Flowers and Fruit

"Spooning"  8x8"  Acrylic on Panel

I love January's. It's the no (airplane) travel month. Its also the build up my "inventory" month.

Look for the peppers...in art stores near you!

"Pepper Party"  8x10, Acrylic  $295  Click for Info

My recently posted pepper painting was commissioned by Strathmore Paper Company, for the front cover of their new product, black canvas paper pads, which you can find in retail art stores. I could not reveal that information until they officially introduced the product on their website.  Nor could I offer the painting for sale because they needed the actual artwork to photograph. It arrived back today, and is available for any would-be collectors.

BTW If you've never worked on a black surface, try it, you'll like it. The colors really pop!
Click here to read more about Strathmore 300 Series Black Canvas Paper.

Green Bowl

"Green Bowl"  8x8"  Acrylic SOLD

Apples and Cherries

"Opposites Attract"  8x8"  Acrylic  SOLD

I finally got my still life stand and lights functioning in the new studio. It felt great to be back at the easel, working from life, with all my creature comforts nearby. The picture below shows my acrylic corner - and on the other side of the room are my oils and mixed-media work areas. If I get stuck on one project i just move a few feet to the next. Love it!

Pink Gerbera Painting Demo

"Pink Gerbera"  8x8" Acrylic  (Sold)

Seems like I've been away forever, one workshop after the next - all really fun, then a trade show out west. As always, the best part of workshops is meeting new artists and making new friends.
I am finally home - for one day - then back on the road to see my folks for Thanksgiving. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday.
Posted above is one of the demos from the Carmel Workshop.

Last Class

Blue bottles and Bowl   Acrylic 9x9"  SOLD

Today was the last (local) class I will be teaching for a couple months. It was actually a complementary make-up session for all those who missed a class or two during the 8 week period. About 1/2 the class  showed up -  so I had time to paint too. Then we all went to the diner for lunch. I couldn't ask for a nicer group of gals to work with. Some of them are coming to my workshop in Italy  this September.  Register now if you want to join us, class size is limited.

Sleeping on the Job

"One Slacker"  6x6"  Acrylic  Click to Buy

Looks like the rest of the crew is poised and ready for action. Everyone except this one slacker, who is clearly down for the count. There's one in every crowd...

One Man Out

One Man Out  Acrylic 8x8" Click to buy

Tulips and Cherries

Tulips and Cherries  Acrylic, 6x6"

This is a painting of the still life I set up for my Wednesday morning class. After the students left I decided to paint it myself. 

Today I'm leaving for about a week, to teach a workshop in Syracuse NY, my hometown. I'm looking forward to the workshop, as well as spending some time with my family!

Blue Glass Bottles

Blue Glass Bottles 8x8" Acrylic on Gessoboard  Click to buy

This week in class the focus is on painting glass and reflections.  Here's my class demo, some lovely colored bottles in cool blues and greens.

Here are some new workshops I will be teaching in 2013... please join us if you can!

Waverly Artists Group, North Carolina, April 14, 15 and 16... more information
Workshops at my studio, New York, Jan, Feb. March and April .... more information
Rising Sun, Indiana, June 15 & 16 ... contact
Tuscany, Italy, July 17 - 24 ... more information
Carmel Art Institute, California  Fall of 2013, date TBD

Rochester workshop

"...On the road again".... I hope I won't be singing that tune anytime soon. I've been on the road since February 7, and finally pulled in my own driveway last night at 9 PM. My days and nights were spent teaching at colleges and art associations in several upstate NY cities, then spending a few days recently with my parents in Syracuse, NY. The first thing I did when I got home, to wind down and relax, was pull out my trusty paints and push color around. Ahhhh.... this is my idea of "home".

I'm posting a picture from the last workshop I taught in Rochester NY. They were a great group of gals to work with, and some of them are showing off their 15 minute paintings in the photo...they didn't believe it could be done. Trying out acrylic paint and using big brushes was a new experience for many of them, especially the watercolorists - but they caught on quickly! I provided all the paint, so there was no excuse to skimp. Thick paint, fat brushes, little time, big fun!

