Ode to Orange

My daughter recognized the color orange today. She calls the color orange, "orange juice." It's the cutest.

Choo Choo Train

There is a little train ride for kids here in Austin, that my daughter loves. This painting is of her, on the train, in my red hat.

Little House Big Texas Sky--click here to bid

Here is another painting of the little house I drove by on Sunday. This painting still isn't what I wanted it to be, but it's closer

Flat Lands of Texas

I drove out to a plein air paintout today and saw a little house surrounded by a whole lot of sky and grass, and not much else. I painted this from memory and put the paint direct on the canvas and mixed it there as I went. I used the three primary colors I've been working with this week, as well as some white.

Starting with Blue

I almost fell asleep tonight without posting, swish, close call.

Starting with Red

I just read this interesting article about women and stress. Sounds like up until recently 90% of stress research was done on men, and a new UCLA study using women clarifies that we women process stress differently. There is a whole other chemical that is released, and it encourages us to hunker down especially with other women friends, and the more we do that the more we relax. It went on to say that our women friends are very important in shaping who we are and helping us lead happy lives. Well, if that ain't the truth, I don't know what is!

Studying the Color Yellow

I'd like to thank every blog reader for their support these months/days. This painting is third in my primary color/back-to-basics study. Toward the end I mixed and painted with a palette knife, and I have to say, it was fun. I felt like a baker, icing a cake. My Dad is really good at icing cakes, his Dad, my grandpa was a baker. I didn't realize how impressive that skill was, until I tried to beautifully ice my first 40 cakes. I think I'll stick to icing paintings and eating cakes.

color wheel work

Triangle Color Wheel

I'm dealing with the sting of an art rejection today, this sting led me to think, maybe I could use a painting class or 40. Most of my color training is print based, from my design career. The print colors are: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. They make up all the colors you see in all the magazines and such we folks look at every day. I've painted with these 4 colors in mind since 1995. I did some research today and have been encouraged to remove black from my palette. In order to do this I will have to approach colors in another way. This triangle color study is me reminding myself of the normal way to mix paint colors, with the three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. I may try using them for a while to see what happens. Supposedly my paintings will brighten the hell up. I'm also told I may need to decide on a subject and keep painting it, I'm not that great with decisions so I'm not sure how that will go.

The Texas Sky at Sunset

When you move from the Northeast to Texas, one of the first things to hit you is how much bigger the sky looks. Later on, I was amazed to learn that the sun doesn't set at 4:00 p.m. everywhere in winter. What a blessing a 6:30 winter sunset is.

Red Triangles to Help My Rep

As they say in Grease II, "I've got a rep to protect." This painting sets out to do just that in feng shui terms.

Friday Afternoon by Town Lake Austin Texas

I missed lunch today, so I left work early and sqeezed in a painting of the Lake on my way home. The day started so cold. I would have happily stayed in bed all day. Luckily, when I left work the Texas sun was out and had done its job warming the place up a bit. This painting is a lot further east on Town Lake than I've ever been. Town Lake (Austin's dammed part of the Colorado River) is much bigger then I had thought.

Breath In, Breath Out: A Meditation Painting in Red

I should meditate more.

Happy Love Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, or as my friend's mom calls it "Singles Awareness Day". Today's painting is also my Valentine's Day card to my husband. I left three of the hearts white to symoblize him, me, and our daughter. I realize now that I forgot to leave a heart white for our dog.

In Praise of Renoir -- click here to bid

Even Texans long for blossoming flowers in winter. Lots of folks I've talked to, have been less than impressed with Renior. I saw a show of his in Chicago and I'm a fan.

Color Study in Black, Red, and Yellow

I was loving life tonight, at least for a little while.

Ocean Memory Painting--click here to bid

Here is another ocean inspired painting. I miss summer, swimming when it's warm out, surfing, and the ocean. And all the folks that go along with those activities.

Baby in Blue 1965 VW Bus Converted--click here to bid

The Plein Air Austin groupphad a paintout at a beautiful ranch in Kyle, texas today. I found this little jewel in one of the buildings. The sun came out for a few minutes and gave me some nice shadows and light to work with.

Allens Boots Austin Texas

I met some friends for dinner on South Congress (SoCo), my favorite sign there is the Allens Boot sign. I did the beginning of this painting in the car before dinner and the rest tonight in my studio.

Baby and Daddy Penguin: A Study of Black and White

Here's to putting the fun back in painting. I bought some furniture for my daughter's play room today, which helped us realize that the play area would need some paintings. The play area is in the front right corner of our house, (feng shui: helpful people, and travel/black and white quadrant). So, I thought about how to make black and white fun for a kids room, and my plan is one life-sized zebra and this life-size penguin family. I hope she likes it, because I sure do.

Circle Collage

Years ago, I started wrapping gifts in pages from old magazines and the effect is pretty cool. I still do it sometimes, and folks seem to like it. This painting explores that technique. I've wrapped parts of an old painting in strips of magazine pages.

Longing for Mother Ocean -- $100

Sometimes, when I paint, the negative voices in my head are so loud. It's really unfortunate. This painting began as a painting of my daughter, it was looking terrrible. Luckily the act of covering up the evidence of this horrible painting turned into a painting that I am actally fond of, go figure.

Green Rectangles

Mondays will be super busy for a few weeks. Here is a sketch I did during a fun class that I'm taking Monday nights.

Austin Train Bridge on a Sunny Winter Day --$100

I had a few hours today to paint outside today. It was a gorgeous day in Austin, warm and sunny. Way to go Mr. Groundhog. The train bridge had some really nice light on it.

Pink Flower on Blue Paper

I had another coloring party with my daughter today. She seemed to enjoy dumping all the crayons out and putting them back in more than the act of coloring itself. My simple flower is centered on the page, but then I drew some floral ornaments over it. I spent most yesterday's work day looking for a vector illustration that would have a similar affect on a design of mine.

Painting for Pearly Girl

A little kitty friend of mine has had a rough couple of days. This painting is for her. Rest up and feel better little Pearl.

'A' is for Apple my Love

Watercoloring with my daughter. I drew an 'A', she said apple. It was pretty fun.