Three Brothers

The interesting design of these live oaks caught my attention. As far as I know they are quite old ... their gnarled and crooked growth  tell a story of past struggles...hurricanes, strangler figs and chain saws...survival of the fittest..... they remind me of three brothers looking out for each other with some competition thrown in there... talking about past struggles - let's look forward to the NEW YEAR -
Happy and healthy 2012 everyone!!!!

Park Bridge

Preparing for the holidays kept me busy for the last week or so....now I finally find time to post something new. This is one of the plein air paintings that is now finished. It took several trips to the location to finish. As you can imagine a 30" x 30" canvas in sometimes windy conditions was quite a challenge. I had to put robes with tent stakes into the ground to hold the easel down.... a square format was another tricky thing with this composition... what do you think? Does it work??

Chatting

For almost 3 years I have chickens in the back yard. It all started when my oldest son "rescued" a stray chicken from being run over by cars on a busy street. Wrapped in his jacket on the bicycle, he brought the animal home. Unfortunately, this first chicken grew into a crowing rooster. The crowing did not work well in our suburban environment with neighbors being close all around. So we found a farm that adopted him. However, my children grew so fond of this original chicken that they begged me to replace him with (this time) females and this is how this adventure started. We are up to 20 hens now in all shapes and sizes!! They are all pets, meaning there will be only eggs and no chicken soup!! They are quite interesting characters, each one in her own way. Now this is a painting from a photo of our oldest hens as they walk across the back porch looking for treats.... This painting was also an entry to DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM.

Glove & Ball

It has been a while ...this baseball theme has been my latest still life. I am also working on some plein-air-landscape paintings that are large format and need to travel to the on-site location a few more times to get finished. I hope I can post them soon.

Story Telling

This is my entry for this week's challenge on the DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM website. I did not think that painting shoes can be so exciting and interesting. These are my old boots that I have not worn for a while. I tried to bring out the rugged character of them. They have been through a lot and would tell you about it if they only could .....

Dragonfruit

This delicious cactus fruit creates a nice center of interest in this painting. I love those reflections in the jars -

Coco Frio 2

This is another take on the coconuts. Now I feel I can check them off my list for a while. I find that green coconuts have quite an appeal and offer a great opportunity for color reflection. The scars from scraping on the palm tree make it more interesting.

Both coco paintings are for sale separate or together at a discount. Again, if interested - e-mail me!!

Coco Frio 1

... my fascination with fresh coconuts continues and resulted in this bigger painting... I am happy with  how it turned out...whatcha think? This one is up for sale too. E-mail me if you are interested -

10-minute-Challenge

This is the result of a timed painting exercise through DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM. Each panel was divided in 4 and the timer was set on 10 minutes for each small painting. The challenge was to work quickly and leaving out unnecessary details. I like the "Less is More" in this way of painting -

Two coconuts 2

Here is a variation of the "Two coconut" theme. I worked with the rough surface of the masonite board's backside. I like the rugged look, though, I find it more difficult to work with it as I am more used to the regular canvas surface. Which one do you like better?

Two Coconuts 1

Recently I have been fascinated with green coco nuts freshly cut off from the palm. In this unripe stage they are a very popular refreshment. Refrigerated, people enjoy them cut open drinking the coco milk with a straw and scooping out the gel-like nut. I have done several studies. Here is the first one.

Water Glass

Is it half full or half empty? What is your outlook on life... Being blessed with a rather optimistic personality, I see it as half full..... Wish you all a wonderful day with many opportunities to fill up the cup :o)

Onion Basket

I find onions are one of the more difficult veggies to paint. This came out more flat than I intended due to the high key colors and little shadow... In my next onion portrait I will focus on more dramatic light... after all: "THEY ARE ONIONS!"

Bridge

This plein-air painting is from last fall in the park. It took me 2 sessions to complete. Little did the 2 people on the bridge know that they were posing for me while watching water turtles.

Apple Vase

This still life set-up is a little different, less traditional...it was fun to paint that great blue bottle vase... it belongs to a friend of mine...

