Sketching Explorations

Some loose sketches for a project I'm working on.  I don't sketch for the sake of sketching often enough to have a method but I think I'm onto something with these.  Pencil first followed by watercolor working light to dark and then a Pigma

pen to tie it all together.  I was never happy with the cross hatching of the pen so the watercolor shading gives me the shaping I need.

Bunny Revisited

What Have We Here?

8" x 8" Oil on canvas

I don't often re paint images I've done before.  But it's interesting seeing how my approach might have changed in the year since or to see how working in a different size affects the outcome.  I sort of wish I had cropped this one a little more though.

Here is the painting from last year with the little bunny figurine.

Newest Member of our Cat Family

6" x 6" x 1.5"

Oil on wood panel

...and the only one now.  "Frida" is really my daughter's cat but comes to visit every few weeks for a few days.  It's funny to watch our mini dachshund and Frida go through the re-familiarization routine for the first few hours.  The "hunted" becomes the "hunter" and back and forth, until they both lie down inches from each other looking quite comfortable in each other's company.

Red Tulips Encore

Oil on wood panel 

6" x 6 x 1.5"

$80.00

Here is the second of the series.  It's only when I see it posted here that

I recognize the tweaking that needs to be done.  This one is a little cooler

than the previous posted below.  Not a bad thing but I do like the richer

grays of the first one. Here is the link to purchase on Paypal.

My "daily" paintings have become more complicated and almost better suited

to larger formats.  I may have to do some simpler ones so that I can concentrate on the brush strokes.  That was my original intention when I started these just over a year ago now.

I will have another cat painting to post within a day or so....

Tulip Time

I don't have many tulips in my garden so I was happy to see the few that I have blooming their hearts out until I discovered several cut off midway up the stem.  I can only assume the local rabbit population has also been enjoying them.  So I felt less guilty about gathering them all up and bringing them inside. (Believe it or not I do feel guilty even though I get to enjoy them up close).  I could never scold my daughter when she was five and proudly showed me armfuls of garden flowers cut just for me.  I was glad she could do what I

had trouble doing.  So this painting is fresh off the easel and will be followed by a few more of the same grouping.  I had four or five from this last photo

shoot that I'd like to do while I still have the color palette available.

Red Tulips in Blue and White Jug

Oil "6 x 6" x 1.5"

wood cradled panel

Happy First of May

Today is a special day in France. Apparently May 1st is a day to offer your loved ones a sprig of lily-of-the-valley to wish them love and good luck. 

While it's not exactly "dancing around the flagpole" weather here (It's grey and rainy), it is

inevitable that flowers will be blooming any time now.