Happy New Year!

Happy 2015!  I've had a great start to the year! Thanks to the Shain Gallery for my first sale of the year, and thanks to Coca-Cola Corp. for not only including my work in the upcoming book on the 100th year of the bottle design, but for touring two of my paintings in a year long, 15 country tour along side the work of Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and more!!  I am so thrilled to have my work included in this show!

I spent a lot of time last fall in NYC- watching football games, exploring museums and neighborhoods and spending time with my two favorite people in the world, my kids!  My plans to move there are shaping up and I am trying to sort and organize ( not my strong suit) things before the big move.  In going through my things as well as my parents household, I am struck by the things we as humans keep and the things to which we attach value.  I have started a series that reflects this.  here is one of the first paintings.

Trying to Keep It Together
oil on canvas
18" x 36"

old computer..new work!

Sorry for the lapse in posts.. my old computer decided it would no longer let me access my blog.  It was only 10 years old or so... I had to break down and get a new computer, and there is a bit of a learning curve for someone not terribly  into technology and who would rather paint than type.  But, on a good not, I can now update my blog!

I have been trying to loosen up a bit with the paint and have been enjoying it.  I have two paintings that I recently completed and I see progress!!  One is another Mason jar of shells, and the other is a night scene of a gas station I took a picture of the other morning on the way to the airport.  It's kind of hard to see in the photo, but I really like the way this one turned out.  I'll try to re-shoot it one of these days and see if I can get a better photo.

Beach Memories 36" x 48"

The Station 36" x 60"

Ball Mason jar paintings, 'Bound' and 'Cocoon'

I have painted a couple more pieces from my new series.  I really love the challenge of trying to capture all the overlapping transparencies while trying to simplify what I can so as not to over paint it.
The rest of the week will be spent working on a commissioned painting of marbles.

Bound
24" x 48" 

Cocoon
48" x 60"

"The Escape" and "Bird" paintings

It's been a very busy week! We went to NYC to visit our oldest daughter, Cat last weekend... and had an awesome time...always too short! But we did wander around Chelsea and saw LOTS of art.. always interesting and educational... there is so much to learn... and with every stroke of paint I do learn more and more about not only who I am and want to be as an artist, but who I am as a person.. some days I feel like a kids again.. with the whole world in front of me! It's all good... how lucky I am to do what I do!

I had started painting "The Escape" before we left last week and finished it this week... as I was painting I felt like something had been in the jar and was being called to escape by the bright light of the window.. I don't know.. maybe too many paint fumes??.. maybe cabin fever.. :)

hence the name, "The Escape"...48" x 48"

Also this week Jill Polsby revealed her thank-you to Karin Jurick for her portrait painting challenge on her blog, Different Strokes from Different Folks. 118 versions of Karin were painted by 118 artists and Jill had them made into a book for Karin. It turned out beautifully!

Painting Karin's portrait made me really want to play with portraits a bit more... and while my style is usually a bit looser, I wanted to paint this portrait a bit tighter and more layered.. it was a fun lesson and I hope to do a few more soon!

"Bird" 12" x 12"

Strong Shoulder Painting

Last night I finished this painting that I had started before Christmas. It was kind of hard to start back at it after such a long time away from it. I like to work on paintings non-stop until they are done... maybe an afternoon off to run errands or a day off to do something, but not a whole month!! I ended up basically painting it all over again.. which was okay!

I have been playing with cropping the images really tight, making the painting almost abstract, but with elements of realism. I have a few more of these I'd like to do, but I also have an idea (and some images ready to go) for a new series! Argh, so such to paint and never enough time. I still haven't cleaned the house nor taken down the Christmas decorations... Oh well.. painting today! :)

Strong Shoulder

48" x 60"