Driskill Interior - Studio Sale

12x12 oil on panel
$150 + $11 s/h - sold

This is in the Maximilian Room in the hotel. Painted last year with a very warm glow.
Happy New Year to you all!

Bus Stop - Studio Sale

22x14 oil on linen panel
sold


Making way for the new!

Musing - Studio Sale

14x11 oil on linen panel
$175 + $11 s/h (unframed) - sold

My studio renovation continues and I am realizing that I have quite a few paintings that need homes. So following a very successful artist friend's lead (if V....Vaughan can do it, so can I basically!), I am going to offer some "older" works at discounted prices.
And so first up is a man viewing the painting "Three Marys at the Tomb" at the Blanton in Austin. This was painted either end of last year or early this year. And its not as garish as this image makes it appear.
I am going to continue to offer up some older works, including some landscapes. Something very few see from me anymore!

Last Chapter

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

I have not vanished, but we all know how the holidays are! We've had a lovely Christmas and are still enjoying time off. But I have missed my painting. Today I took some time and painted while my husband put together some of the new shelving I am putting in the studio. One "resolution" underway. I am going to revamp that room and make it more functional and less of a dumping ground for all the old furniture from the house.

This was a lot of fun to paint as I focused just on the extreme light and dark of this woman sitting in a window reading. Her skin tones were marvelous and the light just heavenly. I painted it with thinner washes and bold strokes.

This may be my last painting to post this year. We shall see. Happy New Year early!

Bethesda Fountain

10x8 oil on panel
sold

Another commission I did for a NYC lover. One more commission to get through (before Christmas) and then I hope to do some small works again. My husband is off for a couple of weeks and it really throws my schedule off! I can't work with him at home. Tomorrow is my daughter's last day of preschool too. Between the two of them, I am lucky to get to take a deep breath all day. When do I get to go on break/vacation?

My Messy Studio

The Daily Painters Gallery group thought it would be neat to post images of our studios, so I thought I'd share, though I am really ashamed of the mess. Thats supposed to be a sign of genius, right?

Well, its a sign of being very busy at least. On the easel, a homemade one, is a wedding painting commission. This back corner, by the windows, is where the work is done. Also in the room is a large desk and computer, though not the one I use daily, boxes of frames, packing materials, bookshelves, about 12 files of art magazines dating back to 1987 probably, and 300 pounds of art books (why are art books so big?).

Also in the room are my 4 different pochade boxes for plein air painting, two display easels, my daughter's art easel, a lot of her paintings, my old paintings and old art materials and a requisite boom box... which I hope Santa will replace.

I regularly have dreams about finding a large, unknown-of space in my house where I can put my studio. Lord, do I wish! This is a spare room. And given that I do not want to rent a studio away from home, and I can't afford a $60,000 addition.... I am going to clear the clutter out, get a nice set of shelving up (hello Container Store) and get rid of all the extra furniture and debris that is not specific to my work. AFTER my commissions are done and out.

Village Cafe

10x8 oil on panel
sold

This is a commission I've done for a friend. It was fun to do revisit the scene I painted in the West Village. I bet it looks a bit different now. Wonder if they have snow?

Coffee and the News

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

This may look familiar. I wanted to paint this man again. Sorry I've been MIA on the small works. Been very busy with larger works and illness.

The Daily Grind - Revisited

20x20 oil on linensold

This painting was done months ago and hung about my studio because I never felt it was quite right. This past weekend I was able to address its issues and I think its really very nice now. My issues with it were that the faces were all too red, the background too yellow and uninteresting and the floor rather nondescript... I think its been much improved. And the man in the foreground makes me think of a handsome, rugged, outdoor-type.
Could be my cold medicine making me think gibberish. Very likely.

Low Conversation

16x16 oil on linen panel
sold

I love the ambiance in finer restaurants. The murmur of voices, low, classical music playing, the clink of china and crystal. Ahhh... I think my husband needs to take me out to dinner this weekend.

Down Time

7x5 oil on panel
sold

This is a "study" based on a larger piece I did (see below). I liked my beginning so well on that painting, I wanted to repeat the effect. The beginning and final piece are below. Sometimes I want to stop at this sketchy point... but I continued as you can see and filled in the canvas.

The painting below is going to my new gallery in Austin next week. I am really excited to announce that the Russell Collection is going to be representing my work here in Austin. I am very flattered that they are excited about my paintings considering the gallery hangs work from the old masters as well as living, internationally-known artists.



