No. 874 Tulips in Glass Vase

Tulips in Glass Vase

Oil on Canvas Panel

7" x 5"

Tulips are not easy to paint. Flowers in general are not easy to paint. I had a tough time this year doing any still life with tulips that I was very happy about. I did end up being pretty happy with this one.

No. 847 Heck of a Hellebore

Heck of a Hellebore

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

A return to the backyard painting a hellebore I picked up the previous day at the nursery. I've been surprised at just how peaceful it can be painting outside on these grey, wet days with the rain pitter-pattering on my umbrella.

No. 824 Fall Pansies

Fall Pansies

Oil on Canvas Panel

8" x 6"

Click to Bid

While I brace myself for the dark, cold days ahead, it's a relief to see these cheerful faces still hanging around.

No. 820 Please Don't Make Me Sneeze

Please Don't Make Me Sneeze

Oil on Canvas Panel

5" x 7"

Click to Bid

  I cut these sunflowers at Bailey's U-Pick farm. It was a bit of a dangerous operation as the bees were everywhere and really didn't want to give up those flowers.
 
Did I mention how disappointed I am that sunflowers make me sneeze?

No. 806 Daffs by the Doorway

Daffs by the Doorway

Oil on Canvas Panel

6" x 8"

This was painted using a method Shelby Keefe prefers. It begins with an acrylic under-painting using colors complimentary to what will eventually be placed on top. The idea is to let little bits of the under color show through in the final painting. It makes for a pretty vibrant painting in the end. 

Coupeville Art Festival countdown starts - 6 days. That means six days to squeeze in a couple more paintings, fix old ones, varnish finished ones, make sure I have everything I need, update my website, prep drapery and table clothes and a few other things I'm forgetting at the moment. Time to start a to-do list!

No. 805 Shropshires with Blue Green Vase

Shropshires with Blue Green Vase

Oil on Gessobord

9" x 12"

Silly you! And you thought we were done with roses. :)

No.803 Shropshires with Green Vase

Shropshires with Green Vase

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

More roses you say? Ooooohh yes!

 

And a photo from France - Antibes, France to be exact. Couldn't resist the color of the table and chairs next to the texture of the iron work on the doors.

No. 802 Shropshires with Blue Jar

Shropshires with Blue Jar

Oil on Gessorbord

12" x 12"

Did I mention how prolific my Shropshire rose bush was? :) 

In this painting, I'm super proud of how the upper left rose turned out. 

No. 801 Shropshires with Golden Goblet

Shropshires with Golden Goblet

Oil on Canvas Panel

9 x 12

It was hard to keep up with all the roses that bush produced this year.

No. 800! Bountiful Harvest

Bountiful Harvest

Oil on Gessobord

12 x 12

My Shropshire roses really out did themselves this year. They kept me on my toes too as I tried to capture just a bit of their beauty.

No. 797 Pop Those Peonies!

Pop Those Peonies!

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

My students have been bringing in the most gorgeous bouquets of flowers to paint.

Sometimes I get to paint them too. Sometimes I get to just soak them in.

Either way, lucky, lucky me!!

Most importantly, they've been doing a splendid job painting them.

Cool door knocker in Vence.

No. 796 Tuips with Coffee 2

Tulips with Coffee 2

Oil on Canvas Board

6" x 8"

Click to Bid

  I will be participating in three festivals this summer. The first one is July 8th and 9th in Mill Creek. With that in mind, I've been trying to beef up my inventory of small paintings. This was painted earlier this spring when tulips seemed to be everywhere. I have a lot more small paintings to share and you may have noticed I'm super close to blog post 800. So look out for a posting burst in the very near future.

More photos from my trip to France:

Matisse's Museum in Nice.

 A close up of one of the planters. Love the green against the red of the building.

A church nearby.

A close up of the detail above the entryway complete with pigeons.

No. 784 Blue Jar with Tulips

Blue Jar with Tulips

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

Click to Bid

I hope you like tulips because I have a whole lot of tulips coming down the pike....

No. 782 Solo Mio

Solo Mio

Oil on Canvas

5" x 7"

Click to Bid

A demo from class using what we have fondly come to call the "Dreama Method".

No. 781 Blooming Coffe Pot

Blooming Coffee Pot

Oil on Canvas Board

7" x 5"

Sold

Some things just seem to go together. This cool old white coffee pot and tulips are one great example.

No. 776 Double Tulip Drama

Double Tulip Drama

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

Click to Bid

Tulip drama indeed! I hesitated buying these tulips because I knew the yellow tipped petals would be a challenge. Little did I know that they were double tulips as well, effectively doubling the difficulty of a difficult tulip. Woe is me! ;)

No. 773 Tulips in Red Pitcher

Red Pitcher

Oil on Canvas Board

7" x 5"

This is one of my favorite recent paintings. It's for sale at the Rexville Grange Art Show near the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon. The subject matter seemed appropriate. The show starts Friday. If you are headed up that way, I highly recommend a visit. There's some great stuff there and I'm already afraid any profit I might make will probably be spent at the show...

I drove by the tulip fields yesterday after setting up the show. Lots of daffodils in bloom but not much in the way of tulips yet. Here is a link to check out what is currently in bloom:
http://www.tulips.com/bloommap

No. 772 Blue Coffee Pot with Tulips

Blue Coffee with Tulips

Oil on Canvas Panel

7" x 5"

We've had a very, very soggy and chilly winter so thank goodness for greenhouse tulips!

Returning to our trip to France, after getting your ticket you'll probably want to reserve a place to stay. Sandy, the trip coordinator recommended a couple of nice inns to stay at. I chose to give Airbnb a try. There were a couple of things that appealed to me about Airbnb. First, you can find a pretty good deal. The cost of the studio I'm staying in is less than half the inn Sandy recommended.

Second, I liked the opportunity to take a peak at how the French live. It was really interesting perusing the unique homes and rooms available in the area .

Lastly, my hosts are very accommodating. Once I reserved my room I was contacted the next day by the host, Veronique, and asked if there was anything I needed help with. I soon discovered that her mom is a watercolor artist and is willing to recommend places for me to go paint!

Downtown Vence

My little studio is in there somewhere!

No. 761 Palette Knife Poinsettia 2

Palette Knife Poinsettia #2

Oil on Canvas Panel

6" x 6"

Good grief! Could Christmas really only be a week away? 

More experimenting with the palette knife. It's easy to create a lot of interesting texture with this tool.

~Susan

Click to Bid

No 760 Ruby Red Poinsettia

Ruby Red Poinsettia

Oil on Canvas Panel

6" x 6"

Another palette knife painting. Considering how very awkward a palette knife in my hands can be I'm surprised how well this came out. One thing I've noticed is how it encourages me to see more abstractly in shapes instead of lines. If you can get yourself in an abstract, shape making state of mind it usually ends up in a better painting even if the goal is realism.