Wordless Wednesday

Wanted to do something different

Sometimes I feel like I just need to paint something with highly saturated color, it isn't really what I usually do. I'm working on a barn painting that is taking longer than I would like & I wanted a break & some color! I have not painted a still life in years so please reserve judgement - because it was really fun. "Three Galas" 6x8 oil (with bright red & bright aqua!)

Still on the Fall trees...

Here's a little fall painting (6x8 oil) that I changed a bit at the gallery after this photograph. It is from a lovely spot I photographed last year near Mt. Katahdin (in central Maine). I really didn't do it justice but one can only try, and maybe try again...

Another Lake Wauberg Painting plus an Old Barn

Both of these are 12x9 oils on deep profile canvases. By focusing more on light & the warm colors I'm exploring the question of whether my preference for cool colors is a habit or a preference. Using orange, intense or muted is a challenge for me. Usually when I try, I end up covering it up. But in my closet & drawers there lives not 1 orange garment of any type, and only a few reds. (very poor quality photos)

Fall in Maine (12x9 oil painting)

This year we left Maine too early for fall colors. At the end of September there were only hints of the riot to come in October. I took the reference for this painting last year during a hike along the Ducktrap River in Lincolnville. A number of other colorful pics I took of fall scenes are inviting me to bright color challenges.

I lean toward subtleties in all things. But it is no good to stay in your comfort zone when you are trying to learn; mixing and using color and values will be lifelong learning.

Incidentally, we learned our lesson, we will spend October of 2010 in the north.

Another Amelia Island marsh painting

(10x8 oil)

Here's another one, I just love painting salt marshes, because I love looking at them. Here I played with violet/yellow complementary pairing & I really like how the colors turned out. Especially that it happened without a struggle.

Yesterday I entirely painted over another marsh scene that was over half "finished". You have to know when you've gone too far down the wrong road & surrender the time & wasted paint. I think (hope) I learned something from it?

Lotus 6x8 oil

This painting was unplanned, little thought went into it. Looking at my many photos from Maine I just chose a few from the many lotus shots I took at Pitcher Pond in Lincolnville. It just sort of fell off my brushes. It was a lot of fun because I was prepared for it to totally not work out, but it is okay, only okay, but okay.

My husband paddled the canoe in circles for about 15 minutes while I took some nice shots. I'll have to paint another and post some of the photos. Next time I'll lighten up the colors of the "pads" and the water but here I wanted to play with a big contrast in value between the flower and its surroundings.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

This painting is not as dark as shown and it is a commission (hope you like it!).

Often I've considered painting extinct or endangered species; as a statement of what I think is important and as an attempt at spreading the word about conservation. But this painting was not my idea, done by request for a fellow bird lover. And I painted it at a time when loss is a fresh wound for me personally. So it is only now that it is finished that I dare reflect on possibly having painted a "ghost bird", a bird that none of us may be so lucky as to see alive again. Yes, like everyone should, I hold out hope that he may indeed still be found in Florida or in Arkansas but he may have already disappeared. Even in these recent years while conservation & search efforts have intensified.

Please follow these links for more information on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/

http://www.nature.org/ivorybill/

Incidentally, I used photographs of skins and of Pileated Woodpeckers as reference material for the painting.

Amelia Island marsh & boatyard

14 x 11 oil painting, $85, It won't be taken to the gallery until my next workday (10/16) but please contact me if you are interested in it.

Chickadees!

A while back I kept going back to, in my head, a painting of crows flying in to roost on a dead long-leaf pine; several of which stand in neighboring yards, victims of lightning and/or beetles. I painted that for myself & it hangs here by my desk (did I post it here?). Recently I had been thinking of occasionally Carolina Wrens, but mostly of chickadees, in various poses. So when I decided to paint on this solid oak board from an old cabinet, it had to be birds...five of them.

The board is 27 x 4 inches. I've photographed it on a wooden wall, not a good choice really. My husband wants to keep this but I've had some unexpected expenses & will consider offers.

Repost - E. Screech Owl commission with updated background

I thought I would re-post this since I hadn't put any background before. Later I realized the painting just was not finished and put in the live oak/Spanish moss setting it deserved.

Cardinal Male in a spring-time wild plum tree

9x12 oil on canvas, commission

"The Flower Box" a.k.a. "this is how happy being in Maine makes me feel"

(8x10 oil on panel, framed)

It was a lot of fun painting this while looking at 2 lovely flower boxes that sat alongside the harbor in Camden. I'll be driving it down to the gallery tomorrow.

I'm just finishing up a chickadee group on a 27 x 4 board. It is a fun, folksy piece that has been floating in my mind for some time. Les claims it is NFS but we'll see.

Next: an ivory-billed woodpecker commission and finishing touches on a couple of Maine landscapes.