Hustle and Bustle
20x10 oil on linen 
sold

As a last note, I think I have this blog and the concept of "daily painting" and the small works to thank for my really exciting year. I've reached patrons and artists around the world, joined a community whose valuable feedback and technical and artistic talents have helped me grow significantly and felt, for the first time, really confident in my work. I think just having the feeling that there is someone out there "expecting" to see my work has helped me make more time and be more focused in the past year. That and my daughter's growing independence! :-)

Taxi Traffic

5x7 oil on panel
sold

I've wanted to paint a NY cab for a while - such a quintessential part of life in the Big Apple. It might be the only place where cabbies drive around looking for riders and you can step off a curb, throw up your hand and they spot you from a block or more away.
I really got into that.

NOW. Whether this painting is successful I am not sure. Turns out cars are hard to paint. I sure worked and worked on it. I hope someone likes it.

Rainy Times

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

This was such fun to paint. I vividly remember my first sight of Times Square. I was overawed. It could not have been more perfect for a painter with a light mist falling as well. It was a visual feast and I loved all the reflected lights and color. Everyone seemed happy there too - regardless of the damp.

Blog Tag

Ok - I've been tagged twice while on vacation - by Kim Edge and Liz Hirst.
As required, here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Five facts now about myself.
1. I've lived in 7 states and my family (that is my parents and me) moved 13 times - no my father was not in the military.
2. I've been in Austin 13 years now - the most stable part of my life.
3. I've never tried to, or wanted to, learn other media - just oil paint. And I know nothing about its technical properties, etc. I just paint.
4. I love chocolate. But it has to be good chocolate, no lame candy bars for me. The best truffles in the world are made by a close friend of mine here in Austin - Expressions Fine Chocolates. My latest (and most fattening) addiction though lately has been peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. mmmmmmm
5. I really dislike having a schedule or rules imposed on me, so I am not going to tag anyone else. ;-)

Breakfast at the Bus Stop Cafe

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

This is back in NYC in the West Village. On a sunny corner was the Bus Stop cafe and a lot of activity.

Breakfast at 1886

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

A view through the window onto the patio of the 1886 Cafe and Bakery which is part of the Driskill Hotel.

Question for the other painters out there.... do you all spend as much time on these little paintings as you could/would on a larger piece? I find that no matter the size of panel, the work takes about the same time. Well, up to a certain size... like maybe 11x14. And given that I have about 3 1/2 hours each day to do this without interruption, you can guess that I am lucky to get one a day painted.

Baby Fat

18x18 oil on linen
Available at Gallery la Place

The grand opening reception for Gallery la Place is the evening of Thursday, Nov. 15th.
If you are near, please go and check out the gallery and the town of Washington, Georgia. It sounds like a lovely weekend retreat.

Table Setting

14x11 oil on panel - sold

Unfashionably Early

20x10 oil on linen - sold

This is an Austin restaurant - Louie's 106. I couldn't resist featuring the large painting of "King Louie" as I painted this scene of the early dinner hour. With a small child at home, we are often some of the first guests to be seated in restaurants. We don't want to wait a long time or be out too late. But fine dining is one of my great pleasures. In another life, maybe I'd be a food critique!

Early Seating

12x12 oil on panel - sold

This was in the fabulous Del Posto restaurant in NY. The large window with the sheers created such a dramatic setting.

Live Event Painting

24x36, oil on linen
A week ago Saturday I had the opportunity to paint another wedding reception. This one in the Texas State History Museum. It was a swank affair. Its so much fun. I get to do what I love, and live vicariously for a few hours being part of the celebration and finery.

Once again, the guests were enthralled and thought it was the neatest idea. I hope the couple likes the work. I've left it in its sketchy, impressionistic style. It kind of reminds me of some of Toulouse Lautrec's work of the Moulin Rouge. Lots of lines, the underpainting showing through, gestures and color being the most important things.

The way this works is, I go early and set up as the other vendors are as well. I begin the drawing and paint in background. But not too much since the people go in front of it, and with oils, I don't want to get muddy trying to overpaint in rather a rush. So the guests begin to arrive and I capture gestures and clothing - sometimes with an oil pastel. I painted about 5 hours total. Lots of interruptions from admiring and curious guests too... which is a lot of fun for me. I like too that it brings fine art into the real world. It introduces people to artists methods and materials and hopefully educates people about how attainable real, original art can be.

Red Field

10x8 oil on panel, framed in gold
Ask Russell Collection Fine Art about this painting.

