Flamingo on Black II

2"x4"

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My poor little princess might be coming down with something... but she's holding this painting now and talking to it, seems like it's making her feel better :)

#1224

Flamingo on Black

4"x4"

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It's funny, I got these little canvases so I could do life-sized paintings of little bitty things.... and now I find myself wanting to do things from our trip to the zoo on them. Oh, well. I do love flamingos. Hm. Flamingoes? Nope, spell checker says the first one is right :)

#1223

Ballet Slipper

4"x4"

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A friend of ours, a wonderful woman, gave Nugget a pair of her daughter's old ballet slippers when we went over to deliver a portrait. They're still a smidge big for my baby girl (she is now 19 months old, can you believe it?) so she let me borrow one for this painting. I love it!

#1222

Chicken on Green

4"x4"

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Tips on how to photograph these small paintings? Please? I've suddenly become retarded in this department :( On the other hand, this is another on of those paintings that just makes people smile, and that's always nice.

#1221

Red and Green

4"x4"

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Trying another chicken closeup!

#1220

Here's Looking at You

2"x4"

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A particularly silly looking chicken :) Honest, this was the clearest picture I could get of the painting, the camera and I are not getting along this evening. Sorry about that!

#1215

Sprouting Onion

6"x8"

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I'm sure I'm not supposed to let my onions get like this, but, well, it happens sometimes. And on a red onion, too! It just looks so pretty :)

#1218

work in progress

12"x16"

That same self portrait... it's definitely evolving. I like it a lot more at the moment.

Happy Friday the 13th, everybody!

#1217

Glass Crown

3"x5"

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Nugget found a ziploc bag full of these little bitty chess pieces the other day, goodness knows where, and I just had to paint one :)

#1216

Kitten Dreams

16"x20"

This one sold for a mother's day present- that made me happy :)

Walking on Water

16"x20"

This one... it was partially done, and still damp, when Naomi took a squirt bottle full of water to it. After my initial panic faded, I realized I liked the effect, so as I finished it I made sure to leave some of the "worn" looking areas. I'll have to figure out how to use that idea again!

#1214

Dancing Cow

16"x20"

I almost added some flowers down at the edge of the canvas... I might go back and do that sometime, this one didn't seel at the show, but I love it because it makes me laugh....

#1213

Flying Horses

18"x24"

Still tired.... and still wanting to post my whimsical paintings :)

#1212

The Land of Nod

18"x24"

Well, today was awesome, and you guys are great :) I am absolutely beat now, so I'm going to go suddle up with Nugget and be a vegetable for the rest of the day.... and then tomorrow and for the rest of this week my focus will probably be on getting a few commissions completed!

I liked doing these silly paintings, though, and I hope to continue with them....

#1211

Beanie

11"x14"

This one had me laughing the entire time I was painting it :D wish me luck at Whimsical Women tomorrow!

#1211

Biddie

11"x14"

I have no idea why I'm enjoying painting pearly necklaces onto birds, of all things..... looking forward to this Saturday!

#1210

Nesting

18"x24"

Another one for Whimsicals :) This one is loosely based on a wonderful photo taken by a frient of mine, Frances Eyl... I think I would like to do more work with nests. Something that properly delves into their marvelous organic complexity.

#1209

Peacock in Pearls

8"x10"

I am loving doing these silly ones! Anybody have some other funny critter ideas for me?

#1208

The Red Hat

8"x10"

I love pelicans... like all these other silly ones, it'll be available at Whimsicals. But you can email me if you live too far away from chapel Hill or something and still really want one of them :)

#1207

Bad Boy

9"x12"

And available at the Whimsicals Women Art Festival on Saturday... now less than a week away! Goodness, I'm going to be going crazy this week trying to get ready for it.... you know you want to come out and see all my pretty new paintings :D

My Dear Watson

9"x12"

And it will be available at the Whimsical Women Art Festival in Chapel Hill, NC (at Southern Village) on May 7th.

Hello! Sorry I've been AWOL the last couple of days.... things have been crazy, yes, but I've been slack about all things computer related :( The bright side is that I've been working on these fun silly animal portraits! I'm really ejoying doing some lighthearted, casual stuff for Whimsicals :)

#1206

Pink Bow Tie

9"x12"

And it will be available at the Whimsical Women Art Festival in Chapel Hill, NC (at Southern Village) on May 7th.

#1205

Picture Day

9"x12"

And it will be available at the Whimsical Women Art Festival in Chapel Hill, NC (at Southern Village) on May 7th.

#1204

Beauty Sleep

9"x12"

And it will be available at the Whimsical Women Art Festival in Chapel Hill, NC (at Southern Village) on May 7th.

#1203

Artichoke Heart

6"x8"

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This is an older one that I've always loved, but it's never sold, so I'm reworking it :)

Tequila Shot

3"x5"
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baaaah, bump-ba-dum-ba-dum, HEY, mas tequila!

ok, so maybe the fight song doesn't translate terribly well when you type it out. still.

#1201

Early Strawberry II

5"x7"
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My twelve-hundredth post..... dude.

Happy little strawberry :) I think the composition was largely inspired by that amazing painting Duane Keiser did a little while back, where he started with a painting of a whole tangerine and then peeled it and ate it and painted it at each step until it was just one little segment.... Anyways, that final image was especially cool to me. I think I tend to overfill my compositions sometimes, make the object fill up the frame as much as possible, and sometimes it's better to take a step back, you know?