Left hand painting right hand

This one is for the weekly challenge for DPW. The task is to paint a hand gesture. I pushed it a little further and challenged myself as a right-handed person to paint my dominant hand with the left. I did not expect it being this difficult. I almost had to tie my right hand down because it kept on popping up to "help out" the clumsy left. I had to keep reminding myself: " Just relax and take a break..". So here it is...

Cypress in Fall

I have not posted much on the DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM challenges as I am finding myself with less time to spare for painting. However, this painting I was able to post for the past week's fall colors challenge. Here in South Florida we do not have the dramatic color change that fall presents up North. However, the bald cypress is one of the view trees that does change colors and goes "bald" during the winter. It is like a splash of color next to all the evergreens.

Lake View

Another plein air painting from the park. This is the beautiful lake that you have seen from the boad house paintings. Here I focused on a rather quiescent mood......

Boat House 3

As mentioned a few weeks ago I am now posting another view of the boat house. I got to finish it over the week-end. Wow, what a "growing experience!!! I found myself much more looking than painting. One big thing (besides the size....lol) was that I had to be so much more patient... a smaller painting I finish in one sitting - this one I had to bring to the park four times to get it finished. That is long for me...but I am glad that finally I am able to "push it" further (you big canvas painters know what I mean!)... I guess I never had to really think about that with the smaller paintings. Now, here it is...let me know how you like it.

Four Pears

My favorite subject ..... you guessed it .......fruits and vegetables :o)

Sweet Potatoes

I love the complimentary contrast of the orange on blue - 

Shared Space

I found another plein air painting from last fall. When we arrived one Saturday morning at the park we saw the boy scouts had set up camp over night at our favorite painting spot....

Orange Cocktail

I "squeezed" in some time for a still life. Because there is not much color contrast here, I focused on the glass. 

Tree Umbrella

It has been a while... the excuse is of course I am swamped with work and not much time to paint .... As I was looking through my paintings I found this landscape that I worked on over the summer. The original painting was from one year ago and I was never happy with it. The final version gives much more the impression of full sunlight, agreed?

Back Light

Here an attempt to capture the morning light in the park. I only had about an hour before the sun moved on and everything changed. I love the mood in this painting.....

Bagel Breakfast

Unfortunately I did not get to paint much this past week. All the excitement that comes with the opening of the new school year took up time and energy. I hope to be back in a routine soon that allows some time for me to "play"..... For now, those delicious bagels have to fill in....

Boat House 2

Here is one of this summer's version of the boat house. How do you like it?

Boat House 1

Whenever I can I join a group of friends to go painting in a nearby park. Plein air painters know that painting outdoors is an incredible, almost spiritual experience. Sounds a little crazy? ...but imagine...you and nature.... and being in the quiet observation mode, taking it all in, filtering it and putting out your personal interpretation of it all! That is powerful!!!
Anyway, this is a painting from last summer of the park's boat house which is next to a lake. This summer I was able to paint a couple more views of the building and plan to post it soon.

Happiest Hour

I posted this "Me painting in the Park" picture on the DPW weekly challenge. This painting is a birthday card and Thank you to Carol Marine who has been an inspiration for many. Initially through her daily painting blog and now the Dailypaintworks.com website she has been a leader in creating an online artist community.

Carrots

The hardest part was the different shades of green. Now looking at the painting afterwards...I could have put more darks into the orange color to create more depth? I am going to leave it for now and on to the next painting.....

Tea Mug

It seems the Daily Paintworks' Weekly Challenge keeps me posting...well, it's the fun to figure out creatively what I can do with the challenge. Another great thing is to look at what everybody else came up with. It is amazing how every artist is interpreting the same thing in a different way... This here is a colorful portrait of my tea mug that provides happiness in the morning  =)

Grandmother's Kitchen Window

Painted from a black-and-white photo for the DPW weekly challenge. It was fun to be free with the color. However, the challenge was to match the value. Great exercise!

Cup o'Tea 2

As mentioned earlier - I am returning to the little teapot! This time I focused on bringing more color into the white of the pot and cup. I think it shows more of the character of the forms... I say it is improved from the previous post. Agree?

