Ready For Company painting

We've been pretty house bound this week with all the snow.. so I had time to finish my latest painting for the On the Shelf series...

Titled, ' Ready for Company' 48" x 48"

"Strength in Numbers", new glass painting

Today I finished painting a piece I started last week.. I needed some blue skies.. so I revisited some of the bottles I bought last summer. I had taken a slew of reference photos when I got them and really liked the sky that day.

Titled "Strength in Numbers"

24" x 48"

"Later.. That Same Night.." new painting for 'On the Shelf" series..

I finished my latest painting for the 'On the Shelf' series this weekend. Again, the series deals with the abundant, excess and often obsolete items mostly found in thrift stores. This was a pile of old silver toned kitchen items. I really liked the warm and cool play of colors and the crazy way they were piled up. It made me feel like there was a story I had missed somehow.... that I was coming in on the tail end of it.... hence the title, "Later.. That Same Night".


48" 60"

Charley Parker's Lines and Colors

A huge thanks to Charley Parker for his very kind article about my paintings! He maintains a wonderful sight called 'Lines and Colors" about art and artists, creativity and things he finds visually interesting! Check it out and spend some time there!

"Seltzer"

This is the second painting for my new series, on the shelf, titled, "Seltzer". These seltzer bottles were sitting on top on an old oak buffet with the mirror behind. I love the fuzzy reflection of the pictures on the opposite wall and the red writing on the two bottles.
I learned a lot on the last painting and it made this one much easier. I painted in layers and made sure the background was completed before moving on to the foreground... it was a tough lesson learned when painting the fans cages!!


48" x 48"

New Series, On the Shelf, painting, "Feeling Caged in and Left Out"

I started a new series this week that I have had in mind for a while.. I titled it, On the Shelf. It is about the multiple items available at thrift stores and auctions. I have gone to auctions and antique and thrift stores forever and I love them. But in the last few years I have been amazed that often people didn't have just one or two of any item, but several... or boxes full... or shelves full! So much excess and often obsolete stuff!! What will become of it all? So last month I dragged my husband to one of my favorite stores and took hundreds of pictures of these treasures. He was just glad I didn't buy anything, as I certainly have plenty of my own "treasures"!

My first painting is titled, 'Feeling Caged In and Left Out'.

36" x 60"

"Preserving Memories" oil painting

This painting is a commission from a woman who had seen my work and it reminded her of her mother canning every fall when she was young and she now cans her own salsa every year. I too have fond memories of my parents canning a lot of the produce from our farm. As a kid you have no concept of how much work goes into every jar, but as an adult I am so grateful to have been raised by parents who cared enough to work that hard to keep us all eating home grown produce all year. I was excited to get started on this painting and am very pleased with the outcome!


I titled it, "Preserving Memories"


48" x 60"

Art show... up through January 26

Thanks to all who braved the weather on Friday to come to the artist reception for the show in Mount Vernon! We got there a little early and I was able to get a few pictures.. I was so pleased with the way the show was hung...

Lori Wilkes, the gallery director, did a fabulous job!! It was a wonderful evening and it was great to meet many new friends and share ideas with some other artists.

It is a new gallery in the downtown area of Mount Vernon, OH.. owned and operated by Mount Vernon Nazarene University.... A really GREAT space!

The show will hang through January 26, 2010.

Mount Vernon Nazarene University - News, Sally Tharp, Michael Litzau, Art, Paintings, Printmaking, Ohio Artists, Exhibit, Gallery

I almost forgot to send out the invite for my show in Mount Vernon! The artist reception is tomorrow night, 6-8. I'd love to see old friends and meet new ones! I hope to see you there! And if you can't make it tomorrow, the show runs through Jan. 26.

Mount Vernon Nazarene University - News, Sally Tharp, Michael Litzau, Art, Paintings, Printmaking, Ohio Artists, Exhibit, Gallery

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"

Up Front and Slightly Off Center painting

I promised my friend, Vicki, that I would post this painting I had been working on. I titled it, "Up Front and Slightly Off-Center". I'm still not sure it's done. I will have to live with it for a while. I'm quite intrigued by things that are out of focus.. my husband thinks I'm crazy... and it's probably from never wearing the glasses I finally succumbed to getting this year... but they have such a softness and are far more difficult to paint than I could have imagined.. and yet... I'm very anxious to paint more!


36" x 48"

Portrait of Phoenix the dog

My last painting of 2009 is a promised piece, long overdue! Phoenix is a great dog belonging to friends, Joanne and Tim. He is Joannes constant companion while Tim is on the road driving truck every week. For all my worrying about how I could paint a black dog, it turns out that I really enjoyed painting him!

Phoenix 8" x 8"

Now I am looking forward to getting back in the studio and finishing a large piece that I started before Christmas!

Happiest of New Years to all!

