Dec 2018

I hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season. I wish all of you a Healthy, Happy 2019!

Abbie's Trees, oil on panel, 9x12"

 Abbie's Trees were painted from a photo in the studio. I kept thinking about O'Keeffe while working on them.

Gracie, graphite on Bristol, 9x12"

 Dreamy Gracie was a challenge I enjoyed.

Pond Reflections, oil on panel, 16x20"

 Pond Reflections were painted on location, by an ever changing beautiful pond.

Springtime Canigou, oil on panel, 16x20"

 Springtime Canigou is waiting for me to have time to evaluate it. I am torn between my old detailed way of working and my new carefree approach.

 All the work above was commissioned and I am very grateful for your trust and the challenge and learning that comes with each new piece. 

 However, I am not accepting any new commissions for at least a year as I want to finish current projects and cut out some time to work on paintings of my own.

October 2018

Green Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Green Canigou is the painting I started working on just before the short television segment.  The foreground was the most difficult part of this painting.

Rosie, graphite, 8x10"

Rosie was a commission I was going to do just in graphite, but I could not bring myself not to include some color into it.

Blue Sky Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Mosaic Canigou, oil, 9x12"

Blue Sky Canigou and Mosaic Canigou were started in the SAAC Gallery at Stone Oak, where they looked tiny because of all the big canvases and the size of the room. They are color studies. I so liked the colors and glass or mineral quality of the first impasto brushstrokes of Mosaic Canigou,  that I decided to treat the rest of the mountain as grout. 

The following paintings date from my time as a student of Edwards Povey. I did not show them much. I am needing more room in my studio and so they are for sale. 

Portrait was done from a photograph taken by Edward of a dear friend who died of cancer. I thought she was beautiful and enjoyed working from a photo of such high quality. At the same time, I felt for her and her family because of her untimely passing. 

Portrait, oil, 11x14"

Inspired by Mary was interesting. We first analyzed several paintings by Mary Cassatt including a mother in bed with her baby and a tea party. Then we were introduced to a scene set up in the studio consisting of a bed with a mannequin "asleep" under the covers, a doll, a black hat and coat, old photos on the wall, a coffee pot on the nightstand, clothes on the bed and a tea set. There were a lot of us around the bed painting the scene, only a few got to paint the head of the mannequin and the doll. From my angle they were unfortunately invisible, but I enjoyed painting the rest especially the tea set and the warm and cold light on the drapery on the headboard and the red blanket on the bed. 

  

Inspired by Mary, oil on canvas board, 12x16"

The Green Line, la Ligne Verte, is a copy of Matisse's painting, done from a photograph. We had just seen a Matisse exhibit, where I had been studying his fauve works.

Copy of Matisse's La Ligne Verte, oil, 12x16"

 

August 2018

Hello again. We survived the extreme heat in Texas. Temperatures are more normal now. I hope you survived the heat and are doing well.

My friend wanted a Gauguin inspired painting and I studied the Gauguin paintings I had seen in Paris this summer. I had chosen to listen to Black (a story about a dog) by Alexandre Dumas. I was enjoying the story and was in for a surprise when just as I was painting this painting the story moved to Tahiti... It was a wonderful coincidence!

Gauguin Canigou, palette knife on panel, 9x12"

Hope, graphite on Bristol paper, 11x14"

Hope, was drawn from a photograph of a beautiful, little girl I met at La Villita.

New Zealand Memory, oil on linen, 11x14"

I finished my very first palette knife from memory painting, started last fall after our trip to New Zealand. It is a subject I want to re-visit.