Brendy Vaughn's Art Journal

2009-08-31T11:12:00.002-05:00

"Three Friends"
SOLD

2009-08-27T12:56:00.003-05:00

"Fork in the River"

Available: $125 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2009-03-25T17:56:00.001-05:00

"Resting"
SOLD

2009-03-23T13:04:00.004-05:00

"The Welcome"
SOLD

2009-03-21T21:20:00.002-05:00

"Foraging at Sunset"
SOLD

2009-03-20T17:00:00.005-05:00

"Cow in Hill Country Pasture"
SOLD

2009-03-14T12:34:00.003-05:00

50% off all paintings from 2007

If you look to the right hand side of my blog, under the title "Archives" you'll see all the posts I've made in the past 3 years (wow, I didn't realize I had been blogging that long until just now). I'll take half off any un-sold painting that was created in 2007. There are some pieces there that I'm really surprised haven't sold yet. But what I think is a successful piece may not be what someone wants in their house I guess.

e-mail me to purchase: brendyh@hotmail.com

2009-03-14T10:04:00.001-05:00

"Sunset at Yellowstone"
SOLD

We went to Yellowstone this past summer with my brother and his family. It was so fun traveling with them. While we were having a picnic, an amazing sunset took place behind us. I was running around like crazy taking pictures trying to catch as much of it on film as I could. It realy made me admire artists that do plein air paintings. The light is so fleeting.

2009-03-12T16:58:00.000-05:00

"Flowers at the Pond"

It feels so decadent to spend two days in a row in my studio after not painting for so long.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2009-03-11T16:57:00.001-05:00

"Garden Pond"

I have decided to give up my space on the "Daily Painters" web site. I know there are a lot of artists wanting to join the group and I just don't know when I will be able to get back to producing regularly. Thank you for having me as a member. It's a great site.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2009-01-02T23:01:00.007-06:00

I hope this isn't too much of a shock. I know it's not what you are used to seeing from me.

"Empathy"
And now for something completely different. This is a computer generated mock up for a collage piece I want to do that depicts the atrocities of factory farming.

2008-12-03T19:52:00.002-06:00

"Flower Garden"

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-11-13T15:44:00.004-06:00

"The Reaching Tree"

Ahh, finally some time at the easel. This is from one of the photos I took at Yellowstone this summer.

Available: $150 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-10-06T15:52:00.005-05:00

"Plum Fun"
NFS

I rarely keep any of my paintings but I just couldn't let this one go, I like it so much. I entered in a show this weekend and won 2nd place!

I still haven't found time to paint lately. Between homeschooling, my husband working more than usual, and me building more web sites, there just doesn't seem to be any time.

2008-09-01T17:25:00.003-05:00

We are back from a fantastic 2 week vacation to Colorado and Yellowstone National Park! It was just beautiful. I also started homeschooling my daughter this week so there hasn't been much time to paint. Hopefully I will have something to post soon. Thanks for visiting!

2008-07-18T16:12:00.002-05:00

"Pasture II"
SOLD

2008-07-13T10:35:00.000-05:00

"Rise & Shine"

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-07-12T22:52:00.005-05:00

"Barns Aglow" Update
SOLD

This is super subtle but I didn't like the way the tree shadow looked like it was growing out of the barn shadow. I think this looks a lot better. (This picture is a little dark but I think it's closer to the true color.)

2008-07-11T09:11:00.003-05:00

"Barns Aglow"

I'm really happy with how this turned out. I might trying doing a larger version of it.

2008-07-08T18:53:00.004-05:00

"The Road Home"
SOLD

If you've read my blog in the past you'll know that I love to have bits of a tinted canvas show through at the end of a painting, especially if it's orange. I'm getting comfortable enough with landscapes to have some of that going on. I don't like to tint the canvas and then paint on it right away. Too much of the paint pulls through that way. I like to tint, let dry and then paint which is how I did this painting. (Not by any planning on my part by the way, I just happened to have an orange tinted canvas laying around!)

