Summer's Last Water Lily

SOLD
A subject begging to be painted when I came home today. It was beautiful to sit outside and do this quick study...the flower was closing as I painted, not allowing for too much time or detail. Sorry for the bit of glare from the late afternoon sun, kindof removed the blue stripes.

Vikings

These tiny little mums are one of my favorites to work with this time of year...both with painting and floral design. 5x7 oil/panel

Get Well Buddy B.

This one is a gift for a dear friend who is fighting a courageous battle with cancer.
8x10 oil

Cut Callas

8x10 oil/panel

Artist's Rule: Never Fall in Love with your Paintings

Ninety percent complete. First one in a while thats giving me a problem with the above mentioned rule.

Sedum and Dusty Miller

Last bloomers of the season...ah fall!
8x10 oil/panel

Dried Oak Leaves

This one is actually a commission from last year. I told my client she would have to wait until the the leaves started to drop again in September to match the pink and greens from the two paintings she purchased a year ago. 5x7 oil

Gloriosas

SOLD

8x10 oil/panel

Noyes Exhibit

Three posts at once is a record for me, but I'm a little behind. It was a busy week! I have two paintings at the Noyes from now until the end of October. Two Shells on a Bed of Kelp and the Dried Asian Octopus painting. You probably won't get a chance to see the octopus painting again any time soon. They are part of the
">Signature Artist's Show. There are two other very interesting exhibits going on as well so if you're local you should stop in. The Noyes Musuem is a real gem here in South Jersey! I also met a fellow blogger at the opening; Joanie San Chirico, she is a textile artist. Thats an area I'm not too familiar with, but I know enough to know that her work is quite accomplished. I also did the outdoor Washington Street Mall Show in Cape May this past weekend. Sales were good and I made yet another Artist friend Sandy Jones. She works in Tempera Resist ...a technigue I'm going to try for my personal Christmas cards this year.

Goodbye St Andrew's by the Sea

This is a chunk of tile from the mosaic on the side of St Andrew's which was a church on Atlantic Ave in Atlantic City. They tore it down about ten years ago. I had mentioned to a friend how I was facinated by the mosaic ever since I was a little kid. He worked for the city and went to the demolition sight and procured me a few chunks of the tile. I am forever grateful. Now if I could do a better painting I'd be even happier!

Goodbye Brighton Farms Redux

This mysterious dead tree was all that remained in the old stone store front. When I returned a day later half the building was demolished and a big NO TRESSPASSING sign was posted over the entrance. Guess I got there just in time! I find this image captivating.

"Heirlooms" ...work in progress

My great grandmother's quilt with shells my mother picked up from the beach when she was a little girl. 24" x 24"

Two Brothers

5x7 oil/panel

This will be the last mushroom painting for a while...onto something bigger

Three Brothers

Funny how mushrooms take on a male persona. One of my favorite Disney sequences is the mushrooms dancing to Tchaikovsky in Fantasia.

5x7 oil/panel

Goodbye Brighton Farms

SOLD

Brighton Farms was established by the Off Family. It was an Orchid farm here in Linwood. It has an interesting history. Lou Off passed away a few years ago and the family has sold the Brighton Farm property which consisted of about a dozen greenhouses lining Shore Road in Linwood. McMansions will fill the void...YUCK. It's heartbreaking to see such a lovely piece of Linwood history be torn to rubble. While I can't judge the family's financial need to do such a thing, it's still so very sad to see the character of my home town slowly dissapear. One consolation is that Waldor Orchids will remain. Waldor was established when a split occured between the Off brothers in the 50s. It consists of several large greenhouses adjascent to the Brighton Property. I buy orchid plants frequently from Waldor, both for business and personal use. It's a wonderful place to visit.
Brighton sold cut orchids; primarliy Cattleyas I think. They delivered all over the greater northeast extension...NYC, Philadelphia etc. Anyway you can read the history with the link I've provided. I picked up this brick from the rubble of the greenhouses as a memento. I didn't have a Cattlelaya orchid, so these two green cymbidiums had to do for the orchid reference. 8x10 oil/canvas.

