Tag Archives: jungle painting

She’s Glowing! and monthly Gicleé and IPhone cover winner.

She's Glowing

I love bright pinks and this lady sure likes it too.  So what is going on here.

There are two creatures happily conversing while the south wind hangs out waiting for my wing propelled snail to pass by before fluttering Eve’s bridal veil. The snakes are contained in the plants so the are no apples to tempt Eve.

A slight departure on my painting today. After I used permanent ink, I washed the aqua board with hot water and soap thus lightening the ink outlines. Notice the difference?

Thank you to everyone who has signed up for my blog this month. Chris D. won the Iphone cover with one of my leopards on it and Kim, who helped my husband pick out a new iPhone,  won the gicleé.  Congratulations.

Soon we will be going to Europe and we are barely organized. Luckily our children have decided to spend some time here while we are gone so the cats will be well taken care of.

This painting is 6″ by 6″ and is for sale for $100.00

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Rebirth of Venus


cat painting

Titles tell us so much.  I first was going to call this “It Would Make A Cat Laugh”.

Then I thought about how beautiful the planets were in conjunction last night and wanted to call this painting “Waiting for the Stars”.

But Venus with her earrings reminded me of Willie Marlowe‘s series Peggy Guggenheim’s Earrings so in a round about way (since my lovely Venus is wearing earrings and maybe is as promiscuous as the wonderful Ms. Guggenheim) I thought, “One can’t be born with earrings, but one can make a reappearance, thus my title.

While you are here take a look at Willie’s website. Her works are influenced by Persian and Indian miniature paintings. Her use of color and reference to ancient art awes and inspires me. I feel so fortunate to have acquired one of her paintings in the series of Peggy Guggenheim’s Earrings. It hangs appropriately in our bedroom.

I love making my creatures appear and disappear. How many can you find?

This is an 8″ by 10” ink and watercolor on Aqua Board. I have been working and reworking this for the past two weeks. These paintings are slow going.

Rebirth of Venus is SOLD.

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Nesting

Nesting ©

Well it has been an incredibly busy time of year. Postcards are printed for the Exhibit at DeBlois Gallery The Art Stable Gallery is opening this weekend (I will be posting more about that soon), and we are getting ready to go to Europe for the exhibit I am in.  We went to a wonderful rock and roll wedding this past weekend and the bride and groom were one of the happiest couples I have ever seen.

I am loving painting such wild foliage and thought I might make a picture without any creatures. Not surprisingly, a few of them  snuck in here.

I am happy to say this painting is much less expensive than my others. I found that fewer creatures meant fewer hours.

Monday was such a glorious day that it is hard to remember what a cool spring it has been. I love how resilient we are. The flowers have opened in abundance and our nesting sparrow is surely going to have babes soon.

This is a 6″ by 6″ Ink and Watercolor on aqua board and comes with it’s own stand so you can display it immediately. It is for sale for $125.00

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Lavender Reverie

Reverie © 5-13-13

I drew this painting while thinking about Mother’s day and storks and the notion that babies come from storks. Of course thinking about my family makes me smile.

As to storks though, I did not know that they are monogamous, often building one nest with one partner and living out their lives in one location.

But when I went researching folk-lore, I was surprised by the variety of conflicting histories. What stands out is that storks have been symbols of good luck since Greek times. It is said that Aristotle suggested that killing storks be considered a crime. I also found that it was believed by the Scandinavians that ponds that storks waded in held babies’ souls. But then, one gets confronted by the depressing Hans Christian Anderson tale in which some boys made fun of a stork and the stork went to the pond of baby souls and brought that boy’s family a dead brother. Mr. Anderson is, of course, known for many more morbid stories with quite the moral message.

But in my picture lies a much happier tale of presenting flowers to ones sweetheart, or mother or friend.

So with an abundance of cheer, I made my little 6″ by 6″  Lavender Reverie. It is for sale for $200 framed in a shadow box frame.

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Elephant Walk

elephant talk ©

Sometimes I want there to be lots of interaction going on with my creatures but in this painting I decided to let the creatures speak for themselves.

