breath of heaven

Painting Number 3, of some bushes in a yard at a bed and breakfast that we stayed at in West Virginia, named Breath of Heaven. A humble sort of house, built in 2001, not at all the Victorian or stately homes that are usually turned into bed and breakfasts! It's in a rural neighborhood of other homes like it, and I was disappointed the first time we went there. But, notice I said "first"! The innkeepers became friends and we've been back there a second time, with another couple. I intend to repeat the visit often. This image is early morning - the mist is diffusing the light, the colors are cool.

Blue Ridge

This is painting Number 2, done on a 4 x 6 inch board with palette knife. I'm very pleased with how the mountain ridge captures light. Thanks for visiting my blog!

4 paintings a day!

A year or so ago it was an internet sensation to post a painting a day on various art sites. This activity promoted a following among buyers. So far I'm not selling anything online from this blog, but I liked the idea of trying to paint more often and keep to the challenge of a painting every few days, at least. Yesterday I made up for some lost time and painted four paintings. Granted, they are small, only 4 x 6 inches, but I had fun churning them out.

Here is painting Number 1, I call it American Field, as I forget where in the USA this image came from - West Virginia? Virginia? Ohio? Michigan? Somewhere I snapped the photo on our travels in the past few weeks. There is no specific area of "interest"; I enjoyed swooping on the oil paint with the palette knife and playing with the colors: white mixed with sap green, cadmium yellow light, ultramarine blue, and cadmium red medium. There is some alizarin crimson mixed into the darks as well. My composition is bands of color across the horizon to suggest sky, treeline, and field grounds. The other three paintings are soon to be posted, be sure to check back soon.

pair of pears

A change from painting - a drawing! I did this a few weeks ago as a demonstration for a drawing class on how to shade form with a pencil. I love drawing and painting pears, not only for the shapes but to suggest relationships between them and to humorously suggest humanoid characteristics. This pair seem a bit ambivalent about each other...

Hollyhocks

In Michigan, the summer season is short, but the summer days are long. July and August flowers have extra sunlight each day and the hollyhocks there are enormous! I did this painting two years ago at a painting workshop. While I was working on it, another painter came by and loved this so much that she asked me to name my price and she'd pay it for the painting, right then and there. Flattering, and probably profitable!, but I liked this painting, too, and didn't want to part with it.

While we were on our trip to the Great Lakes State, we visited Macinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw). While biking around (there are no cars allowed there - only horses and bikes besides feet for transport) we stopped to buy fudge at a local hotel/gallery/fudge shop. The owner/artist had decorated each ceiling beam with quotes about art and life. Some I had read before, but one was new to me, although the thought was my own. In fact, after the workshop mentioned in the paragraph above, I drove home with a friend who had taken the poetry classes at the same time. We talked of all sorts of things that new friends do as well as about art, poetry, and religion (the workshop was sponsored by the Episcopal Church). I told her of my yearning for painting in eternity - she said she was SURE painting and writing and gardening would be work for us to do in the kingdom of heaven. Here is the quote, attributed to the painter Corot: I hope with all my heart that there will be painting in heaven.

And hollyhocks!

another path!

a little less obvious pathway, but still keeping to the theme!