Childs Play ...Near completion

Some more detail to the guns themselves will finish this off. I wanted this painting to appear Happy and Troublesome at the same time. The technique is far less detail oriented then most of my "Scatter Paintings". Perhaps the influence of all those direct "daily style" paintings...or blog paintings if you will.

Shroom3

I liked the file name on this one...third painting of mushrooms/painting of three mushrooms...it works well as a title I think. Now I can title the first Two "Shroom 1 and 2 respectively. Suddenly I feel pressure to do a fourth with four mushrooms! Another OCD painting from Chuck heheheh. And I was carrying the "Gifts from the Garden" thing a bit too far when I started picking objects from the neighbors yards...like these mushrooms and the green apple from yesterday.
9x12 oil/panel

Gifts from the Garden #5

SOLD
5x7 oil/panel
I bought some pre-primed panels for a change...I found the surface so slick and slippery with this painting...a very unpleasant sensation. I've grown quite fond of the absorbant surface of acrylic gesso. It works well with my technique of drawing/blocking in the intial image with a turpentine wash.

Gifts from the garden #4

One thing about rain...it brings mushrooms.
5x7 oil/panel

Unblock Knives

5 1/2" x 12" oil/birchwood panel

It's been raining for the last five days. I guess this makes up for the drought conditions this summer...anyway I sold the comish without getting a photo. Today is the first day I've been able to take a picture outside...but will I invest in a scanner? someday perhaps. I was going to do some outdoor painting this week, but that was dashed. Then I found myself feeling totally uninspired by everything, including the two works in progress. I brought home really nice flowers...but they just left me cold...so I caught up on paper and house work and felt guilty and miserable the last few days because I wasn't painting. I've been going through my regular mental "clench" over painting what I think others want me to paint ( and what I think will sell) and painting what moves me regardless. Today I gave in and did these knives...they are what I use to do my floral design work. After finishing this I got back into the water-pistol painting with a new and fresh state of mind. I'll try to get a picture of that one tomorrow.
...........til then

Meadows ( from the vault )

12x24 oil/canvas

I did this one about 14 years ago when I first started paintng in oils. It is one of two landscapes I did back then. I used a photo reference. Later I added the red winged blackbirds ( hard to see) in the foreground. I'm posting it now because next week I'm going to be doing some plein air paintings of the same wetlands. A friend has a home on the marshes and offered her yard and balcony as a site to paint. The view is spectacular....Can't wait !!!

My Mother's Birthday Card...a little late

watercolor 5x7
I forgot to get a photo of this last Sunday. My Mother turned 71 on the 12th of August. Since I'm doing a series of fish ( birthday) cards for my Father I decided it would be fun to do a series of flower cards for Mom. Geranium came first since it's her favorite.

Gifts from the Garden #3

Some gifts have a beauty all their own. 5x7 oil

Water Pistol

Working on the larger painting of these I realized that they are not so easy as I imagined. Here is an 8x10 study to help me along.

Work in Progress: Bill's Plant and Bottles

I know I have a tendency to post works in progress and then not show them again...I've been working a little on this each afternoon between 3 and 5. I really wanted to tone down some of the saturated color..nice to compare now with the first layer. I'm also working on yet another commission. Commissions are good for money and publicity, but they really do seem to sap the time I can spend expanding and developing a body of work

Bill's Plant....Work in Progress

I went outside to paint the two new lilys in the pond. It was 95 degrees, totally humid and lots of gnats from the recent rain. The Lillies can wait. I sat in my cool living room and began this cool painting. The afternoon light on that plant has been drawing my eye for weeks now. Really been into the greens and blues lately.
11x14 canvas/oil

Pond study # 7

SOLD
8x10

Ocean City Boardwalk Art Show

I will be up on the Boards for the Annual Boardwalk Art Show sponsored by the Ocean City Art Center. This is my favorite show...kind of like home base. If you're local please do stop by and visit, I'll be between 7th and 8th street, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 8am til 5pm.

