Red Azalea in Glass Bottle

Red Azalea in Glass Bottle 

Oil  8 x 10 

This painting is from a class I took last summer with Amanda Carder Lovett on how to paint glass.  I thoroughly enjoyed the class and was very pleased with the way this painting turned out.  I had attempted painting glass on my own several times, but wanted to find out if there was something I was missing--tricks of the trade.  Basically, paint what you see.  The trick is deciphering what you see in front of you to make an interesting piece of art.  If you look closely at glass objects, you realize just how intricate the reflections are--the problem is what to put in and what to leave out.  

Check out Amanda's work on her website.  She is very talented and an excellent instructor.  I have taken several workshops with Amanda and they are always informative and fruitful. I come away feeling that I have taken steps forward in my pursuit of art.  

Have a great Monday!

Katie's Sailboat

Katie's Sailboat

Oil  8 x 10 

Hey everybody!  Today, I decided to post Katie's Sailboat as I seem to have boats on my mind.  Maybe it's time to paint a few boats.  This one was painted for our granddaughter, Katie, at her request.  I really don't seem to do very well with requests, but those grandchildren can inspire to do things we wouldn't ordinarily do.  Seems I have to paint what strikes me on that particular day and time.  But Katie requested and I painted.  It was a Christmas gift to her.  

Last week, we had snow and ice and today it is supposed to be 72 degrees!  What a difference a week makes.  Have a wonderful day and week!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Pastel  6 x 9 

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope you have a great one and a great weekend!

Thank you for your continued support!

Snow Day

Snow Day

Pastel  6 x 8 

We woke up again this morning to fresh blanket of snow--so beautiful clinging to the tree branches and making a winter wonderland of everything.  Businesses and schools have closed and most people settled down into a slower mode of life for a couple of days.   This is such an unusual event in this section of the country, and the children are making the most of it using their snow days to have a blast.  I have really enjoyed watching them sliding down the hills and squealing with delight every inch of the way. This painting is of my grandson and a neighbor child enjoying their day in the snow.  

I can already see blue sky peeking through and temperature is supposed to start rising, so I wanted to get this snow painting posted before ole frosty melts away and we all return to our everyday, busy lives.  

Hope you are enjoying your winter snowy day in a warm, safe place!  

Another Snowy Day in Georgia

Another Snowy Day in Georgia

This scene is actually from the first snow of two weeks ago that we had in Georgia, but I was painting it yesterday as it was snowing all day--big, fluffy flakes and little flakes--it kept coming down.  It was so pretty, I decided to let the dust continue to accumulate on the furniture and forget about vacuuming, etc. and just give in to that urge to paint some more snow.  After all, snow in Georgia doesn't happen every winter--have to paint it while we can.  

This is my granddaughter and two neighbor children having a wonderful time sledding down the hill in their brightly colored clothes.  Stay safe and warm wherever you are!

Meet the Artist

As I told you a while back, I have a solo exhibit at Peach State Bank & Trust in Gainesville, Georgia.  It will be on exhibit through June of this year--only two artists per year have the privilege of exhibiting.  They recently asked that I participate in a Meet the Artist reception which was held yesterday.  Oh yes, I was the artist--yay.  It wasn't the best day for having it with all the weather scare, but it was so much fun.  The top photo is showing that we are all set up and ready for the event.  Some asked that I post photos of the exhibit, but it is such a large, long room that it is very difficult to get a good photo.  In the bottom photo, I'm doing a demonstration on how to paint a snowman.  This was my first time going out on that limb.  Amazingly, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Maybe I'm not such a lone ranger painter after all.  It was a fun day. 

To all of you who are local, I apologize profusely for not sending you an invitation.  This was my first rodeo and I left everything up to the bank instead of doing my part on getting the word out.  I promise the next time around, you'll be first on the invitation list--that's a promise!  

Have a wonderful, snowy, chilly winter day!

Look On The Bright Side   

Look On The Bright Side

Oil  8x8

If you are a member of my Facebook Fan Page, then you are familiar with this painting as I had it for my timeline photo for some time.  But I wanted to post it here and tell you a little story about how it got it's title. Most of the time, when I think of a painting a title usually pops into my head right away.  But for this painting, I thought of several titles over a period of days, but nothing seemed to click. 

Back last spring, my husband and I were having lunch on a beautiful day on our deck.  When we finished, I said "that was a lousy lunch, but the good thing about a lousy lunch is that we don't eat much!"  He laughed and replied that I could always find the good everything.  And I replied that you just have to look on the bright side.  Afterwards, I was still laughing to myself about that conversation and as I walked by and looked at this painting, I knew immediately I had found the title I was looking for--look on the bright side.  

Life throws curve balls and sometimes it is difficult or even impossible to look on the bright side, but this painting helps remind me to always strive to "look on the bright side".  

Hope you have a wonderful, bright day today!

French Blue Shutters

French Blue Shutters

Oil   9 x 12

You talk about changing gears, we are definitely changing gears today--we're traveling to Paris to capture these French Blue Shutters.  I would love to be in France, but guess I'll have to settle for a photograph--a girl can dream.  That's another upside to art--you can travel anywhere with a brush and image in your head.   Lovin' the blues against the orange stucco wall.  I painted this sometime back and liked it so much, I would like to paint it again.  My "to paint" list get longer instead of shorter.  But that's okay--it'll keep me inspired to make time for the easel.  

Have a great Monday and week!  

Recap of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

January Snowmen/Women/Children

Yesterday, I actually did get  each one of these little smiley faces loaded to the collage. I was about to click the button to save it to my computer when the program crashed!  All my work to load them up evaporated into cyber land, and I had to quit playing with the computer and hit the road.  I kept telling myself to forget the collage and just end it with Frosty, but I can't bear to lose a battle.  So as soon as I arrived home, I went straight to the computer and loaded them all up again!  This time the program cooperated and now we have our collage.  If you're counting, there are only 25--reason being, it's quicker to use auto upload than to drop each one into the collage manually.  I decided after the morning crash, I might be wise to take somewhat of a shortcut.  

I appreciate so many of you telling me that you will miss the snowmen and how you have looked forward to each new painting every day.  That is music to my ears!!!  A little secret between you and me, I could go on and on painting snowmen.  I'm still coming up with ideas for new ones.  I will have to draw these out before they leave my head completely because I'm sure we'll be revisiting the snowmen of winter at some point in time.  Keep checking in to see what is new on the easel!