"Dogwood Sky" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10")

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Look up at the sky when dogwoods are blooming on a sunny spring day.  This is what you will see.  If this painting doesn't lift your spirit, I don't know what will!

"Frankie" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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"Frankie" is for Amy, who commissioned the painting for her mother.  Frankie is a 23-year-old chestnut, Canadian Warmblood Sport Horse.  According to Amy's mom, "calm" is the best adjective to describe him.  Does he look calm in the portrait?  I think he does.

Frankie is a rescue horse.  Although her family think he is perfect, he is not, physically speaking.  He has only one eye (his right one); his left eye is sewn closed.  He is big (about 17 hands) and a bit thin.  Fortunately over the past 8 months, he has gained some weight.

It is easy to love someone or some thing beautiful, adorable, cute, handsome, etc.  It takes a big heart and true love of animals to adopt and take care of a disabled, malnourished horse who was probably abused.  I thank you, Amy's mom, for giving a second chance and happy retirement to Frankie.

"Chestnut Beauty" (oil on linen; 7" x 7") sold

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This chestnut beauty is part a draft horse, which is a bigger breed.  She is a gentle giant and easy keeper.  The next year is the Year of the Horse.  My horse painting will bring you a joyous, prosperous year!

"Scandinavian House" (oil on stretched linen; 14" x 18") sold

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Composition drawing for "Scandinavian House"

I was busy during the Thanksgiving holiday, not visiting with family, but working.  It was my sweet husband who cooked on Thanksgiving!  Why?  I had to finish two commission paintings that need to be shipped by early December.  One of them--"Waterlily Dreams"--I already shared with my readers.  "Scandinavian House" was the second painting I worked on during the holiday.

This  portrait of a house was commissioned by my dear sister-in-law for her husband.  She is probably the only client who didn't negotiate the price; she told me she didn't want a discount.  Bless her heart!  She and husband had raised their four sons in this house.  After their children left, they decided to stay instead of moving somewhere else.  They recently made some additions, and that is why my sister-in-law decided it would be a fun "addition" to their new additions.

I worked with a couple of pictures she took in the afternoon.  She worried about the "artistic" quality of the pictures, but I told her that I liked them just fine.  The late afternoon sun casts long tree shadows on the driveway, lawn, and house itself.  You can tell that the property is surrounded by the tall, slender pine trees.  They are very important in the composition as much as the house itself.  I felt that the two tall trees in front of the house were like the father and mother of the family.  I made sure that they didn't bisect the painting perfectly.

I first did a value drawing on a piece of paper in the same size as the painting itself to work out the composition.  This is something I rarely do as I usually compose in my head and jump right into the painting process.  But, for this important project, I didn't want to waste time and spoil the fresh brushwork by messing around with the elaborate architectural drawing on the canvas itself. 

After my client approved the composition, the rest was a breeze, as I had already decided on the palette: blues for the sky, warm yellow oranges for the house, greeens for the pine trees, and blue violets for the shadows in the driveway.  She wanted the driveway a little less prominent while I was working on the painting, so I obliged by making the lawn a little bigger.  I felt such affection for the family that I think it shows in the final painting.  Doesn't "Scandinavian House" look like a happy house?

"Autumn Day at the Bay" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Lately the Washingtonians have been basking in a gorgeous weather day after day, as the Mother Nature is trying to make amends after earthquakes, torrential rains, and flash floods of past several weeks.  Which means--I MUST GO OUTSIDE TO PAINT!  So a couple of friends and I made an plein-air-painting outing to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Friday. 

This haven for migrating birds, nature lovers, and other creatures that reside in grasslands and marshes is located 20 miles south of Washington, DC, at the confluence of the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers, just half a mile off the hustle and bustle of the busy traffic on Jefferson Davis Highway (US Highway 1). 

None of us have been there, so didn't realize how much we had to walk lugging our painting gear.  Sure, along the way, we took lots of pictures of other scenic spots.  But when we saw the above view, our jaws dropped.  Lots of Canada geese were resting in the water.  We also spotted egrets and herons.  There were no clouds in the sky.  No bugs, no pestering onlookers,  just an occasional gentle breeze to cool down our brows.  Tranquility reigned.

"Dogwood Sky" (oil on linen, 11" x 14") sold

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Do you remember the old days when we used films for the cameras and brought them for development to grocery stores and drugstores?  I am sure you have stacks of shoe boxes full of pictures that never made to the album we were supposed to work on rainy days.  They got forgotten and became history.  These days, we have megabytes of photos eating up our computer spaces and collecting virtual dust.  Facebook helps somewhat, but do you really look at your friends' album postings with care?

The other day I found a photo of my neighbor's dogwood flowering in an old box and decided put it to a good use.  Dogwoods are common where I live.  They are not yet blooming, but when they do, boy, they brighten up neighborhoods with their white and pink flowers.  I remember reading somewhere that they are a very old specie that was around the times of dinosaurs. 

Dogwood flowers, despite their prehistoric pedigree, have a contemporary sculptural look, which I like.  Against a cloudless blue sky, they are simply stunning.

"Orange Sail" (oil on stretched linen, 14" x 11") sold

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It is chilly today; the weather forecast is threatening snow tonight.  Time to look at a summery painting to cheer up.  A photo I took years ago became a reference for this studio painting.  It must have been a perfect day for the couple who sailed on the Potomac that day.  The river never looks this blue; its colors are a range of grays, to put it politely.  The sails were really those bright oranges--one of my favorite colors.  Orange and blue are complementary colors, so together they vibrate.

"Pink Cherry Blossoms" (watercolor on paper; 5" x 7 1/2")

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A dusting of snow last night, and quite chilly today in northern Virginia.  More images of warmer days to cheer you on.  "Pink Cherry Blossoms" is another watercolor painting that was juried into the Small Works Show at The Art League in 2002.  I was busily uploading my old artwork on paper onto my website over the weekend, and kept finding these small paintings.  Perfect!

"Crab Apple Blossoms" (watercolor on paper; 5 1/2" x 7 1/2")

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One to two feet of snow in Minnesota.  Luckily in northern Virginia, we didn't get the freezing rain that the weather forecasters had been predicting.  Winter is here.  Let's think warm, like spring time.  The inspiration of the above painting came from the brilliantly back-lit crab apple blossoms in my backyard.  This jewel of a watercolor painting was juried into the Small Works show at The Art League show in 2003.

"Ruins of the Ancients" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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Hovenweep means in the Paiute and Hopi language "deserted valley."  The 20-square-mile area of Hovenweep National Monument, straddling Utah and Colorado, was once farms and fields cultivated by the Ancestral Puebloans.  There are now only several ruins of high towers, dating from the mid-13th century.  I painted Hovenweep Castle under a sunny sky in peace and quiet last August. 

The hill in the background was darker than the green slope in the middle ground, so I had painted as I saw.  My teacher, Sara Linda Poly, told me to forget what I saw and to paint over it with a pale mauve glaze.  Now it is settled back where it should be.   Paint what you see, but also paint what you know.  An important lesson.

"Geraniums in Hanging Basket" (oil on linen; 7" x 5") sold

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Although it's a decent weather and Thursday, one of my plein-air painting days, I stayed put and painted this piece.  In my garden, a hanging basket with geranium flowers is still going strong in last November, as if it is defying the inexonerable march of seasons.  All around are trees that are becoming increasingly bare.  Soon the summer will be only a memory.