Seagull challenge

5" x 5" daily acrylic painting 

surface - 1 1/2" stretched canvas - painted sides and ready to hang 

Painted from a photo we chose for our art challenge at Shoot and Paint. And it was a challenge. I really needed to concentrate on the values for this painting. The photo has a blue background which wasn't working for me so I went with sand.

Artists - we'd love it if you joined in on our challenge!

$60 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Ladybird

5" x 5" daily acrylic painting 

surface - 1 1/2" stretched canvas - painted sides and ready to hang 

She's called a ladybug here in the states, but in England they call her ladybird.
I'm on a bug kick. I'm painting another one of these cute bugs on a 22" x 30" canvas! My job is just too much fun.

$80 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Ladybug

5" x 5" daily acrylic painting 

surface - 1 1/2" stretched canvas - painted sides and ready to hang
SOLD

It's snowing in Massachusetts and she's painting ladybugs? I'm not sure why either except I've been wanting to paint insects and my eyes can only handle the cute ones for a long stretch of time. I plan to graduate to the "uglier" ones. . in time.

It's already dark out at 4:30 and there's a huge snow storm brewing. Because of this I am using unnatural lighting which skews the colors a bit. The painting has a tad more contrast than you see here.

tiny pumpkin

7" x 7" daily pastel painting (unframed)

Just a little pumpkin for the season. I had a bunch of photos on my hard drive that I took last year and this is from one of them. 

$50 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Koi at Feeding Time

Feeding Time

7" x 7" daily pastel painting (unframed)
SOLD

I love painting Koi but I never have enough images to choose from. It's time to seek out koi ponds, or Chinese restaurants! Painting koi is always a freeing process for me because I allow myself to play more with shapes and color.
This is one of those paintings where the real thing is better than the digital representation.

$75 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Artists: There's still time to contribute to the October challenge at http://shootandpaint.blogspot.com/

A Day in the Life

"A Day in the Life"

5 x 7 pastel painting (unframed)

You should see my clothing at the end of the day! The plus side to using pastels is that they wash out. I painted this in response to an art challenge at dailypaintworks.com. And yes. . it's my hand.

$100 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

In other news  . . the winner of the painting giveaway was selected by my husband Gary. He came inside for a break from fall clean-up in the yard and was gracious enough to pick a name for me. Congratulations to Linsey from the UK! I will be sending you the painting soon.

Thanks for all who entered. It was wonderful to have so many comments and realize that my audience is larger than I sometimes think it is.

Stay tuned for the December giveaway. I'll be posting it December 1.

Salt Marsh at noon

8" x 11" pastel painting (unframed)

surface - Wallis sanded pastel paper

Last week my husband and I took a day trip to Cape Cod. What an amazing day which included alone time together, 2 great meals and best of all visits to the various boardwalks at the salt marshes along the coast.
The photo which I used for a reference was taken from the Sandwich, MA boardwalk. There was a slight drizzle of rain for most of the day which enhanced the colors.

Artists! If you haven't checked out the new blog http://shootandpaint.blogspot.com/ please join us in our challenge!

$150 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Lonely Pear Painting giveaway

5" x 7" daily pastel painting  (matted and unframed) 

surface - pastel board

Comments are closed and the winner will be announced soon!

I'm giving away a painting for the week of Oct.15th through Oct. 22nd. If you leave a comment on this blog post, you'll be automatically entered to win this Lonely Pear pastel painting. If you haven't already, you will also be subscribed to my newsletter which you can undo at any time, although I hope you'll give it a try.
The deadline is Saturday, October 22nd at midnight EST. I will close comments to the post at that time and the winner, who will be randomly selected, will be notified and announced.
* I'll need to notify the winner by email so please do not post anonymously.

In the news: For all you artists out there, I started a new painting challenge blog with my friend Pamela. We hope you'll give it a try! You can take a peek here - http://shootandpaint.blogspot.com/
Artists of all levels of experience are welcomed to submit their work.

Orange Peony

8" x 8" daily acrylic painting 

surface - hardwood panel with slots in the back
sides are painted black

I didn't know that orange peonies existed until a friend gave me a photo of them years ago. I found the photo this morning and decided to paint it. I'm experimenting with washes of color and slight abstraction. I'm very happy with the results. Winter is approaching quickly and it's inspiring me to paint more flowers as a reminder of springs eventuality.

$75 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Indy remembered

8" x 6" daily acrylic painting

surface - hardboard panel

I was looking through some old photos and found a picture of Indy. He was my daughters dog and a best friend to our dog Seamus. I can't tell you what breed he was but he was huge, slightly dumb and beautiful!

$60 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Woodland Mushroom

8" x 6" daily acrylic painting 

surface - hardboard panel

As promised (some might consider it a threat), here is the mushroom. I think mushrooms want to be back on the canvas again as they were in the 70's. Why else would there be so many growing on the lawns in New England?
While painting I had so many childhood memories float across my consciousness. As children our mother read us Grimm's fairy tales. The books were published in Holland and the illustrations were beautiful works of art. I remember being transported into the stories through the illustrations while my mother read to us.

$140 with shipping and handling included in the US. Please email me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.

Orgasmic Pastry

8" x 8" daily acrylic painting 

surface - stretched canvas
SOLD

The title describes this dessert painting well . . at least that's my guess. Another cupcake I didn't have the privilege to eat but it looks unbelievably delicious to me.
Thanks again to Pamela for the photo.
If I don't visit bakeries and ask for access to their cupcakes I'll probably be painting mushrooms next. This summer in New England has been so wet that everyone is experiencing a mushroom explosion in their yards!