2008-07-07T14:47:00.002-05:00

"Pasture"
Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-06-30T17:28:00.000-05:00

"Open"

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-06-26T09:11:00.001-05:00

"Tranquility at Canyon Lake"

Available: $150 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-06-23T15:06:00.006-05:00

"Texas Sky"
SOLD

I took a photo of this scene on the way back from the lake a couple of weeks ago. The picture washed out alot of the sky so I used a different picture of the sky taken on the same day at the lake. I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's larger than my normal pieces, this one is 8"x10".

2008-06-21T20:24:00.003-05:00

"Field of Poppies"
SOLD

I am loving this limited palette! It makes the whole process so much less complicated and I think my paintings look better.

2008-06-17T16:52:00.003-05:00

"Meadow Blooms"
SOLD

2008-06-09T16:17:00.003-05:00

"Hillside Path"
SOLD

This is another painting done with a limited palette of Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White.

2008-06-06T15:28:00.013-05:00

"Field of Flowers"
SOLD

I'm reading Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color by Kevin D. Macpherson. He suggests limiting your palette to Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Winsor Green and Titanium White. That's what I used for this painting with the addition of a little Cerulean Blue and no Winsor Green (I didn't have any).

I've also been doing some of the color mixing exercises he suggests. I thought using so much white would make the colors washed out but it was a really useful exercise. I sometimes have a tendency to use too much saturated color with out any grayer tones to make any one color stand out. These show varying mixtures of Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue. Each combination was reduced with white five times making lighter and lighter variations of the original mixture.

2008-05-16T17:17:00.005-05:00

"Fairy Forest"

I tried to keep my colors subdued and somewhat dark until the very end. Then I put in some very bright highlights for the sun dappled look. This one kind of has a fairy tale quality to me.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-05-13T13:23:00.006-05:00

"Wildflowers"
SOLD

I have been busy working on websites since I got back from Colorado and haven't had a chance to look at my blog. Dude, the colors on "Dusk" and "Leaning" are WAY off. I need to calibrate the monitor on my laptop. You can see the updated images here and here.

2008-05-02T11:05:00.003-05:00

"Leaning"
SOLD

2008-04-29T22:08:00.011-05:00

"Dusk"
SOLD

I'm really happy with how this turned out but I had a heck of a time photographing it. In the photo the sky looks flat but it really has a nice yellow glow to it and some contrast in colors. I've spent about an hour trying to get the color just right in Photoshop. I think this is as close as I'm going to get.

2008-04-21T17:18:00.005-05:00

"Hillside Shadows"
SOLD

2008-04-20T14:41:00.004-05:00

"Glow"
SOLD

This is post number 100! I was hoping I would create something special for this momentous occasion and I couldn't be happier with this piece. I'm going to hang on to it for awhile. (Update - I did end up selling this piece after all to a very nice man from Houston who is getting married soon.)

I'll be leaving for Colorado in a couple of days. Apparently I can't check my paints. I may mail them or try watercolors while I'm there. Otherwise, I may not be posting for a couple of weeks.

2008-04-17T15:21:00.003-05:00

"Fallen"
SOLD

Man, I have been painting, just nothing has been working out to my satisfaction. I worked on this piece yesterday and today. It was difficult.

2008-04-14T16:27:00.004-05:00

"Reflections"
SOLD

This is my 98th painting since I started my blog! (It would have been 99 if I hadn't wiped yesterday's painting off - oh well). Only 2 more until I hit 100.

2008-04-10T16:58:00.001-05:00

"Farmland"

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-04-09T12:00:00.002-05:00

"Snow Covered"
SOLD

It was 87 degrees here yesterday but I'm going to Colorado soon and hope to see some of this.

Critiques are always welcomed. I could use some feedback with these new landscapes.

2008-04-08T08:27:00.005-05:00

"Marsh"

Wow, I can't tell you what a useful lesson it was to do those 2 studies of other artist's work. I remember doing this exercise when I first started painting still lives and it helped immeasurably then too.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-04-07T09:18:00.008-05:00

I didn't do as much practice as I would have liked during this time off. Life got in the way. I did some studies - 2 of the better ones are here. (Just to be clear for legal and ethical reasons - these are not original works, they are studies of other artists work and will never be sold.)

