Inspired by Sally Dean, I decided to paint a daisy today. The red color looked easy till I started - and then I ended up using 2 reds, a rose and orange! I save jars of all kinds (it should be fun to clean out my cabinets when I'm gone:}) and these tall hot pepper jars are perfect for one bloom.
Here's another little guy I have hanging around my studio. I'm a fool for snowmen, I think! And below is one of my 'idea' pages for the paintings I did for the Telephone Challenge - you can see how well I follow up on them!
Very glare-y, will repost when it is drier! This goes into the category of "What Was I Thinking?" ONE hershey kiss is hard enough to do - try a dozen, seen through glass..... I probably won't have a post tomorrow, because I'm giving a talk today on "My Life As An Artist" - scary, huh? I'm carting two huge bins plus 2 display easels and 2 outsized paintings to do it.. and I should have left already, only I still need to shower! I'm just going to take this afternoon to breathe, and maybe get my house in a little order... This painting is the last one for the DeBlois Gallery, showing in December.
Another for the DeBlois Gallery's Itty Bitty Holiday Sale. I love painting raspberries, I don't paint the individual 'globes' on them, even though I just noticed it LOOKs like I do. I just dab varying lights of red on top of the darks, and the highlights on these babies are actually blue/gray and then the lightest of blues. I love how the shadows actually reflect a little of the hot reds as the light bounces through the clear red of the fruit!
Another NFS, scheduled to go to the DeBlois Gallery Itty Bitty Holiday Sale. After I painted this (and I thought I would lose my mind painting these tiny candies) I stepped back and thought it looked like a herd of M&M's - probably escaping their fate in my studio! 
Sorry for the horrible photo - florescent lighting due to inclement weather today! I'll replace it on the blog hopefully tomorrow. This one is NFS (not for sale) because it's part of 4 paintings that will go to the DeBlois Gallery on Belleview Avenue, Newport, RI, for their Holiday Invitational Show next week! There will be 4 of them. I'm honored to be invited to join these fine artists!
Conor's (my son) beautifully glazed bowl, a leaf found while walking Paco, and an apple - all remind me of this season. I love this support - it's Gessoboard, as opposed to yesterday's 'Martooni', which is on a canvas panel. For some reason I just love the paint sliding around on this smooth surface. How about you? What supports are your favorite?
Today was a gorgeous November day. The morning was all misty and atmospheric, and since I'm home-bound today, I thought I'd take Paco for his first real plein air session and trek over to the beach and paint the misty island in the river. Let us just say right here that Paco is a BELOVED pet but I was ready to put him on a bus after one hour. I walked carrying my heavy backpack, french easel, 2 leashes (one long, one short), a box to take the painting home in, Paco's best 'baby', water bowl and water for him, and HIM on the leash. First he 'helped' me unload the backpack (as the wind took the paper towels, the little canvases, the palette, then when we got settled down he picked up his waterbowl and shook it (yeah, I hear you all sniggering) all over my BACK (I was sitting at a picnic table, and he could scamper up on it). While I was replenishing his water he sneakily took my best brush and sat quietly under the table till I heard the big CRUNCH, (yeah... now I'm using language that cannot be put in a blog), then, when I thought he had settled down with his Baby, I hear plastic and see that he's unearthed some plastic ties and was gobbling them. Ok, maybe he's hungry, so cookies. Err... not so hungry, but found some nice, petrified dog poop buried in the sand to snack on.....
This is 6x6 inches, and is a cluster of more 'roadside weeds' that Paco and I find on our walks, Clover and Queen Anne's Lace. The photo's a little dark, I'll replace it when I get to the studio on WEDNESDAY! (Sometimes life gets in the way... will try to paint at home tomorrow). In the meantime, look what I got! p.s. I don't know if the font on the rest of the post will look OK - it looks kind of LARGE even though I adjusted it already!
Today I had a lot of fun in the studio. Paco was being the BEST studio friend, and things were just 'working' with the paintings, you know? I heard that we may get snow - and although I don't really believe it ( I mean I was wearing no jacket, just a sweater today), I thought I'd celebrate by painting this little guy. He 'walks' when you wind him up. Fun!
OK, you rock lovers! Here's another cairn from my Briggs Beach rock collection. The color is a little washed out in the photo. I am buying Photoshop Elements for Dummies, and am going to take a few days and LEARN it. I love to pile these rocks. This was a pile of little stones - which I knocked over just after I finished the painting (thank goodness it was AFTER!).
