Steppin' Out painting, Elliott Fouts Gallery

I am sorry for not posting more paintings lately! I promise I have been painting like a crazy woman!

I will be able to post a lot of what I've been working on after the show in Columbus on May 14, at the Kathryn Gallery!

I am thrilled to now be a part of the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, CA! I sent five paintings out last week and have heard that one has sold already.. SO exciting to be out there!

And later this month my husband and I will be driving to Charleston, SC to deliver paintings to a new gallery there... more on that later!

Just so you know I've been working.. This is a painting of my sons tux shoes he had for prom last week... they were SO shiny I just couldn't help but paint them!

36" x 48"

Steppin' Out

Two person show at Kathryn Gallery

I am very pleased to announce that I will be part of a two person show, with the talented Ron Johnson, at Kathryn Gallery in Columbus, OH on May 14!

I have been painting like mad and will unveil several new paintings! Hope to see you all there!

Butler Mid-Year Show- The Good Shoes

I'm excited to say that I have had a painting accepted into the Butler Institute of American Art Mid-year show!

The piece is called "The Good Shoes" and I painted it after watching a documentary on the Titanic and other ship wrecks... long after the bodies and bones are gone, the shoes remain exactly where they were, almost as a grave marker. That really hit a chord with me and I painted this the next day..




"The Good Shoes"
24" x 48"

Cats portrait titled Whispers

I really wanted to work on a portrait this week and work on blending and layering skin tones... This is a painting I did of my oldest daughter... she turns 20 on Sunday and this will be her first birthday we haven't celebrated together! :( I am so proud of the woman she has become but miss my little girl at the same time..

Titled, "Whispers"

36" x 48"

The Tee Bird

I started this painting last week when I started the bowls... With the glazing process you can only work for so long and then you need to let it dry. This is my daughters tee bird. I got it for her when she was two or so.. she is almost 20! .. and it has been in storage ever since she grew out of it. The 1st pic is of Cat and my mom waiting curbside for the parade.. the second is the painting I did this week... I love that car.. but I really love those two girls and this is one of my favorite pictures of them!!

The Tee Bird
48" x 60"

"Jadite" oil painting

I have been intrigued by the term 'glazing' in reference to painting lately. It is layers of paint thinned with medium to produce a luminescence... (at least that is my take on it.. just from reading about it) It requires a lot patience.. something I usually lack and therein lay the excitement for me! I have been thinking that i really need to slow down a bit and think a little more and this allowed me to do just that! This is a very different process from what I am used to doing, but my mother had just brought over these bowls of mine that she had at her house. I evidently had gotten them several years ago and planned to eBay them and never got that far.. then we moved.. she took them.. and to make a long story short.. there were these beautiful jadite bowls just begging to be painted! So this is my version of glazing.. not sure if it is a textbook example.. but it was fun to paint tighter and to slow down for once....

"Jadite"
18" x 24"

"B".. neon letter painting

The letter 'B' for my ABC's of NYC...

"B"
16 X 16"

Three Generations of Coke

I went back to glass this week, which somehow I find much easier to paint on a large scale than solid objects.... I felt like my last painting was so tight and heavy...
Anyway.. several months ago I went to a local auction that had all kinds of old glass bottles.. and I bought a few old wooden cases of them... these three were among them.. three versions of the Coke/ Coca Cola logo..
I titled it, "Three Generations"
36" x 60"

Wow... Sorry to have been gone so long! I have been working on a new large piece that has taken so much longer than I thought. I really struggled to be loose and got a little tight on it in the middle of painting but felt the turn come this week! Phew! I may have a few tweaks this week after I live with it for a few days.. but this is it for now! Back to painting glass!!

Croquet 36" 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"

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!