I don't like to go back and re-work paintings but I did that to several paintings after my "homework". Here is one of the better ones. I also did a new painting that I'll post soon.

The older version of the painting is below.

2008-01-25T09:53:00.000-06:00

Taking a break / Homework

I asked an artist I admire do a critique of my work. She said many things that I had been thinking of and gave me some new things to think about. I'm planning on taking a few weeks off to do some "homework". I want to practice ellipses (a lot), paint some white objects to get a better handle on value and also work on using more subtle color - less saturated color over the entire painting surface.

Also, I've been feeling pressure (only from myself) to create a painting every day. On days that I don't, I'm disappointed. Anyway, it's making me not enjoy painting as much because it's starting to feel a little like a chore to create a finished piece every day.

If I create something interesting, I may post it. Otherwise, I'll be back in a few weeks and hopefully I'll be better for it! If you have any good exercises you think I might benefit from let me know. This site has lots of useful information.

2008-01-23T22:34:00.001-06:00

"Child's Play"

I painted this one a while back and liked it so much that I wasn't ready to part with it right away.

No new painting today (or the past 2 days). I have the flu. I tried to paint today but I was just too worn out.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-01-21T13:15:00.002-06:00

"Blood Oranges"
SOLD

This looks better in person (that's true of most paintings though). I have the hardest time photographing reds.

2008-01-17T13:06:00.001-06:00

"Midnight"

I have been so busy framing paintings to take to a gallery this past week. Wish me luck!

I've been reading some artists' ideas about selling paintings online vs in a gallery and if you should charge more for pieces in a gallery or just raise all your prices and have them the same everywhere. I'm thinking it makes sense to have them higher in a gallery. If I sell paintings online I don't have to buy frames, take the time to frame them, take the time to transport them to the gallery, and most importantly I don't have to pay a gallery 40-50% of my sales. Anyone else have an opinion on that?

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-01-09T10:11:00.003-06:00

"Tangle"

It might be hard to tell in the photo but I used my new Winsor & Newton's Dioxazine Purple in the shadows of the radishes and a little in the shadows of the leaves.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-01-07T09:39:00.002-06:00

"On the Path"
SOLD

On the path seems like a good title to ring in the new year. On the path to better paintings, to being a more patient and loving mother, to taking care of my body through exercise and healthy eating. Here's hoping all our New Year intentions come to fruition.

For me, one of the most frustrating things about painting landscapes is the lack of variation in colors. Fall scenes help with that.

2008-01-04T17:11:00.001-06:00

"Not Quite Ripe"

I can't tell you how many times I wanted to wipe this off. I stared it last night and had to walk away or wipe. I finished it this afternoon. I think it came together in the end but it was frustrating.

Available: $125 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2008-01-01T16:11:00.001-06:00

"Cup-a-Joe"

I usually paint on 6"x8" canvas covered panels from RayMar. This is on a 6"x6" stretched canvas that I've had in my studio for awhile. I like the panels better.

I sometimes worry that the bright colors I use "carry" a piece. I tried to keep this one more subdued and true to life.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-30T09:26:00.001-06:00

"Tangelo Tango"

I ran out of medium a couple of weeks ago and hadn't gone out to buy more stand oil. I finally mixed some up and can't believe I went so long without it! I use a recipe I got from Carol Marine. 2 parts linseed oil, 1 part stand oil and 1 part turp/mineral spirits. The recipe I learned in college was equal parts turp, lineseed oil, darmar varnish. I like Carol's recipe much better.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-28T11:57:00.001-06:00

"Cousins"

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-27T08:53:00.001-06:00

"Lemons in Blue Bowl"
SOLD

I keep trying to mix a purple I like and haven't quite been able to get it. I've resisted buying a pre-mixed tube because I keep thinking I should be able to mix it myself. Well, I broke down and bought a tube Of Winsor & Newton's Dioxazine Purple and I love it! It's exactly the color I was trying to mix myself.

2007-12-24T17:26:00.002-06:00

"Juicy"

Happy Holidays!

