Shell Fragment

2"x3"

click here for purchase information

This is going to drive me crazy- this is an absolutely adorable little painting, but I can't get a clear picture of it for love now money! I'm betting it's the size...

In a few hours it'll be next year. The weather is finally back to a normal sort of North Carolina winter- fifty-ish and drizzly, which is a huge relief from that psycho cold we've been having....

And I got to go see the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art today! It was amazing, absolutely amazing.

I know he was an illustrator. But aren't we all, in some way or another? I knew he had a sense of humor, I knew he was amazing at creating expressions and emotions....

What I didn't know was how absolutely breathtaking his brushwork was. Glazes here, negative painting there, thick daubs in just the right spots, not a wasted motion or a single goofy "hey look at me, I'm oil paint" slappy gob-on-gob thing... just whatever he needed to create the illusion, you know? To give life. It was amazing :)

#1095

Bonescape

6"x8"

click here for purchase information

It's my birthday. I'm twenty eight today.

Which is weird, but not for any good reason. Maybe I had some kind of delusion, that once I had Nugget I'd quit aging? I dunno. She's fourteen months old now, and all grown up, my very silly little princess. So, she's half in months of what I am in years... which might officially make me old as dirt :D

I decided to do something different today, zooming in on that awesome cow skull around the eye socket and doing what I'm calling a bonescape.

#1094

Sophie

8"x10"

click here to see portrait information

Puppy portrait! Now that it's after Christmas, I can share this one, and I'm so glad- I'm very proud of how it came out. Sadly Sophie passed away this year, and this portrait was commissioned as a Christmas gift in memory of her...

#1093

Green Pears

6"x8"

sold

Snow still on the ground, and it's supposed to be seventy degrees on New Year's Day- welcome to North Carolina :) It makes the pears make more sense, though, doesn't it? These two struck me as having an awful lot of character :)

#1092

Tea Commission, part 2

8"x8"

sold

Yep, loving on the tea. It amazes me how many different types of beautiful teacups there are... though of course. I gravitate toward one or two in my collection over and over again. It'll be interesting to see if those favorites change, over time...

#1091

Tea Commission, part 1

8"x8"

sold

I had forgotten how much I love these cup-of-tea paintings... they just glow so wonderfully :) This was one of two- I'll share the other tomorrow :)

#1090

Study in Sienna

6"x6"

click here for purchase information

The snow held out till late enough for a wonderful Christmas day, and I have to admit, having my little Nugget is helping me to actually like the snow for the forst time in at least a decade.... I guess I have to enjoy anything she enjoys so much, and looks so cute in :)

Something warm, here- my favorite little teapot.

#1089

Waterlily

6"x8"

click here for purchase information

All I want for Christmas is warm weather.... and it ain't gonna happen. You know we're supposed to have snow on Christmas for the first time since (I can't believe this either) 1909? That'll throw a wrench in some holiday plans, I'm sure. I'm glad I don't have to get on a plane... hugs and best wishes to all of you that do! And all of you that don't. Hugs and best wishes all around :)

#1088

Breaking Clouds

6"x6"

sold

We've been having some really odd cloud formations around here lately, and today I pulled over with my camera to get some reference pics... really like the result, even if though I got a bit fanciful with the colors :)

#1087

Egg XXIII

6"x8"

sold

Sorry about the delay in posting, things are kinda crazy around here. Of course. Like they're not crazy at your house too, huh?

And I don't know what on earth it is about raw eggs, but something.... I'm gonna be high up enough in the roman numerals soon that I'll have to start looking up how I'm supposed to write them out! How did people ever do math with those boogers, anyways?

#1086

Egg XXII

6"x8"

sold

#1085

Egg XXI

6"x8"

sold

#1084

Mother and Child

6"x8"
click here for purchase information

Gah, I've been having some serious glare issues lately, haven't I? Need to look into that...

Anyways, this is a totally awesome little statue from Haiti that was just begging to be painted. And then it needed something more, so I rolled in a marble.

#1083

Satin Bow

6"x8"

click here for purchase information

Something a little more seasonally appropriate. It was fun to paint, even though Nugget kept running off with the subject... so then I'd have to retrieve it, and lay it out as close as I could to the way it was.... my little helper :) Painting is different with my little fourteen month old in the studio, that's for sure! But I wouldn't have it any other way.

#1082

Seagull Feather

6"x8"

click here for purchase information

It seems I am still trying to summon summertime with my daily paintings... and failing dramatically, at least here in Durham, North Carolina! So is it the coldest winter in like ever elsewhere, too?

