Peeled Lemon #3

Well finally, here is the last of the nine lemons series. I'm so excited to announce that three of the nine paintings were juried into the "6 Squared" show at Randy Higbee's Gallery, so I'm including them here as well. This is the first show I've entered that has been open to national artists, so I feel it's quite an honor to have 3 paintings juried in.

Peeled Lemon #2

Peeled Lemon #1

The beginning of the end of the Lemons...I never thought I'd say this, but I am really ready not to paint some lemons for awhile. So this last series as you may be able to guess is all about the the peel, and the lemon un-peeled. So, here is number one:

Lemon with a Wedge

Here is the last of the three sliced lemons and #6 in the total series I've planned...did I ever want to know this much about lemons? Yes and no, but it will probably be awhile before I do more of them; I mean after the next 3. So here is Lemon #6 with a wedge cut out...

Lemons - Two Halves

Here is the second of this 3 painting series and the 5th so far of all the lemons...

Halved Lemon

Here is the fourth lemon painting, (I warned you), but I needed to change things up a bit so I made the setup a bit more dramatic... This is the first in another series of three...

Lemons - Three

Here is the third in this particular series. Three Lemons on a folded napkin...

Lemons - Two

Here is the second painting, 2 Lemons on a Napkin.

Lemon - One

Here is the first of I don't know how many paintings of lemons, until I get as many as I can that I think I'll want to submit to this upcoming show. So, first, a single lemon....on a napkin.

Market Peppers #2

Here is the last of this series I think, beautiful multi-colored peppers. Next up Lemons...lots of Lemons as I try to get at least 3 good versions for an upcoming show titled "6 x 6" at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa. I'm going to submit 3 from the Market series, and 3 of the Lemon series. I have until Nov. 21, so get ready to be sick of lemons. Let me know any favorites you might have to help me choose which to submit for the judges....

So, here are the Peppers:

Market Peppers

Here is another from what I'm now calling my "Market Series"...

Market Avocados

Last year when I visited some friends in Santa Barbara, I took a bunch of photos of all the produce when we visited their Farmer's Market. I did a painting of some apples last October I think, or November, but always wanted to continue with some of the other photos I took. So here is a painted interpretation of some avocados.

Pomegranate #5

Pomegranate #4

It's Pomegranate season again, and here is one cut in half per my husband's request. This was pretty fun to paint, so I'll probably do more like this.

Grandma Rose

Here is a portrait of my step-son's and step-daughter's Grandma, who passed away last week at the age of 92. She was one of the most unique people I've ever known, whimsical and sprightly and almost like a little fairy sometimes, and with a warm and trusting heart. This one is for you Lizzy...

Aquatics Show - November 6

Here are the two paintings of mine that were juried into the Aquatics Show. 

Check for the details included here and come by if you can for the opening. Should be fun

Schooner at Dawn

Here is a little painting I did from a photo that was taken coming back from Catalina. I think it's a schooner. I loved the colors and other worldly look of the boat floating on the calm sea. I entered this painting into a new show coming to the Socalpapa Gallery next month. Hopefully this one will get in.

Persimmon Branch #2

Here's the second branch.....finally

Persimmon Branch

A couple of weeks ago, a friend gave me a bag FULL of Persimmons from a tree in her yard. They were beautiful and I was able to paint a couple of paintings before they got too ripe and had to be eaten.... Here is # 1

Gourd #7

Finally, the promised third gourd. This one is like the first, but with whiter skin and yellow rather than orange stripes. The variations on these Autumn fruits seems endless...so maybe more?

Baker Staging Area - Santiago Canyon

Our painting group has been granted some exclusive trips into areas previously off-limits to the public. But now the Irvine Co. has ceded these wilderness areas to the Orange County Parks. They are offering us these trips because next May, we'll have a large Juried Art Show and Sale to benefit the parks, so this is a fantastic opportunity for us. Today we had access to a small area just off of Black Star Canyon, for those locals who are reading this. Here is the painting I did today, fresh off the easel, no touch ups yet...so a little rough, but it has a feel for what it was like at 7:30 this morning, just as the sun was breaking through the sycamore and eucalyptus. A beautiful morning to be out...

Crookneck-Gourd # 6

Here is the second painting in this series of gourds. I tried a slightly different composition. I like including the second "wall", it adds a lot more dimension...

Gourd # 5

A couple of weeks ago a friend gave me 2 gourds to paint. So, since it's well into Autumn now, here's the first of my Autumn themed paintings....

Drooping Sunflowers

I bought some sunflowers from Trader Joe's a few days ago, intending to paint them. I trimmed the stems and put them in a vase. Within a day they had wilted. I couldn't figure it out. The vase was opaque with a pretty narrow opening, so I didn't notice that I had forgot to add any water. So, yeah....no wonder. Anyway, that's why they are hanging down like this. I decided to paint them anyway...

Mexican Mug #2

Here is the same mug turned in the opposite direction.

Mexican Mug

I bought 2 of these mugs years ago when I was shopping in Tijuana with a friend of mine who used to travel there a couple of times a year to buy carloads of stuff to resell up here in the states. I've manage to break the handle on one of them, so it's a brush holder, but this one has been begging me to paint it. I love how the red clay shows through the glaze where it's chipped, and I love the pattern and how the deep blue color changes to light blue where the glaze is the thinnest. It's a huge challenge to get the pattern to float on the cup as it recedes into shadow. I plan to do at least one more, or as many as it takes until I'm happy...

Self Portrait #2 - NFS

This is the second self portrait I've posted for this blog. I was inspired to do this one by seeing the portrait project of  artist Karin Jurick: http://karinjurick.blogspot.com/. I tried using her approach, (which is more methodical and more plane rather than line oriented than mine typically is), and which she illustrates really well a few entries back from the most current one. Anyway, after a couple of hours, and in great frustration, I ended up scraping most of my work off and found myself  with this  ghostly, or perhaps I could say anemic rather Vampire-like image. I touched it up a bit and this is what I got. It looks more contrasty in this photo, the painting itself is really quite pale.

The weird factor so far for my self-portraits is pretty high, but despite that I still really like this one....don't know quite why.

Pomegranate #3

It's almost Pomegranate season, but since I haven't seen any good ones to paint yet I decided to paint this one that's probably 3 years old. It's faded and hard as a nut, but I love how subtle the colors are.

Three Plums #3

One more version of the three plums theme. I just can't paint plums often enough it seems. I really like the blue green background too. I'll be using it a lot more I think.

Three Plums #2

Here's the same Plums, trying to get the napkin right...

Two Plums

Thunderhead off Hwy. 395

Here is the last painting from our summer trip. Heading north we could see this big storm off in the distance. Only in the desert can it look so eerie, seeing through the curtain of rain, while the foreground is bright with the heat and sun of the afternoon.

Three Plums

Here are some plums. 2 reds and one black I guess. It's very dark. Anyway, I loved painting them last year, and I'm so glad they are still available so I can paint a few more this season.