Lemons are one of my favorite fruits to paint. One of the houses we lived in in Greece had a lemon tree in the backyard. I loved making lemonade with my mom. Also, they smell great in the studio. The light I use is pretty hot and really brings out the scent.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-21T16:28:00.003-06:00

"Present"

This painting was inspired by Karen Appleton's work. She paints the most beautiful presents with thick, brightly colored paint.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-19T13:05:00.001-06:00

"The Nanny"

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-18T11:31:00.001-06:00

"Acorn Squash"

I took the advice of someone who left a comment on my blog and didn't wipe this painting off. I like it better today - a little.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.
I'm a member of the Daily Painters. I think several people are going to be posting photos of their studio today so here's a shot of my messy studio.

2007-12-16T21:54:00.000-06:00

I hope this isn't too much personal information for a painting blog...but in case you're wondering why I haven't been posting, I'm having a bout of depression. It's been an ongoing problem for me for as long as I can remember. Hard to imagine with my bright use of color isn't it? I've tried to paint a few times lately but I end up wiping them off. Anyhoo, I'm not in any danger or anything, just trying to cope. Hopefully you'll check back soon and see lots of new paintings.

2007-12-11T11:40:00.002-06:00

"Kiwi"
SOLD

2007-12-04T08:36:00.001-06:00

"Wedge"

I tried to stay really loose with this and not use a small brush until the last possible moment. I really need to buy some acrylic paint to prime my canvases. I loved painting "Mattise's Orange" on the canvas that had been painted over and then dried. For these last few, I've painted the panel and then wiped off as much paint as I could but it still pulls through a lot.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-12-03T10:36:00.002-06:00

"Twist"
SOLD

You know how some paintings just seem to paint themselves? Well, this wasn't one of them. I struggled with it but I'm happy with the end result.

2007-12-02T09:29:00.002-06:00

"Adventurer"
SOLD

2007-11-29T11:24:00.001-06:00

"The Journey"

These limes looked like they had a purpose. As if they were on their way to some destination.

I love these last two paintings. Several of the things I strive for came together. One of the things I did with these two was to try and use the Munsell Color Wheel. I learned about it in a class I took from Carol Marine. The idea is you pick a dominant color then use a little of each color on either side of the wheel and a tiny bit of the color on the opposite side of the wheel. Clear as mud? Look at the wheel I linked to. My dominant color for this painting is orange. I used a little red and a little yellow. Red and yellow are the colors on either side of orange on the wheel. Then I used a tiny bit of blue which is the color opposite from orange on the wheel. I didn't stick with it exactly obviously but keeping the ideas in the back of my mind helped make a nice color combination I think.

Edited Picture I'm having a hard time getting a good photo of this painting. I think this picture more closely shows the true color.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-11-27T16:42:00.000-06:00

"Mattise's Orange"
SOLD

I love how this turned out! I had a panel that I had painted over with some Alizarian Crimson and let dry completly. I like having some underpainting show through but always have trouble pulling the background throuh my paint and getting undesired effects. This is the answer I've been looking for. This came together so easily. That hardly ever happens for me. Doing all these paintings must be paying off!

2007-11-27T16:24:00.000-06:00

I've Been Tagged
Carol Marine tagged me. My first thought was "ugh, I don't want to do this", but it was kind of fun and it's only 5 things I had to think of. The idea is to tell 5 things about your self so here goes...

1. By the time I left home at 18, I had lived in over 20 different houses, 6 countries, and 5 states.
2. I turned 40 this year.
3. Including myself, there were 15 people in my graduating class.
4. When my husband and I got married we had 10 indoor pets (yikes!)
5. I spend way too much time on the computer (yes, I see the irony!)

Here are the rules: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are the lucky ;) people I'm tagging: Deb Kirkeeide, Debbie Miller, Don Gray, Karen Appleton, Sarah Fox. I hope you don't mind too much!

2007-11-20T10:39:00.002-06:00

"Lunch Interrupted"
SOLD

Like a lot of artists I see the world as a possible painting. For instance, I could be making lunch and decide that I need to paint my tomato instead of eat it.

