Orderly Breakfast

 

Click Here to Bid - 6x6in. - oil on panel

These eggs were surprisingly bright orange! And they weren't even the super expensive ones. I thought they paired quite well with the yellow teapot. : )

Rose Tea

 

Click Here to Purchase for $200 - 6x6in. - oil on panel

My town recently got a Hobby Lobby. We had them in Texas, so I knew to expect to get lost inside, and I did. I remembered a sizeable flower section, and wasn't disappointed. Fake flowers are getting better all the time. I like them sometimes in a still life because I can do things like this and they don't get all slumpy.

That's Not How Tea Works

Click Here to Bid - 6x8in. - Oil on panel - starts at $100

I've got more apple paintings, but I thought we could break for tea. It's been so long though, everyone forgot how to do it.

Cherries for Tea

 

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - OIL - starts at $100)

A few days ago I posted two paintings and asked which was your favorite. The results? Pretty much tied! Thank you to the many who voted, even if your answer was unsure. It was very interesting for me, and proved once again, that there are no sure answers in art. Only opinions. : )

Don't Got no Fancy Teacup

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - starts at $1)

I finally got my still life shelves installed and filled!

I had a lot of ideas about painting still life bouncing around in my head during the long break from painting, and this was NOT my first shot at implementing them. The first several were completely abysmal. Which was frustrating, after such luck with the animals! But I kept at it, and finally had some luck with this one, though I've done more since. At first I was just immediately wiping every one that didn't work out, but after 2 days I decided to keep them. And I'm glad I did because I ended up learning from them - what I liked and didn't like - and they gave me ideas for what to try the next day. Eventually they will be put into a pile and at some point either tossed or painted over. But for now I'm enjoying seeing all my attempts laid out and slowly evolving.

Yellow Orgy

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - starts at $100)

It took me a few tries with yellow. I finally realized that it's such a light value - it needs a dark background! Duh.

I just created a NEW FREE ARTBYTE about shipping small art. I've gotten a lot of requests for ArtBytes on different subjects, and I have them all in a list! And I will get to them, I promise.

Little Girl Things

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - shipped mid-March)

I painted this as an example for this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge. This idea has been on my list for a while - painting only black and white (and gray) objects.

On another note, I will be judging the Sedona Art Prize this month. The prizes are pretty great, so you might want to consider entering!

We are currently in Farmington, NM, on our drive to Texas. It's been interesting to see most of the countryside covered in a blanket of snow, though it's pretty much gone from where we are now. I've been doing all the driving (because I'm better at it), but my wrists are finally healing, I think. My fingers are going only a tiny bit numb as I type this. : )

Fish Tea

Click Here to Bid (6x6in.)

I borrowed this teapot from my friend Patti. Unfortunately (and I think you'll get this, in some weird way) it is full of pennies. So it was quite heavy, and it kept tipping over in my car. I hope she didn't count the pennies, just in case I lost one or two in the transfer!

Candlelight, See Right

Click Here to Bid (6x6in.)

For this one I turned off the light in my shadowbox and lit this one small candle. That said, I still had my windows open and the light on that I paint by, which let some light into my box from the front. But I am loving that soft light.

Recently I got a very nice email from a fellow who said he was inspired by my paintings to write a song called "Still Life." The musician, Jakob Reinhardt, just put out an album, with one of my paintings as the cover. : ) I think he's incredibly talented! If you listen and are inclined to buy the album, you can use discount code "downatthedinghy" to get half off.

My Collection

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This one doesn't have any wild color ... well, any wild color that wasn't actually THERE anyway. But I'm really happy with it anyway. I find that it doesn't come naturally to me to change the colors. It's not an instinct. I have to TRY to change them, and often I get to the end of a painting, having fully intended to experiment, and everything is the same. I'm pondering the implications.

Ice Skating to Tea

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I recently spent some time searching online for some suitable boxes I could buy for shipping larger paintings. Mostly what I found were either way too huge, way too small, and/or not narrow enough. Finally, I landed on some boxes specifically for shipping art that are simply ingenious! The boxes are called ezartshippers, and you can get them from aswexpress. They come in 4 sizes: S, M, L & XL (exact dimensions on website). I use these to ship anything 12x12in. and larger. Following are some pictures of me using a "small" box. The best thing? No need for bubble wrap!!!

Discarded Shells

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It seems like I just got home, but I am off again tomorrow for Texas. This time it's for family and Christmas. I painted ahead before this last workshop so I would have a few things to post over the vacation. It won't be every day, but you'll still hear from me. Unfortunately this means I won't be able to ship any more paintings until after I get home - Jan 3rd. I apologize for any inconvenience!

Tea Time

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This is another larger painting I did earlier this year. I remember when I arranged it, I had everything but the red tea bag and felt it still needed something. I think I tried every single other object in my studio before I realized a tea bag would be perfect! Luckily I have a whole slew of tea bags in all sorts of colors.

Orange Tea

Click Here to Bid

I got several messages asking just how the quality of my latest blurb book wasn't up to par. Here is a picture --> that shows the banding that happens, mostly in the lighter brush strokes (click to enlarge). Some paintings were just fine, but there were enough like this that I didn't feel good about putting it out there.

I got a message today from Magcloud saying my book has printed and shipped, so I will have something to report soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lemon Parade

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Warning, rant forthcoming. So, for the past 3 years I've been using Blurb to create one book a year, each featuring 100 paintings from that year. I was becoming moderately unhappy with Blurb since they had raised their prices so much, but was willing to continue as the competition was sparse. I recently put together my fourth book and ordered a test copy. I was appalled at the quality! I wrote to them to see if maybe this was an accident. It's been 4 days and I still haven't heard back.

My lovely stepdaughter, Maddie, did some research and found a new publisher -- Magcloud. It is owned by HP and I am giving it a try. So, my book will be later than usual this year, but if all goes well I will have it out before Christmas, it will be bigger, and a lower price!

Whites

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I was looking back at my earliest daily paintings recently and noticed that I used to have much simpler compositions - often just one or two objects. Well, here are three, and all white. I think often the simpler compositions are harder to paint!

Meet the Prophet

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I woke up this morning to another email problem - I swear, I seem plagued with them. My darling husband fixed the problem, but apparently some emails were lost forever in the ether. So if you emailed me yesterday or this morning and I didn't respond, please resend. And again I apologize for the trouble.

Tomato Tea

Click Here to Bid

I have to admit I did a little happy dance when I found this green teapot at the thrift store recently. I did NOT do a happy dance last night when I attended a figure session and had to wipe my painting after 3 hours. I think it is so easy for a figure painting to get ... awkward, and that's what happened to mine. But not to worry, I was doing a sort of sloppy, happy dance after drowning my sorrows in wine with my friend Sarah, whose painting DID turn out (though she hasn't posted it yet).