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

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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!

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

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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?

"Sunflowers and Happy Bee" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Reference photo

On to way to Lancaster, PA to pick up our daughter at camp, my husband and I stopped by at the rest area in York.  Instead of going in to use the facilities, I dawdled, captivated by these sunflowers.  I was the only person taking pictures of these cheerful flowers; other people were obviously more sensible than I!  Sensible or not, I was as happy as the bee on the flower on the right.  Whenever I find the reference material for future painting projects, I feel like I hit the jackpot.  How small things in life please me!

On the technical note, compare the photo above with my painting.  The photo's colors are predominantly cool yellows and greens; my painting is dominated by warm yellows and violets.  I did that on purpose, pushing the yellows toward the sun and contrasting the yellows with the complementary violets so that the painting would pulsate.  Besides, I love using pure colors out of the tubes: cadmium lemon, yellow light, and yellow medium.  They are toxic--never to be touched or, god forbid, digested--but no other synthetic paints can replace them.  They simply glow.

"Pink, Orange, and Midnight Blue" (oil on linen, 12" x 12") sold

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This is the last plein air painting of the week.  No, I did not paint it at night.  The title has something to do with the dark purple blue background I chose at a whim.  I went back to Bon Air Memorial Rose Garden in Arlington by myself early Wednesday morning and wandered around for almost half an hour.  I just couldn't make up my mind.  Do I paint a beautiful wooden arbor and challenge myself with drawing?  A single rose?  Red roses?  A rose trellis?  I sat on every chair and bench at the park to try out different views.

Eventually I sat down to paint these pink/orange roses, pretty much out of exhaustion.  Some days are like that--an attack of indecisiveness.  An hour into the painting, I began to regret my choice.  The flowers slowly changed their forms before my eyes as the sun got higher!  Instead of panicking, I decided to relax and just enjoy the beautiful weather.  If the painting didn't turn out well, what did it matter?  Unlike the day before, bees, not a snake, kept me company.  Occasionally, park visitors stopped by to take a picture of me and roses.  I spent three lovely hours in the midst of roses.

When I came home, I printed out the photo of my models and worked on the problem areas right away since the paint was still wet.  I doubt that I will go back to the rose garden soon, but I learned much that day about shadows on roses.  With warm light, such as the sun, the shadows are generally cool; wtih cool light like the light from a north-facing window, shadows are warm; this rule, however, doesn't apply to roses because their petals are translucent.  Do you know what?  Some shadows were cool!  I read art books religiously, but nothing beats practice.  Painting from life in natural light for three consecutive days was a great gift to myself.

"Spring Bouquet with Azaleas" (oil on linen, 14" x 11") sold

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I thought I would paint some azaleas before they die out.  What other flowers would complement them?  I found chives, sweet williams and blue pincushion flowers.  After the latest still life project, I learned my lesson, so this painting is smaller, the vase a simple blue mug, and the cloth just a backdrop.  As the azaleas were already showing signs of stress, I also took a picture as a backup.

I zoomed in to fill the canvas with the setup.  The design employs a classic cross shape.  The white azaleas in the shadow had to be repainted a couple of times so that they were keyed correctly.

"Sunflowers and Daffodils" (oil on linen, 12" x 14") sold

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Robert's demo painting

The second day of the oil still life workshop with Robert A. Johnson was all painting and no relaxing by watching the teacher do a long demo.  I was better prepared than the previous day with my own vase and fabric.  I wanted to paint something different from Friday so that I could learn as much as I could in three days, so I chose sunflowers, balancing them with a couple of daffodils and purple flowers whose name I can't remember.

Can you tell which flowers I had the most trouble with?  It was the sunflowers.  Robert said politely that they looked too "petally."  Compare my sunflowers on top with his at the bottom.  A careful observation of shapes, then decisive brushstrokes.  No dubious handling of values, either.  Look at how dark the center of his flower and shadows between petals are.  Not that I am unhappy or upset with my painting.  I am actually proud because I tried hard and did my best.

What pleases him the most about his painting career, Robert said, is that he can honestly say he is painting better than six months ago, that he is not so self-satisfied with his artwork that he will stop growing as a painter.  This is from a master who has been painting for decades!  I have a long way to go and am eager for my artistic journey.

"Pears and Pebbles" (watercolor on Yupo; 9" x 12")

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This is one of the first paintings I did on a slick, synthetic support called Yupo.  Paints dry to jewel-like vivid colors because Yupo is not absorbent.  For the same reason, you can wipe off paints back to the original pure white of Yupo, as you can see on the cut surface of the pear in the center.  Fun!

Adding another layer of paint on the already dry part of the painting requires a gentle touch, since if you press the brush hard, you end up lifting off the first layer.  Oops.  Drawing with a graphite pencil also needs to be done with an uttermost care, because Yupo doesn't take paints where you erased the pencil lines.  Sounds like too much trouble?  Try Yupo if you haven't yet.  It's worth the effort.  The painting was juried into the Art League show in Alexandria, VA in 2000.

"Evening Walk in Dublin" (mixed media on paper, 14" x 10") sold

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The scene is Dublin in sunset.  The mood is dreamy.  The technique--definitely pointillist.  The painting won the Best in Show in The Art League monthly show in 1996.  When I heard the news, I almost fell off the chair, because I had never been accepted in a juried show, not alone won an award.  The beginner's luck!

This piece is the first decent painting I have ever created.  When I started painting, I chose colored pencil, because it felt least intimidating.  In Pat Barron's class at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA , there were some students who were working on the paper first painted in watercolor.  So I emulated them.  Pat complemented me on the palette I had chosen--orange, green, and violet, saying that it was a classic triad of secondary colors. 

At that time, I didn't know a darned thing about colors.  Now I look at the body of my work, I see a great deal of these three colors, as if I was born color-coded with oranges, greens, and violets.  Interesting.  Pat no longer teaches; she has retired and moved.  I hear her health is failing.  She was one of my first art teachers and I am grateful to her.  The painting is dedicated to Pat Barron.

"Miss Daisy and Lambs" (oil on linen; 11" x 14") sold

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Oliver H. Kelley Farm in Elk River, Minnesota is a historic working farm that grows oats, hay, sorghum, and animals.  We saw oxen, horses, Miss Daily (one-year-old heifer), chickens, lambs, three piglets, and their mom.  On this hot, hot August day, Miss Daisy and two lambs were huddled together trying to find shade, although there wasn't much.  The scene was so funny that I just had to paint it.

I have a thing for animals; my favorites are sheep and giraffes.  I have painted cows, sheep, elephants, giraffes, polar bears, zebras, pandas, ostriches, ducks, geese, etc., although I don't consider myself an animal painter.  It must be their endlessly beautiful forms. 

"Yellow Calla Lilies" (oil on linen; 5" x 4")

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I had a bit of time on my hands before I had to pack up and go home near the end of a plein-air painting session.  So I sat down in front of yellow lilies at River Farm in Alexandria, VA.  This painting was the result.  Not too many hard edges and just a few suggestive strokes--not my usual modus operandi.  But I love it.