Alaskan Smoke, 20x16" oil, $300

After spending a week in Alaska, I have thousands of reference photos. I'll probably be painting them for years to come!

Iraq Twilight 7x5", oil

From a photo taken by a soldier in Iraq.

India 2 8x10, oil

This is from a photograph taken by Jeanna Jinks when she was on vacation in India.

Spring Cotton 24x24, Oil

This painting was from two photo's that I took while I was in Huntsville, Alabama. The clouds  were incredible that week. When the sun was setting the clouds reflected that golden light everwhere.

India, 14x11" Oil

Today's painting was taken from a photo by Jeanna Jinks, while she was in India. From time to time we share pictures to paint to keep the creativity flowing. She's painted the same one and it came out beautifully. Her paintings always have strong color which makes them eye candy for anyone that loves color.

The painting below is my version of her picture.

I'm back

After the eye surgery, sinus infection, another sinus infection, and helping my mother in law during her recovery from double knee replacement, I am back to painting on a regular basis. As I said before, this did start out as a daily painting blog; producing paintings daily. Starting out like that has helped me to develop a routine that has morphed into a painting daily and producing a painting or two a week.
Luckily when I am running out of steam I have plenty of artist friends that fuel my inspiration. The next painting that I will be doing will be from another artist, Jeanna Jinks, trip to India. We both are painting the same image in our own way. I'll post it in a couple of days when I am through with it.

The painting posted here is from a pic I took at the Hattiesburg, MS zoo. These two parrots always seem to be squabbling at each other.

Eye Surgery

I had eye surgery after coming home from the Mississippi Art Colony. I'll get back to painting when I am recovered from that. I will be posting some pics of paintings I did at Colony, soon, and I am planning more since I can't paint at the moment.

Mississippi Art Colony

This week I will be attending the Mississippi Art Colony. A wonderful week of painting....no laundry, no cooking, no breaking up fights between the kids! I will post my paintings when I get back :)

Crawfish, oil pastel 5x7"

Aspens, oil 16x20"

Rose, oil 7x5

Bonsai study

I'll probably only be posting a couple of times during the week, when I do have something done. It's not going to be every day. I haven't felt too well and my creativity is taking a hit. I spent today doing a little 5x7 sketch. It's nice to do those when your not sure of the subject and you don't want to waste a big canvas. I'm glad I did it because it turns out that I hated it. Another one of those "it looked great in my head" paintings.

St. Joseph Art Show and Sale, Poplarville

I won 3rd for Red Shoes, 2nd for New Orleans Balcony, and an Honorable Mention for the Bottling Co. tonight in Poplarville. The Patron party was wonderful. Kay Kammer did a great job. To top the night off I sold four paintings.

Cherries II, oil 8x8"

Not much time to paint today with delivering art for shows this weekend. I decided to paint what I did yesterday, in oil.

Cherries, pastel 4.5x6.5"

Landscape with horses, oil 24x18"

I started this landscape during spring break. I wasn't able to do much painting with a little one being sick.
 I think I might have to photograph this again. The light is making it look a little washed out. I haven't decided if I want to do more. I have fought the urge to do more detail in the horses. I kinda like leaving it undone, a little, and letting the viewer's eye put everything together.

Myrick's Mugs, oil 11x14"

These are my favorite coffee mugs made by a Mississippi artist, Byron Myrick. I love,love,love these mugs.  I've attended the Mississippi Art Colony three times now, and I buy a different mug every time. If your interested in seeing more of his work you can see it at http://www.byronmyrick.com/ .

Spring Break

I suppose I should have been clear about this before spring break started. I have only done one painting this week. I took the week off due to the kids being home and one being sick for nearly two weeks. I will post the painting that I am working on next Monday.

Autumn Wind, Acrylic 24x30"

I tilted the painting in the picture so that the effect of the copperleaf will show. The name is based on Jessica's middle name, which is Autumn, because she was born the first week of Autumn with a halo of red curls. The
"Wind"  is obviously because of the curls flying but also because the teenage years. Moods seem to change as quickly as the direction of the wind.

Still working on Jessica

It was slow going, today, with a sick child in the house. Having to take her back to the doctor and another to the orthodontist.

I was told by more than one person to stop at that first posting, that it could be called done.  Patty and Jeanna, thanks for your input but I felt the urge to keep going on this one. I promise that I will do an "undone painting" for you, at Colony this year.

I laid in white to make the burnt sienna stand out brighter on her hair.  This weekend I'll do the detail work to her hair and maybe some copper leaf in there as well. We'll see. I still have work to do on her left eye. The shadows aren't sitting well with me.

Thunderstorm at Sea, oil 24x30"

I'm going to call this one finished because if I keep going I may just mess it up. I used a limited palette and tried not to go into too much detail. I'm not that happy with it, but I'm sick of working on it. Nothing good comes from being sick of working on a painting so it's best to stop or go back to it later when inspiriation hits.
I think I am going to let this dry for a few days and add some color where the light is hitting the clouds.

