Deliciously Pink

All's quiet on the blogger homefront but not for long.  I just returned from a

wonderful nine day trip to Paris.  My daughter (a wedding photographer) and I

took many photos.  She visited Versailles and I took the train to Giverny.  We

shopped, took more photos and enjoyed picking and choosing from numerous

boulangeries, charcuteries, patisseries (especially patisseries), fromageries and of course, wine shops to cap off our days.

But...it's nice to be home too.  Timing was perfect as the lilacs and wisteria in Paris were just peaking and now they are just in the midst of blooming here.

I missed starting my day painting though and am just about to finish this one.

The leaves have to be finished, the background needs some work and then it will be just about done.  Lilacs should be next but I have to figure out how to

paint all those little florets without overworking.  We'll see!

Seeing Red

6 x 6 inches

Oil on Wood Panel

Love the vibrancy of red tulips.   It's been a long winter and we're probably a good two weeks behind schedule with patches of snow still lingering.  How lucky are we artists to be able to immerse ourselves in color on even the dreariest of days.  

The part I like best about this painting is the lower left corner (funny enough)

simply because in the pursuit of training myself to loosen up, I return to bad habits so easily like puttering with small brushes.  The very qualities I admire in other paintings are the loose, energetic brush strokes.  Simply changing to a much larger brush gave me that energy I was looking for.

Me on Pinterest

It is so neat to find myself on Pinterest!  Every so often, I check to see who has pinned one of my paintings and I came across this.  It's for one of my fabric designs of Lillies of the Valley, one of my favorite flowers, and it makes
me feel all warm and fuzzy to know it is on someone's wish list.

Another View

6" x 6"

Oil on wood panel

Brass Scissors on Patchwork II

Here is the other version of the brass scissors painted in oils completed about ten days ago.  I was encouraged by the gray version and decided to paint them again.  

When not to listen to myself...

Scissors on Patchwork

Watercolor on

8" x 8" Clayboard

Repeating this one in watercolor so soon after painting it in oils left me unimpressed.  It's hard to compete with the richness of color of the oils.  But I did have this sample of Clayboard by Ampersand that I wanted to try and do find it interesting.  For example it is easy to wipe back to pick out highlights that were lost.  But that does make it a bit tricky to keep it from getting muddy.  But all the while my conscious brain is saying I'm not enthralled my

subconscious is saying "I wonder if I have more of these boards to keep playing?".

I haven't priced this one simply because I'm not sure what my framing options will be.  For example, I've read about varnished watercolors but I haven't explored this possibility and now would be the time to try it since it's on clayboard.  This means framing without glass which is another benefit.  If anyone has experience with varnishing watercolors, I'd love to hear about it.

Happy Easter!

This was painted last Spring of 2012.  Not wanting to miss out on this year's

early Spring flowers, I've been photographing all the lovely Easter flowers that are around.  Happy Spring and Happy Easter to all of you.

Brass Scissors on Gray Fabric

Brass Scissors on Gray Fabric

6" x 6" Oil on wood

My favorite hand crafted scissors.  I posted a photo of a painting completed last month on a more colorful background but this time the gray background

enhances the brass.  Fun to paint but I really should do a grouping soon.

Side note:  I literally cringed when I posted this title but I figure it would take me forever to come up with something clever so I decided to just get on with it!