Three Dancers

I loved the stance of this young woman standing before Degas's Dancers Practicing at the Barre. She has to be a dancer as well.

Mini with Tulips

I am very fond of this little mini schnauzer statuette. Paired with tulips and a milk bottle, it becomes a character in a slightly surreal painting.

Flowers in a Jar

A mixed bouquet in an old jar of some sort. I kept playing with this until finally, I said to myself, no more fussing; it is done.

Flower Trio

Three different pink flowers, each facing a different direction..... the plan was to quickly paint the same flowers in a different composition but Thanksgiving preparations took precedence.

Too Close

I took a break from my own still life paintings to do a painting of a gentleman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspecting Cezanne's "Still Life with Jar, Cup and Apples".

White Carnations

It wasn't until I finished this small painting that I realized how red, white and blue it was, inadvertently appropriate for Veterans Day this week.

One Brown One

Missed last week--pesky power outages here in Connecticut from that bizarre pre-Halloween snowstorm. Others still without power 8 days after the storm.

Yellow Pot

This was painted a while ago but I wasn't quite sure about it. A friend, (hi Susan!), said she liked the painting, so here it is.

Interesting

I don't know whose painting is hanging--I should have taken note. But I loved the blue of his sweater against the orange.

Milk Times Two

This is the same painting. On the bottom, you have the first version which I did not like and thus a few days later decided to muck with it. Mucking with paintings, for me, can be the cathartic prelude to chucking them out -- but in this case, I may give the second edition a pardon.

For everyone in the New Haven, CT area--for the umpteenth year I will be participating in City Wide Open Studios. I will be at Erector Square, October 15-16, noon to five, Building 6E, 1st floor, Room I, 315 Peck St., New Haven.

Sunflowers

Back to flowers for this week. Sorry for the glare on the dark background. I am not sure how others do so well photographing their dark paintings.

Red Hat

The canvas was toned with red first--I like the little bits of it showing through here and there. A friend reassured me that the painting imaged is by Mark Rothko.

Lone Pear

Hi All, here is this week's painting. I wondered if I had "grayed" the cloth colors too much so started a second brighter version. May post later (if I like it).

You Look Familiar

This painting was dropped off yesterday for entry into the Guilford Art League Annual Juried Exhibition. Nothing left to do but wait for the postman to deliver the little accepted/not accepted slip. You never know.

Egg, Glass Jar and Blue Stripes

This painting was finished just before Hurricane Irene visited. We were without power or water for five days but luckily no property damage or other misfortunes.

Lemon with Bowls

Sunday is my usual posting day but with Hurricane Irene coming and threatening power outages, I thought I would get it out a day earlier. Stay safe everyone.

Figure Study

This incomplete figure study was done on an old landscape. You can see the horizon line passing through the lower legs.

Lemon on Stripes

Wasn't sure there would be a posting this week. This was finished just in time.

Little Pitcher

This is a variation of a painting done previously. I read somewhere that you should paint what you like more than once and I decided to follow that advice.

Three Pears with Bowl

The pears managed to paint themselves rather quickly. The bowl, however, was most uncooperative. I couldn't get the sides to even up or maintain the same angle so the bowl grew and shrunk about a dozen times.

Creamsicle Dream

Today's title is inspired by the heat, the fact our AC is on the fritz and lastly by the orange hues in the painting. The new little glass vase with the cute flared bottom was the reason to paint.

Black Skirt

The above is a substitute for a less than stellar still life. (It turns out that tube black as a background color is not a good idea.) This was a study done at portrait group.

New Again

I was looking through the old, bad painting pile and decided to have a go at reworking the below painting. It had never been varnished, so I just painted on top of the old painting. I am much happier with the new version.

Blueberries

Blueberries --- love 'um.

Three Cherries

This week, I rearranged my studio and painting setup-- palette from my right to my left, easel lamp instead of overhead light, different table for the still life objects, etc. My brain must have been confused because this simple painting was a struggle. The next painting (will post later) was easier but the studio lighting still needs tweaking.

Peonies

There were lots of peonies around two weeks ago. I did try to indicate more petals but ended up satisfied with this looser interpretation.

Cherry

Summer is full of fun distractions. This week, a simpler painting.

Centered Purple

This was a week of many paintings but only one postable one. (Is postable a word)? There was the not quite right ribbon painting and the baaad peony painting started in Johanne's garden. This one made the not too embarrassed to post standard.

