Kisses in a Row - Redux

I forgot that I did this arrangement last year, (though the order they are in is different), until I looked it up to decide on the title. I must have like it.
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Sweethearts

I have a love hate relationship with Valentines Day candies. I love to paint them and I love to eat them...

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Winter Storm Coming

Here is one of two new paintings I'll be dropping off at Crystal Cove in a few days. I do love painting in winter. The air is clearer, there are fewer people on the beach, (I still prefer painting the solitary visitor in a scene, to the hordes of summer), and there is always promise of spectacular clouds. This is my first attempt at a painting that is chiefly about clouds, and was really fun to experiment and try to catch that misty, moving, ephemeral liquid atmosphere that is a cloud.

Blushing Pear

I found this pear in Trader Joe's and fell in love with the stripe. I find pears, as opposed to onions, tremendously difficult to paint. In fact, I don't even like to eat them. But, I find their colors so enticing I can't resist trying to capture it every now and again. I linger for way too long at the bin in the market, holding each one up to the light, digging down, moving some fruit out of the way in order to find the perfect combination of shape and color.

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Pomegranate with Pomegranates

I was inspired by the original Daily Painter Duane Keiser to attempt this little vignette. He frequently seems to grab a "found" arrangement of objects by chance, so I tried the same thing. This fresh pomegranate has been on my shelf, in front of the other paintings there waiting its turn for a week or two, but each time I looked at it, I couldn't help appreciating the little tableau it was a part of. So, voila, a painting is born.

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Mormon Barn - Grand Tetons

I finally photographed the big painting, though the quality isn't the best because it's so big I couldn't get the lighting quite right. Anyway, hopefully you can get an idea of what it looks like.

Katie

Last Christmas time I painted 4 or 5 dog paintings of my various family member's pets. I've still a few more pets to go I think, but managed one more for one of our dear friends.
This is Katie. She is definitely part Chihuahua, but has a scruffy wiry-haired coat from some other breed. Maybe a bit Terrier too? Anyway, 2 or 3 times a year we dog-sit for our friend and we get to have this dear dog with us for a week or two. I painted this as a Christmas present from a photograph I took from an earlier stay last year when the weather was much warmer and too perfect for her to agree to come back inside. She just plopped down in the sunny grass, looking very queenly and refused to budge.

New Year's Apple - SOLD

 As I mentioned in my last post, I was working on a very large commission in December, and instead of the 2 weeks I expected to be away from posting, I was working right down until a few days before Christmas. This was a huge project for me as you can imagine, as I typically paint sizes ranging from 5 x 7 inches to the occasional 12 x 16 in. This piece was 3 x 4 feet! It has been a wonderful opportunity to grow as an artist and to learn so much.

Living as we do though in a rather small condo, the challenge of creating a work space to complete the painting was pretty challenging. We basically moved my studio down from our small loft to the slightly larger living room. We covered the entire floor with a heavy canvas drop cloth, including the furniture because I'm a pretty sloppy painter, and the painting of this piece took over our lives; so, no Christmas Tree or decorations. Finally on the 23rd, I was done. We put everything away, I put up a few lights and a little wire tree to hang ornaments on and stacked the presents for our families  in the corner of our dining room. Funny though, it was just as wonderful a Christmas as it would have been with the whole array of decorations and a tree.

After this big lead up, I should be posting a photo of this large painting. It has been drying though this last week, and isn't quite ready to be moved and photographed, so that will come in a week or maybe a bit less.

Instead here is a little still life to commemorate the New Year. A Poinsettia and an Apple. I titled it "New Year's Apple", because for some reason this strikes me as hopeful.
Apples are so basic; a wonderful symbol of life, and gifts, and appreciation for the simplest things in our lives.

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I hope this first posting of the New Year finds you all hopeful and filled with excitement for whatever challenges, and changes, adventures, and pastimes, reunions and travels that are in store for you.
Thank you for being faithful followers of my not so Daily Paintings. It is so much appreciated.