Peach Slices III

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

My 'different thing' for this painting was bringing one of the shadows forward, over the curve of what is actually a windowsill, and I think I really like the result.

#780

Tofee II

5x5 acrylic on panel

I'm wracking my brain to come up with something to say, especially after leaving last night completely blank, but there's nothing. Doesn't seem like there has been for a while. Or, more accurately, no real words- theres tons and tons of pictures, ideas for paintings, beautiful color combinations, and theres silly things to do with the baby, and even sillier stories to tell her, but so far as anything bordering on intelligent communication goes.... zip, nada, zilch. Is this something you just go through as a new parent, perhaps? Or maybe as a person who is a little too visually obsessed? I dunno.

Cherry on Grey II

5x5 acrylic on panel

#778

Cherry on Grey

5x5 acrylic on panel

Happy little cherry. And don't forget about my painting giveaway! The drawing is on March 6th, which is closer than it sounds :) Link to me on facebook, your blog, twitter, whatever, and email me at kelliemarianhill@yahoo.com to enter!

#777

One Marble

6x6 acrylic on stretched canvas

click here to purchase

on Etsy for $40

I do love marbles....

#776

Daylily III

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

I love these colors! Hansa Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson.... can't have all that on just one flower and not have it be so vibrant it looks like it'll jump right off the canvas at you!

#775

Egg XIII

6x6 acrylic on hardboard

Tried something a little different, paint over a dark-grey background.... it does interesting things to the paint. I think I like it.

#774

One Red Pear

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

How do you think this one would look blown up to like 18x24? Really big freaking pear, would provide all kinds of room for details and color shifts....

#773

Daffodil VIII

6x6 acrylic on panel

I'll say it again- I want it to be springtime already! I really think this has been the coldest winter ever.... of course I shouldn't complain, I've become an absolute hermit :)

#772

Foot Sketch

I have weird feet, don't I? Sketched it out while the little one was in my lap napping...

#771

Peach and Blue

5x7 acrylic on board

Ah, pretty colors :) And a reminder about the painting giveaway on March 6th- enter by mentioning my blog on your blog or on facebook, and let me know you did so by emailing me at kelliemarianhill@yahoo.com !

#770

Red Rosebud

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

There! Anice little valentine-sy painting. You have no idea how tricky I find red roses to be- I'm quite proud of this one :)

#769

Daffodil Doodle

I don't know about you folks, but I want it to be spring! This winter is just ridiculous! Not too much longer, though, I mean it is February already....

#768

Orchid Sketch II

Mixed media doodle.... as you can see, the Teacup Human was helping, making little graphite tracks everywhere with her fingers.... thankfully, she cleans up really well :)

#767

Golden Pear and Blue

5"x8" acrylic on paper

Pretty colors on paper :) Cadmium Orange is surprisingly helpful with pears like this.... is it a Bosc, maybe? I thought so, but wasn't sure enough to use that in the title.
#766

Vanilla with Sprinkles

6x6 acrylic on hardboard panel

Now this one was out of my comfort zone! It was the icing, really..... I was studying and studying on it, and realized that the white sprinkles were actually the brightest white, not the highlights on the white icing, which I would usually paint as white-white in the interests of contrast or increased seeming shininess or something. So I fumed and pouted and puzzled, and finally, eventually finished the durned thing. And I'm rather proud of it, too!

Now, something else to announce: this is post #765. Post #800 will be a giveaway- whoever wins the drawing can tell me what to paint on a 6"x6" or 6"x8" scale, and it is theirs free- I'll even include shipping. Now here's how you enter- mention my blog- and provide a link!- on your blog or on your facebook page, something like that, and then email me the link at kelliemarianhill@yahoo.com . The drawing is March 6th!

#765

Bob

sketchbook

One of Naomi's preferred toys, That Thingamabob "Bob" Hill. You know, nobody warns you about just how many scary-looking things you will accumulate post-baby...

#764

Chocolate Glazed

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

More sweetness.... I guess to compensate for this whole "winter" thing. I guess it would be fun if the Teacup Human were old enough to play in it or something, she's cute enough to make even something as dreadful as snow fun, but she's under the weather, and I'm under the weather, and it's cold and ridiculously bright outside. I'm clicking my heels three times and wishing for summertime, when the onle ice around is incorporated into froofey umbrella drinks :D

#763

Kristina

12x24 acrylic on panel

Going from extreme vertical and muted colors to something brighter and much more horizontal :)
#762

Black Cat, White Scarf

12x24 acrylic on panel

And a portrait of my little sister, with the cat trying to distract her from posing :) As you can see, she got all the fashion sense in the family- my brothers and I are hopeless in that regard.

#761

Billy Hall

11x14 acrtlic on panel

A portrait of my Papa, with all the colors played down so the skin tones really glow, looking really fragile and soft againt all that black and grey....
#760

Evening Tea II

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

Ok, to be perfectly honest... this was a daily painting, destined for eBay... and now I'm all in love with it and really don't want to cast it out into the cold, cruel world of online auctioning :-/ And I can't even put that down to weird hormonal fluctuations, since Baby is three months old. So I'm going to put it up in my little studio / painting corner as inspiration, and if you really really love it and want to buy it, email me (kelliemarianhill@yahoo.com) .

Oh, and something else: how do you put up that little "my Blog List" thing with the blogs you're following and the images and whatnot for the most recent posts? I'm sure I'm missing the obvious, but I can't find that application anywhere...

#759

Black Cat

sketchbook

A doodle that I wasn't planning on posting, but Her Royal Tininess is out of sorts today, and of course she takes precedence...

