Blue Highway

"Blue Highway"

oil on canvas

NFS

This is a landscape I did a while ago in Shelby Keefe's workshop. I forgot to bring a photo to paint from that day so she let me use one of hers. I first painted an orange and blue under painting in acrylic then the rest in oil. The painting is only 9X12 so I was able to finish it in one day.

I've Been Tagged!

A very talented artist by the name of Dominique Eichi tagged me. Be sure to check her blogg and wonderful sketches and paintings

So here’s how tagging works. I’m supposed to tell seven unusual things about myself and that is not easy since I lived a pretty normal life so far. This is a nice way to get to know other bloggers. These are the rules of the game:

1. Put a link in your posting to the person who tagged you.
2. List seven unusual/interesting things about yourself.
3. Tag seven other bloggers at the end of your post and comment on their blogs to let them know they have been tagged.

Here is my list of seven things about me. They are not that unusual but I hope halfway interesting:

1. I taught an 80-year-old blind man how to paint. He painted fearlessly and became a local celebrity before he died.

2. I shudder when I look at a white canvas…..once I get color on it I’m Ok.

3. When my children were little they colored in coloring books I illustrated for Western Publishing Company.

4. Every spring my husband and I load up our camper with my painting supplies, the dog and etc. and take a scenic drive down the Natchez Trace.

5. My daughter and I took a weeklong workshop in Taos, New Mexico taught by Laura Robb.

6. I spend way too much time thinking about painting and NOT painting

7. I have a lot of close-up photos of Barack Obama from a campaign rally…...perfect for future portraits, I hope.

8. My daughter Carrie Griesemer helped me set up this blog and corrected my photos in Photoshop, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do all this without her knowledge and expertise.

oops! I just realized I have eight! I can't decide which one to delete so I will have to bore you with eight usual things about myself.

I am tagging these seven wonderful artist that keep inspiring me:

Carrie Griesemer
Tom Pohlman
Qiang Huang
Edward Burton
Karin Jurick
Robin Peterson
Carol Marine

Garlic & Asparagus

"Garlic & Asparagus"

oil on canvas

6x8

I was asked by Candy Barr to post more of my work on my blog, even some from the “olden days.” I need to photograph some of my older works but here is one I did last spring. This is a study of a still life I had set up in my studio under controlled light.

Listening to Jefferson

"Listening to Jefferson"

oil on canvas

This is my submission for Karin Jurick’s photo of the Jefferson Memorial in the DSFDF challenge. I took liberty in cropping the photo to an extreme. The photo was so fuzzy after enlarging this one little area that the streetlight looked more like a moon over the horizon. The crooked tree leaning toward the Jefferson Monument and the bright streetlight illuminating the area really intrigued me. I especially enjoyed painting this night scene because I was able to use an old tube of Indigo Blue I never used before and discovered it is a good color for painting dark areas and mixing grays.

Shawna

"Shawna"

oil on canvas

This painting was my first submission for Karin Jurick's biweekly challenge on Different Strokes from Different Folks Dec. 3, 2008. In this challenge we were asked to paint our interpretation of a photo of Karin's work boots. I wasn't planning to enter the challenge but I kept seeing a painting of my Gordon Setter Shawna curled up next to Karin's boots. I barely finished my painting before the deadline. Since then I decided it needed to be developed further so I included more of Shawna in the painting as you can see.

This sweetheart of a dog was rescued from a shelter and was only hours from being put down. Shawna was a year old when we adopted her and has been part of our family for 8 years. She still looks and acts like a pup except for her graying muzzle, which I love to paint. You will be seeing more of her I’m sure, since she is a great model in front of my camera.

Portrait of Vicki

"Portrait of Vicki"

     oil on canvas

             Sold

This is my portrait for Karin Jurick's portrait swap challenge Different Strokes for Different Folks. We were paired with other artists to paint each other's portrait from a photo. Check out Karin's blog to view all of the "challenge" paintings.