Beyond the Sunset

20 x 20
Oil on Stretched Canvas
Finished on All Sides

Beyond the sunset was my Mother’s favorite song.  

Winter Tree

20 x 16
Oil on Stretched Canvas
Finished on all sides 

                       

On the Easel

Here is a sneak peak of what is going on in my little painting corner right now. Maybe painting some snow will get us some soon! As I have said before, snow is my favorite subject to paint, and bare trees. And a nice snowfall would be greatly appreciated! 

Evolution of a Painting From Memory

An Old West Texas Farm 

This is a first for me!!! Jay has commissioned me to paint a picture of a place from his memory, his grandparent’s farm in West Texas. It has been quite a challenging project. The first photo below was Jay’s first rough sketch of the farm, which no longer exists. It is now just open prairie. So we started with this sketch and as you can see from the photos following, that it evolved quite a bit. We had to figure out the placement of everything, and then I drew it from three different possible angles. Jay picked the one he liked best of those three. Yesterday, after many months of getting our heads together and coming up with the right scene, I finally finished the painting. I cannot post it on here just yet because Jay does not want to see it until he can see it in person. So when that happens I will post a photo of the finished painting. It is an interesting painting that I am sure stirs a lot of memories!

I see my last post was April 7. It has been a while! 

The first rough sketch from Jay’s memory. 

A few more details.

Some instructions for the barn. 

Jay decided on this layout. 

A rough sketch of the old house.

Adding some things.

Moving some things around. 

Adding some more things, cotton wagons in this case. 

Got it started! This is all you can see of the painting for now! Finished product late!!

Jay wanted these next three farm implements included.

Jay said they had six of these brown and white cows in the pasture. 

The field in the background is a cotton field, so naturally we needed some wagons to hold the cotton. 

Two of these black and white pigs in the pig pen. 

This car and this tractor!!

I borrowed this photo reference for the right angle of the car. 

1938 John Deere. 

You will see this washtub under the windmill where Jay used to take his bath. 

Jay wanted a tornado in the painting. After all, it is west Texas!

Meadow Walk

Meadow Walk
20 x 10 Inches
Oil on Stretched Canvas
Available - $175 Plus Shipping
See Left Side for More Info

Below is a photo of this painting as it was after I dd it with a painting group. We did it in one sitting so were limited on the time we could spend on it. Later I did some more with it, adding some interest with flowers, cows, water, ducks, dog, birds, and changed the figure to a better one, I think. 

Misty Forest With Deer Family

 

Misty Winter Forest With Deer Family
28 x 22
Oil on Stretched Canvas

I started this painting a couple of years ago. It originally was just snow and trees, no creek or deer. It sat for a while as I was contemplating what to add to it for some extra interest. So far this is what I have. I may "contemplate" it some more. I will re-post if I make any additions. 

 

A country Road in Nebraska

A Country Road in Nebraska
30 x 24 inches
Oil on Stretched Canvas
This is a scene in Nebraska, somewhere south of Omaha
Finished on all sides and ready to hang, with or without a frame.
It will need some drying time.
Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

I see that I have not been on here since May of last year! I have done very little painting since then, especially since we had spent almost 7 months traveling in the western U.S. Recently I finished two paintings, the previous post and this one. I have to give credit to Mark Norling for the inspiration for this one. He is a wonderful photographer and I became acquainted with him through the FB page "God's World Through the Lens". He gave me permission to use his photo for this painting. You can see his photos on that page. It is a closed group but you can join if you are interested in photographing or viewing God's creation.  

Carrie's Place

Carrie's Place
Original
Oil on Stretched Canvas
20 x 16

     The story - The Hopkins (My daughter and family) had me do a mural on their large dining room wall in their Ohio house, about 10 years ago! They left for a year and I never quite finished it. Before starting the big one, I did a smaller quick study. Carrie had drawn the basic picture that she wanted me to paint. So I found the small one in one of our many packed up things, and worked on it to give to Carrie for her birthday this past year. After that she wanted a few things added, little animals. So I have done that and touched up a few places. See if you can find all the little critters I added, not counting the sheep.

Blogger Test

I am just doing some blogger testing. 

Snowy Cabin Sunset

Oil on Stretched Canvas
36 x 24 Inches
Original

Someone asked me recently what is my favorite thing to paint. Well, snow of course! And bare trees. This is a 36x24 inch oil painting on stretched canvas, started probably three years ago and pulled out of the bottom of the pile to edit and touch up. Calling it done. I think....You just never know.
 

The Protector

30 x 24
Oil on Stretched Canvas

It's been a long time!

In the past I have not been an ocean painter. It all looked very daunting to me, and still does. But now a couple of people have commissioned me to paint this subject matter. So I guess you can say they were my first experience with the ocean and water on a large scale. I did paint a couple of very small ocean paintings, which are back in my blog a good ways. But painting on a large scale is different. This one and the two commissions were on the larger scale. I guess I did it backwards, but after the fact, I did this painting lesson from Byron Pickering who is a wonderful artist and painter of the ocean. He is fortunate to live on the northwest coast of the US. I might be jealous! His title for the painting is "The Protector". 