This is another of Conor's handmade mugs, perfect for a nice big cup of tea. I put down a piece of chocolate colored fabric, and it was tooooo dark. But with a bit of lavender cloth underneath, it worked. Or at least I think it did!
Today I seem to have lost my last pair of 'readers'... OK, I had them on last night and today they're AWOL. So this was painted without any clear vision. Probably why its smudgy looking! I found a pair (stopped at two places on the way home from the studio - they each had every strength but 2.25, which is what I need - I didn't even CARE what they looked like!) in the bottom of my backpack, twisted so the 'arms' were in front - so I can kind of see now - although they're very scratched! Anyway I had this great pomegranate and wanted to paint it so I did (2 for $4 at Whole Foods). Kind of don't like the split background. Should've gone with all yellow-y green.
Bloody Mary with olives, lemon and celery!!!! Thanks to Manon Doyle for giving me the idea for the title with her comment on my last post! OK, now I don't feel like I copied my friend - these are two COMPLETELY different 'takes' on Bloody Marys, and I still love hers (I'll post them all on our GirlsJustWannaPaint Blog after the weekend). And now that I wasn't 'able' to do the dark background, I'm just as happy. This one painted itself... Thank goodness for days like this! I'm updating my Studio Blog, too.
Having recovered from my wonderful Open Studio on Sunday, I am trying to get something to submit to my 'Challenge' group, whose topic for this month was 'Hot Sauce'. However, I found another painter painted what I'd planned (a Bloody Mary) just the way I would have done it - and did such a great job that I had to think of something else to paint. So.... here's the ingredients for a Bloody Mary with Olives, like my friend Ros Farbush likes (had one with her & another friend last Friday!). Who knows, maybe I'll paint the beverage tomorrow - I'll have them at the studio... so if you're thirsty.....
Hi everyone! Sunday, October 25th from 11-5 I'll be welcoming you all into my studio during the Warren Walkabout! Should be decent weather, and my family (including Paco) will be there to meet and greet! Aside from hanging with me where I work, there's the opportunity to visit some amazing artists and artisans in walking distance from my studio. Also there's the Taste of Warren directly across the street at the Warren Fire Station (free munchies!). 
YAY! Back in the studio, albeit supposedly cleaning. Cleaning is my LEAST favorite thing to do in the world because it involves sorting. Bad sorter, I am. Anyway this gorgeous celadon colored bowl is one of two that my son Conor, the potter, made for me. I wanted to paint it with apples to show how gorgeous the glaze is... but then I got carried away and wanted to put this stripey background in. I think the bowl deserves the limelight, so it will probably be painted again. But those crazy wiggling stripes were fun to paint, too!
Also, shots of Paco helping prep the studio are on Paco's Blog....
I don't know what the name of those blue flowers that sprout up in every untended spot in our area. Usually they are right alongside Queen Anne's Lace. Well, I always think about painting them, even though they are 'weeds'... my son Conor, when he was about 6 scolded me for weeding once by telling me "Mom, those are nice plants! There's no such thing as a weed - it's just a plant that grew by accident!".... and that, I guess applies to all sorts of things I take for granted in my life! I think tomorrow - some sort of coffee or tea cup theme...
I found this place called Supreme Donut ("Our name says it all" it says on the box.) in Seekonk, MA, and although they actually don't have very MANY donuts, their jellies are far superior to Dunkin or anyone else's I've found in terms of pillowy texture and drippy jelly (if you like that kind of stuff, which, ... I do when I'm painting them!). I was going for a 'monumental' feel in this little painting, and also a sort of empathy, which I was trying to achieve with loose brushstrokes. I know, empathy for what???? But that's what I was going for!
My Challenge group is doing a 'mushroom' theme this month. So I thought about a stir-fry... also I loooove snow peas, and was getting hungry in the produce aisle ;) So if you're in the Challenge group - close your eyes! Mushrooms might seem boring to paint, but they are actually, if you study them, lustrous and reflective. These positively lit up with the orange reflections. Slaving away getting ready for a show I'll tell all about this weekend!
Well, I guess I never get tired of painting snacks. There were a few people interested in the last one, so if you wanted one and didn't get it, here's your chance. And for my son Conor, who is always looking out for my health - I ordered it with HALF the regular sugar. ;)
A very small hydrangea flower and a cosmos in a jar - the garden is winding down. Too much glare in this photo - I didn't notice it till I posted it. Hope everyone's having a good weekend!
