Pose Rose

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Sometimes I get a hankering to paint roses.

A Fine Day

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I've painted this same scene before, from a different angle, and a different crop. It's from Seattle, near the Pike Place Market. There's a place I need to visit again too!

No Lean, No Fat

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To me the most successful people paintings I do are the ones that turn out kind of like caricatures. Where it's not so much about the specific people as it is about ... people. That's what I shoot for. And so far this is one of my favorites. The scene is France ... can't remember which village.

Reading in the Park

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I found this guy reading in the park behind the downtown NYC library. I thought he was quite dapper in his little hat and glasses.

City Glow

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Here's another one from NYC. I love the pink truck reflected in the window. I keep saying this, but I really need to make another trip there! It's such a great city to paint.

And in case you're wondering the relative size of the last few paintings, here's a guide (16x16, 10x10 and 6x6 inches):

Escaping the Bowl

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The last few days I've been building myself a new organizing tool for my studio (if you can't tell, it's about 4 feet tall). I did consult with my husband on the design, but otherwise made it all myself, which I have to admit, feels pretty good.

Meanwhile, above is another painting I've had for a while (the last one from my show last year) and would like to see go to a loving home. Feel free to make me an offer.

It's in Here Somewhere

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I've been rearranging my studio lately, and am extra motivated to move some old work that's been sitting around. This is one of two I have left from my show last year. The scene is from Times Square in New York City.

Catching Up

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I don't know where this guy was exactly (except somewhere in NYC), but the steps were a block wide and went up forever. I'd been pondering how I would paint the steps behind him for a while, when it suddenly occurred to me that I could just suggest them, like this! I also warmed them up a bit, because I think it goes better with his hat. And it reads like sunshine, huh?

Guard Dog

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I was having lunch with my class one day in France when I spotted this little scene at the coffee shop across the street. This was the first appearance the sun had made all day, so I nearly tripped over my chair trying to get up in time to take a picture.

Dissolve

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I've been doing some exercises lately to do with edges, and getting looser. And they led me to do this little piece, of my favorite subject. My goal was to make it all loose except one little area, to sort of focus the eye. I'm thrilled with it.

French Kitty

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Camping always serves to recharge my batteries. I am home now and rarin' to paint again!

This one is from a photo I took in France. There were lots of these street cats roaming around. This one was particularly friendly, and maybe a bit less colorful than I painted her. You can see the photo here, a potential reference for a Daily Paintworks Challenge. Or check out the current challenge that I guarantee will make you looser!

Lit Lemon

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The family and I are headed off for some camping in the mountains. Not sure how long we'll be out. I hope you're having a wonderful summer!!

Coveting the Square Bowl

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Yesterday I posted about using Photoshop layers to experiment with changes I might want to make to a photo reference before I paint from it. One of my loyal fans, John, wrote in to tell me about a free alternative to Photoshop that has the same layers feature. It's called "Brushes Redux," it's an app, and he uses it on his ipad. John says it's far more user-friendly than Photoshop, and you can't beat free!

This painting above though, I painted from life, as I do all my still lifers. I had quite a few leftover apples from my last workshop. The great thing about apples (I haven't mentioned this for a while) is, they last forever.

The Patient Husband

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For this scene from France, I wanted to change some things. So before I started I opened the photo in Photoshop and created a layer on top. Imagine a clear sheet of plastic over a photo - this is a layer. Then I used the "paintbrush tool" and colored in new stuff where I wanted it. You can see the before and after below. Mostly I lightened and simplified the background. I also simplified the store items in the foreground. You can see I also changed some things in the final version - artistic liberty. I'll definitely do this again!

Shady Blue

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This is another one from a Eugene wander. Dapples can liven up any scene.

Scattered Cups

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You might be able to tell that I'm digging on cups lately. I got this little red one when I was in France in May - one of two things I brought back, in addition to tons of photos and memories!!

The Three Bears

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We're just sittin' here waiting for Goldilocks.

Third Cousins

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Shiny cups are great to paint because of all the reflections. In fact, let me amend that to ... shiny THINGS are great to paint. Love it.

Salty

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I am all done with my second 2017 workshop. For this we used the classroom space at Vistra Framing & Gallery here in Eugene, OR. Not only was the space ideal, and the hosts lovely, my students were awesome! Here you can see them working hard, but also having fun. : )

During the week, the framers gave us a short presentation about their online frame business, webpictureframes.com, and then made up some custom frames for us based on our feedback (some lovely floater frames for panels, since that's what we were using - below, right), at incredibly fair prices. They are a family business, and just the best kind of people.

On the last day of the workshop we had a group critique. You can see them setting up their work for this above, left. Below is my whole group (minus 2 who had to leave early). You gals were fabulous!