Fruit and Veggie

I recently completed this series

as a commission.

A lovely couple bought the "Apple-ista" painting.

They asked if I would paint a few more paintings of fruit

to go with the apple.

Well, what does one say to that?

YES!

"Apple-ista"

8x8 0il

"Pear-ish"

"Orangina"

"Tomato-bella"

"Lemon-zen"

Ft. Madison Members Show 2017

My entries for the Ft. Madison Show.

I was bummed to miss the opening night.

"Claude's Boats"  oil  SOLD

I painted this the boats in the Lily Pond at Giverney

with a palette knife for this little painting.

"Piney Lake"   9 x 12 oil  $175

I am showing this a little larger than usual.

I love the colors in the pines.

I plan to go to see the show next week.

I might post some of the great work of a few friends in the future.

Fairfield Art Association Members Show 2017

Hard to believe that another year has come and gone!

"Forest Source"  oil  $50

The reception for the Fairfield Art Association's

Holiday Member Show 

is tonight, December 1st. at the Art Center.

The Art Center is located in the wonderful

Fairfield Arts and Convention Center

and is the product of loads of hard work

by dedicated volunteers.

Every year, for the past few years, they have chosen a different size of canvas 

for the artists to work with and this year we are using, ta da... 

6 inch by 6 inch canvases.

They can be painted or have cool things attached to them.

This results in an interesting and varied show.

"Apple Paint"   oil   $50

The few I have seen before the show are terrific!

We were allowed up to 4 canvases and there

are some series of 4 that are truly inspired.

My two entries in the show are dramatically different from each other.

I had both paintings in my head for some time

and had planned painting them in a larger format.

Maybe I still will???

The exhibit runs until January and is in the 

Lobby of the Arts and Convention Center

so you don't have to wait for the Art Center to be open to see the show.

BUT...

The Art Center has a well-stocked Gift Shop 

for Christmas shopping 

and all sales benefit both the Artist and Art Center.

Burlington Members Show

Last Friday night was the opening for the Members Show 

at the Art Center in Burlington, Iowa.

Tis’ the Season for Member shows.

Over the next week I’ll post the 

paintings that I have entered in the various shows.

"Yokum’s Field "

Oil on panel $150

If you are in the area you shoud stop in 

and see all of the talent on display at these shows.

And maybe buy a painting for a loved one?

or for yourself?

"Hideaway"
Oil on panel  $125

I hope your Thanksgiving plans are coming together for you.

Found a New Home

This little painting was done

 in John Preston’s class 

Over a year ago.

She looks a little put out about something.

But she found a home.

Thank you Fairfield Art Association Gallery!

Jill Kramer Workshop in Burlington

Jill's Workshop at the

Burlington Art Guild

in Burlington, Iowa

was

a 

BLAST

                                               

Jill brought everything we needed to make 
lino cut prints.

Here is an example of one of her 
hand-colored prints.

We drew our designs.
For me it was my favorite dead tree.
Then we transferred the images to the vinyl block.

OK, so I forgot to reverse the image...
you wouldn't know if I hadn't told you.

The carving tools were a challenge but the 
material was soft 
AND

Jill had all kinds of paper ready for us 
and
various colors of ink.

We could just
GO FOR IT!
Way fun

Which print do you like the most?

A Big, Big 
Thank You to everyone at the
Art Center of Burlington !
and to Jill.

Self-Portrait

No, not my self-portrait.

But now that I have your attention....

My friend Carlene Dingman-Atwater

did a 45 minute demonstration

and painted herself

on canvas of course.

In front of 

40+ people

at the Fort Madison Art Center

last Friday

The demonstration was part of the finale

of her 52 Faces Project

Carlene spent the last year painting

one portrait a week

of 52 community volunteers.

Did I take a picture of the whole exhibit?

No, I wasn't thinking ahead

about this post.

Needless to say the portraits were beautiful.

Did I mention the Volunteers get to keep their Portraits?

Along with the portraits is a printed piece 

about the volunteer and their organization.

Wonderful....

If you missed it in Fort Madison

the exhibit will be on display in

Mt. Pleasant

at Iowa Wesleyan College

in March.

Pittsburg Hill

Look what I found.

A painting that I did for the Villages of Van Buren auction.

A year ago.

Oh my.....

I don't drive this direction often

but I love the view.

Watercolor Lessons

My fellow artist 

Carlene Dingman Atwater

provided my watercolor instructor

John Preston

with the reference photo for the first of these paintings.

Carlene asked how it turned out so I decided to post it.

Although I don't always post my paintings from class, or rather,

paintings done under supervision.

This is the best way for me to paint in watercolor.

Here are some of the more successful ones.

John provides the reference photos and 

does a demonstration of how he would paint it.

 Then his victims, er...students, paint it themselves.

 It is a great class and because he is such a patient teacher

all of his students learn something new about painting 

and themselves

in every class.

I will not be posting the clouds from our last class...

I completely crashed and burned!!!

Lake Lacey

I love Lake Lacey.