Palm Window

 #1


#2

Here I have a BEFORE and AFTER of an en-plein-air painting. I was out in the park to paint this in spring. If you are familiar with painting on site, you know how much one has to ignore, simplify and pay attention to color perspective. The first painting appears busy. The middle and background did not go back due to the colors being too bright and light which makes everything pop. The second painting is the new version from last week-end. I went back to the spot and repainted mainly the background. Of course it is now a different time of the year so a lot of colors have changed too. What do you think? Is #2 a better rendition? Is there still something that could be improved? Thanks in advance for your feed back.

Cup o' Tea

This is an attempt to paint white with a dark background and peaches as color interest. I am not too happy how it came out. Besides the photo being somewhat overexposed, the tea pot is still too light and could have refected more colors.... another example of the difficulty to paint white.....

Moonlight Tree

Something totally different - a rather abstract landscape scene in watercolor. I painted this in response to the DPW "The color of music challenge", by Lesley Spanos. It made me think a little about how I would "illustrate" a piece of music. I wanted it to be different from the artist listening to music to get into a relaxed, creative and playful mood. I did not want to paint gestures of my movements to the music nor squiggles to illustrate rhythms and melodies. Maybe associations and emotions that the music evokes? Yes! I love piano music and so I picked Erik Satie's Nocturne Sequences - it is quiet, pensive and has repetitive variations... I closed my eyes and envisioned a moonlit night scene with a tree .... It also helped to break up the usual oil painting routine by using watercolors instead. Quite different in deed...what do you think?

Orange Reflection

I posted this on Daily Paintworks as my contribution for painting reflections. I kept it simple to focus on the reflection and colors. Recently, I have been working more on masonite boards (the rough back side). I have to say that I like the rough look of the finished painting - it also helps me being less fuzzy and use less strokes....Anybody else has experience with working on masonite (rough or smooth side)???

Red Beets

I never imagined there could be so much variation in colors in this ordinary root vegetable. It was fun observing the subtlety of it all. Also these beets tasted great after roasting in the oven for 1/2 hour.....

Red Taters

Painting this picture made me realize that I am looking at things differently now. I am more sensitive to subtleties in color, notice more reflections and values. At times waiting in the car at a red light, I find myself squinting at something and in my mind "seeing" myself observing the values and how I would paint it. Does that happen to you too??? I call it "MIND-PAINTING" - unfortunately limited in time because usually it is interrupted by beeping cars behind me....

Tubes of Paint

Happy 4th of July!!!
I painted this for the Weekly Challenge at DPW: Paint what your are painting with. These tubes must have felt special posing. Normally they get the squeeze and toss treatment.....

Peppers in a Row

Can you tell I love red peppers? We eat them fairly frequently as I offer them raw and cut up as an alternative at the dinner table for our picky eaters that do not like veggies cooked because they "look too mushy..".  Sounds familiar??? Maybe my little one has a point ....don't the vitamins get cooked out?  As a painting I am quite happy how this one turned out. The different shades of red are showing the shapes of the pepper nicely.....

Pepper Tomato Team

This is another study of red and green - however looking at the picture now I see that I could have added more reflected red into the shadow on the right of the tomato...another lesson learned for next time.

Radishes

These little radishes come already with a great complementary contrast of red and green  - they were fun to paint!

Onion Power

Just the other day I found this sprouting onion in my refrigerator. It made a great subject...

Plum Quartet

Sommer is great for all the different fruits that are posing for my stills. Here are some purple plums on aluminum foil - I love the reflections, it almost looks like water...

Mangos and Palm

This will be the last mango painting for a while, it's a large one - 20" x 20" - I guess a "monument" to this amazing fruit ;o). It was totally fun to observe the bright orange and yellow tones cooled and complemented with the blue background...

Melon Slices

For this week's DailyPaintWorks Challenge: paint an upside down photograph. The idea is not to let the brain tell you how to paint something, instead only paint what you actually see without knowing what it really is - so to speak "Painting with the right side of your brain and turn the left temporarily off ;o)..." This was difficult because my brain constantly tried to figure out what it was that I was seeing and painting, I had to push it out of the way...a very good exercise!

Mango Duo

...still not being bored painting and eating them...