Thunderstorm at Sea

This one is going to take a while to finish. I worked on it over the weekend, and today. Lots and lots of blending. I took this picture years ago, on a girls weekend, in Mobile. I loved to sit on the balcony and watch the storms rolling over the ocean.

Underpainting

Hatian Market Lady II - Oil, 8x8"

I went to Thursday painters today and completed this painting there. It's from a picture my  husband took on his way to Haiti.

Garlic, Pastel 7x5

No time to paint today so I did a quick sketch of a garlic clove.

Rose, watercolor 9x12

This was from the watercolor class that I go to on Tuesdays (when I have the time), that's led by Bobby Walters.

Hatian Market Lady Oil, 24x36"

I could do a lot more with this painting but I really like the unfinished portions of this painting. Leaving certain parts undone makes you focus on what is done, and those "done" areas become the focal points. At least, that is how I was viewing it. If I continued any further I would have made every part of this as realistic as I could and I've gotten enough slaps on the wrist about doing that in the past. I'll post a better picture, on my website. It's raining right now and I'll wait for the paint to dry a little.

Still working on the market lady

I managed to get a lot done on it today, but still have a ways to go. I hope to have it done by next week.

Gathering work for a show

Tomorrow I have about sixteen works that are going in the Hattiesburg Country Club. I know the picture is blurry, sorry about that, I took it with my phone. These can be viewed on the website. I believe that all but one are laying in the floor in this shot.I've waited until the last minute to get this done. I didn't think it would be so time consuming. I've had to frame three pictures and wire  about eight this afternoon. It's not much fun to do that or the business side of art.
Wish me luck :)

Slow Progress

I only managed to block in a little color. My husband is out of town, and I'm trying to get abiout 16 paintings ready to show at the Hattiesburg Country Club. Tomorrow, with an appt. for myself, dental appt. for my daughter, and a half day at their school, and church activities, I'll probably have little time to paint again. If I can manage an hour I'll be happy.

A DR Graveyard

I don't have much experience with collage but thought I'd try it with this picture my husband brought back from his trip to Haiti. I may paint this in the future but I wanted to play around with what I tried to learn in Paula Payne's workshop. This is definitely not finished. I'm just at a stopping point and not quite sure where to go next. It'll come to me eventually. In the meantime, I have started painting a Hatian woman selling fruits and vegetables.

Miracle, oil 24x30"

 I didn't have much to go by. My husband shot the photo through a car window. I think I might have made her face a little older than it needs to be.

Miracle

It's getting close to dinner and I'm at a stopping point in this painting. The photo is one that Jeff took when he was in Haiti. The Hatian girl has a bag of rice on her head donated by the United States, and the sign behind her has the word "Miracle"  written a couple of times. I decided to name the painting "Miracle" for a couple of reasons other than the fact that it was written on the wall behind her. The fact that people are bringing them food may seem like a miracle to some of them, Jeff's stories of their faith in God, even after the devistating earthquake, was reason enough to name the painting miracle.

I hope to finish this tomorrow. I still have her eyes, dress, and detail work left to do. For the most part I am using one large brush to keep the look painterly and doing a lot of mixing on the canvas, rather than the palette.

More volunteer work - Day 3

I'm done!!!! I'll post pics of them with the drumline when I can.

More volunteer work - Day 2

Starting to look more like an old TV.

More volunteer work

Now that my husband is back from Haiti, I can get back to painting.This weeks painting is going to consist of more volunteer work for the Petal indoor drumline. They are going to be nine 6'x5' retro tv's with static on the screen. Today I blocked in the red of the tv's, tomorrow will be the static, knobs, speaker on the front, and the black band that holds the glass in, as well as the reflections.

This week is way too busy to paint.

I've slipped on the daily painting this week with my husband being gone. I have three kids, and he is off with a mission group helping in Haiti, so my painting time is limited. Last night the Mississippi Art Association had a reception for the Mississippi Art Colony Travel Show. I had a painting called "Ladies First" that was accepted into that travel show.

I did manage to paint a little today using the technique that I learned in the workshop this past weekend. It's not done, but I'll post it anyways. I'll get back to work on it tonight after I take my daughter out for her birthday dinner.

Day 2 at Paula Payne's workshop

Pictures from Paula Payne's workshop

Today I attended Paula Payne's workshop using transparant acrylics. I wish that the layers of paint came across in the pictures as they do when viewed in person.

 The first one I did was just figurative. Other than the pose I didn't have any direction. I was just building layers and scrubbing down other layers of the paint. It's completely different to how I normally paint and that made it so much more fun. The second picture is of my dogs. I had this photo on my phone. When I'm painting they sit at the window, with their chins on the ledge, waiting on the school bus to come home. It was decided to make the window larger and abstract it to frame their heads.

Blocking in color on mugs

This week's painting

This is only an underpainting.  It's going to be a still life of my favorite coffee mugs created by Byron Myrick. I never owned a coffee mug that was made by hand. I have to say, that I plan on owning nothing but that in the near future.

Morning Catch, Pastel 16x8"

Today is another one of those too busy and too tired to paint days. However, it was suggested I do a fishing on a lake type of pic and here it is. It's just a quick sketch. Hope you like it Brandon, thanks for the suggestion.