People seem to get a charge out of paintings of donuts, donut shop stuff like iced coffee. Since I'm mildly addicted to the iced confection, I bought TWO today. One to paint, one to sip! 
I couldn't paint yesterday. This painting was after a couple of wipe-offs. Sally Dean made these little tiny (2 inches, no lie) buckets with fresh flowers from her garden as gifts the other night. So my plan was to paint it, but it was difficult, because all I could think about was this wonderful young man (29 years old), a brother of a dear friend of mine, who died in an accident at work the night I got these flowers. For you, Claudel, with thanks for being the kind of person who brought sunshine into the lives of all you met.
Our garden was like everybody else's this summer - a little disappointing - but these Chinese eggplants were abundant. I have to say I'm married to an incredible gardener. So I held these three out to paint. I was working on a triad of light green, dull yellow and purple. IRL the green is a little deeper.
I hope you're all having a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Really, we couldn't have asked for better weather. We had the best ever clamboil and lobsters yesterday. While doing the errands for the Big Event, I stumbled upon this tiny creamer & sugar bowl, in this gorgeous color. I think they looked great on my (only) nice tablecloth, so... with a recovering (from a sprained ankle) puppy in the crate next to me, I sat in the garden and did this. 
Taking a little break from the 6x6, and enjoying the 8x8 inch format. These bowls were a Christmas Tree Shop find. I wish they were brighter colors, but there you go. I know I told you I just got my 100th subscriber, and when I went in to check two people has opted out, so I'm only at 98. But who cares, right? Let's give THIS baby away! IF you subscribe to this blog (get it in your inbox as I post it) email me if you'd like to have this painting for just the $10 shipping and handling. I'll close the raffle on Tuesday night, so you can still 'subscribe' and be eligible through then. I'll put all names in a hat (Paco will help) and announce the winner on Thursday! Good luck, and thank you ALL for your support, encouragement and enthusiasm!
Well, back at the studio this morning everything is 'taken care of' (you know what I mean in terms of the little mouse). I think I like this hydrangea the best, or maybe I was just more relaxed doing it. I hope you all have a FANtastic weekend. Clamboil and lobsters at my place tomorrow! :)
Because the SMALLEST thing throws me! This is not a 'Daily Painting' - it's an abstract sunset done a couple of days ago, and it's 11x14, done in acrylics. My actual Daily Painting is loaded in my camera at the studio, which I forgot when I bolted out the door today. See.... yesterday there was this ADORABLE tiny mouse in the DRAIN of my sink - hiding there because he (or she) heard me when I came in, and it couldn't get out. So I left it alone, and washed up in the bathroom sink before I left so I wouldn't disturb it. Well, today I came in and....hmmm... still there, standing on my chunk of brush soap, EATING it. It occurred to me - the mouse COULD not get out of the slop sink! DUH! How thirsty/hungry must it have been to have been drinking the soap water and eating soap??? So, I made a 'ladder' out of scratched cardboard, gave it a little bit of fresh water in a jar top, and bits of muffin and left it to figure it's way out. Only it couldn't even make itself eat or drink, it was so sick and weak from the soap! So as I painted today it slowly DIED - and although I did two daily paintings (the final hydrangea, I promise, and a really different painting after that) I was a little freaked & sad about the (now expired) mouse. So I ran out (with Paco, of course) and left the camera there. I'll grab it tomorrow a.m. and post.
A little better? Thanks everyone, for your comments, and your personal emails with tips on how to tackle flowers like this! Soooo appreciated! Let's see if tomorrow's is even better!
Sometimes I think - "Why do I do this to myself?" Hydrangeas, one of my all time favorite flowers, can be so HARD to paint. There are zillions of painted hydrangeas that are bad examples floating around. I did not want to get into painting each petal (as Camille Przwodek says "dibby-dabby-do-ing"), and I knew I'd never be able to do an M Collier masterpiece, but I wanted to just indicate the gorgeous, lush blooms. I just went back to the studio this a.m. to retrieve some things and saw this, that I did yesterday, and noticed that the peach cloth was much darker than I have painted it. I could go in and fix it, but I may, hopefully, just do another one. Sometimes the second pass is much better. The third, as the saying goes, is the 'charm'.
Another small painting from the farm. Later in the day. More interesting in person. Thank God I finally have a good computer to upload & post with! Here's to lessons learned... thanks for your patience, guys! I'll be surfing around this weekend seeing what I've missed from all my favorite blogs!
