"Happy Bees" (watercolor on paper; 7.5" x 7.5") sold

sold

Do two happy bumble bees basking on sunflowers make you feel happy too?  This painting was conceived as a horizontal rectangle, but the design troubled me.  When I cropped it into a square, the whole thing suddenly made sense with the bees as the focal point.  Sometimes less is more!

"Yellow Swallowtail" (oil on linen; 7" x 7")

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I do not know which is more beautiful: the yellow swallowtail or the backlit purple flowers.  I am captivated by the sunlight shining through the translucent wing of the butterfly.

"Flight of Orange Butterflies" (oil on canvas; 10" x 10") sold

sold

The powerful storm of last Friday night left my neighborhood without power for four days.  The temperature stayed high in the 90's day after day.  It was relentlessly hot and sunny outside; it was depressingly hot and dim inside.  My family remained cheerful despite the outrage, taking many, air-conditioned, drives in the area to see which streets got power back and to check out new eateries to dine out at.  We even had a tire blow up during a drive!  When it rains, it pours.

With the insufficient light and intolerable heat in my studio, I didn't feel up to painting.  But I feel irritable and unfulfilled if I don't paint for several days.  So I sat in front of my easel in two mornings, perspiring profusely.  "Flight of Orange Butterflies" is the result of my persistence.  It has the intense, tropical feel, don't you think?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

"Flight of Fancy" (oil on linen; 7" x 7") sold

sold

Today is the one year anniversary of my blog.  What a year it has been!  It was truly a leap of faith for me to undertake the responsibility of writing a blog.  At the beginning, I was probably the only person who read my blog.  These days, who knows?  I have a few friends who keep up with it; beyond them, I have no idea.  Someday I may develop a big following.  For now, I am content with my small, but loyal readership. 

Going with the concept of a leap of faith, I am sharing "Flight of Fancy" with my readers today.  It is based on a photo I found in a shoebox the other day.  I took it nine years ago when my daughter was still in preschool, at a beautiful public park called Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, to which two moms and three preschoolers took a field trip. 

They were having a special exhibit of a butterfly show.  Hundreds of exotic butterflies fluttering about everywhere was a sight to behold.  I somehow captured these two orange butterflies in the frame: one in flight, the other in a brief moment of stillness.  I love the juxtaposition of oranges and violets--a color combination I rarely use, but now I will.

Thank you for reading my blog.  Happy Anniversary!

"Sunny Sunflowers" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

Reference photo

There is something about the sunflower that make it irresistible.  It is possibly the most favored flower, after the rose, of course.  If I remember correctly, Vincent van Gogh's painting of sunflowers used to be the most expensive painting in the world until its record was broken.  As some of my readers may know, I regularly auction my artwork on eBay, and whenever I list a sunflower painting, there is a positive buzz from the first day!  Perhaps it's because I usually throw in a couple of bees, too (ha, ha).

"Bumble Bee in a Blue Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

sold

Reference photo

This painting was a challenge to pull off.  It was hard to contrast the bumble bee enough against the busy background and, at the same time, keep it blended into the same busy background!  I like the complementary vibrations of blue violets and yellows throughout the painting and want the viewer to translate viscerally the visual confusion into the buzzing sound of the bee.  Does it make any sense?

"Dragonfly on Lotus" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

Reference photo

Two weeks of family vacation and a few days of recuperating from a bad cold put me out of action, but I am back! I hope you who live along the East coast are doing all right despite the Hurricane Irene.

Since I haven't painted for a while, I decided to go easy and do something simple--a painting of a single lotus flower and dragonfly.  If "Dragonfly on Lotus" looks familiar, it's because I have done another painting of the same subject ("Lotus and Dragonfly").  I apologize for repeating myself, but on my defense, by the time I was finished with it, I was all sweaty and had to lie down for my exertions.  I promise to do better next time!

"Lotus and Dragonfly" (oil on linen; 12" x 9") sold

sold

Reference photo

Yesterday when I went to the lily pond at Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA, I took many photos, hoping that I might be able to use some for future paintings.  The lotus flower in the above flower caught my eye for the dragonfly it was hosting.  If you look at the picture carefully, there are two more dragonflies.  They were everywhere, landing on a flower briefly only to fly away to another.  There were no other insects--no butterflies, bees, or mosquitoes (thank goodness for the absence of the last).  Just these beautiful creatures, which do humans no harm.  I love them.  So I was thrilled to be able to capture their images in my camera.

Today, in the comfort of my studio on another miserably hot day, I painted "Lotus and Dragonfly."  I took care not to get too fussy, which is one of the biggest dangers of painting from photographs.  Another problem is, of course, the inability to see dark shadow colors.  Since I painted these sculptural flowers just yesterday, I could remember the colors of the pads and flowers pretty well.  The dragonfly was painted in last, quickly and gesturally.  So here we go--my first painting of a dragonfly.