

This is another painting
 from the big box of cherries
we bought at Nichols Ranch


Situated a beautiful 80 min drive 
from Las Cruces,
the orchards are 
at an altitude of 6,800ft
- much cooler than here!
Leaving, we stopped to admire 
this view
of the brilliant streak of light
below the distant mountains 
created by
 White Sands National Monument.

Hot today with more 
heat on the way.
 My new studio in nice and cool.


Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Striped Pitcher



The Striped Pitcher
8"x 6" oil on canvas/panel $140. SOLD


Artist Note.

I LOOOOVE my new studio!

 I want to show you my
set-up for painting a still life

 I needed  something that was: 
convenient to get to... 
right by my easel...
      and very versatile...

This fits the bill perfectly.

I screwed two shelving strips 
into the wall
making them long enough 
so I could adjust
the viewpoint from either,
eye level - see below
- or moving it down for 
taller still life set-ups.
 (See last image)
It is so easy to adjust. 

. I used the longer18-inch brackets
to support a good sized surface. 
I used a 20"x20" piece of plywood
on top of the lower brackets
and  placed a piece of
24' foam core over the top
This also prevents my overhead light 
from interrupting a
single light source.
I can have fabric over this 
to drop down behind
And I can also use colored paper
The gooseneck light
 adjusts in any position
from any side.
This shows how 
I can also use the
  sight-size method. 

So there it is. I hope I get a 
lot of use out of it.
Whoo hoo!!