Although my work  looks “childlike” to most eyes, I spend a long time on composition and work out color values on paper copies before I watercolor my painting.  I often do my work on aquaboard and varnish the finished work rather than use watercolor paper. I can go through 10 to 20 revisions of my drawing before I ever get to the inking stage.  Once I do ink in my paintings, I am using the old fashioned technique working with a crow quill pen dipped in indelible ink.  More on my process and intent in the next post.

Today I hope you enjoy the tamed wildness of sea anemones intersecting with jungle creatures and giant sized poppies.

SOLD

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Monkey Business or How to Eavesdrop!

new 6 by 6

This painting has gone through several revisions over the past few weeks. I was pleased with the drawing but have darkened and lightened some areas to make a more harmonious painting. I continue to be in the poppy business.

It has been a very busy few days. I am trying to get work ready for several shows and have encountered those old framing challenges. I have several at the framer and am changing frames I originally was going to use by sanding and varnishing them.

I also hosted a meeting for South Coast Artists, an artist group I am part of on Thursday. There was such great energy at the meeting it felt like a party.

We have begun gardening and I planted 7 rhubarb plants in the lower 40. It is my favorite fruit for pies and I am hoping these plants take off and give me years of pies. I used Skype to chat with my daughter tonight who is in Hawaii for work. Now that job has some wonderful perks. She is staying at Waikiki Beach. I wish I were there. I could use some warm weather.

This painting is 6″ by 6″ and framed in a shadow box frame. It is for sale for $250.

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Petting the Human!

PETTING THE HUMAN ©

When I drew this, I began putting my usual suspects into the painting rather than some of my more recent jungle creatures. Painting the background on aqua board is challenging. I find I need to work with all the strokes going in one direction. I must be sure the paint stays wet enough so the background stays even. On this painting I worked in the background first. I decided what colors I wanted to work in and painted out a few color combinations on xeroxes of the outlined drawing. Once satisfied, I began to work on this 8″ by 10″ painting.

Mr. Gray Pants and Purple Polka Dots remind me of cartoon characters.

This painting is framed in a maple and black shadow box frame. To purchase click here.

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The bunny part of a new work.

NEW WORK PART OF

I have been working on a few pieces, taking time out from each to let them sit before I continue to work on them. I haven’t finished any recently as I have been moving in between them but thought I would post part of a 9″ by 12″ work on aqua board.

Thanks to all who signed up for my blog. I have a winner from the last 20 blog followers.  It is a lovely woman who bought my photo through Etsy. Well that is a nice surprise.

I love seeing the April daffodils and the early white forsythia blooming in our yard.

Happy Monday to all.

 

 

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Petting the Human

petting the human1©

I am working on a new piece with some of my imaginary creatures. I have figured out the color scheme and am doing something I haven’t done before. I am painting the background in first. This is the most tedious part of painting on aqua board as the strokes all need to be in one direction and with the same consistency of color. I look forward to posting the finished piece later in the week.

Happy Thursday to all. Yesterday it was breezy all day and then last night the north wind blew for hours. I hope everyone stayed warm. We lit a fire which kept the house very cozy.

 

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Greetings and Giclee give away!

Greetings

I was working on adding depth to my painting by adding landscape in a different way than I normally do. I think these two cool cats are just getting to know one another. I hope they strike up a lovely friendship as I have with so many artists in this area. It has been wonderful to connect with other painters and photographers and sculptors. My life is fuller getting to know so many wonderful and creative people whether through blogging or through meeting them as I get to know more artists in the area.

This is an 8″ by 10″ Ink and Watercolor that is painted on aqua board. This painting is not yet varnished as I am visiting my sister in Asheville, North Carolina….oh and yes we have snow today. Something I hoped to get away from. But the mountains are beautiful and the art is great to see. Asheville has a really thriving artist community. I love it!

This painting is for sale for $600.00 and is framed in a maple shadow box.

And  remember if you haven’t signed up for my blog I am giving away a print to one of the last 20 people who sign up. Only 4 more  people to go so please consider signing up for may blog.

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