Sun Flower-Color Inspiration

I was juried into a show in March and am allowed to show 7 works.  The show said I could show my collage work or the dried flower series.  I decided to show the flower series and thought I would try and do a few smaller pieces for the show since I already have a number of larger paintings done.   I want to try a few  12" x 12" size to see what kind of a composition I could work into the square formatt.  I tried two differnent shades of blue for this painting and still am not sure if this is the right one for the background.  My color palette was inspired by a book I have on the California group of painters know as the Society of Six; http://www.askart.com/askart/interest/society_of_six_1.aspx?id=35
 Anyone out there in cyber space have a comment on the blue background ? I sure would be appreciate some comment on the color and composition.

Sites to See

http://www.paintblog.ca/

http://artoutthere.blogspot.com/

http://makingamark.blogspot.com/

http://www.artistaday.com/

I thought I would posts some interesting art sites  Several of them feature an artists they have discovered online and talk about their work.  I find it a great way to discover new artists...something I spend too much time doing, but am thrilled when I find an artists work I just fall in love with.

The last site "artist a day"  is intesting if you are willing to put your art out there and perhaps have good critisism or maybe bad.  I haven't had the courage to send a picture of any of my work yet, but will let you know when I do. Have any of you done it yet???.

Audubon Society BIRD Show (SOLD)

If you happen to live in the Portland Oregon area, next Saturday and Sunday, the 21st and 22nd come see the Wild Arts Festival put on by the Audubon Society of Portland.  Artists were given small 6" x 6" gallery wrapped canvas to create any kind of bird art.  These are my two that I donanted to them.  The show opens at 10:00 am and the sale of the 6 x 6 begins at 11:00.  In addition to the donated art there will be many other artists and book authors with their displays. The list of writers and artists can be viewed on their website

http://www.audubonportland.org/

An Update to my recent post....I went to the show today Saturday the 21st and have to let anyone in the Portland area know how great a show it is.  I was thrilled that my two paintings sold right away, but I did have a dear friend who purchased one of them.( http://www.wendydehart.com/)

 Besides enjoying the wonderful art and fine craft at the show I was in awe of Ruby a live Turkey Vulture/ Buzzard that lives at the Adubon Society here in Portland.  She (Ruby) was at the show with her handler and I have to say she was spectacular in the most ugly way.  Her head was pink and so were her legs and talons.   My friend Dave was there with his super duper Canon Rebel camera and he shot some pictures of her for me.  As soon as I get them I will post her picture.  If the pictures inspire me I hope to attempt to paint some pictures of her.

Show Wins

My daughter took this picture with her cell phone so the image is rather blurry.  The paintings behind me are the two that won the awards at the Guild Show.  The "Bluebird "Collage on the right took Best of Show and the "Big Top Party "won "Best of Mixed Media.  I was a bit numb when the winners were announced and it wasn't until I went home that night and tried to sleep that it really sunk in that my paintings had won.  I remember laying there trying to sleep and thinking, now what I am going to paint next!

Sun Flower, Summers Close

I was recently accepted in a

juried art show that happens in

early March. I was thrilled to

be accepted as it's a difficult

show to get into. They want my

flower series or the collages, so

I started back into the dried

sunflowers paintings. I can

enter up to 8 pieces for the show.

I have been reading some articles

on marketing art and realize that

while I enjoy trying to paint

different subject matter and exploring

new ideas; what really matters is

having a consistent body of work.

Meaning, sticking to one subject such

as the flower series and creating about

a dozen paintings, in the same style,

and the same medium. I also need to spend more time trying

to photograph the paintings better. When I say time I really

should say stop being lazy and set up a tripod for the camera.

When I check the blog postings I realize how many are some

what out of focus.

Crow's Funny Face

This fellow is my favorite bird,

he seems to have such a funny

birdy expression on his face.

Crow Painting " Big Top Party" (WINNER!) (SOLD)

 I did a few changes on this. I felt I needed to work on the hanging lights and try and give them more of a glow...not easy to do and I don't feel I was totally successful. I entered this is the North Clackamas Guilds annual art show and this painting took "BEST of MIXED MEDIA". I was a lucky lady that night, see my post on the bluebird painting.

