From the Farmstand - Sold

Picture Maine...country road....farmstand....bouquets of flowers in rusty coffee cans...trusting sign on the money box.."Leave money here"...I love it! That scenario was the inspiration for this still life set-up I composed on my daughter's kitchen table. Strong sunlight highlighted the tomatoes set on her kitchen towel, alongside an antique colander. Of course, I had to paint the rusty coffee can..the flowers almost being secondary. This painting was done in watercolor, a fun but challenging medium.

This painting recently sold, but prints, canvas prints and cards are available through the link below.

Click here to view sales info

Let's Cook

"Let's Cook" is an oil painting that brings to mind the delights of vegetables and produce fresh from the farmstand, or even your own garden. It's a wonderful part of the summer season to be enjoyed and the colors are amazing. I designed this painting with a strong diagonal to carry your eye up and around the various forms of the produce. I especially enjoyed painting the semi-shiny skins on the red onions and the lobes of the red pepper. What's your favorite recipe to cook with these ingredients?

The size of this still life is 11 x 14". The auction link is below.

Click here to view or bid

Two Yellow Pears

I can't resist pears. I've painted green pears, yellow pears, red pears. They have such an attitude and personality. They cozy up together, stand alone, or try to take center stage. When you paint a group of pears, it's so easy to imagine their conversations. This is a small oil on canvas still life, 5" x 5", framed in an 1 1/2" simple gold frame. The pairs are nestled on an antique napkin that was passed down in our family. It has just a slightly scalloped edge and is a soft, off-white.

This would be very nice in a kitchen, pantry or dining area with it's warm, sunlit look. I will be creating an auction for this piece in a day or two.

Here's the auction link Click to view or bid

Lilies and Hydrangeas I

In the middle of the winter, when I'm craving sunshine and flowers, I like to go to the Flower Show and walk through the spring-like displays. At the last show I attended, there was a beautiful floral arrangement of lilies and hydrangeas just begging to be photographed. I knew I wanted to do a large painting of these gorgeous flowers, and the painting above was done as a study for that. I was pleased with the results of my study and continued with it to turn it into a finished piece. The large lilies are the "stars" and the hydrangeas their quiet backdrop. I try to use this combination of "important and less-important" for my compositions.

This is an original watercolor floral on Arches paper and the painted image is 8 1/2" x 11 3/4". I offer it double matted to 14 1/2" x 18". The mats are always acid-free and are usually Bainbridge or Crescent.

I've created an auction for this piece with DPW Auctions; the link is below.

Click here to bid

Rose of Sharon

This is a colored pencil floral painting that I did a while ago. Right now, my garden is blooming, and the Rose of Sharon is getting ready to open. The beautiful and interesting thing about this plant, is that it can have several different colors of flowers on the same Rose of Sharon bush. Sometimes, white, pink and purple.

Colored pencil is an nice medium to use, layering like a watercolor to create blended colors. It's also great since it's so portable--just bring along your pad and pencils and you're ready to go!

The original is not for sale, but prints are available. See the link to FineArtAmerica on the right at the top of the page under "Links". The original painting is 9 1/4" x 8 1/4".

"Out of the Bag"

This is a playful piece, oil on canvas, done from a still life set-up. It's really showing the green/red palette juxtaposed to the neutral background setting. I've tried to make the green apple the "star" by keeping the red pear more of a backdrop for the apple. This 8 x 8 piece was fun to do. I wasn't sure about handling the paper bag, so I just looked for shapes of shadow and a few brighter edges to pull out. I just "smooshed" (a very technical term) the background and liked the effect, so I left it without further reworking. I liked that it gave it some interest and direction.

This painting is up for auction, starting today, for 7 days. You can click on the link below to view.


Click to bid

Just One Red Tulip

Final of the series!  Did a bit of tinkering to get warm neutrals inside the tulip to "pop" the lightest areas.   I tried to keep this fairly simple to just let the flower speak.  I hope it speaks to you!