Out in Flannel

 

Click Here to Bid - 8x8in. - oil - "Out in Flannel"

Let me just start with - flannel is hard to paint. I've tried before and failed miserably, but I thought this actually turned out. This is another one from Freiburg, Germany. A lovely town we've been to many times.

Also, I've added new prints to my prints page. : )

Bring the Dog

 

Click Here to Bid - 8x8in. - Oil -  "Bring the Dog"

Here is another painting from my trip to Europe last month. This scene is one I photographed in Freiburg, Germany. They were pausing on the bank of a little "creek" running through town, with a lovely restaurant with outdoor seating on the other side. I think the little dog was just thinking about lunch.

I am now selling prints!

I'm starting with these five, popular paintings, and will add more soon. I did tons of research and found a gorgeous, heavy weight, matte paper, and bought a top of the line printer. The prints are fabulous! You can purchase them from the new prints page on my website. : )

Lunching in the Square

 

Click Here to Bid (8x8in. - OIL - starts at $100)

An old scene from Germany. There was some sort of political thing going on with balloons everywhere. A few were floating in the background, but they didn't read well when I painted them. So I took them out because I figured ... there was plenty going on without them!

Lunching on the River

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This is from a small town in Germany, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. I went with a friend and she drove, so I don't even know which direction we went from my mother-in-law's house! I do remember that on the way back we got stuck in a tunnel for about an hour because there was an accident up ahead. So we sat there and showed each other pictures from our phones. What did we do before smart phones?! Anyway, it was a VERY complicated image, and I decided I needed to challenge of trying simplify it but still have it read like a sunny day in a beautiful town in Germany.

She Shrugs

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I spent the entire day today shipping books. A big thank you to all who purchased the last of my little books - they are all gone, yay!

I did this painting a few days ago, when I had a moment, between all the work getting our house ready to sell. It's from a market in Überlingen, Germany. The gal on the right was holding a white, wadded up something-or-other, and when I massed it in, it sort of looked like a teacup, so I ran with it. I think it works. But what I'm especially proud of is - ahem - their knees. It's really hard to suggest knees with paint, especially when they are super tiny, and I really like how they turned out.

Blue Shirt Blue Shorts

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I'm experimenting with leaving some parts of my paintings very sketchy. Unfortunately this one required a lot of, ahem, tuning along the way, and I ended up covering up most of it. But I did manage to leave the darker area to the right of (behind) the man lightly done. Why am I doing this? Might you think more paint is better? What I'm going for is more a VARIETY of paint application, because my lazy self tends to paint everything the same, and I don't necessarily like that. At any rate, I've learned that if I block in my darks first, with thinned paint, and then wipe any lighter bits with a paper towel, this yields very interesting results. Still experimenting...

Catch Up

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I'm back from the mountains, but unfortunately we did get eaten -- by mosquitoes! Ack. There were swarms of them, actually. I guess it's because there was tons of extra snow this winter, which has melted into ponds, which the little buggers reproduce in.

You were probably expecting a landscape painting, but I had this one left from before the trip. And I need to pick all the mosquitoes out of my mountain paintings before I photograph them.

Passing the Resale Shop

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I love resale shops. I get a lot of my still life props there, but also clothes and other things. I think of it as a treasure hunt. You can't go in looking for anything specific - you just go and look. You might come home with nothing - you might come home with amazing things you can't find anywhere else!

Gotta Take This

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These guys wouldn't have been interesting at all if they hadn't been sitting in the little shaft of light. I have to admit, I'm quite in love with light and shadow. I think I could paint a pile trash as long as there was some light and shadow!

Sold Out

Click Here to Bid (6x12in. - starts at $100 - click image to enlarge)

Here's another horizontal scene. This one is from a market in Germany. I love how the light from red umbrella filters down onto the tiny, little food van.

Shopping by the Lake

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And now, a swerve back to people. This scene is another one from Überlingen, a town next to a huge lake in Germany that I visited last summer. You can see a little sliver of  lake and sky beyond the end of the alley. I thought the colors were really great.

Tiny Foodcart

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I painted this one the regular way, with brushes. And I liked it, but I decided to experiment on top of it with my palette knife. And now I kinda love it. My husband says I should never do another painting without it. We'll see.

Let's Pause

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Here's a scene from Germany. Can you tell she's holding her glasses? And can you see the little, white dog? Ah, the little things.

Elevensies

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Never before have I had a tiny little head go so well as this! And it only took one try. Man oh man that feels good. : )

Where's the Hotel

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Hello again and happy new year!! We are home again from our holiday vacation, and slowly getting back into the swing of things. I wish I could say I've painted already, but I spent the whole day catching up with more menial tasks. I have this and one more painting to show you from before I left. Meanwhile, I will get the really terrible (rusty) paintings out of the way, and hopefully post something new in a few days. : )

A Late Breakfast

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I've been taking a few days off to do some woodworking projects. I'm currently making new cabinet doors for our bathroom. : ) And helping my husband re-organize the garage/shop for better workflow. It helps me so much to have another "creative" outlet. Also I spent a fair amount of my childhood out in my dad's wood shop, so all the tools and wood smells are very familiar.

Here's a sunny scene from Überlingen, Germany. This cafe was right at the "mouth" of the market I was photographing, so I got a few angles, and a couple rotations of visitors. I have a feeling it will appear in future paintings as well.

You Watch the Basket

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As promised, this is my second painting of this couple at an Überlingen market in Germany.

Putting Her Foot Down

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These two were walking around this market (in Germany) quite bit, and I actually got several good photos of them. So I decided to paint them twice. This is number one. The reason for the title is her left hand. She is clearly making a point that will not be refuted.

How Much Do You Need?

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I love the story this tells. She holds the purse. As it should be. ; ) Another scene from Überlingen, Germany.

On a Serious Note

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I took the reference for this in Germany this summer. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the background (which I didn't like in the photos), until suddenly ... I did! Is it just me, or do you sometimes get into a certain frame of mind where everything seems possible and good? This is in sharp contrast to the frame of mind where everything seems stupid and impossible, which, I hate to say, seems to happen more frequently. But right now, goodness prevails!!