My Bird Collage...A Finch I think..

When my Thursday painting group meets I usually work on a collage. This is the first time I have tried do almost the entire collage with paper. The only part painted is the flower centers. All the paper I collage with come from magazines or newspapers. I glue the papers down with acrylic gloss medium and use a brayer to make sure the papers are adhered really well. When the piece is done I brush on a final coat to varnish the work. It always seems that I get some papers that lift and ripple ....not sure why. The hardest part of doing this collage was trying to establish some value differences. I would love some comments; do you feel I need more some value differences?

Big Top Party (SOLD)

Thought while I have figured out how to post again I would show the latest collage I am working on. Still needs some more work and I took the photo in my studio so it's not the best image. Most of the piece is painted in oil, but there are collage elements included.

Blue Bird Collage ( BEST OF SHOW)

I entered this painting in the North Clackamas Art Guilds 16th annual show and to my amazement the painting won "BEST OF SHOW". There were about 250 paintings in the show and many fine works of very talented artists. It's always a wonderful show that is well attended. The judge for the show was Melinda Thorsnes who is an artist from the Portland Oregon area. You can view her art work at http://www.melindathorsnes.com/index.html . The guilds website is http://ncartsguild.com where I have my artist statement and resume.

Some people have asked me if I feel the newspaper I use on the collages will last. This collage has newspaper from 1923, so I do feel it won't yellow or deteriorate any more, plus I varnish the whole piece which will protect the paper.

She Has Her Charms (SOLD)

I took some pictures of crows on the beach last year and recently came across them while searching for some collage ideas. I decided to try doing the piece similarly to the Pearl piece with collage and oil painting certain parts. It's spring here in Portland and I have a beautiful cherry tree to see out my studio window which inspired me to incorporate the blossoms and branch as the collaged element. I found a little blurb in a magazine which said "she's not the chicest, but she has her charms," which is hard to see in the photo, but I but the words near his beak, thus the title.

Flowers Again

Right after I finished doing the Cosmetic Series I felt compelled to go back to painting flowers. I saw these beautiful Canna Lilies at the Hughes Water Garden in Wilsonville Oregon. http://www.hugheswatergardens.com/ . It was an early evening when I was there and the light hitting the flowers was that beautiful glow just before the sun sets. I was drawn to their form and the complexity of the petals. I wonder what it is that as an artist certain subjects just speak to us and others don't. I look at a lot of art in books, go to Museums and read other artists blogs and am amazed at what others find interesting to paint. I always think how wonderful it must have been for those artists to find a particular subject interesting to paint and wish I could have seen what they saw in that object or scene to want to paint that subject.

Speaking of other artists; I have mentioned in previous posts that I paint with several artists on a Thursday afternoon. One of the artists also blogs and writes about her feelings as an artists. Besides admiring other artists work online, I really admire people who also have the gift for writing and expressing not only their feeling in paint , but also for words. Check out Patty's thoughts on her blog and her recent fern painting it's a beauty.http://shialavati.blogspot.com/

The Last One

This is the last in the cosmetic still-life setups. I am so anxious to get back to doing looser still-lifes and trying my artistic hand at doing some Plein Air work now that the weather is finally warming up here in Portland.

After I completed this painting I realized what an odd composition this is; first that there is an equal number of objects in the piece ( I was taught to use an unequal number of objects to balance a composition) second, that I have a division in the center that draws the eye in to the background.....what was I thinking; I guess I lost my sense of balance.

As much as I am tired of painting so tightly, I do feel I learned to see values better. Painting metal is a challenge, but the real challenge for me is the clear glass objects, in my opinion they are the really difficult ones to capture in value.

Since I don't get time to paint everyday I am having a hard time keeping my paints from forming a film on top of the pigments I have squeezed onto my palette. I don't like breaking through that film to get to the wet paint, which seems to always wind up on my brush and in the painting. I am trying some new ideas I have toyed around with and will post any success. In the meantime I would love any ideas or suggestions anyone has to help solve this problem.

One More

I haven't had a lot of painting time lately; but managed to finish two more of the cosmetic series. This one and the next post are the last in the series and will be featured in the Howden Gallery in Oregon City from May through July.