This was like therapy for me today. We've had the flu in the house and while I have been lucky (knock on wood) to not get it, I have been nursing and cleaning a lot. So while my two invalids were resting today I managed to paint this. I approached it a little differently than normal, painted more slowly and really got absorbed in it. It felt very good.
The woman here is filling her field of vision with Barnett Newman's "Vir Heroicus Sublimis" (Man, heroic and sublime.)

Starry Night

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

Modeling Picasso

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

I liked just the silhouettes of the couple looking at this large Picasso painting in the MOMA. His painting is Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Golden Icon - Marilyn Monroe

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

I think I will just use this text from the MOMA on this painting: Redolent of 1950s glamour, the face in Gold Marilyn Monroe is much like the star herself—high gloss, yet transient; bold, yet vulnerable; compelling, yet elusive. Surrounded by a void, it is like the fadeout at the end of a movie.
NOTE: I looked at this painting again this morning (Nov. 1) and did not like it... the floor was wrong among other things. So I reworked it a bit and I am much more pleased with it. That is one problem with painting and posting. No time to live with the work and be certain I nailed it.

Considering Cubism

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

A young lady viewing "Bathers in a Forest" by Picasso in the MOMA.

Christina's Crowd

6x8 oil on panel
$150 + $11 s/h - sold

I've always been drawn to this painting by Wyeth. The young woman appears to be in distress to me. Such a mood he created. But here I've painted her some friends who are as eager to understand her as I am. It was particularly serendipitous that Christina's windblown hair and belt matched the style of the young lady viewing her in the MOMA in NY.

Red Barn

6x6 oil on panel
$110 + $11 s/h

Trekking across Indiana last week I had plenty of time in the car to sketch the passing scenery. This is one of many barns and cornfields I saw along the way. Most of the corn was still not harvested, but dried, and the trees were just beginning to show signs of turning. This is a bit of a switch for me. I can't think of the last time I painted a landscape, but my desire was to mark the trip, practice painting my impressions from pencil sketches and memory and to announce a new gallery representing me - Castle Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its a really wonderful space, so if you are in the area, you should make a point to go see them.

Besides getting back home and back into somewhat of the normal routine, all my time has been spent framing and shipping works to Georgia, for my OTHER new gallery. Hopefully they will have a website up soon, but I will certainly share opening info here.

Morning Music

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

The morning that I painted in Central Park, a guitarist and violinist were playing under the arches near Bethesda Fountain. The music was so lovely.
Thanks to a friend in the city, I have some more info on that special place in the park:

"At the southern approach to the Terrace Bridge from the Mall a visitor will see the seven arches of the Arcade, a columned passageway with walls on either side forming a blind arcade adorned with trompe l'oeil paintings. The large ceiling, which is part of the original design of Central Park, was first installed in 1867 and originally contained 16,000 brilliant encaustic tiles, weighing about 50 tons and handcrafted in Stoke-on-Trent, England."

Table Setting

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

This was in the elegant "Del Posto" restaurant in NYC. We had a magnificent dinner there and I felt like royalty with all the attention and little extra samples they brought from the kitchen. Very nice meal. Very nice atmosphere. I liked the serene and somewhat severe drama of this painting.

Beach Baby

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

This little baby was so fun to paint in a larger work that I decided to do him again small.

This week is turning out to be very hectic. Artwise, I need to paint larger works for galleries, and frame and ship. And then I am traveling in Oct. So my small works will be a little more sporadic. But I will post my larger works and give you all a preview of what will be in my new galleries. (Yes, there probably is another new one for me! shh - don't tell yet, I don't want to jinx it!)

California Dreamin'

12x12 oil on panel
Available at Gallery laPlace

I did this on Wednesday actually - before my difficulties yesterday. And I am really, really pleased with it. I am not sure if I have a favorite subject (location, rather, because people are my favorite subjects) but the beach would rank right up at the top. Then probably cafes. At any rate, these two young men were walking back to their cars late afternoon. It being a scene from Rockport beach (Texas gulf coast,) I thought that the title might be what they are thinking. Rockport can offer little excitement for boogie boards or body surfing.

This painting will be available at Gallery laPlace in Georgia in a couple of weeks. Its framed in an antiqued black with a gold lip. Stay tuned for the opening information.

Morning Walk

5x7 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

This is actually from my first day in the West Village now. I was frankly amazed at how many dogs were in the city.
I left off Central Park rather quickly and am skipping around some since I want to work on some cafe's. But to be honest, the two I began this morning did not work out so very well. I am going to let them sit until tomorrow or Monday and revisit them. I think the trouble was that my heart was not quite in it. I really want to work a little larger but tried to do something small to warm myself up. It didn't work. I felt trapped in such a small space for a really neat cafe scene. And now I am out of time!
Better luck tomorrow!

