Lemon Party

Love this bowl of lemons!  The store had bags on sale for less than $3.00 which is shocking because the loose ones are 75 cents each around here.  Probably even more surprising, they were juicier and smoother on the inside than the huge, individual ones.   Bought them for a special family dinner to host my son-in-law’s parents visiting from the Netherlands.  A wonderful evening!

Really enjoyed painting this setup - got out one of my last remaining RayMar panels -- a very "toothy" surface which I don't particularly like, but guess what, I loved the outcome.   Same thing happened with another painting so may just have to buy a few more of them.   To me it's like painting on gravel covered in sand and stuccoed vs. painting on an ice rink!  Oh my, what to do.  I guess it goes without saying, that I have square bowls to go with the square plates. 

Lemon Party

Enjoy!

Moonflower Madness

I have been madly in love with Moonflowers for years.  That they open at dusk and are so delicate is just fascinating! They are the size of saucers much bigger than morning glories.  Every year I start seeds indoors and set them out in patio pots as soon as possible.  For those of us with a non-green-thumb*, these are quite easy to grow.  I’m sure there are a few YouTube videos on the topic. Once they start blooming, there are two or three a day until the weather gets too cold in the fall. Even though I’ve grown these for years, I never before noticed that they have a kind of a starfish shape in the center.  It was way fun painting that part. If that isn't enough, the leaves are shaped like hearts!  What's not to like?  Including a reference photo so you can see the starfish and sort of see the heart-shaped leaves.  

 Moonflower Madness
see DPW Auctions starting Friday 8/23

* okay, I have a green thumb, but it is ‘cause it’s covered with paint – usually Viridian, Phthalo or Sap Green!  Ha, ha. 

Reference photo

Enjoy!

Vacation -> Hamilton Bermuda

Painted a lot lately and it feels so good.  I hope I can keep it going!

We love Bermuda and went again this year.   

This is a wonderful building at a main intersection (Queen and Front Street) in the capital city of Bermuda.   I love how both the shadow and sunlit sides are so vibrant. Every day we would venture into the city for great food, sightseeing and taking the ferry to other parts of the island.   All the buildings in Bermuda are painted in dramatic colors, but this one really stood out to me.  I haven’t painted many buildings, and this was much harder than I expected, but imagine it’s like the rest of this craft – the more you do it, the more familiar you get.  I hope to do a few more and incorporate a looser style  (which I prefer!).  Oh yeah, if you go to Bermuda be sure and get the Fish Chowder – it’s on every menu, so not to worry about where to go for it.  

Hamilton Bermuda - Gosling building
see DPW Auctions starting Sunday 8/25

p.s. This year we went at the end of July and landed smack on the biggest holiday in Bermuda.  It is a four day event and almost everything is closed!  Seriously every shop and practically every restaurant is shuttered for most of the time.  The hotels are open and our favorite restaurant was in business so we survived!  A feature of the celebration is a two day cricket match which was quite delightful.  It's so funny because they only have two teams, switching East vs. West every year. They make it pretty clear that there's no need to understand the game, care about who's winning, what time it is, or what happens next - it's all about hanging out with friends and family, taking a break and being happy!  Love that.  On our way home, we asked "so who won the game?"  The response was well uh it was a tie because uh it rained too much.  See the end didn't really matter anyway, but the fans definitely know which team they root for and made another life-time memory!

This is the doorman at our hotel - quite a character and knows what a Bermud-i-ful Day means!

Update and News

Okay, I haven’t painted lately, but planning to do so today – nice rainy, got nothing else to do kind of day!

About the shows I mentioned a few weeks ago.  One is quite unusual – Amazon Web Services is opening an office building in Herndon and asked the local art community to submit art for their new office space.  An employee panel voted on the accepted art (nearly 300 pieces) and then the other employees will vote on the ones Amazon will purchase.  The piece I submitted was not accepted, but I volunteered at the “intake event” and got to see some incredible art and meet quite a few artists.  I am still WOWed at how rare it is to meet so many artists and talk with them about their art.  

The other show, Art at the Mill (Berryville, VA), is in October.  It is held twice a year, about 300 artists and over 1,000 pieces of art – plus it's a wonderful season to head out to the Shenandoah Mountains.  I am thrilled that two of my pieces were accepted!   

Complementary Pair  
20 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

Redheads for Tea 
6 x 6 inches, oil on Gessobord

One last note – another blog carnival featuring A Day in the Life of several artists, is below.  I opted out, but I bet there are some interesting stories . . . .    oh, I heard there might be a few giveaways worth checking out.

Cindy Michaud	Jo MacKenzie	Christine Parker	Marla Laubisch
Joanne Grant	Kevin Larson	Cindy Williams	Sharon Graves
Sally Binard	Karen Johnston

Enjoy!