Encircled

I decided to keep the ribbon theme going (for now).

Entwined

This is the first still life post vacation. The ribbon was raided from a friend's gift wrapping bag. (Thanks, Lindy!) I am not sure this painting is done; I am trying to resist mucking with it until I know what it needs.

Flag

This art lover is at the MOMA in New York reading about "Flag", a painting by Jasper Johns. I loved the combo of the stars and the polka dots, although they were time consuming to paint.

This posting was slightly delayed--- I have been in Texas where funny and fun things were happening. I happened to be in Texas when Carol Marine happened to be having a party to celebrate her new studio. Then, Qiang Huang showed up at the party and I got to visit with him and his lovely wife, Song. Both Carol and Qiang have wonderful blogs-- check them out. Pictured below is Qiang, Song and Carol Marine in Carol's studio.

Tulips

The image to the left is the most recent version of this tulip painting. I had great fun painting the initial rendition but months later after many sideways glances the muddled quality of the background began to bother me. Hence, the second, brighter version which is perhaps too bright. It may have another reincarnation.

Explaining Rothko

She was very excited by this Rothko painting on display at the Museum of Modern Art. He --- not so much.

Eggshells and Pear

This is a painting completed quite a while ago-- not sure why I never got around to posting it. I do like the red background (note to self; try red background again).

This painting is currently hanging at the DaSilva Gallery in New Haven. The last day of the show is Sunday, May 1st.

Black Jeans

Luckily, a visit to New York museums is an easy day trip. Following Karin Jurick's fabulous lead, after looking at the art, I take photos of others looking at the art. These paintings for me are a nice change of pace from still lifes.

Lemon Slice

It is funny, on the last painting "Three Berries", I had intended for the overall tone to be more neutral, grayer. On this small painting, I managed to keep the background grayer but am thinking it might look better if it was bluer. I guess you do have to be careful what you wish for.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged/helped/attended or had anything else to do with the reception for "The Art of Everyday" exhibit at the DaSilva Gallery today. It was a wonderful event.

Three Berries

The goal here was to have a very tiny area of red be a commanding presence. I had intended for the rest of the painting to be more neutral, more gray but somehow it came out a brighter blue. Sometimes you only have so much control-- the painting seems to go its own way.

Mushrooms and Red Onion

I wanted to paint something different and both the baby bella mushrooms and the red onion were new subjects for me.

A save the date reminder: for all those in the New Haven, Connecticut area, the opening reception for my upcoming show "The Art of Everyday", will be Sunday, April 1oth, 1 -4 pm at the DaSilva Gallery. Please come and say hello.

Tall Bouquet

There is only one painting above, the final version is to the left. Usually, I work on a painting for 1 or 2 days, 3 at the most. (The advantage to working small.) But this was a painting that I was never really satisfied with and whenever I was in the mood I would change it a bit--take out a flower, put it back in, move the stems around, change the highlight, etc. Anyway, it was time to stop.

Ranunculus

Ranunculuses versus ranunculi-- apparently both are correct but both sound funny. This is the painting I had just completed before moving on to the Lincoln challenge.

Lincoln

The Daily Paintworks site currently has a paint Lincoln challenge and since I happened to have leftover paint on my palette and since I had not done any self portrait paintings lately (as I promised myself), I gave Lincoln a go. This was on a black gessoed panel so the dark bits were lifted back out. The greens and reds were leftovers from a ranunculus flower painting that I had just finished. Bizarre looking but fun and no disrespect intended to Mr. Lincoln.

Strawberry and Pear

Although, in the end, I was pleased with this painting, it was a struggle. The background color changed several times -- initially it was a much warmer color, almost a flesh tone. You can see remnants of it, mixed in with the gray.

Sieve

I was looking around the house for another object for the "old stuff" series. A friend who was staying with us suggested this sieve. The challenge was the mesh part. Luckily, the texture of the cotton canvas was mesh like enough to take care of that problem, otherwise I wouldn't have known what to do.

Red Carnation

Back to a very dark background. It seems I lean toward the extremes of a very light or very dark background. Perhaps, a mid-tone is in order soon.

Two Cups

Ok, I promise, this is the last cherry painting -- at least for a while. The top cup was actually initially angled towards me but I was having a bad ellipse day so I angled it away. Bad ellipse days are much worse than bad hair days.