I started this painting early this morning... and am just now finished with it.. 8:40 p.m. Had more than the average number of interruptions, ventures out, company, etc. and it shows a bit... also painted over an old painting and the surface was a bit rough for this painting. I really like to finish a painting in one sitting so I remember what I wanted to do with it.. But, having said all that... I am fairly happy with it and have another one in mind along the same lines... just one robe maybe.. tomorrow maybe...

24"x30"

We have a huge (4'x 6') painting over our bed that I painted months ago.. when I very first stated painting with oils... it's a landscape of our pond. Well this morning when I walked out of the bathroom and saw it, I thought it would be cool to paint our rustled bed to hang over, you know, our rustled bed... and it seemed like such a good idea to me!! So I took down the painting and dragged it up to the studio.. just before I started to paint I texted my husband to see if he minded... well it turns out he likes the landscape... damn. So I painted it anyway... just not to hang over our bed.. 36"x 48"

Art Blog Award

I received an AWARD from fellow artist, Ohioan, and friend , Dean. Please check his blog and see his wonderful paintings. According to the rules, I am to post 7 things I love and pass it to 7 friends...

1. I love my family! They are always a source of joy, comfort, companionship, amazement and often entertainment!! :)

2. I love to paint.. I have always love to create, but have only recently found an unending passion and borderline addiction to oil paint!

3. I love to read these things and find out more about the people I care about, but am loathe to actually do it myself..

4. I love junk... the old, weathered stuff that most people would walk past, or, gasp!, throw away!

5. I love living in the country.. we have an abundance of wildlife and beauty in our yard and for me it's like being close to God out here...

6. I love going to New York to visit my daughter.... and I love when she comes home too..

7. I love seeing other peoples art and ideas on their blogs! I find myself constantly amazed by how many talented, gifted artists there are and am always inspired to do better!

Here are the seven artists I am tagging... I will look forward to learning more about each of you!!

1. Michelle Burnett

2. Kate

3. Jennifer Woodburn

4. Carol Horzempa

5. Laura Arthur

6. Heidi Weller

7. Robin Roberts

Another treasure from the corner cupboard in my studio... I set this little guy on my windowsill to get a picture of him and he reminded me of a dog looking outside on a rainy day. There were actual raindrops on the window... so I painted them in the picture... I haven't decided if they read as water yet... I'll have to set it aside and think about it..

24"x36"

I saw this jar sitting on the counter the other day after the kids left for school. My son had eaten his breakfast cereal out of it... a few pieces were stuck to the inside of the jar.... I loved the way it looked.... so I painted it!!

36"x48"

I had so much fun painting the bunny, I did it again... I love the old plastic and what the light does to it. This one, I believe equally as creepy as the first, is 17"x17".

I talked my husband (God love him!!) into going back to the garage sale Saturday so I could get this bunny I had seen... a vintage hard-plastic guy probably from the 50's ... I couldn't get him out of my mind and knew I wanted to paint him... creepy, isn't he?? :)

24"x36"

I was excited to do this piece.. I really liked the composition and vintage colors... but I've been painting these last few larger paintings over old paintings and the ghost of what was on this canvas shows through on this one... the others were just kind of a texture, which I kind of liked... but this has some distinct lines.. this would be one of those 'live and learn' days... :/

36"x 48"

I spent the whole day in the studio today! I was trying to get two pieces done for the new show at the co-op gallery. It will hang on Tuesday and if these pieces are dry I will take them...

I had originally wanted to add text to the images but didn't like it so I painted over it... I will look at it again tomorrow and make a final decision... Titled, "Never Black", and "Never White", because things are always shades of grey in my world.. these are vintage checkers from a fabulous garage sale this weekend.. 24"x 24"

This is the newest of the larger paintings... 30" x 40". Titled "Stacked". I'd like to get one more done this week.... but darn it all if I don't have a house to clean, laundry to do and a family to feed!! :) We will see ....