Making A Mark Award 2009 - Best Picture of the Year (Still Life) on an Art Blog

I am grateful, humbled and honored to have been nominated, and to have won, the Making A Mark Award 2009 - Best Picture of the Year (Still Life) on an Art Blog! Thanks so much to Julie Broom for the nomination! If you haven't been to Katherine Tyrrell's Making a Mark site, please make a point to check it out and spend some time there! It is a wonderful blog full of art, advice, education and information! Thank you, Katherine!
The painting that won the award, "Sometimes I Feel Like You Look Right Through Me", was painted this summer and purchased at the Kathryn Gallery in Columbus on opening day of my show. I had stopped at the gallery when I got into town and happened to meet the couple who had just purchased the painting. It is always special to meet the people who buy your work and hear what draws them to it. This is a picture of the painting with it's new owner, Kirsten Knowles.


I was also blessed today with an article about my glass paintings on the Empty Easel website! Empty Easel has several categories of information and I always look forward to the weekly articles! Many thanks to Lisa Orgler for choosing to write about my work! I wish you all a very Happy, art-filled New Year!!

Portrait of Horst!

I was excited to see that Karin Jurick was going to have her portrait challenge again this year on her Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. I have been wanting to work on some portraiture and I really wanted to work with people I hadn't yet met. On the blog Karin switches photos of two people and they paint each other. I was excited to be painting Horst Hittenberger and love the portrait he has done of me!

"Horst" 8" x 10"

As promised yesterday..

4" x 4" each




For the women in my husbands office... thanks for all you do!
Merry Christmas Ladies!

Last year started the tradition of painting Christmas ornaments for the women in my husbands office. I started painting this years ornaments and had so much fun I got carried away and painted two extra!!

Holi'daisies' 6"x 6"

Sparkle 6" x 6"

My husband will deliver the other four tomorrow and then I will post the pictures!!

Last night I was watching a show about the guy who discovered the Titanic shipwreck... as well as lots of other shipwrecks... and he was talking about how all that were left of the people from the Titanic were their shoes... and that they were like their grave markers.. that their bodies were long ago lost to the sea but the shoes were where they died... so... I started thinking about shoes.. and the shoes I always wear... and the shoes I NEVER wear... and what people would think of us based on the shoes we left behind...

so this piece is titled, "The Good Shoes" 24" x 48"

This week has been full of cooking, cleaning and domestic goddess stuff... so I thought I'd post a painting that I finished a few weeks ago as a 50th birthday present for my friend, Mary..
I spent my 21st birthday here 20+ years ago when it was a famous disco.... (it's on 6th Ave. in NYC)... and shortly thereafter Mary and I sat on the sidewalk and drew this same building...when I was there this fall, visiting my daughter, we walked over to see what had become of it.. the man on the street said that now it is used for flea markets an Sundays sometimes... how far it has fallen.. but it was good to remember the fun we had...
The Limelight
16" x 20"

Back from a week of beautiful Bahamian sun and sand... and SO ready to get back to the studio! I was feeling a little rusty after a week off.. so I decided to warm up by doing Karin Juricks monthly painting challenge.. Different Strokes from Different Folks... not a color scheme I usually paint.. nor a subject matter.. but I really enjoyed myself! I painted a lot looser than usual and loved to move the paint around that way...

8" x 10"

Connecting Flights

I knew I wouldn't have time to paint large this week.. too much going on here... so I tried painting the bottles on a smaller scale... It was so much harder than I thought it would be! Trying to get smooth transitions and figuring out how much detail to put in.. all a different ball game when you change scale that drastically... a fun lesson, none the less...

So now we are off for some MUCH needed sun and relaxation, then back in a week to get everything ready for my show at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, starting Dec. 9th! Have a great week!

Three Tops

12" x 12"

I found an online challenge that was for the month of October... unfortunately I didn't find it until Oct. 29. :/ I really like doing things like that because it pushes me outside my box a bit... This challenge was to show fall/October colors and had to have been painted in October... I decided to paint a marble refracting the fall foliage...that way I stayed true to what I have been painting but fulfilled the challenge as well.

Fall Refracted

12" x 12"

This is the second painting of the lab bottles I found at the thrift store last month... I love the glass lids and the variety of shapes and sizes...

36" x 60"

All the jars that I have painted up until now were excavated from the old farm dump in the ravine at back of our property. But since I've been painting a lot glass I seem to look at all glass as potential subject matter... so a few weeks ago I went to Mount Vernon.. (to check out the gallery for my next show in December.... it is a brand new gallery in an historic building right downtown, and beautiful!!) .. and found the most wonderful antique/junk store.. 3 stories of foraging pleasure!! And I found SO MUCH glass that I wanted to paint! This painting is of some of the old lab bottles that I found.. I loved all the shapes and sizes and all the lids! I'm planning a couple more paintings along this line and then I'll tell you about all the bottles I bought at the auction last weekend! :) Storage may become an issue!! It's a good thing my husband loves me so much!

"My Head is in the Clouds" 48"x 48"

Its been rainy and dreary all week... so I needed to paint some blue skies!!

"Fruit Loops"
48"x 60"

Here is the piece I've been working on this week...I loved the colors when I shot the photo... another sort of abstract feel... I think it takes a minute to figure out what it is... tight crop of two mason jars... titled, "When East Meets West" 48" x 60"