Summer Storm

Oil 6" x 6" unframed
$100 + $10 shipping

I've been painting some large pieces for the gallery in Florida - 30 x 40, 30 x 36- well, large for me anyway. I thought it would be nice to do a small one, so here is Summer Storm. I grew up in Florida and lived there most of my life until the last 5 years or so. Most recently, we lived about an hour from Homosassa - Homer and Sargent both painted there and George Inness - who is a big influence on my work- wintered in Tarpon Springs not far away. My husband kept his boat there, so we explored the backwaters, marshes, and flats in that area for years. For the most part, I rely on memory and imagination when I paint Florida.

Evening Field

5" x 6" Oil unframed
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This is a painting of a field near our home at a certain time of day. I painted a 10 x 12 version which will be exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum Show next month.

Evening Field 10 x 12 Oil

And here's the larger version.
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A Clear Midnight - pastel

A Clear Midnight Pastel 8 x10
Private Collection
I painted this about a year ago . Its a studio piece, now in a private collection, based on the landscape where we lived in New Mexico at the time. About four years ago I went to see an exhibition of Remington's nocturnes, painted in the last ten years of his life. It had a profound effect on my work. The show catalog The Color of Night is wonderful and a must read for anyone interested in nocturnes. The title of the painting is from a poem by Walt Whitman.
It says all there is to say about why I love nocturnes. You can read it here.

Up Against The Wall oil 6" x 6"

Up Against the Wall
6" x6" Oil


And now for something completely different.....for several years now I have been trying to find the balance between not enough, just enough and too much when composing landscapes. I like the space and the elements in it to be elegantly spare - not an easy thing to accomplish when every little leaf is screaming for attention. So, I thought with this still life I would try to see how three small objects could be arranged for that effect. Then I got to thinking about the space itself. If you are committed to the idea of creating the illusion of air and atmosphere in your landscapes- as I am- then the shallow space of still life should be no problem, right? But noooo. In a book called Rembrandt: The Painter at Work (really good-I highly recommend it) the author demonstrates how Rembrandt would soften edges, reduce paint surfaces and lighten and cool colors to show that a sleeve was receding in space from a cuff! Right then and there I realized I needed to take pretty drastic steps to create the sense of space I wanted in my landscapes. There are just a few inches between these grapes. I wonder what Rembrandt would have done with that?

Moonlit Tide - pastel 9 x 12

In a few weeks I'll be heading out to Laguna Beach for the Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational. This is my third year in this event and its a big thrill to be included in one of the most prestigious plein air events in the country. Plein air shows are like a high wire act- at least to me. You are trying to paint a landscape which is not your home turf - in this case, surf- do some of the best work you can and do it in just a few days! This year the organizers decided to ask each artist to exhibit a studio piece in addition to the work done during the event. I didn't have time to create something but I did have this small pastel from a previous trip to Carmel. I had planned to hold onto it because I like it and I think its important to keep paintings that signal the direction you want your work to go (I love nocturnes- but that's a subject for another post!) - but now its headed for the Laguna Art Museum, and that's ok too!

Twilight at Scatter Creek- oil 10 x 12

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Here is the 10 x 12 version which will be exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum Miniatures show in October along with two other pieces. I have four "candidates" for the two remaining pieces (none of them quite finished yet) and I have to let the Museum know by Monday! Tomorrow will be busy!

Lemon On A Ledge - oil 6 x 6

Oil 6" x 6" unframed
$100 + $10 shipping

When I first started this daily painting project I had not painted still life in about 15 years- landscape has totally occupied my painting life- so the prospect was a little daunting. But starting to look at the objects around me as subjects for paintings got real interesting real fast. This was my first attempt and I guess its natural that I would include a precipice - a landscape element- or maybe that's just how I was feeling that day! Anyway, its been fun to shift to different subject matter, and then there's that whole cool light-warm shadows thing that is the exact opposite of what happens in the landscape most of the time.

Twilight at Scatter Creek- oil 5 x 6

Oil 5" x 6" unframed
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This little painting was created as a study for a 10 x 12 piece which will be exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum Miniatures show in October. Scatter Creek is a small creek near our home- not so grand as I have painted it but still a magical place at certain times of the day.