SOLD - "The Cuddling Pair" - 10 x 10"

SOLD 

After having worked on some recent Landscape paintings, I was itching to get back into Still Lifes. Luckily, I always have fruits or vegetables on hand, since I'm kind of a health nut!

I really love painting pears; they're so curvy and sensual, and come in so many colors. Instead of the usual green Anjou, I thought I'd go with these gorgeous golden Bosc pears. They not only taste delicious, but their longer shape and curly stems were just perfect for this painting!

I love how the stems are intertwined... they look comfortable and in love! :)

SOLD - "The Odd Couple" - 8 x 16"

SOLD 

This is what I love the most about Still Life painting - the chance for me to tell a little story. In this case, I'm adding my own social commentary using Lemons and Limes, but the viewer can interpret this scene any which way they'd like. Are they an interracial or gay couple? An older gentleman with a younger woman? And which one of these IS the "odd couple", anyway? You decide!

California paintings

We had the luxury of spending the holidays in sunny California this year, which was a nice change from the cold, white north!

During our stay, we managed a quick trip along the coast, also known as the scenic Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). It's really one of my most favorites places, second after Ireland. I love the huge hills and valleys, and the vast changes between desert and rocky coastlines.

We had also been there about a decade earlier, and after looking through my plethora of photos for inspiration, I settled on these two to paint:

"Pacific Edge", 8 x 10" Oil on panel

"California Coast", 11 x 14" Oil on canvas

I don't paint Landscapes very often, but I had a great time working on these. I hope to paint more of them in the near future (I still have lots of photos to go through!).

SOLD - "Living on the Edge" - 14 x 18"

As promised, I'll be posting some of my latest works that hadn't yet made it to my blog. Here's one of them, titled "Living on the Edge".

SOLD 

I started this painting last summer; it was the piece I was working on during a local Art Show, and had really struggled to finish it that weekend. I love going to this show... it's outdoors, and you get to meet your collectors face-to-face, which is always great! Plus, we usually set up our easels and paint while folks are admiring and shopping... something I always find interesting myself when I go to shows. I love seeing how each artist works.

However for me, being the social butterfly that I am, I almost never get to paint during these events because I'm too busy talking to everyone! And this is one of those paintings... started, but never finished. I finally brought it back to my studio and managed to finish it months later. And I'm so pleased with the final result!

The original photo (taken by my husband during a past trip to Tijuana, Mexico) was very dull and lifeless. I love bringing my sense of color to such drab scenes. That's where us artists really get to be artists :)

It's been a while...

It's been a very, very busy last couple of months, to say the least. Which explains the lack of updates on my blog! With the launch of my brand new website (finally, after 10+ years!), lots of interesting work projects, and the holidays (spent in sunny California!), it's no wonder I haven't been here much.

But it's a new year, filled with new goals! One of them, not surprisingly, is to paint more. Not only paint more, but paint better. I've semi-decided to start following the recent trend of "daily paintings". Now with my busy schedule, I don't see this happening (and no, I'm not a pessimist... just being realistic!). If I can manage to squeeze in a new (small) painting every 2 days or so, that would be a great start (I already stocked up on some small canvases during my last trip to Boston!)

Just go to Google and search for "daily painting" or "daily painter", and you'll no doubt find hundreds of artists out there doing this exact thing. What does Daily Painting do for an artist? The way I see it, it's a good way to hone your observation skills, and not worry about every single detail of a painting. My goal is to become a bit more "painterly" in my technique, and I feel like this would help get me started. My favorite daily painters, by the way... are Carol Marine, Michael Naples, and Qiang Huang, just to name a few. And it's really hard to just name a few :)

These small paintings are not meant to replace my usual work. And I have a number of new paintings which need to be added here - hopefully within the next few days. So keep an eye out!