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)