Peppermint

21" x 18", oils

sold

Here is my last painting of 2008! It must be the recent Holiday season, but the title came to me very quickly. A friend from my church and her daughters came over to watch me paint this piece. I enjoy sharing my talents with other people, especially children who are budding artists themselves.
The hardest part in this painting was the front petal - all of it was hard. The colors didn't seem to stay when I put them down. I also painted out two light areas that were in my reference photo but just weren't working.



a close up. . . this by itself would make a very cool painting

Curtsy

17x17" original oil

sold

I've had this painting in my mind for days and days. The title came without thinking about it because the iris looks as if it's in a curtsy, plus the frilly petals are so feminine. The color choice for the background was also easy - I wanted something white-washy and soft. I usually paint on black or dark brown/purple, but I painted on bright pink for this painting.

The hardest part in this painting was the green stems and buds. They seemed so dark and it was hard to not lighten them up. The contrast is needed, at least for me, because I am a painter that likes high contrast.

Pointed Out

25" x 19", oil
sold

I've had the picture of this tulip sitting in my references since June. I didn't like it because it was pointy. Time went by, and now that's exactly why I like it: it's pointy. I used to try and homogenize every flower I painted. Now, I like finding quirky traits that set a blossom apart from the crowd.

My favorite part about painting flowers is getting to use colors that pack a punch.

Love

24" x 20", oil
sold
The title for this painting came very easily. The shape and color of the petals remind me of hearts, and I like short, simple titles.

The hardest part about this painting was getting the greys right. The cream part of the petals is anything but just cream. Instead, there are blue-greys, red-greys, yellow-greys, etc. The background is this rich, chocolately red-brown. Tulips and chocolate...excellent gifts. It was great fun to paint.

Goblet

28" x 27", oil

sold

You know that scene in Sleeping Beauty where the kings are tipsy and drinking their goblets full of that cranberry-colored wine? That's what gave me the idea for this title. Also, when I was a kid we'd get Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice at Thanksgiving time and one special glass each. I loved the juice's color when I'd hold my goblet to the light.

Afternoon Iris

17" x 17", oils
sold


I love irises. This one was growing at my neighbor's house. She had a whole forest of these purple/golden irises and when it's hot, you can count on seeing her outside with her garden hose, watering her flowers. Thanks Jean for letting me trounce around your yard with my camera!

Pale Yellow Iris

29" x 26", oil
NFS
I had to include an iris in my flower series. They are the queen of frilly flowers. Every iris I paint causes me to think about my dad. He loves irises and it's because of him I like to paint flowers. When I was in high school, he asked me to do a 3' x 4' iris painting for his office and I've been painting flowers ever since. Thanks pops!

This iris was growing in my brother and sister-in-law's backyard. I'll try and get another picture tomorrow with better light (nix the glare at the top); I can't reshoot now seeing as it's dark outside.





Pictorial Tidbits: The two above pictures show the very beginning (white charcoal sketch on purple background) and the middle stage of the painting (almost finished flower before the background was warmed and the last of the POP was added to the petals). Total time lapse from start to finish: 4 hours.

Clematis

22" x 30", oil
sold
I've been excited to post this all day. This painting looked good from the beginning. I really had to just be sure I didn't mess it up. This clematis is growing on my front fence. One morning as I got the newspaper, I noticed the sun coming through the flowers making that deep grape juice color, so I ran and got my camera. I took a few pictures and this one is really the only one that turned out. The next day, a giant wind storm blew through and all of the blossoms were gone. Clematis flowers remind me of growing up because we had one crawling up some chain-link in our backyard.

I'm loving the flower series and have gotten a lot of great feedback. It's also been rewarding to work on a bigger scale. This piece will receive a Vintage Frame and will be fabulous.