Pearl of Portland

Last February our Daughter had some errands to do, so she brought along her Dog Pearl. She parked her car on a very busy street in Portland. When she opened her car door her dog Pearl who was wearing a lovely pink dogie coat jumped out of the car and ran like a crazy little Pug dog that she is down that very busy street. Our daughter was pregnant with twins at the time and couldn't run as fast as her dog was traveling. So, Pearl went missing for 17 days. Our daughter and her Dad scoured all of Portland day after day searching for her beloved Pearl. Finally Pearl was spotted running across a street not too far from where she was lost. Missing her pretty pink coat, smelling like a cat and a few pounds lighter; since she can't talk we can only assume she was picked up by someone and being the crazy dog that she is performed another escape trick from that person. Last year I did a painting for my son's birthday and this Collage of Pearl is for my daughter as an early birthday gift.

First Cosmetic

This is the first painting I did several years ago of cosmetics. I did in a class I was taking with the Artist Larry Morace. http://www.larrymorace.com/ in San Francisco. We worked from a photo, but he made us turn our photo upside down. It was a good learning experience because it forced us to look at the negative shapes and to not concentrate on the objects in the setup or photo.

Polish #3

This was an attempt to do the painting with more of a monochromatic feel. I should have had my head examined in attempting to do the wall paper back ground. Took way too long to paint and it gets me farther away from the way I want to paint. The next post is more the way I was painting and need to get back to. But, first I need to complete the Cosmetic Series I started.

Soft Beige

This is another painting in the Cosmetic Series. The gallery I am in had a wonderful response to them and sold all but one. So, I thought I would attempt to do several more. Once again the camera showed me something I didn't see when I looked at the painting in my studio. I hadn't painted in the pale shadow to the right of the compact and realized the compact didn't look grounded. So I put in a light shadow, but when I saw my first attempt it looked to dark and the lines didn't appear straight enough; so I ruled in new lines and still they don't look straight in the photo, but looking at the painting in my studio the lines look straight. UGH!

Jennifer's Perfume #1

This was my first idea for the perfume bottles and probably the one I like the best. which one . Any opinions about the two paintings would be appreciated.

Jennifer's Perfume #2

I was asked to do a commission of some perfume bottles. I have been working on some ideas and have completed two for the commission. It always helps for me to take a photo of the completed piece because I always see something that might need some more work. When I look at the blue shadow, the first one seems to be too bright a blue and I know it's really not so intense. The camera picked it up as being more intense then it really is. I am posting another one with a different background and would welcome suggestions.

Twists and Turns,

It's been awhile since my last posting. I have been working on a cosmetic painting that is a commission, which is close to being done. We have had some incredible weather here in the Portland area. I have basically been house bound for close to a week since we keep getting more and more snow everyday. Usually this time of year is all about rain, rain, rain and more rain; so since I haven't been able to leave the house I have gotten some painting finished.

This is another painting in the flower series and I thought I would set a price for it online. If anyone is interested in purchasing the piece the price is $550. plus shipping. Shipping outside of the Portland area usually runs about $35. This is an original Oil, size 24"x24" on a 1 1/2" stretched canvas

More Cosmetics

A note to add to this previous post. I am thrilled to say that these have sold and I have also received a commission from this series. That should keep me busy after the holidays. I started another flower painting and my husband says I should stick to the cosmetics. But I enjoy painting the flowers more. I like the freedom of the flowers, the looseness of the paint going on the canvas. The flowers always seem to be dancing around which I when I step away from the canvas always surprises me. These are some additional paintings I did in the Cosmetic series. Last Friday night the gallery I show in (Howden's) had their winter open house and I was fortunate to sell one of the lipstick paintings to a lovely women and fellow artists from Wisconsin. My daughter just gave me a bag full of nail polish and lipstick to keep me busy for awhile. I would like to try a few more with the wallpaper background but I am in the middle of another dried flower painting and hope to get that done this week to start on the smaller paintings. Just never seems to be enough time to get all the paintings done that roam around in my head!