2007-11-19T12:58:00.000-06:00

"Sweet & Sour"

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-11-16T18:13:00.000-06:00

"Mr & Mrs Smith"
SOLD

2007-11-13T13:08:00.000-06:00

"Bad Hair Day"
SOLD

I love the crazy stems on these guys.

2007-11-12T14:37:00.001-06:00

"Rose"
SOLD

Green is a hard color to mix. One of my favorite books is "Helen Van Wyk's Favorite Color Recipes". She suggests mixing thalo green, yellow ochre and burnt umber for dark green. That looked pretty good to me but I liked it better with a touch of cadmium red deep. She's not a fan of cadmium red deep and suggests using grambacher red, but it has a CL warning label on it so is not a part of my studio.

2007-11-08T11:25:00.000-06:00

"Fresh from the Garden II"

One of the nice things about living in South Texas is a long growing season.

I'm still working on my "safe" studio. My latest thing to try is cleaning my brushes in oil when I want to change colors. I wipe as much paint off as I can on a paper towel, then dip in oil, wipe and repeat until clean. I save the solvents for the very beginning when I'm laying down an under painting, and occasionally to wash a strong color like phthalo blue out of a brush. (I love phthalo blue). The solvent I use in Gamblin Gamsol. It's the safest one I know of. There is a good article about art material safety in this psd file from Artist's Magazine. You'll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view it.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-11-06T11:15:00.002-06:00

"Zinnias II"

I'm happy with the way these last 2 flower paintings have turned out. I'd like them a little looser though. It's so hard for me not to get caught up in the details and have an impression of a flower. I took a few process photos of this one.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-11-05T14:43:00.001-06:00

"Yellow Pepper"
SOLD

I orignally posted this painting in July as "not for sale". Sometimes I like a painting so much that have to live with it for awhile before I'm ready to let it go.

2007-11-02T10:54:00.000-05:00

"Zinnias"

In college I used to draw glass objects often. I forgot how much I enjoy it.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-11-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

"Purple Petunias"

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-10-31T08:37:00.001-05:00

"Red Pepper"
SOLD

2007-10-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

I spent last week playing with water mixable oil paints and I don't like them. I hate this painting I did using them.

I think I have a pretty safe studio but I worry about being around paints and solvents so much. Using water mixable oils would get rid of solvents but I just can't do what I want with them. So, I decided to only use the regular oils that have an AP label, and wear finger cots while painting. (Finger cots are like gloves but they just cover your fingers, not your whole hand.) I also use an exhaust fan. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me info on safe studio info.

2007-10-23T11:04:00.001-05:00

"Purple Onion"
SOLD

I've avoided painting onions because they seem so difficult but I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out.

2007-10-18T09:03:00.000-05:00

"Yellow Stripe"
SOLD

Eggplant is rapidly becoming my most favorite object to paint. It has such a beautiful deep purple and reflects other colors so well. My favorite part of this piece is the lemon's reflection. I also love this combination of colors - lime green, purple and yellow.

2007-10-17T13:59:00.003-05:00

"Eggplant & Squash"
SOLD

I wouldn't say this painting was easy but things came together smoothly. I don't usually listen to music while painting but I did while painting this - living with a child is usually more than enough noise for me. When I'm alone I like silence. Jessie Cook is the artist I listed to. I love his work.

2007-10-16T09:35:00.001-05:00

"Lone Oak"
Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-10-15T10:05:00.001-05:00

"Fall Leaves - Oaks"
SOLD

2007-10-12T09:36:00.001-05:00

"Fall Leaf"
SOLD

I almost wiped this off twice. I'm glad I didn't - I like how it turned out.

2007-10-11T08:40:00.000-05:00

"Pumpkins & Pecans"

I need to stick to 6"x8"s. I don't have enough time to dedicate to finishing an 8"x10" in one sitting. When I came back to finish this one, a lot of the paint was dry in certain areas and I was having a hard time mixing the exact color to work on those spots and just ended up spending all together too much time on this. It was frustrating.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-10-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

"Eggplant & Lemon"
SOLD

Ideally, if you're doing daily paintings, you would be selling them as fast as you could paint them. Ideally. While I would have no problem breaking this group up if anyone say wanted to buy one...I think they look kind of cool on my studio wall.

