Happy Friday!

"Cold One"

11"x 14", oil on canvas

Happy Friday out there!  Here's a cold one on me!

Beer enthusiasts ....do you know what kind this is?  I didn't work at any 

letters or words....but, I did try to be accurate with the color shapes and it's surprising

 how many people knew just what brand of beer this was!  

I bought a 6 pack of these about a month ago...trying to bribe a few guy friends into 

posing for a portrait painting.  Shameless....I know...I'm not proud of it.

I have a lot of practice painting women, but not so much practice painting men.

I have a few of my husband and son...but I was curious to see what venturing out 

and painting others would be like.  It was a nice experience, and it was fun to hear their stories and

 to try capturing these kind people in paint.

Thank you for looking and reading!

Have a great weekend :)

Show Time

"Show Time"

24"x 24", oil on canvas

Did I tell you I was born in Las Vegas?  I was.  

Neon, music, live performances, fashion...it's deep inside me, 

and sometimes a little needs to come out.

I like circus stuff too.... clown paintings, I like velvet clown paintings.

Okay, confession is over.  You know too much.

Thank you for looking!  

"Speak Up"

"Speak Up"

11"x 14" oil on canvas

I just love old things.....and I absolutely love shiny metal/ chrome old things.

So, needless to say...gazing at this old microphone was just hypnotizing

 for me.  It makes me think of old theaters, velvet seats, popcorn and my date's hand on my leg

in the dark (public... but somehow private)  space.

When I'm in my own world, painting..... it's transporting.

Good stuff.....mini vacation. 

Thank you for looking and reading.  :)  

The Artist's Magazine 33rd Annual Art Competition

I feel so honored ... 

5,900 applicants and one of my paintings made it as a finalist in this competition.

Thank you Artist Magazine!  I really appreciate you!!  

"Congratulations! Your artwork, "Race to the Finish", has been selected as a finalist in the Still Life/Interior category of The Artist's Magazine 33^rd Annual Art Competition. " Your name will appear among the lists of finalists published in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue."

Pinch me!! 

Hello Kitty

11"x 14", oil on canvas

Just a still life ....with fun stuff I happened to have around.

I've loved Hello Kitty since I was old enough to collect stickers, about 8yrs old.

She was the coolest sticker in my collection.....a puffy sticker, plastic...shaped like a vanilla wafer cookie (another passion of mine)  

Stickers and cookies, sometimes I feel like I've never grown up.  I'd still love to sort through an album or shoe box of stickers ...while munching on vanilla wafers.  

Maybe I'll start my collection of stickers again .....hmmm.

Hope your weekend is awesome!  Make time for fun!

Lunch Together

"Lunch Together"

18"x 18", oil on canvas

Another diner scene  :)

This is just before a waitress, with a southern accent, brings me a juicy hamburger with a side of crispy french fries.

Wait.... I forgot to paint the mustard and catsup!

Thank you for looking!

With Sprinkles Please

"With Sprinkles Please"

12" x 12", oil on canvas

Such a cheerful subject.   

I painted this about a month ago.  It was a fun little still life that I set up for a student, so I painted too  :)

Thank you for looking! 

Flower #12

"Flower  #12"

24" x 24", oil on canvas

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"Flower #12", 24" x 24" oil on canvas…. okay, I've done this bouquet about 4 times, time to move on to another.

Thank you for looking!

Flowers #11

"Flowers  #11"

12" x 12", oil on canvas

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Roses in Red

"Roses in Red"

12" x 12", oil on canvas

Flower # 8….. vibrant.  

Painting at night, with it dark outside, and dimly lit inside, except for the roses :)  I've been soaking up the saturated color, like a little bit of sunshine before bed.  

My son thinks I'm crazy…."why would you want to paint flowers everyday?"  with a confused look on his beautiful face.

"I love flowers!  It feels like sunshine in the dark winter"

Nodding in agreement, he walks off to his computer.

"Go paint flowers Mom!  Good job!"

I'm so lucky….

I love my family.  :)

Thank you for looking and reading!!  :)

A Yellow Rose

"A Yellow Rose"

12" x 16", acrylic on canvas

My fifth floral day!! :)  This is an acrylic painting.  I normally paint with oils, but I've been teaching someone who wants to paint with acrylics, so I've been painting with acrylics also.  It's easier to show someone how I did something when we're both working with the same medium.  We both use the "Stay Wet" palette …and that's a life saver!!  The paints stay open and wet on the palette, even though they dry fast on the canvas.  I bought some Golden Open acrylics to experiment with, they stay wet longer on the canvas.

This painting was with those paints.  I'm trying to get the acrylics to act like oils.  It was fun, but acrylics just aren't soft and buttery like oil paints, still fun to paint with though!

Thank you for looking and reading!  :)

Single Rose

"Single Rose"

8" x 10", oil on canvas

Oh man!!  This is floral painting #4!!  I'm officially on a flower roll :)

Which means…. I've painted a floral still life 4 days in a row.  

I'm kinda proud of myself.  I'll keep at it, see how far I get!

Thank you for looking!

Flowers….three days in a row!

"Flowers 3"

16" x 20" , oil on canvas

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Okay…somehow I've managed to paint flowers three days in a row.  I was walking my dog this morning and was thinking ….what if I challenged myself to paint flowers everyday for a month?

Of course, just saying that is almost a jinx for me.  I'm really great at convincing myself of things I should do daily….then conveniently forgetting all about it by day three or four….7 tops!  