I spent the last few days going big... I don't know if it was my frustration with the DSDF challenge or this lousy cold I was fighting, but I needed a change. So I took some of my game pieces and painted them huge (for me)! This painting is 24"x 48". I LOVED it! I think I'll paint larger for a little bit!

Happy birthday to me! :) I sure wish I felt better!! I'm fighting some nasty bug, but I think I'm finally winning!! Lots of vitamin C and getting back in the studio helped!! Stumbled upon the Virtual Sketch Date today. I painted the image even though I'm a day late... and usually a dollar short.. :/ ...I sent my image in anyway... I hope to do it each month... always fun to see how many people interpret the same image!!

Ever have one of those days? ...or couple of days... where nothing seems to go right? I know that they are often balanced by good days.. BUT.. today the good days seem far away! I spent yesterday TOTALLY overworking Karin Juricks current challenge of an old San Fransisco Victorian... wiped it off twice! Changed format and painted it much smaller today ... 3 1/2" x 5".. like it a bit better but don't love it. Also thought maybe I'd work in a more limited pallete for a while and see if that helps loosen things up a bit. Here's the second painting...

This is a little painting (4"x4") I did this morning. I didn't have long to paint because I was getting ready for our first artists pot luck and critique! My friends Carl, Heidi and Laura(http://bolophotoinc.com/), organized it and it was wonderful! We had great food, artist's fellowship, ideas and critiques... what we all need but don't get enough of! I'm looking forward to the next one!

Just a little Hershey's Cheesecake kiss for the Treasure Series. My son Ty's favorite!

I painted all day today to keep from worrying about my oldest who was on a big adventure in Washington D.C.! As promised, General Sherman's horse! 16"x 20" This was large for me and I was happy to have kept it very loose. And a treasure painting too! A small cast iron German Shepard .... may have been my moms... once upon a time. Now he keeps an eye on me from my corner cupboard in the studio 4"x4"

Back to images from New York today! This is the statue of Victory, part of the William Tecumseh Sherman monument at the edge of Central Park. She is so magnificent! She stands in front of Sherman on his horse. I may doing a painting of the horse one of these days too... 12"x12"

More chocolate...

This morning I felt the need to work smaller again. I think I get overwhelmed with everything that is happening in the scenes and tend to totally overwork them. So back to my happy place today... painting little treasures.. This is from a box of truffles that I bought for my husbands' Christmas stocking but I told him that he couldn't eat them all until I had a chance to paint one... :) He can eat the last one now!

Yesterday and today I worked on painting scenes from my trip to New York. The first was a woman at the MOMA (6"x6") and the second a gentleman having breakfast at the Odessa Cafe (8"x10").

I am really intrigued by night paintings and would like to explore more.. Here are two in response to Karin Juricks bi-weekly challenge on Different Strokes from Different Strokes.

Yesterday was spent doing two of my least favorite things... taking my daughter to the airport and taking down the Christmas tree :( ...and this morning I cleaned the house! So I didn't get to the studio until late today and painted another one for my Treasure Series... called Stacked.

Tomorrow I am hoping to work on my painting for the Different Strokes challenge.

Two more for the Treasures Series... I used to go to a lot of auctions and buy things for collages/assemblages.... but these things start to pile up... so I stopped going... I have a box of old skeleton keys and locks.. this is one ...

and this little Kewpie sits in the corner cupboard in my studio and keeps an eye on things..

Today I did the first painting for a series of small works I've been thinking about. I'm calling it the "Treasures Series". I have hundreds, if not thousands of "treasures", small bits and pieces, mostly vintage stuff that I have collected to use in a collage or just because I like something about it.. Most of them are tucked away in the studio, saved for someday because I don't know what else to do with them. So I decided to start doing small paintings of these treasures.... maybe a way to preserve the memory and then let these items go to a new home... maybe. Anyway.. here is my first treasure painting... the Monopoly game shoe and a red die... 4" x 4" oil on board

I went floral yesterday... I needed a little summer after this cold streak we had!