30″x22″ pastel on sanded paper
The looking is the hardest part of painting a portrait from life.
How rough and colorful this is might surprise you.
Here is a detail.
Caroline
18″x12″ charcoal on chanson paper
Drawing from life. I started with a gesture, and then found smaller shapes, then shadow shapes…and along cane a face from all those shapes!
Pure Joy!
9″ square mixed media on canvas paper
JUMP! Jump for joy! This image made me smile. It is a study for a commission. This painting took on a life of its own. It strayed wildly from the palette I chose for the commission. This image just didn’t want to be a beautiful neutral, it wanted to sing loud and clear! I used a Holbein acrylic color named “luminous opera” which has a much more poetic ring than “fluorescent pink.”
Please enjoy a celebration of pink paintings this month, in honor of breast cancer awareness. I paint for my friends and family who have fought the good fight against cancer, for their families, and for all caregivers who help along with the journey toward a healthy self (body, soul, and spirit). In my strokes of pink, are prayers of strength and healing.
Hiking Hand in Hand
8″x10″These girls are so strong, and so sweet. I loved that they were hiking holding hands on the amount Massive Trail. However, if I were to be completely honest, I painted this because their shadows look like little yetis, and the shape delighted me.
Occasion for Hope
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper”The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” -John Buchan
Master and Apprentice
11″x9″ pastel on sanded paper
Watching through the windows at all the levels of classical ballet at my daughter’s studio delights me. Images at the bar are easiest to capture because they do the same things over and over again.
We and Our Shadow
4’x3′ mixed media
Walking to School series No• 15
“Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.” -Jean de La Fontaine
I count the friendship between these two among my biggest blessings.
“Feeding the Chickens”
I hope you can feel your pupils constrict as you come into the dark hen house out of the bright day to witness this sweet moment.
“I want to paint too”
“I want to paint too Mommie,” is a little voice that often interrupts me at my easel. Little Lydia is also an early riser, and she often finds me at my easel when she wakes up. Here is my painting of her painting at her easel in the early morning light. I photographed it with my iPad, so it is a bit grainy.
“Water Dance”
My workshop requested a figure demo of a figure in action. It was fun playing with the colors, and painting with such an attentive audience.
If you haven’t run through a fountain or sprinkler lately, perhaps it is time.
paintandsimple 