But maybe….painting flowers each day would be cool.  I love looking at them.  I'd love to experiment with painting them different ways.  I'd love to get better at painting them.  They make me feel great in the dead of winter during Alaska's darkest months….  

hmmm…… maybe I'll paint flowers everyday ...until who knows when.  :)

Thank you for looking and reading!!

I talk to myself a lot….it's nice thinking I'm talking to someone else on these blog posts! :)

Little pink vase..

"Little Pink Vase" 

8" x 10", oil on canvas

More Flowers!  Yay!!

Wild Roses

"Wild Roses"

24"x 24"  

oil on stretched canvas

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I have to say…with my paintings….. 

I'm just going where the wind takes me lately, 

and I'm really enjoying the flowers this summer!

So here's a new close up of wild roses, sitka roses is the variety 

I know them by.  I have a few 5 foot bushes at my house, 

and they smell amazing right now!!!

At the beginning of August, I'll be having a show at an 

awesome chocolate shop in Anchorage, AK…called

Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge.

So I'm putting together group of paintings that 

mean "Summer" to me…this is one if them.  

Thank you for looking!

Geranium

11" x 14" oil on canvas

My husband and I go for walks in the evenings, on one of these walks I saw a small, empty 

rum bottle…...nice label…...thick green glass.  I imagined some flowers in it, looking cute on the kitchen table.  My husband is very sweet…he watches me pick up junk and try to get it in my pockets, sometimes he'll carry things home for me....no questions asked.  He knows I have a plan...I love that about him.  I got home, gently cleaned up my new bottle.  I went out on my deck and cut a stem with blossoms off my geranium …voila!!  

Operation Cuteness ...Accomplished!  

I placed the bottle proudly on the kitchen table...…hmmm ….but then this thought occurred to me,

 I have teenage boys.  Will they now feel a positive, fun attitude towards rum bottles….

Are they going to think…..mom loves rum bottles…. 

"lets go get us some rum bottles!"

You know that sound that tires make when they come to a screeching halt?  

I heard that sound in my mind.

So guess what?  It became a great still life subject!

I cut a piece of canvas and pinned it to a cork board ….just a quick painting…no commitment….fosters the "just playing around" attitude while I paint. (which is a great trick for ensuring a painting you'll end up really liking….and wishing you used a stretched canvas, lol)

Moral of the story…..

The less pressure I put on myself…and the more fun I have,

 the more I'll enjoy the finished painting.

I create my best when I'm having fun!

Thank you for looking and reading!  

I hope you have a creative day!

Music Video....okay, its really an oil painting video

watch video on youtube

Okay......painting was fun, but creating this little 3 minute video

was the highlight of my day.

I woke up Sunday with no ambitions....no creative projects on my mind, just sipping coffee and enjoying the extra hour I got from daylight savings.  Did I wake up at 10am? nope! I woke up at 9....aaaahhhhhh, that was wonderful.  So, sipping coffee.....talking with my teenage son about music mixing.  He has a new favorite group that mixes their own music "Blunted Beatz".  I asked him if there was an app for music mixing.  I love music....maybe I could mess around with mixing....you see I'm kinda an artsy A.D.D.....I love learning....creating....trying new things.... I dabble in a little bit of everything.  I'm surprised I've stayed focused on painting for so long, it must be the real deal for me.  But.... its the weekend .....so time to play with something else.

I downloaded an app called Music Maker on my iPad....plugged in my headphones and played.

Pretty soon I had something that was about 3 minutes long.....I loved the sound of it!! I played it over and over....I was wondering what else I could do and the thought occurred to me, I wanted to have a video of one of my paintings , in the process of being painted.  And the rest of my day started.

I got my iPhone....set it up in front of my easel, set up a still life....painted...filmed.  Into the house..

loaded it onto my computer, opened up iMovie ....trial and error'd my way into having a 3 min 

video, with my new music...and I uploaded it to youtube!

 That's a goal I've had for about a year now and it happened on a day that I had 

no intentions of doing anything but relaxing.  

I love when I relax, quite my mind and things fall into place....easy peasy.  

Flowers

"Fresh Flowers"

oil 16"x20"

I used to love painting from my imagination.  Now, after a few years of painting from life and what I see in front of me, I wonder if I can go back.  There is an amazing artist named Jill Carver.....she said  "artists should be poets and not journalists".  I love that simple statement, it says so much....and it speaks to me and what I'm hoping to accomplish in my own art.

I want my paintings to be poetry....

If I only paint what I see, am on on the right track?  That's my question to myself lately.

Thank you for looking....and reading.

"Free Spirit" .... as a painting progresses.....

"Free Spirit" 

 oil,  8"x 16"..not sure, but close

I want to paint a larger painting of this one.  

This is a small study...colors I want to use....layout, that kind of thing.

I took pictures along the way.  Not usually something I do, but did it this time.  

I love the look of the painting progressing...so I thought I'd show you.

I love these skull paintings.  Looks modern to me but I love the symbolism and ideas

 of spirituality that can be hinted at.  

Thanks for looking!

Who.........Me?

"Who......Me?"

10" x 20" oil

Do you ever feel like this?  Like you have a spot light on you and a big arrow pointing at you?

Put on the spot in some kind of way?  I do sometimes, I guess that's why I painted this.

It's kinda fun to play with my thoughts.....put them into form and then paint it.

Cathartic.  

Thank you for looking :)