Reunion

14 x 20" original oil

sold

I love the light in this piece - light and color make flowers such a great subject. The background blossoms are in the hot setting sun, and the foreground bulbs are in the cool evening shade, making great depth. The blossom on the right side that is kind of peach colored is catching that last ray of sun before it's dusk. Colors in painting can make you feel a certain time of day, and this one says "thirty minutes to sundown" to me and makes me feel like firing up the grill and wearing sandals and a light jacket.

I have a family reunion coming up in June that I am so excited for. All of my siblings and their spouses and kids will be there. We are going to a cabin in the middle of no where but we'll have four wheelers, a fire pit, a laser pointer, lakes to fish a few feet from our door, and lots of witty banter. I can't wait. I was thinking about how different everybody is that's going to be there, but that we're all family. Variety isn't to be underestimated. Some of us are the loud ones, some the quiet ones, some the tall ones, some the short ones, etc. This painting of all the different tulips is like a family reunion. 

A close-up. My favorite brush strokes here are the minty greens in the yellow tulip on the left.

Another close-up. My favorite brush stroke here is the one blackish swipe at the bottom of the red area in the tulip on the left. In one brush stroke the tulip curves under.

Beginning

 

10 x 10" original oil

sold

The tulips in this painting are just beginning to see the sun and open up. Spring has come again. This is from a photograph I took at last year's tulip festival. Today, I should be at the tulip festival taking more pictures but it's snowing outside. That's spring in Utah for you. 

I loved painting this one - the shapes and colors all come together like a mosaic, and there are so many changes from warm backlighting to cooler reflective lighting. Tulips have such a great silhouette too; I love their shape and this painting really showcases their shape.

The hardest part of this painting was the left side. In the original photograph I worked from, there was a big tangled darkness of leaves and petals. I had to invent some peepholes and colors. I think it turned out OK and it feels balanced. 

 

Here is a close-up showing the abstracted shapes/brush strokes that make up my paintings. I love that swath of cool gray-blue in the middle of the hot-orange tulip petal. That is my favorite brushstroke in this painting.

 

This big one is 28x42". Two weeks ago I had it on an easel in-progress at a print signing and was working on it here and there while I was signing prints, and a couple in the store in town from Hong Kong purchased it before it was even finished! It is hanging in my studio in line to be completed, and once it's dry, it'll be packaged and shipped to their home in Hong Kong. Isn't that exciting?! That is the farthest away one of my paintings has ever ended up from my studio (that I know of).

Kappa: March's eBay painting

8 x 8" original oil

sold

Every month in 2013 I will do one 8x8" tulip painting and sell it on eBay. March's eBay painting, Kappa, is this pretty little yellow one. I love the red peekaboo in the background. 

My eBay auctions are a great opportunity to pick up an original painting of mine at a great price. These small tulip paintings are painted on panel and ready to display on a little tabletop easel or you could take them in to be framed as well.

Happy Bidding, and thank you for supporting the arts!

-Cristall

Side shot so you can see it's painted on flat panel about 3/16" thick

Part of my mixing palette I used for Kappa, getting all of the greenish and reddish yellows

Caramel Apple

30 x 45" original oil

sold

Caramel Apple is a title I chose for this large painting because of what it evokes. I think of bright, clear sunlight, fall colors, sweetness and crispness when I think of a caramel apple, and I think this painting has all of those things. 

It is now drying, and the first week of April this painting will head to Springville where I am entering it in the museum's Spring Salon. I don't have a very good track record of getting into this show so wish me luck. There are some great artists in Utah!

Indian Summer is a painting I did that is headed for Art & Soup April 2-4 where it will be for sale. Indian Summer is the middle section of this reference only. It's interesting when I paint the same reference twice to see how similarly and differently a petal or stem comes out. What color decisions did I make on the fly that are close and that are way different? 

I love painting tulips. I love painting things that are colorful and transparent. It's a treat to get to paint the light like in this painting - I love back lighting and the glow of late sunshine. 

Washed

 

18 x 36" original oil

sold

I like themes in my seascapes, and sometimes I start with the theme in mind, and sometimes I find a theme when the painting is all done. Usually the theme matches something I'm going through at the time.

What's on my mind and in my heart lately is that I am my own worst critic - not as an artist, but just as a woman. Let's face it people: it can be hard to be a happy woman and it doesn't help when we assume everyone around us is perfect. Why don't we look like that, have that, parent like that, whatever...it's a long list.

I was talking to a good friend last night about when I compare my weaknesses to others' strengths, and I finally realized how pointless these comparisons are. Her idea was for me to nicer to myself in my mind. It sounds easy and really it should be, but we women, and especially me, can think rotten things about ourselves and not even realize we are doing it until we feel rotten and then wonder why.

In my friend's words for those of you who have seen Kung Fu Panda "There is no secret ingredient." We are special just because we are, not because we have something, do something, etc. 

Washed is my painting for this theme of having a new chance every day to love myself, be kind, and JUST BE.

detail of  left corner

detail of wave

 

30 x 45" original oil in progress

The above painting in progress is going to be finished today. Yes. It must be. I'm going out of town and won't have time to finish it later, and it's got to be dry and delivered the first week of April. I'm entering it in the Springville Museum of Art's Spring Salon. I had so much on my plate already this spring, but I couldn't NOT enter this show, so I've been painting nine hour days all week to get this puppy done. I know artists that paint for much longer stretches, but nine hours is a long time for this gal. I can't remember how many years I've entered the Spring Salon (I think eight? nine?) but I've only ever gotten in once, so wish me luck. 

 

28 x 42" original oil in progress

I started this painting last week and needed to get it in progress, just enough to give viewers an idea of how it will  look finished. I am going to the City Creek Deseret Book store on March 29th and 30th to sign prints of my Young Women Value Tulips and the store likes to have artists bring works in progress. This is the in-progress painting I'll take with me. I'll have my paints with me and when I'm not talking to the crowd I'll be working on this piece. When it's finished it'll get delivered to the store and will be available for purchase there. 

This is my Young Women Value Tulips piece that I will be signing.