Commission for Becky

The photo below is from the first posting of this painting. It has been sitting on my easel for a couple of weeks now, staring at me. This is a good thing as it gives me time to look at the painting casually as I go through my day. I realized that I did not have a reflection of the seagull, so have added that and also did some adjusting to some areas that were bothering me. Also, this is a better photo than the one below. I THINK I am calling it finished.

Oil on stretched canvas
40 x 30 x 2 inches
Finished on all sides

This is why I have not posted in a while. I have been working on this large painting and it is one that is a change from my usual subject matter, so it has been a learning experience for me. It will be sitting on my easel in line of sight in my main living area, so I will be looking at it and likely get the urge to do some tweaking on it.
This was painted from a photograph. The setting is the east coast in North Carolina. 

Purple Trees

Purple Trees
24 x 18
Finished on all sides
Acrylic on stretched canavas
Available
For purchase information please email me.

Carrie and I went to a painting workshop together and this is the painting that we did. It is done in acrylics. I do mostly oils so this was some practice in acrylics and also a reminder of why I prefer oils. Painters will know, but if you are unaware what they say about acrylics - "The good thing about acrylics is that they dry fast. The bad thing about acrylics is that they dry fast". :-/
This painting is available at this time, as is. OR in a while I plan to "edit" it with some oils, after I finish a commission that I am working on now. 

Snow and Fire

Snow and Fire
12 x 9 x 1/8 Inches
Oil on Board
For purchase information please go HERE

The two things that I love to paint the most would be snow and bare trees. Snow gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling and this painting shows that very well. 

Chickadee Spring

Chickadee Spring
9 x 9 x 1/8 Inches
Oil on Canvas Board
For Purchase Information Please Go HERE

     Other than some tiny accent birds, this is my first real bird painting. My daughter Carrie picked out this painting for us to do. That would be Carrie, four of the kids and me. Sue was with us also. We do painting for some of their schooling. Three of the kids that did this one were pretty new. One has been a regular and she has made very good progress. it is interesting to see the different styles that each person has.

   Below are all of the groups paintings together, except Sue. She had to leave and we didn't get a picture of hers, but she did a very good job!

Eleven Seagulls

Eleven Seagulls
Oil on Stretched Canvas
14 x 11
Spoken For

"You are your own worst critic" is a truism. People often look at a painting and say "I don't know how you do that". Well, it isn't always easy, for me at least and I hear the same from even great artists. For example, this painting started out with a bluer ocean but then it became blue green. I think I did five different skies before settling on this one. I am new to painting oceans and water scenes so it is a real learning process for me. Speaking of that, my next commissioned painting is a large ocean scene. I hope to get started on it soon.

For Debi - Comission

Oil on stretched canvas
12 x 24 inches
Commission for Debi

Debi, would you like to give your painting a title? I think there are endless possibilities. Please let me know and I will add it to the header. 

For Debi - Commission

                                                                       For Debi

                                                                   18 x 36 inches

                                                           Oil on Stretched Canvas

                                                      

Lifeboat
Approximately 7 ft x 4 ft
Made up of 12 - 20x16 inch canvases
Commission for a Church Auditorium

Someone selected this scene to represent Jesus as our Lifeboat, having made it through the storm that is exiting of the right side, safe on shore and the calm from the storm on the left side.  Some have suggested that it looks a bit like the sea of Galilee. Some are reminded of the events that took lake beside this lake.

Below are photos of Mike, my husband, hanging the canvases. This was a pretty meticulous job, getting the nails placed just right so that they hang evenly and that there is an exact 1 inch space between all sides. He did a great job! Right up his alley. You can also see the canvases in my painting room. Mike attached these to a large piece of  plywood so that I could see the painting all together as I painted.  Then the pictures of it hanging in the Church Auditorium.

So, as you can see, I could not have done this without Mike!

Lazin - SOLD

Lazin
This painting is SOLD
12 x 12
Oil on stretched canvas
Finished on all sides

Poppies and Daisies - SOLD

Van Gogh's Langlois Bridge at Arles - Commission

After Van Gogh's Langlois Bridge at Arles
Painted for Jeremy to hang in his office

I have done several Van Gogh's for Jeremy and one for Carrie. Jeremy still has another one selected, but I am taking a break from Van Gogh for a while. Maybe at a later time. This painting seemed quite different for the other ones I had done. I love the subject matter of the women doing their laundry in the river.

Cardinals by Lamplight - SOLD

Cardinals by Lamplight
14 x 11
Oil on stretched canvasThe color on this painting is a bit bluer than it is showing up on the photo, on my computer.