"Tulip Fest" (oil on linen; 8" x 6") sold

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Tulips blooming in the sun.  Ah, one of my favorite spring sights!

"Tulip Love" (watercolor on paper; 6" x 8")

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My husband tried these adorable miniature scarlet tulips with yellow edges this spring.  We'll find out whether they come back next year.

Collage of My April 2016 Paintings

Collage of My April 2016 Paintings

In my garden, azaleas have peaked and irises started blooming.  That's how I follow the progression of season.  And there is of course a monthly collage of the paintings from the previous month.  Last month I did a lot of local Washington cityscapes, plus some still lifes and portraits.  Which painting is your favorite?

"Tulips in a Dutch Vase" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 9")

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Danni Dawson gave her portrait painting class a homework last week: paint an interesting tulip still life.  So did we, as she must be obeyed!  This is what I came up with.  I arranged five tulips from my garden in a small Dutch vase on a reflective metal serving platter, then painted them against a muted gray background.  Sadly tulips are pretty much done now.  My husband and I are going to plant lots of specialty tulip bulbs this fall for my painting fun!

"Glorious Tulips" (watercolor on Yupo; 8" x 8") sold

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Squat down in front of tulips in your garden on a sunny spring day and admire their brilliant colors.  Some have fragrance, so sniff them too.  How many months do I have to wait for my tulips to bloom?

Throw Pillows for Your Room

click here to order throw pillows

click here to order throw pillows

The above two paintings have been sold, to the satisfaction of both my collectors and myself. They remain two of my favorite paintings, full of energy and light.  Now they are available as throw pillows!  Isn't it awesome?  

Designs are printed on both sizes; three square sizes are available (16", 18", and 20"); the material is soft yet hard wearing 100% spun polyester poplin fabric; and concealed zipper is along one edge for aesthetic wonderment and convenience.

I am very excited about the whole idea of making my art more accessible to my fans and followers.  Greeting cards and calendars are also in the works!  

"Rockefeller Center Spring" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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Yesterday I shared an autumnal painting based on a photo I took in spring a few years ago. Some trickery, ha!  I painted "Rockefeller Center Spring" from another photo from the same trip.  You can see tulips abloom in raised beds in a courtyard with beautiful bronze water fountains at Rockefeller Center.  It is spring!

"Sunflower and Tulips" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

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Floral still life demo I

Floral still life demo II

Floral still life demo III

Floral still life demo IV

Dreama's finished demo painting

Floral still life student show

Last three days I attended Dreama Tolle Perry's workshop in Springfield, VA.  Wow. That sums up my experience.  I signed up for her workshop last May and have been impatiently waiting for it.  I ordered the paints and brushes she recommended, which have since become part of my "arsenal."  I bought her book and poured over it, trying to figure out how she did it.  In the end, I had to wait to see her in action to learn her methods.

I am overwhelmed and overstimulated with the stuff I've learned for the past three days. Here are some of the things I remember.  What attracts me and many others to Dreama's art is, I believe, her joie de vivre, "happy" colors, and bold brushstrokes. Her joy of life that one senses in her website/blog is her true self.  She is not bubbly all the time.  She is actually a quite reserved and sincere person.  It's just that she appreciates life and is eager to share her joy with others.

Her "happy" colors come from her love of colors.  You might think that she slaps random bright colors on canvas.  I was really surprised to see how she started her painting.  In the middle of the four edges of Ampersand Gessoboard (her support of choice; I instead used linen mounted on Baltic birch panel), she made a mark, then without any drawing, she started painting the dark and mid-tone underpainting.

The shockingly dark underpainting gave her painting the foundation, gravitas, so to speak.  In this stage, she used ONLY transparent colors.  No white or opaque colors were allowed.  While the underpainting was still wet (Dreama is an alla-prima painter, who finishes her painting in one session with many breaks), she introduced opaque paints and white.  Form and light were carved out with opaque colors.