Let's Get the Party Started

This one was so much fun to paint.  The grape tomatoes from the farmer’s market were looking for trouble and happened upon the jalapeno pepper who wanted to start a party.  They huddled together and made a plan, then headed off to find the rest of the team (oh, I mean ingredients).  Guess I better go hide the limes I’m planning to paint!

Salsa Plan

This painting will be added to the Daily Paintworks auction on Sunday 8/11.   

Life is joy you make one moment at a time. . . 

Recharged!

Getting back into the swing of painting now that we’re back from a wonderful vacation to Bermuda.  Going to try painting a few of the photos – the colors are so fabulous and the island so beautiful.  I suspect it will be a bit of a challenge switching from painting real life / still life, but ready to dive in.

This is a do-over of a painting because the panel was damaged on the first one. So very disappointing and I think added to my lack of painting mojo.  Hopefully that’s behind me now!  I am mesmerized by these beautiful royal blue, gold rimmed plates we found on our honeymoon.  I think you know I LOVE grapefruit.  Not too many of us do, but hopefully we all at least like looking at them.  I am enjoying the fact that I get to keep the first one despite its flaws. . . 

Luscious Elegance #2

This painting will be added to the Daily Paintworks auction on Saturday 8/10.    

Last Week - Two more sold

Painted a little but distracted by two shows coming up.  I'm always surprised how much time it takes to figure out what to submit, fill out the forms, decide on price, title, etc.   I'll provide more specifics as the process unfolds (it takes weeks!) and keep you updated on the submissions.  I hope they all are accepted. . . .  

I’ve started taking an art class on the weekends and the subjects, size and format are quite different so I’m thinking that has me scrambled up a bit.  Learning some very valuable tips and the teacher is great.  For me it’s a process of hearing the new information, synthesizing it and then figuring out where it fits in.   I like how hard it is to try new things and experiment to see what happens.  

As promised, here are the paintings that have sold recently.  I love doing the 4x4's - it looks like the chilies are having a very serious meeting - I bet it's about a hot topic!  

Sunflower Challenge  Lafayette, Colorado

Sunflower Challenge 

Lafayette, Colorado

Hot Chilies and Crazy Colors - Again
Fredericksburg, Virginia

Quick Update

Apologies for not updating the blog lately – no excuse.  Wanted to let you know that I’ll be doing the Studio tour 20% off selection tomorrow morning and will notify everyone no later than Monday 7/22. 

Meanwhile, I’m adding this painting to the auction starting on Sunday 7/21.

Best of luck to all!   

Me and My Shadow  (auction)

p.s. again I apologize for the poor grammar. . .  It should be My Shadow and I. 

Sweet Clementine Surprise

When I went to pick up my paintings from the Live an Artful Life Gallery in The Plains Virginia last Monday, I discovered that My Sweet Clementine was purchased at the very last minute!.  I got the “no sale” email the day before, so was doubly delighted.  Plus my good friend (let’s just call her GL) went with me and we had a grand old time talking with the natives (its amazing how an hour from my home (less than 20 miles from DC) is a simpler, wonderful, rural, hardworking, people-oriented delight!  Luckily my friend navigated me through the terrain.   

I thought Morning Fox would sell at the show but apparently there are too many foxes out there this month. People in that area LOVE foxes.  The good news is I will submit him to the Clarke County, Art at the Mill show coming up this fall – I am hoping he will be accepted and find a few friends out there!  This is a fantastic venue if you are looking for a variety of art, at great prices, by famous, near famous and emerging artists.  Apparently, people come from all over including buyers from NYC, DC, FL, etc. making it our little Shenandoah Mountain secret which just so happens to be around the time the leaves are turning into amazing colors. Go to this link for details.   Psssssst, for my locals, I can get you into the reception for free.  Now I just gotta come up with four other paintings to make the submission worthwhile! 

I’m actually quite sorry to see this sweetie go – it is a real favorite of mine.

My Sweet Clementine

p.s. Posting excuses abound, but last week was my birthday, Independence Day holiday, and my wedding anniversary!  Enjoy life. . . 

Hat-trick ! ! !

For our non-sports fans, a hat-trick is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievement based on threes. One more sale late Sunday night makes three for the weekend – YAY, YAY, YAY. I’m going to chalk this up to a full moon or something because it seems too early to be giving serious consideration to raising prices. I can see stats on the number of paintings vs. those with bids. Not very good odds so keeping things low for now. 

What the heck,

• The fact that people are willing to pay for something you love doing is priceless. 
• Getting to share enjoyment of the same piece of art is amazing. 
• Grabbing my personal favorites is brilliant! 

A follower asked me to share the ones that sold, so here they are. BTW, you can tell in the gallery if a painting has sold by a tiny red dot in the bottom right corner. Also, there is a button at the top of the gallery that lets you filter out the sold ones when you’re in a buying-mood (wink, wink).   Here’s the button:                 

Here are the ones that sold:

Life is joy you make one moment at a time.  
Remember to take the Studio Tour posted last night when you have time over the holiday.