Installation shots

Well the gallery is ready to go. The opening is tomorrow so I thought I would share some photos.

These are the still life paintings on one wall.

My abstract encaustic paintings are on the other side of the gallery.

A close up of two of the small still life paintings.

It has been a sprint to get all this work completed and framed but I am happy with the results. If you are in the Columbus Area tomorrow..June 29 stop in at Art Access Gallery in Bexley Ohio.

Invitations are ready

Well it has been too long since I have written in my blog. The card above is my excuse.

The work for this show has been consuming all of my creative energy. I am in the final stages of preparing the work for this upcoming show. I must admit that I am really pleased with the work. As you can see (my paintings are the two on the right) are very different work from the small daily paintings that I have been showing on this blog. What is interesting is that the gallery that has been showing my abstract paintings for years is also going to hang some of my small still life paintings. It will be interesting to see how it all goes down.

Anyway if you are still reading thanks for hanging in while I have been working.

Yellow orange

6" x 6"
oil on linen
Click here to purchase.

I decided to try painting on linen. I really liked the surface, so I definitely will make more of these panels.  The good news is that I have yards of linen. A few years ago I made large oil paintings on stretchers, but making panels is a different process. I haven't found any good sources for instructions. I used PVA glue instead of rabbit skin glue as I understand that they are equivalent. It worked ok and I may need to use two layers of glue. Anyway I certainly have plenty of linen for my experimentation.

Tomorrow I am heading to Pennsylvania to take a workshop from Abbey Ryan. I am really looking forward to it. After two days of painting I am off for a spin around New York State. I have a lot of family to visit so it will be fun...only hope it doesn't snow!

Yellow Pink

6" x 6"
oil on Multimedia Artboard
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These flowers came from the remains of a flower basket given to my mother-in-law. She has been living for many years with Alzheimer's disease. Yellow was always a favorite color and her daughter remembered for her when she sent the begonia plant.
I picked the last few blooms as I liked the chubby little flowers.

April Flowers

6" x 6"
oil on gessoboard
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Well I have been missing from my blog. I have been sick with a cold for a week and I hope the worst is over. Next weekend I am taking a workshop in Pennsylvania and will be doing a lot of driving so if I must be miserable I would rather it were this week.
Adding insult to injury I have not been happy with my paintings, so, most of them have been wiped away. This one survived! One painting that I wiped out, I did photograph and now I am sorry I was so harsh. Oh well, there will be others.

Tulips

6" x 6"
Oil on Gessoboard
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This feels like a companion to yesterday's painting.  I really wanted to keep it simple and I was  happy with it in the end. The two paintings are nice next to each other.

Red and Yellow

6" x 6"
oil on gessoboard
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Well, I am thinking of these as my back yard blooms. We had a cold evening two nights ago so I picked a few, just in case. It will be interesting to collect items to paint from my own yard. Summer months my husband has a huge garden so there is always something new.

Fuschia and white

6" x 6"

oil on gessoboard

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Last night I returned home late, after celebrating my oldest son's birthday. Unfortunately that meant I was a bit tired when I posted my note which in the light of day was a bit of a ramble. Sorry!

I am usually a day behind in publishing my paintings due to the fact that I have been relying on natural daylight for the photos and that is not always available to me at the right time.  I finally decided  that this was crazy and so I am treating myself to some new lights so that my images are less of a challenge. I had finished this painting yesterday but I was a little undecided about the fuchsia. I did ramp it up a bit, but only a bit. Anyway I do like this color so I left it glow in all its glory.

Painting white and yellow

6" x 6"
oil on gessoboard
Click here to bid.
These were the flowers in my yard. It is very early for us to be having these flowers but I am happy to have all this sunshine and spring flowers.

Painting black cup

oil on gessoboard
6" x 6"
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Well I wanted to paint a still life with a dark vase or cup as the background. This was a challenge and I definitely will try again. I think I will look for something with more texture or maybe not. I admit to fussing over this painting more than I like, but in the end I was satisfied. Hope you enjoy looking.

Painting white bouquet

6" x 6"
Oil on gessoboard
Sold

I was looking at the white cream pitcher and the white flowers.  As an artist I found it an interesting juxtaposition.

Painting Pink daffodil

Oil on gessoboard,
6" x 6",
Click here to buy.

I wanted to put my paints down differently and this painting was the result.  If you are an oil painter reading this I would love to hear what is your medium of choice. I have been using different combinations of mineral spirits alone and alternately various combinations of mineral spirits and stand oil. In this painting I  used just straight mineral spirits and I like it but I think I will try 1 part stand oil and 5 parts mineral spirits next. What do you use?

As for the daffodils, they are just blooming here in Ohio. It is early for them but it is nice to see the beginnings of spring.

Painting daffodil

Oil on gessoboard
8" x 10"
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I decided to make this a bit larger. (I sometimes wonder if I will begin to think that  the world must fit into a 6 inch square! ) There is something so simple about a daffodil, and I wanted the image to maintain this simplicity.

Painting orange slice

Oil on gessoboard
7" x 5"
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I found this small vase that my son made when we took a pottery class together years ago. It made an interesting contrast to the orange slice. I must admit I started these small paintings last year as a change from the larger abstract work that I usually do. I saw it as a way to work on a different scale and in a different medium as my large abstract work is done with encaustics. I now find these small works are compelling and hope that I can find away to continue to work on them as I take up my encaustics again for a show I will be in the end of June.