An older pastel painting

Forgive me for posting such a low quality image...This is my favorite of a group of birds I did in pastel as an illustration for an interpretive sign that was installed at a park in Broward County (FL). It was about 5 years ago, at my last "real" job. I'm not sure if I'm going to sell it but I may put it up in the gallery if some of my work has sold while I was away.

Portland Head Light in fog

It has taken a while to decide on one photo to post from here in Maine; I gave up a few times. I'm partial to clouds, waves, & fog so here is one of many pics I have taken of places I love dearly here (albeit crooked & very large b/c I don't have the software with me to fix it). There will be more. I have done one small painting I'll post soon, of a blueberry barren.

Eastern Screech-Owl - Gray Morph

This 9x12 oil painting was painted with a buyer in mind, who I recklessly did not present a sketch to..I'm not one to put lots of time into doing a drawing unless it is the final product, I think this is from starting out painting with pastels, where the 'drawing' is the painting. After making a small study, that I did not like, I plunged in knowing that she may not wish to buy it. I will hang it in the gallery if it does not meet expectations, no problem. Perhaps I'll do a red morph in a green setting next time? (the photo was taken outside and there is a glare reflection at the top & the painting is a little lighter overall than shown) This is depicted as a gray evening with only a bit of light, from the left, which lets the green algae on the live oak trunks brighten a bit.

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A couple of years ago I painted this little 5x7 acrylic for my Aunt Nita, my only aunt, who I love very much. Our polar opposite views on politics & religion make conversations a dance sometimes. In the South people tend to avoid talking about anything unpleasant so communications and relationships can suffer miserably, in silence.

Anyway, I tend to enjoy painting the less colorful females of bird species. It then comes as no surprise that my favorite birds are entirely neutral in color, North American favorites anyway. Among many others they include Carolina (or any) Chickadees, Swallow-tailed Kites, Gray Jays and all Terns. How cute is this?

It was one of those fledges that came out of the box, with no tail, that I was afraid I, or the dog somehow frightened out prematurely...so after putting him & another back a few times, I took his picture quickly and turned him over to his furious parents in a low tree.

Puff The Magic Kitty! (who once lived on the sea)

Currently I'm working on a few paintings for wonderful fellow "bird lady" I met recently. In the meantime I'm posting a painting from the past. It is certainly the most commented on I've ever done and one my husband insists I post. But do you see what is missing from my cat??? At the end, I decided his extra-long white whiskers would be a distraction from the other details in the little painting...

Puff living on the sea recently (Hopetown lighthouse, Abacos). His expression may hint to you that yes, he prefers terrafirma.

Bird Nests: Bluebirds & Silk Soy Milk Box

This lovely couple are now on their 3rd clutch with 3 lovely blue eggs laid. Bluebirds usually finish up before the heat & rain really kicks in in July, this year it kindly started raining in early June. They even built on top of their last nest because I neglected to remove it (assuming they we finished for the season). Bluebirds take their fledglings away into the treetops and it is hard for me to figure out if a clutch survives or not.

Chickadees, Titmice & Wrens are more easily accountable since the fledglings hang around the yard near the feeders with their parents begging loudly for weeks. Here is a pic I took last year of a chickadee nest. This is a peace of artwork & you can't see the dog hair weaved inside the cup.

Carolina Wrens make many creative choices of nesting spots. This year, instead of a plain brown box we put up the first box we found that was a good size for the crazy wrens that next in our pole barn/carport. But my pic below is plain compared to these,

Check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Funky Nest Site Contest entries:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/challenge/funky-nest-entry-directory

After living in South Florida for over 15 years, where hanging a feeder was pointless because even the Blue Jays wouldn't be able to get a seed before the feral parrots and doves devoured them all, I now live in a bird lover's heaven. In my humble one acre yard this year we had Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees (2 clutches), Eastern Bluebirds (3), Carolina Wrens (2), & Purple Martins nest. Here in N. central FL, put out the boxes, and they will come! I've never been any good at finding cup nests in bushes and trees, even when I was being paid to but there must be some of them too...

And, I can't resist saying, it helps to keep your cats indoors, and to have a dog to occasionally run off the offending neighbor's cats. It is the most humane choice, and it's not just for the birds: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/index.html

Cracker Cows No. 2 & opportunistic, brave calf

It was tempting to do a close up of this calf's face because he is among the cutest I've seen, even though he is likely a year old or so. So I'm trying to paint looser but I couldn't resist rendering some details of this guy. (6x8 oil painting). This photo is very bad: I "skewed" the proportions of the calf and the background cows are obscured by glare.

There is a calf up on Millhopper road that I'm trying to get a good picture of, it was nursing a displeased Pinto mare the other day when I stopped.