Sun Catchers

15" x 30", oil
sold

Another day, and yet again, another flower. I'm on a roll! This is the piece I wanted to do two days ago, but I didn't have the right shape of panel. So, this morning my husband cut the panel, I gessoed it, drew the picture, and it's 9pm and the painting is (finally!) finished. I'm exhausted. I actually had to scoot my chair over to work on the edges because this piece is so long. I love how the background gray has just enough purple in it to contrast with the yellows. This painting will get a deep gold frame, very formal.

The hardest part about this painting was keeping the edges of the stems and leaves continuous, not broken by intersecting leaves (remember, this painting was all wet all at the same time) and the easiest part was doing the blossoms. I love making blossoms POP with sunshine.

A college professor once challenged my class to paint something yellow. He said there is hardly any yellow in something yellow (from a painting perspective), and now I know he was right. There were a lot of greens, oranges and whites in the blossoms.

Tuesday Poppies

18" x 14", oil
sold

Another day, another poppy. Pinks and greys are two of my favorite colors together. When this painting is dry, I'm going to show it to the lady whose poppy garden I photographed to paint this. Hopefully she'll remember me as the lady who rang her doorbell to ask if she could poke around in her garden with a camera.

Valentine's Barn

14" x 14", oils
sold
This painting's title comes from a weekend my husband and I took to Southern Utah last Valentine's Day. Yes, I even have my camera handy on romatic getaways. Sad. My husband and I both really liked this barn; a combination of the light, snowtracks, and the pointy thing on top (whatever it's called...).

I did this painting in one sitting - the paint was all wet. The hardest part of this painting was getting the blues to grade evenly behind the tree limbs. This is one I wish I didn't sell, but still had. 

Green Space

12" x 12", oil
sold
My husband found this scene for me. We were on a drive together near Park City and he said I had to see this barn, and as soon as we turned the corner, there she was, this bright green tractor parked right in the doorway of an old painted barn. Perfect.

Peekaboo

6" x 6", oils

sold


I was driving home one winter day, taking a different route than usual, and spotted these sheep. I stopped to take their pictures and they stopped to stare at me. I thought it was funny that the sheep in the back did their best to peek around the fluffy bulk to get a look at me, thus the title.

Incidentally, the red barn does not exist in real life. The background in my photograph was just wooded, but I wanted a punch of color and somewhere for the path to end up, so I stuck in a barn. I like it. What do you think?

Funny Ears

16" x 20" oils

sold

 
It was such a beautiful evening in Santaquin when I photographed these horses. I painted this painting alla prima which means all at once while the paint was all still wet. The hardest part was the mare's mane. I love the fresh colors and immediacy of doing a painting all at once.

Top-heavy

12 3/4" x 8 3/4", oils
sold

At first I was worried my colors were too bright, but they are just what the painting needed. I am sure my palette was influenced by my visit last week to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Vermont. Imagine two-toned cows on every wall painted with contrasting colors: Andy Warhol meets Willy Wonka. It was awesome, and the ice cream wasn't half bad either.

Summer Morning

14" x 18", oils
sold

This is the painting I did today; it was great to be back in the studio after a short trip back East. When I went to look for horses to paint, I went for a drive in the early morning light and found this beauty.  I love her dark muzzle and the reflective light on her tail.

Plein Air Festival

I spent the whole day in my art booth. Tomorrow will be the day my husband mans the booth and I get to be out painting en plein air on the grounds. It was really nice to rub shoulders with some great artists today and talk business.

Home Sweet Home...but kind of hot...

A painting-in-progress that I worked on during the day. I forgot to take the final photo once it was done, and it's sold, so oh well. A lot of people stopped to watch me paint, which was the general idea. I loved the attention.

Summer

5 1/2" x 5 3/4", oils

sold

This is the latest of my portrait commissions.  I start with a brush that's 1/4" wide and finish with a brush that is literally a millimeter wide. If I have painted a shadow in the wrong place, even if it's off by only a millimeter, the face is all wrong and doesn't match the subject. No kidding.


This is my work area.