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.

North on Highway 395

Another view from Hwy. 395, this time somewhere in the Owens Valley I think. I wish my little camera, my very old little camera had the new-fangled geo-tag, and I could tell you exactly where we were when I took this photo on the way to Lake Tahoe. I don't think there is a single bit of scenery along that route that I don't love.

Above Mono Lake

Here is another painting from a speeding car, this time heading south on Hwy. 395  a few miles from Lee Vining and just above Mono Lake.

Fog and Sun - Commission

Here is the likely final version of a commission I've been working on. It is pretty much a copy of a piece I did two years ago that sold at that previous Back Bay Show. Someone back then really wanted it though, so approached me this year to ask that I make one for her. So here it is. I hope she likes it.

Late Summer Peaches II - Framed

My husband, Joel,  told me to show this painting framed as well. Most paintings are really enhanced once you see them in a frame. There are some though that look especially better, if that's correct syntax, and this is one of those instances...

Late Summer Peaches II

Here they are again...endlessly challenging. It's all about the fuzz...

Late Summer Peaches in a Dish

Here is a change of pace, back to a Still Life. Late summer peaches in a dish.

On Luther Pass Highway

On our way to and from Lake Tahoe this year for our summer family reunion I took a bunch of photos out of the windows as we sped along at 60 mph. I'm amazed at how intact the photos are, and they are perfect references for me to paint little postcards of the views along the way that we would never have had time to allow for me to paint from life. So, it's cheating a little, but only so we can have these little postcard memory paintings. This one is from on Luther Pass on our way home. It's probably of the same area I painted and posted here last January.

Back Bay Bluff Incoming Tide

Well, I'm back I think, and what better way than to pick up right where I left off. Here is another painting I did in the spring but which wasn't quite finished, so I gave it a bit more life. It's little, 8 x 10, and I plan to donate it as a door prize at my 45th High School Reunion coming up next month. A little shameless self promotion never hurts. I am so happy to be back painting again.