I have painted it before 

and I will paint it again.

This beautiful little lake is located in Lacey Keosauqua State Park,

on the Des Moines River just over the bridge

from Keosauqua, Iowa.

"Lake Lacey"
12 x 12 oil on canvas  $125

This year the Fairfield Art Association
 asked its member artists
to create something on a 12 x 12 canvas.

This is a fun show to see
because of the huge variety of
mediums and techniques that are used by
everyone.

If you are in Fairfield the show is in the lobby
of the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

Part of the sale of the art displayed goes to
the Fairfield Art Association.
Their gift shop is right off of the lobby and has loads
of gift ideas.....jewelry, ceramics, glass
and of course paintings.

2014 Calendar

My nice friends at Community First Bank asked me to create

 another pen and ink for their calendar this year.

Wickfield Pavillion

Cantril, Iowa

I decided to make it more of a landscape than a

portrait of a building as I did in 

previous years.

Apple-ista

Ok, I really have done quite a few paintings this year.  

But I haven't posted any for a long time.  I think it has been since March?

These are the paintings that are going to the Fort Madison Art Center Member Show.

     

                       "Apple-ista" 8" x 8"  $95.00   Oil on panel 

                                      Framed in rustic black

                                  "Passed By". 8" x 10". $110.  Oil on panel

                                                  In a silver frame

           The Fort Madison Art Center receives a portion of every sale.  Pay them a visit or

       Contact me for more details.

Navigating Nevis

No, I'm not in the tropics!

This was painted over a month ago.

In the depths of our endless winter.

So much for keeping up with my blog

in February.

Navigating Nevis  - 8 x 8

Oil on gesso board

$75

I certainly haven't wanted to paint snow

and when Gin Lammert invited me to paint

with a group of artists at

the Fort Madison Art Center....

I knew I wanted to paint 

a warm location.

The photo was taken in Nevis many years ago

on a trip with my husband's family.

It was taken with actual 35mm film.

Remember that stuff?

St. Leonard's Church in Lipnica

I did this watercolor as a birthday gift

for my sister-in-law.

We visited Poland together last fall

with our husbands.

They are brothers.

But we are more than sisters-in-law.

It was a blast....

St. Leonard's Church in Lipnica

This beautiful church is one of the oldest 

Gothic wooden churches in Poland.

The first story is made of logs and the interior

walls and ceilings have

scenes from the Bible

 colorfully rendered from the 15th to the 17th century.

We visited this

 church with our husband's Polish family.  

Their grandfather grew up in the town of Lipnica.

It was our second visit to Poland

and we found the country and it's people just as

enchanting this time as we did last time.

Dy 30 - 30 in 30 - Pont de Paris

For the second year I am a bit

conflicted on the last day of the 

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

It is wonderful to have an excuse

to paint every single day for an

ENTIRE MONTH!!!

But then,

life

happens.

I wasn't going to paint today.

But I had this one last image 

that I wanted to interpret.

"Pont de Paris" - oil on panel - 5 x 7

Yesterday I thought that the painting

that I painted

was a bit too colorful.

But, this one is coming out a bit dull.

The pastels are subtle in this one.

I photographed it at night,

and it was wet.

Excuses, excuses....

Day 29 - 30 Paintings - Hilltop

I'm still working on

using brighter colors.

"Hilltop" - oil on Board - 5 x 7

Maybe a bit too bright?

Day 28 - 30 Days - Back to School

A magnolia in bloom 

and a one room schoolhouse.

Simple.

Or not.

Went back over the pale pink.

Maybe not the best idea.

More blue on the shadow side?

And the roof, well....

Still had a great time at Bill Teeple's class

At ICON in Fairfield.

Thanks Susan, Jeanette and Bill.

Missed the rest of the class that is

 off warming up in Florida and Arizona!

Day 27 - 30 Paintings - La Tour

I was thinking about Paris today.

So I painted the Eiffel Tower.

I included a watercolor that I painted sometime in the last year as well.

First the underpainting.

Then the intermediate version

Then I wanted to work on the sky

 that is always so moody and colorful.

And the little watercolor.

Day 26 - 30 Days - Try, Try Again

I played around with the watercolor

from John Preston's class again today.

I had various degrees of success

but it was fun trying.

Day 25 - 30 Paintings - Caribbean Blue Playtime

I've been experimenting with my new tube

of Caribbean Blue paint from my recent

 transparent oils workshop with Dreama Tolle Perry.

This is probably her key pigment color

and it is quite versatile.

This has reproduced with colors that look

 a little more lurid than they actually are in person.

This blue is made with pthalo blue but somehow

it does not take over too much

and it seems to play well with the other colors.

I under painted this one with Indian yellow, Sap Green,

 Transparent Red Med., Diox. Purple and ?

Then I went over it with variations of the 

Caribbean Blue straight from the tube

and mixed with white.

It was fun to see how the next layer mixed with the 

transparents in the underpainting.

a bit, but not quite like watercolor.