2007-10-08T09:56:00.000-05:00

"Moussaka"

One of my favorite recipes is Vegetarian Moussaka - eggplant, lemon, potatoes, zucchini with a golden bechamel sauce on top- yum! We really like to cook & eat at our house.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-10-05T16:21:00.001-05:00

"Reclining Bananas"
SOLD

2007-10-03T10:28:00.000-05:00

"Bananas on Purple"

Looks like my daughter and I are going to be making banana bread soon. We have about 10 bananas in the house right now.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-10-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

"3 Bananas"
SOLD

2007-10-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

"Gift"

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-28T08:30:00.000-05:00

"Seeing Spots"

What was I thinking when I set up this still life? Elipses are challenging to paint. Printed fabric can be tricky too. So putting 2 cups (lots of elipses) on a printed fabric is crazy!

Available: $85+ $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-27T09:24:00.000-05:00

"Summer's End"

I would think that the more times you painted an object the better you would get at it. I don't find that to always be true for myself. My favorite of these pumpkin paintings is the first one I painted. This one came out well (I especially like the thick paint) but the first ones are still the best I think. I wonder why that is. Maybe I'm most excited about it the first time I paint it?

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-26T08:57:00.002-05:00

"Lost Maples"

Yay! Finally a landscape I feel good about. I still need much more practice but I see improvement!
Available: $75+ $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-25T09:56:00.000-05:00

"October"

We went camping this weekend at Lost Maples. The trip inspired me to try a few more landscapes. Look for them soon.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-20T12:57:00.001-05:00

"Pequeño Pumpkins"
SOLD

Often times when I'm working on a painting I'll get about half way through and wonder how I'm going to pull it all together. I had that feeling until the last 15 minutes or so on this one.

2007-09-19T07:54:00.000-05:00

"Half Full"
SOLD

This shadow doesn't have much purple in it but I like how it turned out. As usual for me, the handle of the mug gave me a hard time but I think I got it right.

2007-09-18T08:27:00.000-05:00

"Harvest"

I like the color orange but avoid painting it sometimes because I have a hard time making shadows for it that don't look like mud. Orange and purple is one of my favorite color combinations so I decided to try a purple shadow. I think it's a little darker than it should be and this photo makes it look a little blue but I'm going to try purple shadows again in the future.

I was also trying (as always) to keep my brush strokes looser. It is so hard for me not to tighten up. I've been looking these artists with great stroke economy: Doug Braithwaite, Robert Frank, Kris Shanks & Karin Jurick.

Available: $75 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-17T08:27:00.001-05:00

"3 Gourds"

I usually don't post on the weekends but I do paint. That way if the week gets hectic, I have a back-up painting or two. I worked on this painting Friday & Saturday. Hopefully this week will go smoothly so I'll have a painting to post each day.

Available: $150 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

2007-09-14T08:22:00.000-05:00

"Fall Gourds"

The fall is my favorite time of year. I live in Texas so it's still quite hot but I know the cool weather is coming. This one is bigger than I have been painting lately, it's a 8x10.

Available: $100 + $10 shipping. Or send me an e-mail.

I didn't paint yesterday. I moved my studio to a larger room! The image on the right shows my new larger space.

2007-09-13T08:14:00.000-05:00

More landscape ~~torture~~ practice.

2007-09-12T15:30:00.000-05:00

3 Lemons - Edited

Heh, heh. Ok, this is still one of my favorite paintings but something about it was bothering me. I'm sure someone noticed this but I just figured it out and fixed it. There was no cast shadow under the bowl! Here's the old version.

2007-09-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'm enjoying doing daily paintings and I like the idea of posting them to a blog. However, it is so painful for me to post these landscapes I've been trying to do. They remind me of a ceramics class I took in college one summer. I wanted to get better at throwing so I went to the ceramics studio every day for 4-6 hours and threw pots and then threw them in a bucket when I was done so I could re-use the clay. I think I only kept 2-3 items from the whole semester. I never did get very good at throwing all though I did see a big improvement.