#758

White Cup and Shadows

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

Ok, can't gossip long, I've got a squirmy baby in my lap, but I love how the multiple shadows thing came out, I'm going to have to do this again!

#757

Little Girl

sketchbook

#756

Matchbook

sketchbook

New discovery: Light Blue-Violet mixes really well with Burnt Sienna. It was a total still-had-it-on-my-palette impulse mix, but I love it, especially with my new fixation with interesting greys. Grays. Greys. Does it drive anyone else absolutely batty that there's two possible spellings for that? I mean, there's rules for like their there and they're, and for your and you're, but grey and gray.... I dunno.

#755

Red Apple

sketchbook

Muahaha, this turned out even better! And apples are good. I need to work up the nerve to try more of a multi-colored one, but haven't quite managed it yet....

#754

Chocolate Glazed Donut

sketchbook

Yay, sweet stuff! Trying something a little different here with my sketches, drawing it all out in ink and then glazing with acrylics.... fun, simple, pretty sure I like it!

#753

Orange Half

sketchbook

#752

Garlic on Blue II

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

*sigh* I am loving this weather! Nothing in the world like being able to leave the doors open and having a fresh, soft breeze through your house in the middle of January :) And going for walks in flips flops. Ande sitting outside to paint this. so Baby had lots of pretties to look at.

#751

Jelly Donut

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

There! New subject and everything :) Also tried something else different- painted the donut as I knew it was under all that powdered sugar, then painted the sugar on top of it. I like it- makes it feel more real while you're doing the painting, even if it does violate the "Paint only what you see" commandment.

#750

Peppermint Candy

sketchbook

Again, just a quickie, warming up while I work on a bunch of other stuff :) I'll do a larger, proper one tomorrow.

Dandelion Puff II

sketchbook

Geez, these things are tricky. Just a little bit of leftover summer for you, this lovely, rainy Sunday morning :)

#748

Bottle Cap

sketchbook

More doodling. Spent a lot of the day out at the Eno River taking pictures.... lots of pretties and good idea. Rocks and tree trunks and such, mostly. Baby loved it- lots of colors and shapes and sounds, of course, but also a lot of people out enjoying the 60-degree weather after that dratted cold spell!

Purple Calla

sketchbook

Just a doodle :) Spent most of the day on a larger project.... ought to be done with that by the end of the month, though...

#746

Cloud Study VII

sketchbook

Just a church spire against high, thin clouds.... this ridiculous cold weather is finally starting to crack! Soon we'll be back to typical NC winter conditions of alternating pretty sunny days and 45 degree rain.

Also wanting to share a link- http://rautiola.blogspot.com/ - Antti Rautiola's blog- she has a really amazing way with color. I especially love Blue Dream, posted December 28th :)

#745

White Tulips IV - Windowlight

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard
Same restricted palette thing again, totally different scale. You know how Duane Keiser will do pretty little vases of flowers against a big tall expanse of wall somtimes? Well, I wanted to try something a little bit like that....

#744

White Tulip III - Gradation

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

'Nother white tulip :) Yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow are all being done with just three colors! Now you know I'm not one for the whole limited palette thing, but an experiment is always interesting... Prussian Blue, Medium Magenta, and Hansa Yellow. And white, of course.

And our little Wuggins is 3 months old today :)

#743

White Tulip II

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

Not sure how I feel about this one.... so I expect I'll leave it set in a corner till I decide how to make it perfect, or decide to paint over it :-/ The white tulip/ white background could be lovely, I'm sure....

Half a Tangerine

sketchbook

... and then half of it :) I am really loving this Cadmium Orange color, I have to say. And Prussian Blue, too. Oh, well, I love all colors, don't I? Silly me....

#741

Tangerine

sketchbook

Orange and blue are wonderful together, aren't they? Happies :)
#740

Tea and Spoon - Payne's Grey

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

.... and it's a 5 day auction starting at like 10 tonight. I was trying for harmony, but something to really make the tea "pop" too, so there's some paynes grey in everything- which was particularly great with the spoon. Lots of fun. Maybe I should do more flatware? Anyways, I'm posting with a naked almost-3-month-old on my lap, so I probably ought to go... :)

#739

Marbles Sketch

sketchbook

#738

Early Spring Sketch

sketchbook

From some photos from Duke Gardens about a week ago, I believe. I imagine they're all frost-bitten now :( The blue is Primary Cyan and Titanium White... I tend to overlook Cyan, I don't know why, but it's a lovely mixer for so many colors....

#737

Daylily II - Gold

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

Little bit of summer time here in the middle of this crazy freakin' cold front. Truly Crazy. I mean the weather lady said the last time it got like this was in '77.... since I wasn't born till '82, I'm allowed to think that's a long time, right?

#736

Calla Lily

sketchbook

Wow, isn't this just an amazing background color? Not entirely sure how I wound up at a purple-blue background for a mostly green-gold flower, but I think it works! Now I want to try the same thing larger... but that's the idea with all of the sketches, I know. Like yesterday's apricot, seeing what something would look like set against the super-dark background, all high and kind of to one side. And here saying hm, weird colors, but maybe.... and then huh, that worked!
I'm not making any sense this evening, am I? Can I blame it on the Monday thing? Post holidays something or another?
#735

Apricot V

sketchbook

More about the composition than anything else, here. Enjoying the tinkering... and still having trouble believing it's already "next year", honestly. 2010 sounds so sci-fi, doesn't it?

#734

Red Pansy

sketchbook

The colors came out kind of violent, didn't they? But I like them. Purple shadows are always interesting.

#733

Cedar Sketch

sketchbook

Just a doodle from Duke Gardens, an interesting tree.... I really simplified the background, though. Wondered how it would look with just the tree there, I guess.

#732