Mature Nectarines

Three Nectarines

Copyright 2007 Sheila Cantrell

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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

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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

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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

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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."