#1081

Green Glass

6"x6"

click here for purchase information

Gr, glass bottles get so tricky! Especially when they're kind of tinted, and you're trying to make the light more dramatic than it actually is :-/ Note to self: for the umpteen millionth time, just paint what is there. Once that's right, then you can start playing around :)

#1080

Heirloom on Blue

6"x8"

sold

'nother tomato, and this one looks even more nummy... I'm a summertime sort of person, that's for sure!

#1079

Yellow Heirloom

6"x8"

sold

Back to my little $20 dailies! Did you miss them? I'm thinking another tomato tomorrow as well... I'm trying to eat as locally as possible, so of course I'm going off of my summertime reference photos here :) I figure I'll just enjoy tomatoes all the more when I can get them fresh and beautifully ripened from the farmers market when we get back to warmer weather.

For now? Wonderful, nummy foods that aren't quite as pretty as a fresh tomato... tomato sauce, for instance. Pesto, fresh homemade cheeses and breads, carrot cakes and pumpkin pies. Yes, the fresh carrots and pumpkins are lovely, maybe I ought to give them a try. But how one earth could I paint pesto or tomato sauce?

#1078

Looking Closer

12"x16"

sold

Ah, I love this one! I think it's my most effective yet in terms of the look-at-it-and-think-it's-a-real-box illusion, the others had it but not quite as perfectly, you know? And I was thrilled to discover that the peeling paint with woodgrain thing is actually easy!

The objects were so much fun, and they just feel like summer by the water, the worn stone and the feather and looking so closely, appreciating everything.... But you know what really brings it to life for me? The reflected lights in the shadow along the back of the box- that warm grey is so wonderful, right where your first impulse would be to make it super dark or something to make sure it recedes...

#1077

Apples and Lady Bugs

12"x12"

sold

I loved "Apples and Blue Sky" so much I just had to try something similar. I used two apples from the same orchard, set against the sky at eye level, but everything else- the light, the sky, the directions of the stem and the size of the apples, even the little things like adding the ladybugs, contributes towards changing the mood of the piece... which is so cool to me!

#1076

A Study in Contrasts

9"x12"

click here for purchase information

This is what the pinecone studies were leading up to- the weathered wood, the wonderful natural structure and texture of the pinecone, and the gleaming, beautiful teacup. I don't know what it "means", no, but it really feels right to me, you know? And that blue is absolutely fantastic, a little bit of the sky pulled right down into my reliquary :)

#1075

B is for Boat

8"x8"

And something that I am unequivocally happy with! Yes, you've seen it before. Here on the blog. Thhbbbbbt!

Seriously, though I added some wear and tear to the boat and to the block, but what really changed was the extreme foreground- I lost the blank grey vertical bit for a board/shelf with peeling paint and a honeybee, and I love it! Sometimes I just need a little more time to think on something that I thought was already done. Even though I am one of those artists where nothing is ever safe unless it is up in somebody else's house and away from my paints and brushes :D

#1074

Snow Day

6"x8"

nfs

Another experiment that won't be going on etsy.

Bummer side effect of trying different things, sometimes. In this case, I should have known- I really, really hate snow, but I got some cool pictures of it, chasing Nugget around in her first real snowfall ("first real snowfall" being the first one she cared to play in, seeing as how she wasn't mobile last winter) Saturday, and so I thought... Anyways. Values, values, values! It surprised me that the sky was so emphatically the brightest thing visible.

#1073

Drip

6"x8"

nfs

This one is certainly different for me. It's funny, I like it, but I'm really hesitant to put it on etsy. Sometimes I confuse myself.

One cool thing I saw while painting this was how similar the shapes of flames and food coloring dropped into water. I mean it makes sense, the same way it makes sense for a pinecone to have a tree-like construction, but it's not something I'd recognized before, you know?

#1072

Avacado and Papaya

sold

I just had to share this! You remember the avacado, of course :) Well, the wonderful lady who bought the avacado wanted a companion piece for it, and we agreed on a papaya piece. Setting up the mirror composition was absolutely critical to making them look like they belong together, and getting the orange on the papaya wonderful and vibrant, and managing all of those seeds.... I'll just say I really appreciate her patience in letting me take enough time to work all of that out properly!