End Of Summer ( NFS )

This painting was created as a gift for my sons 40Th birthday. Egad.....saying my son is 40 sure makes me sound old. He lives in Los Angeles with his family and their living room has a blank spot for a painting. He asked me if I would do a painting to fill the spot. I thought an LA scene would appeal to my son . I had a photo of a street not far from their house I thought would be good to try working from. Well, I gave it my best shot but I felt it was turning out to be a failure. I was not happy with my attempts at all; I like to think there wasn't enough information in the photo for me to work from. So, still wanting to fill that space on his living room wall and hoping to send him a nice surprise for his birthday; I decided to work from my dried flowers and hopefully give it a masculine touch since I know a painting of flowers would not be his first choice. One part of the gift I felt good about was the frame. I had a beautiful old antique oak frame that I wanted put on the painting and I knew if he hated the painting he and his wife would at least like the frame.

"Been Chewing on it" ( SOLD )

One of my favorite art forms is collage. I haven't focused on it for awhile, but when I get together with my Thursday Painters Group, I try and do something different from my normal attempts at art.

I found this picture of the sheep in a magazine and decided to try doing a collage with it. I cut out the sheep and some trees from another magazine; pasted them pictures down on a piece of Gatorboard and then decided to paint on top of all that I had pasted down. The title came from a sentence I found in another magazine, which is located at the base of the trees.

Plein Air Price $100.

My friend and fellow artist Wendy Dehart, http://www.wendydehart.com/ asked me to go out recently to paint in a local park. Our plan was to go out later in the day, around four o'clock to catch the afternoon long shadows. Well, it's Portland and while the summer has been beautiful and now that fall is approaching we didn't get to catch the long shadows. We had really no shadows as the afternoon just became overcast. We decided to paint anyway and this is my attempt at Plein Air. I have only been painting outdoors a handful of times and always seem overwhelmed. I have a hard time narrowing down what I want to paint. My daughter commented she thought the trees looked like they are doing a plie'. I realized I painted both trees with the same "V's" in their branches making them very repetative. Posting the photo's always gives me a differnt perspective of my paintings. It's a very good tool to help see what I don't always see when I'm painting.
I have another friend that has put her art on a new web sites for artist. Check out Patty Ryan's art at:http://greenfabric.com/ and also her blog; http://shialavati.blogspot.com/

Blue Nile (Agapanthus)

This is the most recent painting in the flower series. It's the first time I have worked on a canvas that is deep (1 1/2 inches ) on the side and the flowers continue on the edges. Nice not too have to frame this one. If you click on the picture you can get a larger view of the painting.

Lipstick #2 ( SOLD )

This is another painting in the cosmetic series. I have been painting this on my own prepared gessoed Gatorboard panels. It's been a challenge. I realized that I do prefer painting on canvas, but the panels with the smooth surface; let me do a more detailed painting. The gallery I am in wants some some smaller paintings for the Holiday show, so I will do a few more before the October dead line. My painting time has been limited this summer. Our Daughter gave birth to premature ( two month early ) twin boys in June; so I feel fortunate that we are close by to help care for them now that the boys are both home.

lipstick #1 ( SOLD )

I thought I'd give myself a break from the flower series and start another series with a different subject that I thought would be fun to try and paint. I also wanted to try approaching the subject with more drama or perhaps graphicness.....I don't know, this is my second attempt, several years ago I did an oil of nail polish bottles, which I enjoyed the challenge of painting. I will post that painting next to get perhaps some comments on this new direction of subject matter.

I do have another flower painting started and am hoping to have more than one painting going at a time. My daughter gave birth to twin boys that were two months premature. Both boys are finally home, so I try and help as much as I can to give her a little rest. I have been painting in the evening, which I find kind of difficult with the fading light.

I should really take a new photo of this painting, the tubes are standing straight, I think I didn't have the painting upright enough.

Pastel Sketch and Cone Flower Painting

The top picture is the pastel sketch I worked from. I originally tried painting the intense yellow and greens I had in the sketch, but felt the painting was screaming at me. Sometimes I find it hard to work large from such a small sketch. I had to improvise too much in the painting and therefore I am not happy with how the painting is going. Any suggestions?