Green and Violet

Oil on Wood

8" x 8"

2013

I went to the Nicolai Fechin exhibit at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle last weekend, a great show! Fechin's technique is completely different from mine, of course, but I really admire his bravura with a palette knife and his excellent draftsmanship. It was also really interesting to see his work change over the years, from a dull palette to one with much more color. It's very worthwhile to see this exhibit; the paintings look very different from any of the photos I've seen of his work online or in print. A must see!

After the show I was inspired to get out my palette knife and play around, so I did this little self-portrait study (it's 5" x 7")

Artichokes

Oil on Panel

16 x 20

October 2012

Green and Violet

Green and Violet
Oil on Panel
8" x 8"

This painting was finished in March but I forgot to post it here. This will be my last marble painting for a while as I've started on another large piece. I'm including a WIP photo here. I have blocked in most of the background and some of the other areas.

Bunnies 2

Oil on panel

24" x 36"

Here is my latest painting. I'm also including a detail photo so you can see what the piece looks like close up. As you might be able to tell, I like these chocolate bunnies. I loved painting the intricate patterns in the crinkled foil.

This piece took several months to paint, so I'm taking a break from larger pieces after this and will be painting a couple of the small marble paintings before I do anything else.

Detail:

Still Here!

I haven't disappeared! I snapped a quick shot of my latest piece that's in progress, it's really kicking my butt. I am hoping to get it finished by the end of September. At this stage I've made one pass of color and am working on the second pass of color. The yardstick I use as a mahlstick.

Green Stripe

Oil on Wood
8" x 8"

This is the last in a series of marble paintings that I've been working on. I have really enjoyed playing with the different backgrounds and lighting situations of these pieces, but I'm definitely ready for something a little bigger! My next painting will be much larger, so it may be a little while before I post my next work.

Orange Stripe

Oil on panel
8" x 8"

I've got one marble left to paint in this series. It's been really fun to attempt painting the different textures and lighting situations of these pieces.

Yellow Stripe

Oil on panel
8" x 8"

Green Marble

Oil on panel
8" x 8"

Green Marble WIP Pt. 2

This is what it looked like after a second session of painting. I'm currently refining details and playing with the background color. Sometimes I get the background the color I want right away, but other times I have to play around with warms and cools to get it just the right hue and value. The shadow on the top of the painting is from the easel.

Marbles

I'm working on a series of small marble paintings. I'm fascinated with marbles and love staring at the differences in the surface and interior. These paintings are almost abstract to me, they're kind of an iconic circle or sphere shape against a stark background.

This is the beginning of a green marble.

This is how I start a lot of my paintings, very loose and just establishing values. For this painting I decided to do a true grisaille underpainting, and really worked up the details on the marble using just gray and white. I used raw umber and ultramarine blue for the gray.

I didn't take a picture of the finished underpainting, but here is how it looks after one glaze of color:

I normally paint more directly, only adding some glazing at the end, so this is a really different method for me. I'm not sure if I like painting this way or not. I will try to keep taking photos of this one to show it's progress.

Bunnies

 

Oil on Linen

28" x 32"

This is the large painting that I have been working on for several months. I made the purple and pink bunny slightly out of focus to let the yellow bunny pop out a little bit.

Burien Art Gallery Juried Show

 

I'm pleased to announce that three of my paintings were chosen to be exhibited in the Artists United Annual Juried Show for 2009. The painting above, "Turquoise and Green," was chosen for use on the postcards advertising the show, and I was informed that the painting "Sardines" won honorable mention in the show.

"Candy 3" is the 3rd painting that will be shown.

 

Teresa Saia and Ken Turner were jurors for the show, which includes paintings and 3D art. The show runs at the Burien Art Gallery in Burien, WA from September 3-27, 2009, with the opening reception on September 4, 7-9pm. 

I'm looking forward to a great show, there are some really wonderful artists in this group, and hope you can stop in to see the show!

Ford 9 Inch

 

Here's another car part I painted several years ago. I have always been interested in so-called "realism" and getting an accurate representation of what I'm painting, but at this point in my painting career, I was too impatient to take the time to get it completely right, so there may or may not be that many actual teeth or splines (or whatever it is they're called!) on the wheel.  I do think the slightly clumsy draftsmanship gives it some charm. I would love to paint another one of these.

Oil on Canvas

14 x 18

More Car Parts

 

Here is another older drawing of mine, in oil pastel on board. Continuing the theme of car parts. 

The large painting I am working on is coming along, I'm working as fast as I can but it's taking me much longer than I thought it would. I'm hoping to be able to show it here by September.

Car Part

Here's that Ford 9-inch again. I believe this is from 1998. I had some trouble with the circles on this one. I was really beginning to hate the rust color by the time I painted this one, though I still love looking at the intricacies of the part. If only it was all chrome!

Oil on Canvas
12 x 18

Blue Marble

 

Here's another one of my small marble paintings. This one was particularly difficult because of the lighting and the fact that the stripe is all blue. I had to use several different blues (among other colors), and I still don't think I got enough variegation. It's funny how such a simple subject can be such a challenge! I spent approximately 7 hours altogether on it.

Oil on Wood

8 x 8

Ford 9 Inch Part 2

 

As you can see, I really liked this car part. For a year or so I was interested in oil pastels, and this drawing was done in that medium. I had to stop because it made my wrist hurt, even when lightly pressing on the surface.

Oil Pastel on Wood

13" x 19"

Ford 9 Inch

 

This is an old painting that I did during my "car parts" phase. I loved looking at all the car parts that my husband would have lying around, so I decided to try to paint a few of them. This was painted from life. I really love the intricacy and wild compositions that I could get with the parts, but the colors are decidedly dull , almost uniformly dull metal color and/or rust color, so I found myself really having to punch up the color to keep it from looking too monochromatic.

Oil on Canvas

12" x 18"

1998

Blue and Tan Marble

Oil on Wood
8" x 8"