Spiral Repeated

Orange Spiral II

colored pencil

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

Here's a colored pencil that I finished a few days ago. I did this half peeled orange in oil about a month ago. I had taken reference photos of it with a linen cloth as well as just sitting on top of a chest of drawers. The oil painting did not have the cloth in it. I decided to do it bigger and with the cloth for the colored pencil drawing. I used lots of colors in shading the cloth - blues and purples, yellows, and reds. I really liked how this one turned out.

51st Painting

Orange Spiced Tea

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Bosc Pears

6" x 6"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

Orange Spiral

7" x 5"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

Autumn Gourds

6" x 6"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

Here's four more of my latest paintings. I counted up yesterday and found that I had just completed my 51st painting for this year, 32 of those since August when I started this blog. I'm enjoying the immediacy of the oil paint. I've spent years doing colored pencil drawings where just a monotone background color involved five, six or more layers of pencil. It's quite refreshing to mix paint, think "that's the color I want", and then paint it in one layer and be done. All of these oils that I've been doing have been alla prima. The spontaneity of putting down one layer of paint and having a finished painting is such a change from the colored pencil work. (At least the way I do colored pencil.)

With the new year approaching, I'm conscious of the need to look down the road and decide where I want to be a year from now. I'm a realist at heart and the paintings of other artists that really cause me to swoon are not spontaneous alla prima paintings. Nope, it's those meticulously done works involving underpaintings and layers of color. So, I'll still do some small daily paintings, but I think that it's time to start some larger paintings and explore the challenge of building up a painting in layers. How much different can it be from layered colored pencil drawings? I guess I'll find out.

Pink Ladies with Parasols

"Fish with Lemon"

6" x 6"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

"Pink Lady with Parasol"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's the latest two paintings. The "Fish with Lemon" painting is the last one of six that I needed for a holiday gallery sale in Oklahoma. It's at the framer's now, going into a sweet little shadowbox frame this week. I picked up the first four paintings from the framer last week. These small paintings look great in little black shadowbox frames. The cost was a pleasant surprise also! After years of having graphite and colored pencil drawings framed, it's nice to be able to pay just for the frame - not extra on glass and matting.

The apple painting is now on ebay. I had the idea of parasols and pink lady apples last summer. I searched all over our little town looking for drink parasols and found none. That could be because I live in a "dry county". "Dry county" is a term which causes some confusion among folks who move here from out west or up north. It doesn't mean that we get little rainfall but rather that the sales of alcoholic beverages are banned. I finally thought to go to ebay in my search for drink parasols and was able to purchase one gross (yep - 144) of the little umbrellas for about $8 including shipping. 144 is excessive - I could have gotten just a dozen for around $4 including shipping, but I've never been able to resist a bargain... To continue the story, I finally had my little parasols and guess what? The local grocery store no longer had pink lady apples. Finally, two months later, they're back in the stores and my Pink Lady with Parasol idea has finally come to fruition (yes - that was meant as a lame pun). By the way - anyone need a drink parasol???

Still Painting

"One Was Green"

oil 5" x 7"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

"Peaches and Raspberry Tea"

oil 5" x 7"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

"Gardenias in a Sake Cup II"

oil 7" x 5"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

Goodness ! It's been over a month since I posted anything. I didn't stop painting - just stopped posting (shame on me). Above are a sampling of what I've been up to. I've gotten the opportunity to show my small paintings in two different galleries and also one holiday sale, so I've been very busy this last month - I've painted at least a dozen small still lifes. I'm having a lot of fun and can see myself improving so I'll stay at it. I've only shown three of my latest paintings up above - more are on my website if you'd like to see them. I'm going to try to get back in the routine of posting new paintings here. If you visit this blog and enjoy seeing these paintings, then please drop me an email or leave a comment. I must confess, one reason why I haven't posted in a month is that I feel a bit like I'm talking to myself...

Peeled Orange

Peeled Orange

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Mature Nectarines

Three Nectarines

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

SOLD

Here's the latest daily painting. These three nectarines (bless their hearts) have been patiently waiting around in the frig for better than a week. There was a fourth which my daughter sampled the other day. She threw it out after a couple of bites because it was too mushy. Fortunately, these three still looked good even if they are past the crisp stage. I keep buying fruit to paint and then getting distracted with other subject matter. The fruit bin in the refrigerator has been slowly filling up with an assortment of fruits in various stages of ripeness/decay. My family is well-trained after all the years that I have been doing still lifes. They pretty much always ask before they eat whether or not the fruit is for consumption or art. Who could ask for more consideration than that?

Playing Around with Water

Lotus Flower

4" x 5" colored pencil & wax pastel on paper

SOLD

About a month ago, I ordered a set of Neocolor II wax pastels as well as some colourfix paper, neither of which I had worked on before. The Neocolor II pastels are watersoluble wax crayons and colourfix (for those who don't already know) is a pastel and "multimedia Artist's paper". Anyway, what with going out-of-town 6 times in the last 5 weeks, I just now got around to playing with the new materials. It's going to take some more getting used to, but I do love how the Neocolors "pop" when you add water. I guess it is fitting that my first subject with the watersoluble colors is a water scene.