Pink Flower

Oil on gessoboard
6" x 6"
Click here to purchase

I wanted to capture the delicacy of this flower.  I had some difficulty getting a good image of this without glare. I may need to figure out a better way to take photos.

White flower

 Oil on gesso panel
6" x 6 "


These simple flowers were calling to be painted.

Green apple

Oil on gessoboard
6"x6"



I liked the almost silhouette quality of the apples on the red plate. Have been doing a lot of painting and thinking about how I want my work to look.  These small pieces allow me to think with my paintbrush in hand.

Red Red

6" x 6"
oil on gesso panel



Well after being out of town for a while I found that the studio work slowly returned.  This is the only painting from last week that I was happy with. It has the more painterly brush stokes that I am experimenting with. I hope this week is a little more successful!

Apple Abundance

6" x 6"
oil on gessoboard

I loved playing with all the variations of red.

Peppers

6"x6"
Oil on gessoboard



As you can see I am still looking at peppers.  I love their shiny colorful surfaces.

Waiting

Click Here to buy

6" x 6"
Oil on panel

This was painted for an artist's challenge on the website http://www.dailypaintworks.com/challenges. The idea was to paint a person sitting. It was a quite difficult to paint figures this small!

Orange Pepper

6" x 6", oil on panel
When I picked up this bright, orange pepper I was reminded of the the crayon boxes I loved as a kid.  The blue green plate just upped the color wattage.

Double Tomato

Double Tomato
6" x 6"
oil on gessopanel

I have been painting and trying some different ideas. Posting has been delayed due to my new camera, Fujifilm X10. It is a great little camera but it is a little fussy. I think I am getting the hang of it!

Caravaggio at the Columbus museum of Art

 Since artist live in art communities I thought I would write a bit about what is going on in my piece of the art world which is Columbus, Ohio. The intention was to engage with  local art and instead I find myself starting with an Italian artist who died in 1610.  Large billboards around my town have been reminding me that the Columbus Museum of Art is presenting a show centered around one painting; "Behold the Man" by Caravaggio. And because I had made my family march all around Rome looking at various paintings in multiple churches a few years ago,  I certainly couldn't ignore the one in my backyard. A single painting isn't much of a show, which meant that the museum was challenged to produce a bigger story. The museum brought together, in one space, paintings produced by artist from the 17th century which demonstrated how each emulated his style and/or imagery. I do find the work of curators interesting, and in this case, I found that concept of the show was more interesting than many of the paintings. That being said it is impossible to ignore Caravaggio's legacy as chiaroscuro, his method of describing form, is one of the guiding principles taught in most art schools.

Turning the corner from the Caravaggio room I saw this painting by another Italian artist, Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964). Obviously this work comes from a much different time and place.  I enjoyed seeing the painting as Morandi has interested me for many years. He painted simple objects such as bottles and jars, and these objects were always placed in the center of the table. His paintings seem to have a mixture of  humor and innocence.

There were many paintings that I enjoyed, many old friends that I hadn't visited in awhile. The last painting that I wanted to mention was this one painted by Matisse(1869-1954). He and Morandi were contemporaries and each painted a table top but not the same table top, and not the same world. I like this interior full of playful color. It is an image that I want to wrap around myself as I face another cold, gray, wet day in Columbus.

Three apples

I was challenged to see if I could loosely capture the red green apples in the background. I am pleased with the results.

6" x 6" oil on gesso panel

I am learning everyday my way around the internet. Hopefully this week I will roll out my website and possibly start using the Dailypainter website. One step at a time, I keep reminding myself.

I have found some really lovely work on the internet and if the artists agree I will be offering links to their blogs.

Yesterday I had hoped to go to a gallery in downtown Columbus. The Riffe Gallery has a show that will only be up one more week. I cruised around looking for parking, but no luck, the lots were full as were all the pay meters.  Oh well,  I went to my studio instead to work on a painting.

This is a 6" X 6" , oil on gesso panel.
I like the painting and will  apply varnish as soon as it arrives in the mail. I have not varnished a lot of my paintings but paintings with a dark ground really look better with at least one coat.

Painting fruit

Every Christmas we receive a beautiful basket of fruit from my brother-in-law. We enjoy it very much so this year I decided to make him a painting from the basket as a little thank you.

Pear 6" x 6"
oil on panel

The tree is down and the winter months are facing us. This new project has energized me and I am excited to get to my studio each day. Painting in small bites keeps it fresh.

Red bell a gift

Having painted abstractly for years I needed to brush up on my more realistic painting. This red bell caught my eye and in addition I decided to play with reflective surfaces. I did feel rusty as I painted but it started feeling better as I continued. I don't think I will be whipping paintings off in 1 hour, as some of the daily painters can, but that's fine with me. This project is about the journey.

The painting is oil on panel, 6" x 6". The recipients loved it.

I am hoping, before I corral my husband into taking down the tree, to get some quality painting done today.

New Year and a new view of art

I am finally going to start this blog. I have been circling and thinking about it for at least a month but with the beginning of the New Year I decided to take the plunge.
My blog coincides with a new direction in my painting. I have been reading and viewing the daily painters on line and think that is has much to offer. So I am going to use this blog to explore this form of painting.

I am also interested in giving a glimpse of the world of art in central Ohio. All of this is a hope and a challenge to myself.

I did begin this process with some small still life paintings the first one I made thinking of all the tomatoes my husband grew in his garden this summer. It is small 6" x 6" and is oil on a gesso panel.

I was surprised how much I liked it and plan to do more.
 

Wishing you a New Year full of art.