Friday, May 3, 2013

When Life gives you Oranges

I have never really painted oranges before but I love my blue dinner plates and wanted to set up a still life with the plate in it.  So we had these oranges.... the kids kept trying to take the oranges off of the plate and eat them, it was complicated. However, I loved the contrast I got with the orange and blue, so another one of my favorite items in my kitchen is the turquoise antique kitchen scale so I pulled that out too. Had so much fun! Hope you like them!

Orange and Blue
12 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas

Weighing In
12 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Fruits of Spring

People tell me you can look at my artwork and see what is going on in my life and I suppose that is true! When the flowers start blooming I paint them and when I travel I paint the places that I have been. I recently took a trip to Mooresville, Alabama with some friends and we visited 1818 Farms there. What a lovely place and fabulous people. I am sure I will be painting more from our adventures there.
The chickens there were some of my favorites, along with the goats and sheep ( coming soon).




Marsh Landscape
24 x 20
Acrylic on Canvas
Hydrangeas in Window
20 x 20
Acrylic on Canvas
SOLD

The Road Home
24 x 18
Acrylic on Canvas


Chicken Love
16 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Peace and Patience

Our pastor (Jean Larroux) has been teaching on "The Fruit of the Spirit" for the past few weeks. It has been so great to hear his wisdom and insight on Love, Joy and now Peace and Patience. In summary I have learned that the fruit produced by the Spirit is not generated by the hard work of keeping the law but by the harder work of believing the Gospel! I am not a naturally peaceful or patient person, but you know what, neither is anyone else! Our hearts do not naturally produce peace or patience because our hearts naturally love ourselves more than others. This is why we must always rely on Jesus alone to produce peace and patience in our hearts and love others with the peace and patience that none of us deserves! This is what I learned this week and here is what I painted this week. ( At least the ones I am willing to show you! ) The others need a little bit of PATIENCE on my part!




Church on a Hill
16 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas
SOLD


Girl Talk
12 x 12
Mixed Media on Canvas


Monday, April 1, 2013

Spring Break!

The week of Spring Break was a very productive time for me! Though the weather was less that cooperative I got in lots of quality painting time. I took a little venture back into some landscape work but still had to get in one nest painting since it was Easter week! Nests and eggs just have such symbolism in my life. Representing the safety we have in Christ and the hope of new life yet to come! I hope you all had a great Spring Break!


Barns
12x16
Acrylic on Canvas


Nest on Yellow
12x12
Acrylic on Canvas


Chapel
14x14
Acrylic on Canvas



Aqua Bike on Beach
12x16
Acrylic on Canvas

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Painting Again....Finally!

After a detour from painting for a short time I  am enthusiastically painting again! I am so happy to be back in my element with all my paints, brushes, mediums and other painting paraphernalia surrounding me, and ummm on me! I have completed several pieces and have picked up a bird theme. I have always loved birds and nests and when the birds recently started showing up on my back porch to build their nests for Spring I just had to start painting and I knew they would be my muse! I look forward to posting my newest paintings here and hope to hear from you about what you think! 





12 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas
"Hope"



14 x 14
Acrylic on Canvas
"Psalm 91"
 Sold




12 x 12
Acrylic on Canvas
"Bind My Heart"






14x14
Acrylic on Canvas
"Safe"





14x14
Acrylic on Canvas
"Friends"
 Sold


11 x 14
Acrylic on Canvas
"Rest"

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The New Studio!!


Come on in!! This is the door to the new digs!! I found this frame at an antique store in Birmingham and gave it a facelift. I used Krylon "Catalina Mist" Satin Spray paint and used 3 coats to get the frame ready, Then I went to Home Depot (where I had 4 people helping me at one time!) to get sheet metal. I bought some tin snips and cut the sheet metal to the right size to fit inside the frame. The cute little fabric flowers were the finishing touch. The fabric is "Amy Butler" and I used a technique I found on Pinterest, which is my new favorite obsession, called Yo-Yo's to make the flowers. The centers came from Hobby Lobby and I just hot glued them in the middle!! Fun!!



This is the view inside, it looks kind of bare without my curtains and swag lamp that will go over the chair. But I couldn't wait any longer to post the pics. There is a better view of the piece of furniture I got for my birthday below. The chair was my Goodwill $50 awesome find!!! The swag lamp is covered in Amy Butler fabric and will have more fabric flowers on it. You'll have to come back to see that!



Here is a view of the working corner. My easel, chair and taboret. You can see my great barn door find on the left where I have placed some of my art work. It is gorgeous and has lots of chippy paint.


Another view of the working area with my windows, old wood boxes, etc...


Here is a view of my prep table where I will be priming canvases and varnishing. I have also been able to pull out my sewing machine and work on that table. The top is made from an old barn door that was on my husband's hunting property!

The windows!

Many of you have been subjected to the endless window project, but it turned out so cute it was all worth it!! I found the windows at the Rescue Mission Thrift Store. The hardest part was getting the glass out! But after that it wasn't too bad. I sanded the windows really well then started with a coat of Valspar " Park Place" paint.  Then sanded some more. Lastly I used the "Martha Stewart" glazing from Home Depot and mixed in some acrylic paint ( Burnt Umber). I brushed it on and a few minutes later wiped off enough to leave what you see here. Then I bought old coffee bags ( really cheap) and cover some cork board that was cut to fit each pane and stapled it on with a staple gun and Voila!! Now I just need some inspiring things to pin on them!


The wooden apple crates I kept asking about on Facebook are here, holding my supplies!


Here are some other various cute items I found to hold supplies and basically look cute!

Another shot of the barn door


A better shot of the antique piece of furniture from Bud and other sweet friends for my birthday!!! Love this piece!


Close up of the fabric flowers!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Jones Valley

36 x 62
oil on canvas
Jones Farm II

This is a HUGE landscape I just finished for a commission. This was life changing. First of all, I had never stretched a canvas before. Done! It was a challenge to stretch one so large, but I did it! Then just covering that much space was a challenge but it was so much fun! And I think I took at least 1000 pictures of Jones Valley in the process! So I have lots of painting material. I have actually done 3 paintings of this scene. I have one more shown below and am still tweaking the other one. I hope you all enjoy it.


24 x 36
Jones Farm I

I actually painted this one first in preparation for the HUGE one! I changed some of the composition for the large just because it was so large. But I had fun with this one too. They had actually just baled the hay while I was painting these so I really wanted to include some of the hay bales because they looked so pretty out there.


20 x 16
oil on canvas
Family Tree

This was actually done as a graduation gift but it was so fun to do that I thought I would post it. Hope you enjoy looking!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Blue Bottle Again

Pink Gerbera Daisies 
20" x 16"
Oil on Canvas

The Blue bottle made the cut again, with these great Gerbera daisies I got at Fresh Market!! Just throw in a nest and a green apple and voila!! I love painting the blue bottle.

Tulips in a Bottle

The Blue Bottle
16" x 12"
Oil on Canvas

I am obsessed with this blue bottle. Whenever I set up a still life I always try to put the blue bottle in it because I love it so much. This time the tulips actually fit in it and I was so excited!!! Added some great oranges too.

Five Pears

Squished Pears
16 x 20
Oil on Canvas

I had so much fun with this one! Lots of layers of oil paint mostly using a palette knife. I really liked the colors in this one!