The students painted from the same reference photo, I might add fearlessly, following the teacher's step-by-step instructions.  Despite the shock we were in, we did a fabulous job, as you can see in the bottom picture.  Tomorrow I will continue my experience during the workshop with Dreama.

"Magenta Tulips and Grape Hyacinths" (oil on linen; 8" x 10")

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Magenta tulips and blue-violet grape hyacinths in my garden were blooming gloriously one day; they were gone the day after I took the reference photo.  Deer ate them!

"Tulip Bouquet" (watercolor on paper; 8" x 10")

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matted size: 12" x 14"

Although nothing beats the flowers from my own garden, I don't know what I would do without those from the florists during the dull months between the mid-fall and the early spring.  A dinner guest brought a bouquet of magenta tulips last month.  I was already planning on doing a series of watercolor florals, so I took some pictures in the kitchen, as it was too chilly to take the tender flowers outside.  They are long gone now, but they will live forever, now transformed into an artwork!

There are two bouquets in this painting: one of the flowers and the other of the shadows.  It has an unusual, compact design with the flowers and shadows melting into each other.  Kind of tricky to pull it off, but it seems to work, don't you agree?

If you want to win a painting from my "Spring Fever" series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Red Tulip Passion" (watercolor on paper; 7" x 7") sold

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Spring has always been my favorite season.  Although I live in northern Virginia, where there isn't really a bitter winter, I experience a serious case of spring fever at the beginning of every spring.  The first sighting of snowdrops and crocuses makes me go "crazy."  Pansies and lenten roses have been blooming for three weeks in my garden. I spotted dwarf irises a couple of days ago.  So it is natural and inevitable that the theme for my March Challenge should be "Spring Fever"!

To shake things up a bit, I have decided that my March paintings will be mostly watercolor florals.  Before I discovered oil, I used to be a watercolorist.  I've been told that my watercolors are gorgeous.  One of my "specialties" is the floral still life on a pure white background, such as "Red Tulip Passion."  The painting really pops out, doesn't it? I may throw in an oil painting every now and then, just because I can!

"Chocolate Mousse Cup" (oil on linen; 5" x 4")

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After I was finished with the painting, I sat in front of it for a long time in deep satisfaction.  Perhaps it was the red raspberry dusted with confectioner's sugar; or, the yellow green ground.  Or, chocolate. Something about this little gem makes me very happy.

"Tulip Shadows" (watercolor on Yupo; 14" x 18")

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Taking a break from my February challenge of "Pastry Pleasure" paintings, I worked on a watercolor yesterday.  It is nice to switch gears every now and then.  Red tulips and yellow miniature tulips cast purple shadows on a white ground.  Which is prettier--the flowers or shadows?  The matted size is 20 x 24".

"White Tulips and Daffodils" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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Aren't the intense shadows of the white tulips and daffodils on steps delicious?  A classy arrangement of white flowers in white concrete planters!

"Autumn Colors" (oil on linen; 8" x 6") sold

"Autumn Colors"
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Still life setup

A good thing about painting still lifes is that I have a complete control over the subject matter and lighting.  If I choose fruits and vegetables, I get to eat them afterwards.  Flowers will adorn my house after posing for me as long as they are long-lasting kinds.  I learned the tricky business of painting fickle flowers hard way last year, when I tried to paint pink parrot tulips from my garden.  I ended up finishing the largish painting from a photograph, which I think negated the purpose of painting a still life from life!

"Pink Parrot Tulips" (oil, 20" x 16")
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So the yellow mum, a very long-lasting flower, was a wise choice for a still life of autumn colors.  The small Hubbard pumpkin with the most enchanting pinkish orange color alone would have made a painting, but in order to make it more companionable, I also picked up delicious, multi-colored, cherry tomatoes.  How about getting all the "ingredients" for my painting at a grocery store! 

The gold ribbon was added for a graceful flow between the foreground tomatoes and the background mum.  I cannot believe that I managed to paint this rather ambitious arrangement in such a small canvas!