#1200

Blue and Purple

4"x4"
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Happy little iris.... gotta love springtime, to bring such beautiful things to our doorsteps.

#1199

Self Portrait work in progress

12"x16"

Ah, self portraits..... I'm determined to finish this one, but it reminds me of all the reasons I almost NEVER do them :)

#1198

Eggplant Portrait

4"x4"

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And a pretty little eggplant. I love how gorgeous these things are. They ought to be in season again.... when? A month or two?

Def looking forward to the farmer's market tomorrow. I forgot to paint the gorgeous asparagus I got there last weekend!

#1197

Avacado and Pit

3"x6"

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I'm so happy I have all these reference photos of avacados around. I think.... you know, I think they grow in Florida? So I could buy some more without too much carbon footprint guilt if I find out when the season is....

#1196

Orange Goggles

8"x10"

portrait

Isn't this one just so much fun? Happy and summery.... my beautiful little subject had the best hair, and a wonderful smile, and obviously incredible fashion sense. Turquoises and oranges are a great combination!

#1195

Watching Over

8"x8"

Something just for the Whimsical Women Art Featival (May 7th in Chapel Hill, NC at Southern Village). I always have fun doing different things leading up to that show :)

#1194

Sprouting Garlic

4"x4"

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Springtime is awesome. And there's not many things cooler than a seed- or, in this case, a clove of garlic- sprouting.

#1193

Daydream of Summer

4"x4"

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work in progress

8"x8"

And another start of something interesting. In case you don't watch the weather channel, North Carolina is getting mauled by tornados today, which is totally weird and scary. Thankfully, none of them are anywhere near here (Hillsborough)- Raleigh got beat up pretty badly, but they're about 45 minutes away, and then down east got it hard too :(

So... something precariously balanced seemed appropriate.

#1191

work in progress

8"x8"

Title suggestions.... anybody? I'm really loving the idea.

And whoever reads this - you really ought to check out Sadie Valerie's work. It is breathtakingly amazing. I bring it up with this one because I think she is the artist whose work originally inspired me to work with still lifes placed at eye level, and then I'm sure I wouldn't have posed this shell like this if I hadn't seen her recently completed painting of an abalone shell on her blog- just beautiful.

#1190

Dandelion Puff

3"x6"

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Now this one was even trickier than the last! I'm glad I sat outside and painted them from life.... I finally wound up with a weird grey everywhere, and so I painted whites in really thick and scratched through to the underlayer to create the texture. And then did some tweaking after it all dried. Not my usual process, but it's definitely not my usual subject!

#1189

Dandelion

3"x6"

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I love having a yard! And I can't imagine how any parent could hate dandelions, I know Naomi is having a blast with all the ones here...

#1188

Last Light

3"x6"

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Just something pretty. I'm trying to bring greys back into my work, a post by the wonderful and amazing Loriann Signori got me thinking about their importance.

Oak Leaf

4"x4" click here to purchase Ugh, WHY has the text been acting so freaky on this blog ever since I moved? And now it's acting even worse! Gr....

The leaf is just something I picked up out of the yard- I'm still really enjoying the fact that I can do that now. #1186

Pink Rosebud on White

3"x6"

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Just something pretty, and graceful, and summery.

#1185

Tumbled Shell

3"x6"

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Something else I've been meaning to paint for a while. I love this shell so much, it just feels wonderful and so smooth, and fits so perfectly in your hand.... I just wasn't sure I could show that. You know, cause it's not really the classically shaped beautiful shell....

#1184

Early Strawberry

3"x6"

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These tiny canvases are so much fun!

And I am so happy that new things are coming into season around here :) yay strawberries! I believe I'll be able to get some asparagus next week at the farmer's market, that's something I've been meaning to paint forever....

#1183

Avacado Closeup

4"x4"

sold

Creamy textures are so wonderful to paint, and even though greens can be crazy challenging, I've got a weakness for the ones inside an avacado. It must be the gradient, the way it goes from a cool olivey green at the outside to a wonderful gold by the core....

#1182

Rainier Cherry

4"x4"

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Pretty, pretty gold and crimson cherry, admiring its own reflection....

#1181

Pinecone II

3"x6"

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Fun :) I found this one out at the museum of life and science, whatever type of pine tree in came off of, I know it wasn't the omnipresent loblolly pine. It made a cool shape, again, and you know how fond I am of painting things life-sized :)

#1180

Garlic on Black

4"x4"

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Another on the fun little stretched canvas.... I picked this head of garlic because it was missing the one clove, which made such an interesting shape...

#1179

Springtime Helicopter Thingy

4"x4"

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Any idea what these things are really called? I've got one of the trees in my yard now, and they're so pretty. It surprised me to see that they're all pink and green in the springtime.

#1178

Springtime Bouquet

3"x6"

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Wow, I was gone for a lot longer than I anticipated! Thank you for not abandoning me :)

I have a yard now! It's the first time in so long... I've got the beginnings of a proper garden planted, which I'm so exited about, but as you can see, we also have some gorgeous little weeds volunteering. I was just going to fill the shot glass up with violets, but the others were looking so pretty too... Oh, and I found some great little stretched canvases in 4"x4" and 3"x6", so I'm going to be working on them for a while :D