Mandarin Bowl

Oil on Canvas

8x10"

$160

     I love to see the mandarins in my blue bowl. What a color combination!

Ginger

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     I love working with the limited palette. It gives me much more interesting shadows in the little faces. This is ultramarine blue, alizarin, and yellow ochre, and white.

Golden Plums

Oil on Canvas

8x10"

$160

     Very often I enjoy painting just one piece of fruit in a small scene of nature, but the tree was loaded, and painting all the plums I could find in this one shot was a pleasure.

V Lake

V Lake

Oil on Canvas

6 x 6"

$100

     I needed a blonde to add to my collection. I chose Veronica with both eyes showing. I thought she was cute in Sullivan's Travels.

Jenny

Jennifer

Oil on Canvas

6 x 6"

$100

     The more I look, the more I want to add this, nudge that, adjust here and there. Finally, I say there is no way to be finished. It is time to stop. 

     This is Jennifer Jones quite young. I think I will try her again sometime in her later years.

Snowy Rose

Snowy Rose

Oil on Canvas

11x14"

$308

     Spring had already come, but it always snows in April. 

     I used filbert brushes for this. I was better able to pile on the snow.

Grazing Buck

Oil on Canvas

9x12"

$218

     This young deer was grazing in a shady place in the woods. Almost no light source to help me out. But I liked his serene expression and he was so young and gentle looking. 

      Still working with limited palette, I found the results a little disappointing this time. Somewhat somber, but the buck charmed me. I did not know they had long eyelashes under their eyes, like a horse.

Ready Plums

Ready Plums

Oil on Canvas

18x6"

$100

     I painted this small scene of nature on an extreme rectangle. It is more extreme than the Golden Ratio canvas, but it is fun because it is a little odd. I have done many "extremes" and plan to do more.

     The palette was limited to ultramarine blue, alizarin permanent, yellow ochre, cad red light, and white, of course.

Garconne

Louise Brooks

Oil on Canvas

7x5"

$100

     I have recently been fascinated by limited palette and have examined several. For this painting I used the most limited I found: ultramarine blue, alizarin permanent, and yellow ochre (and white, of course).

     I am so amazed by the unity and range of color. I struggled with the painting and the process went haltingly, but I am pleased and eager to try another soon. 

     As for Louise Brooks, she is very cute with her bob, little bitty straight eyebrows, and pouty lipstick. They called the look Garconne. Louise is from the 20's, an earlier period than I usually use, but I like her very much. 

     The image from the internet that I used was not good resolution. She was a little out of focus. Maybe that is just as well.

On Your Mark

Oil on Canvas

10x8"

$160

     We have Gray Squirrels here in Nevada County, CA, and we also have these adorable Douglas Squirrels. This one visited our bird bath regularly, and here he is getting ready to make the great leap from rock to bath.

Early Plum

Early Plum

Oil on Canvas

7x5"

$75

     At our old house we had a plum tree. I painted it sometimes. I found some old pictures of the tree and here was this little plum snugged in behind the leaves. I like its plummy color next to the green leaves.

Ava's Hat

Ava's Hat

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     Ava Gardner--pure beauty. They say she had auburn hair and green eyes. I like to think she was also nice and smart. I have painted her before and will paint her again. But those Hollywood photos are so manipulated with back light and fill light that you cannot get a good light source effect, so I just make it up the best I can.

Posey

Posey

9x12"

Oil on Canvas

     Posey belongs to my niece (that makes her my dog niece) and she asked me to paint her as a Christmas present for her family. I do not do commissions anymore, but I could not refuse the opportunity to paint such a great girl. Posey is not supposed to get on the furniture, but she was tired from swimming all day.

Resting Puma

Resting Puma

Oil on Canvas

12x12"

$288

 

     In our neighborhood, we call them cougars or mountain lions, but puma is closer to their scientific name. This is another of my Animal Ark friends. She was on her perch gazing serenely into the distance with her great soft paws crossed, ears down and peaceful.

Lovely Rita

Lovely Rita

Oil on Canvas

6 x 6"

$100

     This face turned out fairly good. When they do not turn out, I could blame it on their faces being just too hard to paint, but that is impossible. They are some of the world's best faces, very symmetrical, perfectly aligned, ideally composed. The true problem lies in the artist and her ability to make them as beautiful as they really are.

   

Moonlight Coyote

Moonlight Coyote

Oil on Canvas

14x11"

$308

     Here is a handsome coyotito. He lives at Animal Ark. 

     My journey with color has many chuck holes. I did not know this would turn out so midnight-ish by drawing with prussian blue, but the moon can cast shadows just as the sun does, so I decided to allow my palette to lead me on into the night even though my subject was photographed in bright midday.

Sunny Side Up

Sunny Side Up

Oil on Canvas

11 x14"

$308

     The matilijas near me at Sierra College, Nevada County Campus, were in such a huge, dense array that people slowed down to look, got off their bikes to take pictures. I liked the way this shot showed them in a sort of tumbling cascade.

Not Gene

Not Gene

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

 

     Painting these little faces is my favorite studio time. I always start with someone specific in mind, but as I paint, the face so often turns into someone else. That someone seems so real to me that I allow it to be and enjoy it instead of fretting over not capturing the likeness I had in mind at the beginning. I realize this kind of thinking would not take me very far if I were in the portrait painting business.

Winking Fox

Winking Fox

Oil on Canvas

11x14"

$308

     We enjoy visiting rescued wild animals at Animal Ark in Reno where I took this picture. I thought this adorable fox was asleep on his little shelf, but when I looked more closely I saw that he was watching me.

Matilija 2

Matilija 2

Oil on Canvas

12x9"

$216

     The matilija poppies are big wonderful wildflowers growing everywhere in early summer. They are known as the Queen of California Wildflowers. (Some people think they look like fried eggs.) They are large, maybe 6" or more across. They are pretty fabulous to see growing in huge clusters as you drive along. Painting them is a good discipline in painting white.