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.