And now that they are in their new home out on the west coast I couldn't resist sharing- I am so proud of this set of paintings :D

#1071

Shallot at Eye Level

6"x8"

sold

Fun painting. Oniony things have such interesting textures, and I'm a sucker for textures :)

#1070

Mask Shadows

12"x16"

click here for purchase information

A beautiful painting I just got up at Broad Street Cafe. I want to experiment more with this idea, something beautiful hung on the wall with th double shadows...
#1069

B is for Boat

8"x8"

click here to purchase

Ok, obviously not a daily. I am so loving the double shadow, it adds so much depth, you know? I'm so glad Nugget let me borrow her little bath toy :)

#1069

Pinecone

6x6

sold

I liked doing the cloud poofs as a study so much that I thought I'd do another study, for something I find incredibly intimidating. To paint. Promise, I'm not scared of pinecones in day to day life :)

#1068

This Little Piggy

6x8

click here to purchase

Happies.

#1067

Cloud Poofs

6x6

click here to purchase

Something fluffy, a study for the background for a gorgeous 16"x20" of the cow skull that I have in my head. Ultramarine, phthalocyanine blue, and titanium white for the sky- just luscious!

#1066

Eye Level Lemon

6x8

sold

Still obsessed with the eye-level thing, but this time all in wonderful yellows...

#1065

Stuck in the Car

nfs

Just something in the sketchbook, sitting in the parking lot at the post office (shipping out some paintings) waiting for Nugget to wake up :)
#1063

Flame

8x10

click here to purchase

Couldn't resist :) I've got this up on the wall now, warming the studio...

#1062

Bonfire

6x6

click here to purchase

This is a first for me, and I love it! All that drama.... now I kee trying to imagine something like this as a backdrop for one of my still life pieces, but I'm not sure it could work.

#1061

Strawberry Cupcake

6x6

click here to purchase

Let it get a little bit away from me, what with Thanksgiving and all. Sorry about that!

#1060

Red Velvet Cupcake

6x6

sold

#1059

Lemon Cupcake

6x6 click here to purchase

#1058

Boston Creme Cupcake

6x6

click here to purchase

Ah, cupcakes....

#1057

The Naked Lemon

9"x12"

available

This one was so much fun to paint, even though it took forever, but the yellow of the lemon peel against that purple sky is just delicious, and I put it in this great big frame and it just pops.

It's funny, Mama keeps calling it the ghost lemon, because the lemon has disappeared, wheras for me it's the naked lemon, since somewhere out there the lemon that was previously wearing this is naked. I dunno. It's fun.

#1056

Pumpkin and Storm

12"x12"

available

Gorgeous pumpkin from the farmer's market, which will shortly be a pie. I am so in love with this painting- the orange just glows, and the water droplets are so convincing, and I feel good about them because they makes sense, you know, with the cloudy sky, so it's not just a gimmicky thing, and the reflected lights, and the texture on the skin of the pumpkin and on the wooden shelf...

#1055

Naomi on the Shore

18"x24"

click here to see more on my portraits

My little angel, from a picture taken at the beach this summer :) I know portraits are usually done with the person the other way around, but this is so her, you know? Splashing through the ocean, all determination and cuteness, just sure she'll be able to catch that seagull!
And, of course, a link to my portraits page: http://kelliemarianhill.com/commission-a-painting.html In case you want to commission something for Christmas :)

#1054

Honeybee

18"x24"

sold

Another something whimsical. I am really loving this one :)

#1053

A Sense of Home

16"x20"

nfs

Something a little more homey.
#1052

Fluffy the Goldfish

9"x12"

sold

Maybe I'll countdown to Saturday with these sillies. I mean, when else am I going to paint up a mounted goldfish named Fluffy?
Sometimes paintings should just make you smile, you know?
#1051

Nesting

sold

Something especially for Whimsical Women- it's really nice to just cut loose and be silly amd expressive sometimes :)

#1050

Pomegranate V

6"x6"

available

Same as yesterday... even though this one is a reworking of a previous daily painting. I really like this version better- the last one was a little too mysterious for me :)

#1049

Stacked Persimmons

6"x8"

sold

If you want this little painting, email me- otherwise, it's coming to Whimsical Women with me this Saturday!

#1048

Radish Tail

2.5"x3" ATC

nfs

Something just a little bit different- happy. Radishes are funny little critters.

#1047

Xylophone

2.5"x3" ATC

nfs

Another one of Nugget's toys, same scale :) Is that even the way you spell xylophone? I don't think the spell checker is working today.

#1046