Bright Side

12 x 14" original oil
sold

Poppies. Oranges, creams, greens, and that hit of cool gray. Yum. So I wish I was the genius that thought of this great title, but my friend EL gets the credit. It's perfect. Good job girl. 

Today's message is just that: there are always two sides. One of my favorite quotes by F Bacon is "In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present." I love this quote because it's true in life and in painting. 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to everybody. Bless the memories of your loved ones; you will be together again on the other side. 

Baby Blue, Jingle, Sunbathing, Tennis

"Baby Blue"

6x6" original oil

sold

"Jingle"

6x6" original oil

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"Sunbathing"

6x6" original oil

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"Tennis"

6x6" original oil

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Dogs are just the greatest. They are our best friends, little rascals, snuggle bears, play mates, and always happy to see you when you get home. Here's to dogs!

Steps

10 x 10" original oil

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These tulips were growing at the entrance to the Tulip Festival. They grow about three inches off the ground and were surrounded on all sides by taller clumps of tulips, so they were really hard to photograph. 

My favorite thing about this piece is the variety of colors within the white. The lime green and rust patches play against the turquoise and magenta. 

This was a very hard painting to complete. I began it two weeks ago-ish, outdoors at the Tulip Festival. I set my easel up in the garden and after a few hours had to break everything down and go home as my easel and painting had blown over twice and my hand print was stamped firmly in the middle of my wet painting. It was so windy! Without getting too personal, I then went to Idaho for five days to help with and attend a beautiful funeral of a close family member on my husband's side. 

I spent four hours this morning just on two blossoms. 

As I was finishing the last blossom, I thought about how many steps I had to take to finish this piece: steps within each petal as well as steps over a three week period. I then thought of how many steps one takes to get over a difficult time in life whether they are grieving or learning a new way to live. It's what I was thinking about today, and what I'm thinking about has a way of working itself into my titles. 

I hope you enjoy it! Hard things are done one step at a time.

Confetti

22 x 30" original oil

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The painting's surface is made up of small, square brush strokes, all different colors, and it reminds me of a tile mosaic. If I threw a bunch of confetti in the air and it landed on a canvas and made a painting, it would look something crazy like this. 

These poppies were growing in downtown Salt Lake City on 600 South in a lush median. I've painted a section of them before, so those of you that were at my St. George New Visions Art Show will recognize the upper-left corner.