Walkies

5x7 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

An outing in the park for these two dogs and their human.

My approach to this painting was somewhat different and the result is kind of dark - or rather "strong contrasts". Artists really have many choices when creating artwork depending on the mood they want to convey and I thought about the different ways I could have approached this scene. So I practiced on some paper with some different options.

The first two I limited my palette to just two complements (plus white):
blue/orange


purple/yellow


And the final one I decided to try for a high key effect.

Me Time

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

Moving on to Central Park. A young lady taking some time out in the "Sheep Meadow". This is one of my favorite past times, as well. I often drag a blanket out in my backyard and sit with a book or magazine on a gorgeous day. We have a lot of them in central Texas... but I bet soon, Central Park will be too cold for basking like this.

Night Fall

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

Another fun night scene in NY. Dusk is such a great time of day in the city and so fun to paint. I think I could keep doing this... and rain scenes... forever.

I suffered for my art this morning; in my excitement, literally, to get upstairs and paint, I slipped and smashed my toe and shin and so had to sit and prop my foot up to paint. But I have something for you, so I hope you all like!

On to some GOOD news: I have been invited to exhibit my work in a new gallery opening in the historic town of Washington, Georgia. So I will be focusing on getting paintings framed and ready to ship out in early Oct. this week. I'm very excited about this location and will keep you posted on the opening. The gallery is called Gallery laPlace.

City Lights

16x12 oil on panel
Available at Castle Gallery

The city at night is so spectacular. There is so much color - all moving and changing continually. The Chrysler building is such a unique shape also, really drawing your eye up to its glowing top.

Waldorf Hospitality

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

A cozy corner in the luxurious Waldorf Astoria. No, this was not my hotel...but it was a beautiful place to rest for awhile. I felt classier just being there.

Night Shift

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

I'm still working on some night scenes from our first walkabout in NYC. Perhaps because it was all so new and grand to me, it had the most impact

There are so many spotlights in the city that any small area just glows. Esp. in the rain. But more than anything painting these scenes is forcing me to practice with values. Subtle values in some cases. Like most of the background of this piece. I've also begun to realize that small works like this need to be rather bold and dramatic. In looking at many other blogger artist's sites, I've begun to see what gets the most attention and it usually comes down to drama. A high contrast in values and simple design work best on a small scale I think.

Atlas

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

Continuing from Grand Central, we walked on to Rockefeller Center and rested awhile in the gardens. The dramatic lighting made Atlas seem alive in his struggle to uphold the heavens.

Midnight Train

5x7 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h via Paypal - sold

Continuing our walk on the first night of our arrival, I saw this neatly lit and somewhat lonely scene in Grand Central Station.

Park Avenue Rain

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

I am not a miniaturist! And this was a lot to fit into such a small format. I think that is why city scenes have always daunted me. The buildings are often many different colors, the traffic, the layers upon layers of things... all have to be simplified or it looks a mess.
I am not sure I managed to get past "mess" with this scene of a rainy evening in NY. There are parts I like very much, but, as usual, I can't quite get a good photo of it.
BTW - have I ever mentioned that if you were to buy one of these paintings and hate it, I will gladly take it back, in the same condition it left me, and refund your money.

Five o'Clock Rush

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h via Paypal

I think I am back to work finally! Life is resuming a more normal routine and I hope very seriously to work on scenes from my NY trip, recreating my days there. I have so many ideas, I almost feel overwhelmed about them and have to remind myself... one painting at a time!

We arrived late afternoon and after the lengthy ride into town, set out walking and in search of dinner. We were in a great midtown neighborhood and joined the locals as they headed home from work and out for their own dinners.

A Day in the West Village

An overcast day on Sunday in another area of the West Village. The Village Cigar Shop is supposedly a famous spot which has been painted frequently. Whether I did it justice on this 5x7 is unclear.
From the same position on my busy corner I painted the following two also. I figured I'd post them all at once. All were very small and definitely studies.





After these, I took a break for lunch for the first time (I get too absorbed in painting and can't stop), ate in a lovely little French bistro called Les Deux Gamins (can't wait to paint scenes of it) and then went shopping finally for souvenirs! I wandered up to Bleeker Street and found just what I wanted. After lunch break we met back at a park and had a review of our paintings...here is a link to Phil Levine's scrapbook of the weekend.

So this wraps up my paintings on location in wonderful New York City. I understand Phil has booked Ken Auster to teach another weekend next year. I will be signing up for sure.