Finished!

Pomegranate and Pitchers
colored pencil'
18" x 34"

If you heard a shout about 10:00 on Monday morning, it was me yelling "Done!" I started this large drawing back before Christmas. I had to set it aside over the holidays and just started back on it about two weeks ago.

It's now on to the other two works in progress that were put away before Christmas as well. Neither one is as large as this one, so hopefully I'll be posting again in the near future with another completed drawing.

Pears, Singled and Paired

No Fun Being a Single Pear

graphite

8" x 12"

This is a new graphite drawing that I just finished up. It bears a striking resemblance to a previous drawing of mine (The Crush) because this setup came from the same "photo shoot". I don't think that I will ever get tired of drawing pears. There's just something about their shape that really appeals to me.

Back to Work

Balboa Park Lily

oil on canvas

8" x 16"

Well the holidays are over and I'm back to work now. We had a great Christmas with a house full of kids. Four young people pretty much fill up our three bedroom home, especially since one of those bedrooms doubles as my studio. I got some painting done, in between the cooking and eating. Above is my latest painting. It is from a reference photo that I took way back last May when my husband and I traveled to San Diego. While he was stuck in meetings, I did some sightseeing which included a trip to Balboa park. Unfortunately, the Botanical Building was closed while I was there, but the lily pond in front of the building was in full bloom. I hope to do some more paintings of the waterlilies from there - I took lots of photos (love those 4GB SDHC cards!)

I just heard from the National Association of Women Artists that my graphite drawing The Crush was selected for their National Small Works Exhibit which will be in New York City next month. One of my goals for this new year is to create more graphite works, so this is a welcome "green light" to my plans.

Red Fruit for Christmas

"Cutwork and Pears"

oil on canvas

10" x 10"

"Red Plums"

oil on canvas

5" x 7"

Sorry to report that I still have no new drawings to post. Work is progressing slowly on the three that I have going on right now. What can I say? I have been happily involved in Christmas preparations and celebrations. In the last week though, I have done the two paintings shown above. I just realized that both paintings involve red fruit - it is Christmas time after all!

My two college kids are coming home later this week. My daughter is bringing a Japanese friend with her to stay with us through Christmas and my Navy son will be coming home next week as well. There's a very good chance that this could be my last post of 2010. So just in case it is - Merry Christmas to my readers and may you all have a Happy New Year as well!

Hands and Heart

"Heart and Hands"

oil on canvas

8" x 10"

I'm still painting as you can see. Being basically a still life painter, this is my first attempt at painting flesh tones. It was a challenge - fun though, once it started to look convincing. I'm especially happy with how the thumbs turned out. I think that I caught the essence of the pressure point where the thumbs meet.

The reference photo for this was some hand poses that I took of one of my daughters awhile back. Three of my fours kids will be here for Thanksgiving. I think maybe we'll have some more hand modeling while they're here. I'd like to do more of these!

Pink Shell Painting

"Pink Shell"

oil on canvas

6" x 8"

On eBay: click here to see listing

I haven't posted in a little while because I haven't had any new completed drawings/paintings to post. One reason(excuse!) is that I've been out of town some and haven't been able to do as much work. A second reason is that I have three larger drawings in progress at the same time right now. I'll try to get some work-in-progress photos posted next week. In the meantime though, I took a break from drawing last week to paint this shell.

I've listed this little painting on eBay. The galleries that I am in right now generally would rather have larger over smaller paintings/drawings. I enjoy doing a small work from time to time though and so thought that I'd offer a few on eBay and see how it goes. I've sold some work on eBay in the past and if nothing else, it's one way to clear out the studio a bit!

Pear au Naturel

"Seated Nude"

colored pencil

10" x 7"

Well I'm back from a little fall vacation and back to the drawing board as well. As you can see, I'm still playing around with the personable pears. Some of these smaller drawings that I've been doing lately will be headed to M.A. Doran's gallery in Tulsa for the December Small Works show.

I really need to start painting more! I think that I spent as many hours layering the back ground on this small drawing as I spent on the pear and board together. Those nice smooth backgrounds are definitely quicker to do with paint than with pencils. Hmmm... mixed media would be one solution. Perhaps I just need to play with those gouache paints some more...

Our vacation, by the way, included a trip to the Grand Canyon where I took many pictures. I keep taking landscape pictures and drawing still lifes. Some kind of disconnect, perhaps? The solution could very well be just more hours in the studio so I can do it all.