Pepper Love

"Pepper Love"

8" x 10" 

Artist's Gesso Board

I love food and I have a particular affinity for peppers.  When I found a series of photographs from MorgueFile featuring some sweet bells, I just had to start painting.  I am still working on the boards, but I have found that brand DOES matter here.  This board was very hard to paint wet-on-wet, which is my usual M.O. and I had to wait ages for the paint to dry in between.  I still have some touch up to do on the green pepper but, again, I am just waiting for paint to dry.  Now I know why so many artists get frustrated with oils.  These two bells looked so cozy snuggled up together that I had to have "love" in the title.  Don't they look like newlyweds?  Awwwww.  Mr. Potatohead would be jealous!

Happy Fourth of July!!

"Good Eatin'"

8" x 10"

Stretched Canvas

Happy Birthday, America!  And what can be more American than some luscious red home-grown tomatoes to slap on your backyard burger?  Thanks to my eagle-eyed friend, Anne Fleetwood, for supplying the absolute picture of yumminess!  Too bad these weren't "for real" -- I love nothing better than a tomato sandwich in the hot summertime and not those nasty grocery store tomatoes that taste like so much school paste -- real, red-blooded American tomatoes, warm from the garden sun, left on the window sill to ripen and sliced thickly and salted.  Yum!  Enjoy the party, America!

Getting My Groove Back...

CLICK HERE TO BID!!

A Hint of Summer

5" x 5"

2" deep stretched canvas

Well, my summer road trip has come and gone and I have been having a hard time catching up with all the things that accumulate when I am gone.  And maybe I am just a little lazy.  Hmmm.  Make that a LOT lazy.   My heart wants to paint, but the rest of me just did not want to comply, so I made a little deal with myself -- if I would take some photos of these yummy gems and paint just one I would add a little freshly whipped cream and enjoy a treat.  So I did.  I took a bunch of photos (look for some more strawberry paintings!) and painted this one from life.  And then I ate it.  And another and another.  With whipped cream AND chocolate.  Summer living is good!  But maybe I need a run around the block now...

More Birthday Watermelon!

"Watermelon Slice"

6 x 6

Stretched Canvas

Look for me on Etsy soon!

As the birthday nears, I get more and more excited about the "Birthday Melon".  This year, I think I will have candles in mine, as suggested by my friend, Anne (here comes another shameless plug), from Etsy at The Chunky Mermaid.  

But I digress.  No candles in this painting, but still a whole lot of melon.  Try as I might not to be a "blendy" painter I am still at it -- blendy blendy blendy all over the place.  I did try to NOT blend this one to begin with, but it didn't look like much of a melon -- it was just a Christmas-y sort of blobby red-and-green abstract.  *Sigh*  I guess I might have to resign myself to painting like a frou-frou blender drink instead of "straight up".  Hmmm.  I guess birthday drinks might be on my mind, too!!

Easter Flowers

Study of Chris Nesvadba's "Bold Still Life"

18 x 18

Stretched Canvas

Okay, this beautiful bouquet is a study I did of Chris Nesvadba's "Bold Still Life".  He was an extremely talented artist whose works are still widely available in galleries.  Mine is nowhere near as beautiful as the original, but I was so happy today that I wanted to paint something bright and spontaneous to reflect my mood.   There will be time tomorrow for more produce!