Meditation Under Red Umbrella

Here is my friend in quiet concentration, taking it all in, filtering it, putting her personal interpretation on canvas - recreating reality... being in the moment with deep focus... I call it a form of meditation, an incredible experience. This is why we are coming back to paint outdoors. All you plein-air painters out there agree?

Painting by the Lake

I am having more fun to paint the painter - this view seems so quiet and intimate... during a break I found out that my friend was painting a small tree that was fighting to grow through the jungle of reed. Who knew?? I still like the peacefulness of the scene I focused on -

Painting Horses

Another beautiful morning at the park painting. Can you tell we are having fun?

Morning Light 1

A morning scene from our nearby park with the shadows in cool colors. I tried to focus on the light going down the slope of the ridge creating a nice circular movement. I plan to paint this view soon again as I am striving for a looser, less detailed impression. Any comments on this one?

Orange on Blue

This is an example of a bad photo that does not give the real impression of the original painting - too much contrast that causes the slices to look as if they have a white frame around them, all subtle greys and light blues are lost. Unfortunately this has to fill in for today as other things are calling me away from what I like to do most which is JUST PAINT!! .... hoping to sneak in a painting very soon...

Morning Walk

Being in the park and painting the beautiful sun light coming through the big oak trees is one of my favorite things. Hope I captured it here - dabbled light and shadows - bright leaves against the sky. 

Ready to Scramble!

...and today for breakfast ... a gift from our own chickens!

Bagel Stack

One American tradition is bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. As I am more a cereal for breakfast person, I took the opportunity to paint this rather rare site when a friend came over with a bag full of different flavored ones... look at the delicious brown tones... and they tasted great!

Water Hyacinth

Considered an invasive plant on lakes here in Florida, the hyacinth made a nice subject for this flower painting. It was fun to paint those thick, waxy leaves.

Firebush

One of my butterfly attracting plants is this firebush, even humming birds seem to like it. I discovered that I really like painting plants and flowers. Besides being quite forgiving in terms of being a recognizable portrait, I think it frees me up to be more playful and creative with it. More flower paintings are coming .....

Thirsty Willow

Something different that I have not done much is painting animals outdoors. This horse is from a group of horses that comes in every week-end for horseback riding on trails throughout the park. My attention was drawn to the morning sun lighting up these yellow water buckets creating delicious reflections....

Lake Shore

..."spring-green" for St. Patrick's Day :o)...  I am struggling with my landscapes recently deciding how much detail is needed to give the feel of the scene in front of me. Here I wanted to emphasize on the different directions the trees are growing (movement) next to the peaceful field and lake (horizontal and relaxation) resulting in some kind of balance...  wow!... I feel quite philosophical today....

Cut Apple

A couple of days ago I felt quite taken over by the flu virus... a difficult decision came up... go to bed and rest or paint... guess what I did?? Hope you like it. ....feeling better now....

Award Ribbon

You have seen this painting in a previous post. I just accepted an award for it during an open show at Plantation Art Guild, Florida. I am all smiles to show that I felt pretty proud of being recognized among all the other paintings...

Tea Hour

Here is another take on the tea pot. I am much happier with this one as it is more what I am striving for... looser and more playful... hope you like it!

Honeybell's Limbo Dance

I couldn't resist to compose something with this cool glass bottle. I mainly focused on the color of the Honeybell oranges bouncing around everywhere. IMO Honeybells deserve their name because they are super delicious. They have a very short season around January and February and are not commonly available. Caribbean Limbo music is playing while they wiggling themselves through the tight spot under the bottle .... almost made it!

Papaya Bottle

Back to the old classic still life format... papaya or squash, you decide.... just look at the reflections in the deep green of the bottle that is what interested me the most.

Light up!

Not my usual fruits and vegetables...

Solo Art Show

Just to update you on the opening of show last week-end. It was a great success and I really enjoyed to hear people's comments and observations. I think it is one of the most gratifying experiences for an artist to hear that a particular work "spoke" or "touched" a person. This is what it's all about.... to communicate an idea or feeling.... Thanks to everybody who was able to come!!!

Forest Path

For a while I wanted to paint a landscape that has more shaded area than sun light.... I finally tried... and I had to find out that painting shade is difficult!!! I had to take this painting 3 times to the location and finish it there. In this case a reference photo I took was useless because the darks showed up flat without any luminosity and I needed to observe from real life... however, still, I find it sometimes useful to have a photo to decide on design and composition. I guess this is my contribution to the age-old discussion: Is painting from photographs good or bad? ....my answer is that it is just another tool that can be helpful....

Cleaning Day

I have to admit, I do not like cleaning. I'd rather paint of course.... I thought maybe it is more fun to paint the cleaning tools instead of going with them for the BIG SCRUB ;o)

Paint-Out

My painting buddies made excellent subjects for this landscape. Recently I have been busy getting paintings ready for a solo show that I will be setting up for the month of February. The show will be at the new city hall of Wilton Manors near Fort Lauderdale. The city is holding an ARTWALK every 3rd Friday of the month, starting at 6 pm. I am excited to have the opportunity to do this as my plan for 2012 is to be more active in exhibiting my work. This will be my first solo show.... you are more than welcome to stop by if you happen to be in the area. Now, as it is most likely you are living far far away... the majority of the paintings that will be in the show you can enjoy here on the blog.
Cheers -

Papaya Slice

The complimentary color combination works very well here. After being a great subject for a still life, this papaya made for a delicious salat...

Foxtail Palm

I would like to start off this year with a study that I did on NEW YEAR'S EVE. Here in South Florida the last day of 2011said good-bye with blue sky, sunshine and mild temperatures. Greetings from the sunshine state!!!

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.....