"Apple Tree Blooming" Revisited (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

After
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Before

"Yellow Tulip Planter" (after; oil, 12" x 9")
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Before

It's been several months since I painted "Apple Tree Blooming" and "Yellow Tulip Planter" last spring.  At that time, I thought they were pretty darn good.  Last week I looked at them; they didn't look that great anymore!  My critical attitude toward some of my old paintings, I hope, doesn't mean that I am turning into one of those sour, unhappy people who are never satisfied with their lives.  It's just that I am growing as an artist and can critique my own work impartially and constructively.

Anyhow I worked on both paintings to see what I can come up with, the second time around.  Can you see what I did?  For one thing, I got rid of the half of a tulip on the far left in "Yellow Tulip Planter."  I don't know what I was thinking back in April!  Many an artist has made the same mistake of painting everything in front of her, in this case, in the photo. 

Lately I started a new habit of bringing a work in progress to the bathroom to look at it in the mirror.  It really helps me to take an objective look at it and I discover lots of awkward things this way--a horizon that doesn't quite match up, a vase with a wrong ellipse, etc.  And that is how I realized that the flower had to go.

Over all, I think I strengthened the composition in both paintings.  In "Apple Tree Blooming," there is also a stronger sense of light bouncing around.  Don't the two spring flower paintings make you feel happy?

"Pink Tulips in Spring Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 12") sold

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Reference photo

Last Sunday I worked in my garden for six hours, weeding evil wild strawberries.  The mild winter has done wonders for this relatively tolerable weed, turning it into the 10-inch-tall, garden-chocking, monster!  I did take a few breaks, though, to drink water and take pictures of flowers in my garden.  The above photo was my favorite. 

"Tulips and Creeping Phlox" was painted on Monday, because I couldn't wait, despite the general fatigue and bad aches in the neck and lower back.  A couple of hours into painting, I no longer felt any fatigue.  Perhaps, it was the pain killer.  Or, I would like to think, the magic of art.  The mauve tulips are the stars of the show.  But without the chorus line of the blue creeping phlox, would they have worked as well? 

By the way, the creeping phlox is the talk of my neighborhood.  Three years ago, I transplanted a small clump, which was barely hanging on, chocked under yews, azaleas, and vinca vines, to the current open location under a mature crepe myrtle.  Neighbors stop to ask us what it is, then compliment us on its beauty.  My husband and I garden because we love flowers.  But it's not just we, but the entire neighborhood, who get to enjoy them.  I don't volunteer at Green Spring Gardens Park, which is not far from where we live.  Nevertheless, I contribute to the community in my own way and am proud of it.

"Tulips and Pansies" (acrylic on canvas; 12" x 10") sold

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"Tulips and Pansies" used to be a much larger painting (20 x 16"); it also used to be called something else ("Lovers in Spring Garden").  The scene is from the Market Square in Old Town, Alexandria in Virginia.  In the background one could see cars, buildings, lampposts and passersby. There was also a couple of lovers in a passionate embrace!  It was too much and I found the painting an embarrassment.  It was about to be donated.

Then I looked at it with an objective eye and spotted a nice spring flower bed in the left bottom.  Humm....  Why not crop the painting judiciously, paint over the offending, busy area in the background, and change the bottom right corner into dirt.  Thus was born "Tulips and Pansies".  I am not saying it's a great painting.  It's full of hard edges, for one thing.  But that's how I used to paint several years ago, as I found blending in the fast-drying medium of acrylic very hard.  You know artists grow and evolve and their early works have their own merit. 

Do I sound defensive?  I am not actually.  Have you seen Vincent Van Gogh's earlier drawings, or even his mature paintings?  I am positive that he was still developing when his life was tragically cut short by his foolhardy, if altruistic, suicide.  (He committed suicide to help out his long-suffering brother, Theo, as he suspected that his paintings might start selling with the notoriety of his early death.  He botched his suicide attempt and died of slow, painful death.  Poor guy!)  Obviously, I am not comparing myself with Van Gogh, one of my heroes.  It's just that I am glad that I gave my old painting another chance.