I'm Back...

Gardenias & Raindrops

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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It's been about a week since my last post, and a busy week it was. I'm back from a great trip to Rhode Island. Besides snapping lots of pictures at my son's Navy class graduation, I also got some great pictures of downtown Newport and the ocean. Some of those shots will hopefully become paintings in the next few weeks. Here is yesterday's painting - two gardenia blossoms with a few raindrops.

No Time to Sit Awhile

Blue Chairs

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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While I was in Hot Springs two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to act like a tourist and wander around bathhouse row with a good friend of mine. It was a nice sunny day and the old historic bathhouses were looking lovely. I took several pictures. This painting is of some wonderfully blue chairs that were on the veranda of one of the buildings. I hope to do several more little cityscapes from my reference photos, but they'll have to wait until next week because I'm headed out of town again today. It's off to Rhode Island to witness my son's graduation ceremony of his Navy ODS class. Fingers crossed for good weather and camera in hand (not to mention, heart swelling with pride) - here I go...

Apple Pair and the Bosque

Apple Pair
Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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I'm back at home after my fourth weekend in a row out-of-town. My life is usually of the home-body variety, but we've just had an usually active month. This past Saturday night, I had the pleasure of attending the Bosque Conservatory Art Classic show in Clifton, TX. The pleasure was greatly enhanced by getting to see my 20-year-old daughter, Allison, win second place in the drawing division of the competition. It's a mother's right to brag, so I can say that Allison is an extremely talented young western artist - you can see her artwork at http://www.allisoncantrell.com/. The Conservatory Art Classic show was very impressive. I had seen the works accepted to the show online before we went (click here to see the show online), but I've got to tell you, the online images don't do a good job of reflecting the quality of this show. If you get a chance, do see this exhibit in person.

Above is my daily painting from yesterday - I should say "nightly" because I did this one last night after we returned from Texas. I'm teaching a one-day colored pencil workshop next Saturday and this was a little setup that I did in preparation for that workshop. Although I had already done the still life in colored pencil, last night I decided to do it in oils as well. It seems there should be some benefit in doing the same still life in different mediums, but as I was finishing up last night at about 11:15, after a 10 hour drive back from Texas, I just couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Gardenias and Green Thumbs

Gardenias in Sake Cup

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

SOLD

I once had a green thumb. Mine turned brown after the kids were born. I think that there was just a limit to how many young growing things I could take care of. I was reduced to keeping mother-in-law tongues, aloe veras, etc. - you know those plants that you can't even kill with plastic explosives. I got to the point where I actually felt guilty when I purchased a new living green thing because I felt that I had just committed it to death row. Now that two kids are grown (I started to say "practically", but they would take offense at that) and the other two are in high school, I have hopes that my thumb may turn green once more. I bought a prayer plant a couple of months ago and placed it above the kitchen sink so it would hopefully be watered occasionally. It not only is still alive, put also putting forth new leaves on a regular basis. Perhaps it has an edge over my past victims since it folds its leaves in prayer each night.

The reason this gardenia painting is causing me to muse about my brown thumb is because gardenias always remind me of my dad's green thumb. A few years ago, he found a mangled gardenia boutonniere in the street in front of his house. I say mangled because it had been run over by at least one car. He took it into the house, removed the floral tape, and placed it in a cup of water. A couple of weeks later, it had rooted, so he planted it in a pot. To this day, it lives on his patio, growing larger each year, and enjoying a new life that only its Maker and my dad would have known to be possible. And my dad knows exactly how many blossoms it has each summer. Now that's something only a retiree has time to do...

Late Delivery

Asian Pears and Redwing Pitcher

Colored pencil, 21" x 14"

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

I think I know something of what those momma elephants must feel when they finally deliver the baby and end that two-year pregnancy. This one hasn't actually been on the drawing table for two years, but it has felt like it at times. At any rate, I finished it last night, and since I haven't painted yet this week, I thought that I'd post this colored pencil drawing. It's back to the brushes today after I take this puppy to the framer's. I have a show coming up in October and this is the last colored pencil work that I needed to go in that show. Yes - it is cutting it a little close since this is mid-September, but I work best when under pressure...

Two for One

Chocolate/Vanilla Donut Pair

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

SOLD

I'm back from a very fun weekend in Hot Springs. My daughter (Allison) and I, along with a good friend of mine and Allison's future mother-in-law, attended the opening reception and awards ceremony of the Diamond National Juried Exhibit at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs. Awards were broken out into three divisions - watercolor, 3-D, and "oils and other mediums". Allison's graphite drawing "Spin to the Left" won second place in the "Oils and other" category, and my colored pencil drawing "November Roses" won first place in that same category. Needless to say that made a fun night out with the girls all the better!