Pond Study # 6

Sigh !!!

Gifts from the Garden #2: Fading Hibiscus Flower

5x7 oil/canvas
If you find paintings of flowers interesting be sure to check out Katherine Tyrell's blog Making a Mark . Her feature topic for July was Flowers in Art. A wealth of information, also an excellent post titled "What is a Still Life?" I visit this blog more than any other to ponder and gather information from the great links as well as to view Katherine's excellent art work.

Rainy Day Daisy

Finally some rain in Linwood yesterday, FIrst time since June.

Pond Study #5 :Water Hyacinth

SOLD

I bought these Water Hyacinths back in June...the Koi decided they loved them for lunch so I've been keeping them in a large tub near the pond until they bloomed. The fish found this one shortly after I placed it in the pond and started to paint ( it just didn't look right in the tub )...they pushed it over sideways into the water as they began to gobble up the root system. I put some koi food in on the other side of the pond..but that didn't work. By the time I finished the painting, the delicate( and beautiful ) flower was pretty beat up...I put it back into it's quiet little tub of water. Here's the little 5x7 study.

Archie in the Garden

SOLD
I went out to do a little study of Hosta flowers...but there he was all posed and stuff...the pose lasted 5 minutes, I spent the next half hour trying to remember it!
5x7 oil/canvas

Pond Study # 4

SOLD
I feel as though I'm always on the verge of careening out of control when I paint these outdoor studies. This one may get a second sitting. 8x10 oil/canvas

Gifts from the Garden #1

5x7 oil/canvas

Pond Study # 3

It would appear that I've become a Sunday painter here on the blog. Not so. I spent all of last week completing a mural and a commissioned piece. The mural is in a really dark room, the photos just did not come out well at all. Anyway I finally got back to the pond again today...a real adventure to paint moving water from life. Must do more!!
8x10 oil/canvas

Drawing on a Hot Day

Here is a drawing of my neighbor's tent in Cape May. Her name is Joan Curtis, her work is wonderful!

Update

My painting got behind this week while I was preparing for the yearly outdoor show on the Cape May Promenade. ( framed 20 small pieces !) I had some drawings I was going to post, but it's too dark out...so look for the next post after Monday. Also took an Honorable Mention for the Painting "Shells and Badges" at the Ocean City Art League's Juried Show: "Summer Time"
This pic is from 2 years ago when I did my first show in cape...my how time flies...and most of those paintings!!

Brown Magnolia

8x10 oil/canvas

New Work In Progress: "Child's Play"

Summer Cherries

It just wouldn't be summer without doing a pair of cherry paintings. 5x7 oils

Horseshoe Crab

SOLD
Every time I've gone to paint him before I stopped because I didn't like the way his shell was crushed in over one eye...today I got past that. The other half walked in exclaiming.."Where's he going? There you go again painting things right off the edge!" I just kept painting.
8x10 oil/panel

Second Pond Painting

You may have read about the frog that lives on the little island in the middle of my pond. I feed him worms, grubs and the occasional june bug...he's very happy. I started this painting today...spent so much time on froggy, the water lily had just about closed when I got to it. This will get a second sitting ( maybe third. )Started the other cottage painting today as well.
8x10 oil/panel

Red White and Blueberries

I broke this little dish last winter, put the two pieces in the trash, went back, saw them lying there and thought to myself, save them...there's a painting there somewhere.
9x12 oil/panel

Berries and Flower A & B

My last two 4 x 6 canvases. I probably won't do much in this size any more, just a wee bit too small.

The Usual Stuff

Looking back at my blog for May and June it looks as though I've had a crisis of style. Commission work partially responsible. I'm finally clear of commissions for a while( except for one other cottage piece...not timed.) It feels so freeing...Yeeha!! I have a "scatter painting" I've been dying to get to. Here is a regular ol' flower painting of Hydrangea & Astilbe in an Inkwell oil/panel 5x7 and the finished pond/garden painting oil/panel 8x10