Pitcher and Tangerine

9x9" Acrylic on Paper, Price on Request

Mo, Harry & Curly

Italy shmittaly. Who needs to paint beauty halfway across the world when its screaming like a siren in front of me? Thats exactly what these funky, eccentric little squashes have been thinking, while waiting patiently for me to stop painting Italian vistas long enough to notice them. They are such comical characters, with their corkscrew bonnets and zany striped pajamas. Beauty is everywhere! I'm grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Three Squashes

6x6" Oil on Board

Price on Request

White Rose 4

A rose is a rose is a rose... I seem to have roses on the mind lately. They are a great shape to play with, endless opportunities to explore color and structure. This little study was done in a color-spot-by color-spot approach, a technique I was introduced to in the early 90's when I took a 5 day workshop with a colorist who studied with the late great Henry Henche. Since then I have noticed that my favorite painters were either Henche students at one time, or come from that tradition. The spot by spot approach requires that you constantly judge color relationships, by color temperature, value, and saturation or intensity. It also involves a lot of exacting color mixing, which in some ways is better suited to oils, since acrylics dry fast. I've been experimenting with Golden OPEN Acrylics and mediums lately, they dry up to 10 times slower than the regular Heavy Body Acrylics. I may paint more roses with oils just to compare. Regardless of the medium, painting a white rose against a white background is a great way to discover spots of lovely, neutral colors lurking everywhere.

White Rose 4

6x6 Acrylic on Canvas

Orange on Pink

Some workshops are better than others. The workshop I taught this weekend falls clearly in the better to best category. At the top of the list is the wonderful group of gals I worked with - ranging in experience level from total beginners to very advanced art teachers. The commraderie, sharing, humor, and personality mix made this a group from heaven. They were a joy to work with as well as a hoot to hang out with. Altho I'm a taskmaster with the pace and the exercises, there was a good balance between learning and laughing. Add to that perfect weather, stunning seaside location and roomy gallery/studio sponsored by the ultimate hostess with the mostess, it doesn't get much better than this.

Here is a still life painting I did, which demonstrated using a color scheme of dominant analagous warm colors with small hints of complementary cool color as accents. The painting took an hour and was done with one 2" brush - which I rarely (if at all) dipped into water because the colors were so related. There was a lively discussion that followed about how to make subjects glow, which translated into a series of exercises on color harmony and relationships.

I always hand out an evaluation form at the end of each class and one of my questions is "What would have made this workshop better?" No matter how long the class is, whether it be 3 hours or 3 days, the answer is always the same... "more time". That makes me feel good, I'm thinking about new lessons and exercises for a 5 day workshop. The icing on the cake, however, is always the great people I meet and get to know. Thanks gals, f0r such a great weekend.

Pink on Orange

9x12 Acrylic on Canvas

St. Paddy's Blooms

I'm a little late for St. Paddy's day, but I did have this still life set up around that time, with the green backround, and I painted it but wasn't happy with it. There wasn't enough color with just the yellow tulips and the green. So even tho the flowers are long gone, I went in and added the cherry, which I think gives it a nice little pop of color, to contrast all the green. I basically ended up repainting most of it because its weird to just add one element that is a totally different color. Somehow it changes the game and I had revise most of the the colors so everything played nicely together. Its much better to get the still life elements right to begin with rather than recreate the wheel colorwise after the fact. Next time I'll slow down and analyze my setup better before jumping into the paint.

St. Paddy's Blooms

6x6" oil on canvas

White Tulip

Anything "White" is usually anything BUT. I love painting white objects, they reveal so much color! This painting was created to be a "mate" for another tulip painting I recently did. It's a publishing commission and therefore I am trying to match the style and the overall color sense of the original tulip. It will be cropped to a square shape but I decided to paint the entire 8x10 canvas. Working within these pre-determined set of parameters is interesting because I need to keep checking my painting against the original to make sure I don't veer off into some new flight of fancy. I think they play nice together but if my client doesn't, stay tuned for "White Tulip 2".

White Tulip

Acrylic on Canvas, 8x10"

Pink Buckled Handbag

Snow and sleet - just when I don't want it. Sometimes I actually do like it (the snow, never the sleet), but not tomorrow. I have to leave for Boston to teach a weekend workshop. And the weather reports are... stay home! Not an option... Boston, here I come.

Pink Buckle'd Handbag

Acrylic on Canvas 12x12"

Fuschia Birken Bag

I'm not the dedicated follower of fashion I once was but apparently these Birken bags are all the rage. I myself go for the fakes on Canal Street -within weeks they will be covered with paint splatters, like the rest of my clothes, a festive multi-colored effect!

Fuschia Birken Bag

Acrylic on Canvas, 12x12"

Eau De Provence (SOLD)

Last night, in my late night scramble to find a subject to paint, I realized I've been neglecting glass. All those reflections! I never feel like I have enough time to get into that complexity, it seems so time consuming. Excuses, excuses. So I reached for a pretty little bottle of perfume sitting on my dresser and forged ahead bravely. Truth be known, glass is like anything else... one color spot next to another color spot, keep the values correct, don't get too fussy. When I find that my paint starts to get sticky and tacky (1- 1.5 hours) I know its time to quit. The properties of acrylic paint make it a perfect automatic alarm clock. Glass - its fun!

Eau De Provence - SOLD

Acrylic on Canvas 6x6"

Pink Polish

Pink Polish

Acrylic on Canvas 12x12"