"Lilac Basket" (watercolor on paper; 8" x 10")

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A basketful of lilacs under a lilac bush on green grass.  Ah, can you smell the perfumed air?

"White Tree Peonies" (watercolor on paper; 11" x 8")

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In this loose and fresh watercolor painting, my intention was to capture the essence of glorious white tree peonies.  Do you think I succeeded?

"Gardenia Love" (watercolor on paper; 6.5" x 9") sold

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Gardenias, I love the perfumed, white flowers!

"Pink Peony and Love-in-a-Mist" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 6.5") sold

sold

I cut a pink peony and delicate love-in-a-mist from my garden and put them in a white porcelain with blue patterns for a fresh floral still life.  In case you haven't seen love-in-a-mist, I included a recent photo of my lovely garden. When blue, pink, white, and deep blue flowers fade, they become attractive seed pods, first green then dried, which last the whole season.

Love-in-a-mist is blooming!

Love-in-a-mists seed pods

"Robin's Nest" (mixed media on paper; 6.5" x 9") sold

sold

It's a risky thing to do, but who can resist peeking into four vivid blue robin eggs in a beautiful nest up the tree!  The painting is a mixed media of watercolor and oil pastel.

"Red Fox" (oil on stretched canvas; 9" x 12") nfs

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I asked my husband, whose birthday is coming up soon, what I could do for him.  He said: "Paint a fox for me".  None of his fox pictures in our backyard came close to the one I found on the internet--a healthy-looking fox staring at you in a snowy landscape.  I hope he likes the present!

"Birthday Cake" (oil on stretched canvas; 14" x 11") nfs

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I don't know why, but I have always been shy about painting myself.  But as a practice, because only practice makes perfect and I need models, I decided to paint a self-portrait, using a photo my daughter took on my last birthday.  I am looking at a candle-lit chocolate cake.  Don't I look happy?

The hardest part was naturally the mouth, as the famous John Singer Sargent said, a portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth!  I am not sure whether it is exactly me, but it must be close enough.  All the people who saw it knew immediately that it was a self-portrait.  Below are some of the step-by-step pictures.