Posted today are two little donut paintings that I did last Thursday. I liked the "yin and yang" idea of the chocolate and vanilla donuts, so I decided to do them similarly on two separate canvases as a little diptych and list them on ebay together.

Halved Peaches

Halved Peaches

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's Tuesday's painting. Yikes! Here it is already Thursday and I've only gotten one painting done this week. I've to hit the brushes this morning because I leave early tomorrow morning for a "girls weekend." My daughter, Allison, and I were both juried into the Diamond National Juried Exhibit which starts tomorrow night in the great spa city of Hot Springs. Hopefully, I'll have another painting or two to post on Sunday afternoon. Check back then...

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Red Pears

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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We were gone all weekend, visiting relatives, so I'm just now posting last Friday's painting. I bought these red pears last Thursday at the grocery store. Their vivid redness literally screamed at me when I walked into the produce aisle. Unlike most people who sniff and squeeze fruit before making a selection, I hold individual pieces of fruit up, squinting at them and slowly rotating them, looking for just the right profile. So I purposely selected the little squatty pear that's standing up in this still life. It had a unique roundness to it, with a perky little tip instead of the normal rounded top that most pears have. Anyway, I was quite pleased with the whole effect and how well this painting turned out. It was with suppressed pride that I displayed it for my husband that night. "What do you think?" I asked. After a long silence, he slowly replied, "Well... it's painted alright...but that one pear is just so ugly, it's really distracting."

I'll Go With Strapless Next Time

Amy's Red Shoe

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's the latest daily painting. My daughter Amy, who's taking Art 1 this year, came home Tuesday complaining that they had to remove a shoe and draw it in class that day. She was actually just complaining about the fact that they had no prior notice about the assignment and so she was wearing a sylish (newly) tattered tennis shoe instead of lucking out and having a flip-flop on like one of her friends. I was just thinking "what shall I paint tomorrow" when she told me this story and so I thought - a shoe - why not? I went to her closet since she's young and hip and borrowed one of her shoes. (Most of mine are of the running variety.) About nine o'clock last night as I was finishing up, I thought next time I'd go with a strapless shoe - a nice little mary jane should do nicely...

Amy, by the way, came home on Wednesday, quite pleased to announce that her drawing had been used as an assignment illustration for subsequent art classes that day. My heart swells with pride...

More Mileage From Your Produce

Apple Half

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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This is what you call "getting more mileage out of your produce". I took one of the apples from last Friday's painting and halved it for this painting. I ate half and painted half - in fact the half I painted is still in the studio and looking pretty good, thanks to the lemon juice I wiped on it yesterday. Don't think that I'll eat it today though - I'll probably send it to the rabbit shed this afternoon. My daughter's rabbits will think that day-old cut apple is a treat.

This one was fun to paint. I really like the subtleness of the small amount of red and green that shows up at the top of the apple and along the sides.

Apples!

Apples

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's the latest painting. It was actually done this last Friday, but we've been out-of-town, helping my folks celebrate my Dad's 81st birthday. "Helping" translates to "eating". I'm stuffed - ready to sleep it off tonight and then tackle a new painting tomorrow.

Wipe and Whew!

Red Bell Pepper

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

SOLD

Alright, so I was working on this pepper painting last night instead of spending quality TV time with my husband. I had painted the entire canvas a nice sienna brown a couple of days ago to prepare it. I've already figured out that I like painting on a prepared midtone colored canvas instead of a bright white canvas. Anyway, I was pretty happy with the pepper and for some reason decided to paint a very dark background around it. Big mistake! So I grabbed my little rubber wipe-off tool and a rag and "whew" it looked alright again. In fact, I like the little stained look that the remnants of the darker paint left. I could never have done a reverse like that with colored pencil...

Sliced Kiwi

"Sliced Kiwi" - 5" x 7" oil on canvas

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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Here's yesterday's painting of a sliced kiwi fruit. I've just listed it on ebay. It's my plan to offer these small studies on ebay as they are completed. You can find my listings on ebay under seller name "drawntoart".

Welcome!

Welcome to the start-up of my blog. My name is Sheila Cantrell. I am a self-taught artist. I started out with graphite and then moved on to color pencil. For the last year or so, I've been kind of playing "footsie" with oils - messing around with them just a little and then going back to the comfort of the familiar pencils. It is my intention - I stress intention - to hop on the "painting a day" bandwagon and use this blog site to display my daily paintings. I'm hoping for encouragement from my readers, as well as perhaps inspiring a few others to plunge into whatever worthwhile pursuits you've been postponing.

Don't expect seven new paintings a week! I love art and it's a big part of my life, but it's one of many plates that I try to keep spinning. (Remember the circus act where the guy keeps all those plates spinning on the little skinny sticks?) Anyway... check back and hopefully I'll be displaying 3-4 new ones a week. In addition, there will also be colored pencil artwork, perhaps some work-in-progress photos, as well as musings on those other plates in my life...