Got Milk? ~ Cow portrait

"Got Milk?" 6" x 6" oil on canvas panel

click here to BID NOW on Daily Paintworks

I'm having a bit of fun again with the complementary colour scheme, and of course, cows...Painting cows always makes me happy. They're just so endearing, that I can't help but smile while I'm painting them. This little darling had just finished nursing from her mom and had a milk must mustache, but she's not a bit concerned about it!

I'm really happy with how she turned out. I almost want to keep it for myself :)

Nevermore ~ the Raven

Nevermore ~ 6" x 6" mixed media on panel

For Sale on Daily Paintworks

BID NOW

"...Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'" ~Edgar Allen Poe

I've long had a fascination with ravens. They seem to have an extraordinary intelligence. We had one as a pet, when I was a child. It was injured, and my father rescued it. We nursed it back to health and it actually learned to say hello, and would greet us when we approached.

Last summer I had the great fortune to witness a raven "funeral". There was a dead raven on the side of the road. As I sat on the deck, eating my lunch, a squawking, raucous murder of ravens flew up and landed in a tree just behind their fallen comrade. A lone raven separated from the group and walked a few circles around the dead one. The whole time, the others were calling noisily. Then the lone raven flew back to the tree. With that, they fell silent, and as if on cue, quietly flew away with a rush of wings.

The moment left me with goosebumps and a little breathless, for what was clearly an homage to their fallen friend.

I wanted this painting to have a bit of an otherworldly feeling. I have long doodled spirals, and I went into this painting intentionally trying to call my intuitive creative spirit instead of being purely representational and the spirals appeared.

 I put paint on and wiped it off. I sprayed water on it and let it drip. I put bubble wrap in the wet paint, and played with metallics. The swirls are actually painted in metallic cold. The background is acrylic paint and the raven is in oils.

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean

6" x 6" oil on panel

BID NOW in the Daily Paintworks Auction

This painting was done as part of one of the Daily Paintworks challenges, called the "Limited Movie Star" challenge. The challenge was to only use five values, and only use blue, purple and white to paint the picture.

When I was a teenager, I LOVED James Dean. I had a photo book of his biography and would draw him over and over :) So when I saw the challenge I knew exactly who I would paint.

It was a fun little challenge. Who knows, maybe I should paint more "blue" movie stars...what do you think?

Dressage

Dressage ~ 7" x 9" oil on panel

I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of painting again! Yay! 

I'd had too much time off...too much time relaxing. Not a bad thing, I just felt like I forgot how to paint a little. How do I hold the brush again? How much paint do I mix up? What's the complementary of orange? Lol!

At any rate, I'm on a roll now. I really had fun with this one. I slopped the paint on with wild abandon:) (Well, only the background, but I really like the texture of the built up paint. It's really nice and juicy.

This one's going up for bid on Daily Paintworks, so click here to

BID NOW

for you chance to win.  

Thoughts on Why I'm an Artist

False Modesty ~ 7" x 9" oil on canvas panel

For sale on Daily Paintworks

BID HERE

Why am I an artist?

Hmmmm....

I remember sitting at the coffee table, at five or six years old. We had a brown shag rug that tickled my knees. 

Someone had given me a sheet of tracing paper and it was a revelation.

I could draw something that looked like what it was supposed to! It wasn't childish circle faces and triangle trees. It was a dog, or a horse, or whatever it was...I don't even remember the subject, but it looked like what I'd meant it to look like! 

My parents had beamed and exclaimed over how beautiful it was, always encouraging even my most childish scribbles.

As I sit writing this, my six year old daughter has just run up to me, beaming,

with her tracing of Draculaura. "Look how good I'm doing, Mom!" she trills.

"Wow! That's awesome!" I say. 

It doesn't matter that it's traced, it matters that it looks right to her. That day on the brown shag rug, I suddenly had confidence that maybe my little hand holding a pencil, could make something look right, how it was "supposed" to look. And I know that is what my daughter is feeling right now.

That day I decided I would be an artist. I didn't stop drawing. I drew everything I could and soon I didn't need to trace. I could make it "look right" all on my own.

Signs of Spring

You know it's spring when these colourful little critters start popping up in fields all over the countryside!

I just can't resist those long eyelashes and that little mischievious twinkle. She looks like she's full of "piss and vinegar" as my dad would say;)

For this one, I tried to work the complementary colours of blue and orange to make this little gal pop. 

Curly Sue ~ 6"x 6" oil on canvas panel

For sale on Daily Paintworks

Click HERE to bid.

Samoan Fire Dancer painting...time in Hawaii

Keeper of the Fire ~ 24" x 30" oil on canvas 

 $2,500.00

Soooo....I have a confession to make. 

I haven't posted a thing in so long because...I am in Hawaii! I have been for the last two months!

I've been soaking up the sun, enjoying the beach, and relishing the time with my family, uninterrupted by school and work. I haven't painted very much. I haven't wanted to interrupt this special time. When I paint, I want to be left alone. I resent the attention everyone else demands from me, and I become a lot more selfish. And the more I paint, the more I want to paint. 

This vacation I wanted to just be. Just be with my kids and my husband.

My marriage has become even more precious, my relationship with my children has blossomed. (They are such amazing human beings!) I love to see them learning about their new environment, excited and curious again. I don't feel like they're missing too much, being away from school. They do their homework every day, and it hardly takes an hour. The rest of the day they get to learn about Hawaii, and they're so enthusiastic in their learning. They can name all of the Hawaiian fish, and many of the flowers and birds. They're just little sponges! I wish my memory was half as good!

Anyways,

I have painted a bit, when they were doing something that didn't interest me, or when I absolutely had to off-gas some creative energy, for fear of exploding! I've done a few little horses, which have all sold, and this monster of a painting.(above) 

I got the idea for him last year, after seeing photos of the Samoan fire dancers. The contrast of fire and darkness is so powerful and dramatic. I wanted to add a feeling of ancientness, of story, so I added the petroglyphs.

I hope you like it:)