The Iris are blooming- sold

Oil, 6" x 6"
One of my favorite flowers...

Portraits and a portrait class

(It was raining the night I left this class. Turns out that while rain doesn't hurt an oil painting, it will soak into the unpainted canvas paper around the edges and make it wrinkle...)

A few faces I've painted recently, in oil. If you're in the Rhode Island area, I'll be teaching a class this summer at the South County Art Association on Monday nights in mid-June and July. Two weeks of portrait drawing, and a month of painting portraits with a limited palette. You can sign up for the drawing and painting classes separately. Suitable for beginners, although some drawing experience is recommended. (The summer classes aren't listed yet on the website, but I'm sure they will be soon.)

Early morning, East Bay Bike Path

Oil, 8" x 10"
I actually started this a few weeks ago, but the light changed so fast that I knew I'd have to go back a second time to finish it. Lovely quiet spot in the morning, but the incredible amount of trash on the little beach speaks to late night get togethers with beer and fast food. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed myself. The birds were all chirping and the mosquitos aren't bad yet...
Email me for price.

Forsythia- sold

Oil, 8" x 8"
I keep coming back to this street because the view up the hill intrigues me. I loved the contrast of the orangey-yellow of the forsythia against the cooler yellow of the house. Painted mostly while sitting in my car across the street.
$150.00

Copley Society's Fresh Paint Event

"A walk on Castle Island", oil on canvas, 14" x 14"
Yesterday I participated in the Copley Society's annual "Fresh Paint" event for the first time. I went to Castle Island in South Boston with Kate Huntington and Johan Bjurman, fellow painter/members.  It was cold and gray, but we still had a really good time. I'm used to taking my work home and fussing with it, but that wasn't an option, it was going directly to the gallery.

Kate and Johan, finishing up.

We got back to the gallery around 4PM and before I knew it my painting was framed and hanging on the wall. The gala and silent auction happens on Saturday, May 9, but you can make bids on all the paintings now.

Music on a spring day- not available

Oil, 8" x 6"
College students on the East Side of Providence make for good people watching.
$125.00

The Bar at Casablanca- sold

Oil, 10" x 8"
Another Fort Lauderdale scene. My husband likes the glasses hanging over the bar.
Contact Liz Rowley at Munn Fine Arts for purchase info.

Smile!

Oil, 11x14
Our model last night held a smile for the whole time she was sitting. It was- strange, to be honest, but I ended up liking the painting more than any others I've done recently.

Gouache monoprint painting

Last night I went to an opening of a printmaking show at the Candida Clayton Gallery at the Hope Artist Village in Pawtucket, RI. Very nice show, with work by artists from the Providence Art Club and the Torpedo Factory Printmakers, organized by fabulous printmaker Carol Strause FitzSimonds- great job, Carol!

Looking at the monotypes in the show, I remembered these pieces that I made quite a while back. I painted with gouache on plexiglass and while the paint was wet, I pressed paper on it. Then I'd pull the paper up, paint some more, press the paper down, pull it up, paint some more... The end result is a one of a kind painting, but the act of pressing paper onto the paint results in a completely different look than that of a paintbrush directly on the paper. I'm thinking I might have to play with this some more...

"Bikepath Monoprint", gouache, approx. 8" x 11"

"The White Elephant is closed closed", gouache, approx. 8.5" x 13"

Email me for prices.

Painting the painters

Some of my painting students at the Handicraft Club the last two weeks became my unwitting models. Oil on canvas paper, approx. 8" x 6".

Sketching on Friday morning at the Seaplane diner

Those blue squares are windows, it was just after 6AM and the sun had not yet risen. The color outside was the same as the vinyl on the stools.

People weren't lingering this morning. I started several sketches that couldn't be finished because my subject paid his check and left. Anybody know where I can get faster pencils?

Two trees- sold

Oil, 8" x 8"
These two trees seemed to be doing a pas de deux at a local historic cemetery. I sat in my car and drew and painted them, as it was way too cold and windy to set up outside.

Getting the values right- the sunlit part of the trees was lighter than the blue of the sky- was challenging. The neutral winter colors were also tough. What color is that bark? It always seemed either warmer or cooler than the color I mixed. In the end you have to just look at the big picture- it's all relative, right?
$200.00 plus shipping