Last Dahlias of Summer

The Last Dahlias of Summer

12" square

Oil on wood panel

The colour of the dahlias and the apples look just great together.  I enjoyed painting the teal vase as well because of the carved pattern.  The first of a series that I'm working on this Fall.

First Painting of 2014

and it feels good to be painting again.  I've already almost finished the second one and it will be a somewhat snowy Saturday afternoon so I will complete a third this weekend.  I will post better photos when I take photos in the light of day.

Painted AND Sewn

A slight departure from my normal posts.  There is a fund raiser for our local Aviary called The Nichoir this weekend.  And I decided to paint and stitch some pillows for it.  

Handpainted on unprimed canvas and embellished with free form stitching.  The birds are appliqued onto the background.  This was very satisfying to do as I can expand on this many ways and I can indulge in my love for fabric and beautiful embroidery threads at the same time.

As experiments do, this lead to my stitching up some Fall leaves using wool, dupioni silk and organza.  I'll incorporate these into wool scarves, handmade bags and more pillows.  

...and back to the small format paintings

A little grouping with two of the vases I purchased at the local Library that holds a rummage sale every Saturday morning.  Similar to one of my recent postings but this time with a pear.  These two paintings were my breakthrough paintings as far as loosening up with the brushstrokes but I have since returned to my tighter style.  Having said that I do like the end results.  I will simply have to focus choosing subject matter that I don't feel compelled to work too much detail into.

5" x 7"

Oil on Masonite

Studio Cleanup

I've been taking it sooo slow in this week between Christmas and New Year's but thought it was time to start sorting through
my studio and decided to list this painting on my Etsy shop. See the very first link at the right to get there and view the description and purchase details. It was a fun little painting meant to explore the capabilities of a texture medium and how to
use it.
I'll post a few more small scale paintings in the near future.....