Bonjour

Bonjour 9x12 oil on museum board

for purchasing info click here

I am really enjoying painting these cows. They are

such Rubenesque models,

as a friend politely pointed out to me;)

Gale Force

Watch Tower at Dusk  9 x 12 oil on board

to purchase click here

Interested in a little history of the watch towers that cover Malta?
click here

My friend Jeni and I went out the other evening to paint the 'magic hour'.

That particular day was very special because we actually had clouds

in Malta, which normally has deep blue cloudless skies. 

The unusual weather was also accompanied by gale force winds.

I'm not kidding, seriously, it was a moderate gale

but, hey, it was still as gale.

Tie down the Solteck, tape the palette in place, and just forget the visor.

Afterward we had a good laugh at what our hair looked like:

We looked alot like my buddy Robi:)

'They' always say that pets and their humans look alike.....

Relax

Relax

You are purr-fect just the way you are.

This is a photo of my friend Louise's cat, sleeping, really sleeping.

No stress there!

I decided to follow the example and take a day and do

only what I want to do and not anything I 'should' do.

 

On a score card with 10 being the highest, a ME day

looks something like this:

creativity pursuits=10

chores=0

 

I include cooking in the chore category so it's pizza for the

hubby tonight and out to my pal Jeni Caruana's

art opening of Maltese landscapes.

Purr-fect!

 

 For arts sake I'd like to share one of my favorite paintings

I've done recently:

Pecan Pie  6x6 oil on museum board

for purchasing info click here

 This painting just seemed to sing it's way onto the canvas:)

Thanks so much for viewing my art!

Rose Tea Pot

Rose Tea Pot  8x8 oil on board

to purchase for $250 click here

I was trying to push my warm/cool color 

relationships a little further with this painting.

For me painting is a process with 

lots of small steps along an

endless journey of creative self discovery.

Deep, I know:)))

 

Sun Bathers

Sun Bathers  6x6 oil on museum board

to purchase for $100 click here

There's a beautiful park near my house that overlooks

the rocky Maltese shore. There is always something interesting

to paint there. I meet there with a friend to paint every week.

It's become a joke with us that whatever I choose to paint

moves almost immediately. I definitely need to

paint faster!

Twins!

Mr. and Ms. French

Birth Announcement!

Check out the French's new twins!

They are so proud:)

to purchase for $100 click here

Snoozin'

Snoozin'  6x6 oil on museum board

to purchase for $100 click here

My friend Jeni Caurana and I were painting in the

park and hit the jack pot with this guy dozing in the

sunshine with his hands crossed.

 

He woke up, noticed us, and came over to 

have a look.  I asked him what he thought and he said-

"I'm going to go back over and hold my stomach in!"

LOL

 

 

Flower Market

Flower Market 6x6 oil on museum board

to purchase for $100 click here

These two women I saw at the market in Frankfurt,

Germany were more interesting to me

than the flowers they were buying.

They were a joy to paint!
This painting says
"spring is here"!

Fresh Sliced Orange

Fresh Sliced Orange 6x6 oil on museum board

to purchase for $100 click here

I bought some new colors in preparation for my

upcoming workshop with Ovanes Berberian in France

next month.  Two new ones for me

were cad green and platinum violet.   So I

picked my fresh oranges instead of lemons this

time to work with the color scheme.

I love orange, green, and purple together and lucky for

me it also happens to be a triadic color harmony.

About the purple-  it has a more red bias than what 

I usually use: carbazole violet. I did the

under painting with the platinum violet and you can

see it bleeding through on the bottom left.

I went over it with the carbazole violet

simply because it looked better to me and I liked it.

Do you have a favorite purple? Feel free to share!

Fresh Lemon Slice

Fresh Lemon Slice  6x6 oil on board

The patterns of light and dark continue to hold

my interest no matter what my subject is.

What I'm really focusing on is

how to express these

values and colors with loose brushwork

and a variety of edges.

 

This subject literally falls in my lap from 

my lemon trees in the garden!

 

to purchase for $100 click here

Two Down

Two Down   6 x 6  oil on museum board

to purchase fro $100 click here

I'm enjoying the primary palette, the distortion of the liquid

and the reflections on the shaker.

The combinations seem endless yet each

painting is a new challenge.

I'm experimenting with a different surface this week.

I've coated each panel with three coats of gesso

sanding in between. After I play

with it a while I'll let you know which on I like best

and why.

 

How do you prepare your panels.

I order Ampersand from the states.

What do you use?

Cherry Triple

Cherry Triple  6x6 oil on museum board

sold

I switched the color of my under painting and my

tinted palette I've been playing with.  

It makes all the colors change.

Have you tried this? If so I'd love

to hear about your experience!

Cosmo Down

 

Cosmo Down 6x6 oil on board

 

to purchase click here

 

This is another version of the glasses done on a

palette that was tinted the same color as my under painting

on my board.

 

I think I'm getting used to it, although it's a bit

confusing. To me the colors

seem to harmonize and pop more.

 

What do you think?

 

 

 



Shaken Not Stirred

Shaken Not Stirred  6x6 oil on board

sold

I'm still having fun with colors, reflection and

the distortions created by liquid in colored glass.

I tried something with this painting that I've never done

before. My friend, Abbey Ryan, suggested I try

painting on a palette the same color as I toned my canvas.

That's right quinacridone red!

I usually work on a mid tone palette so I can easily tell

what value the color I mix is, on the light side or the dark side.

Sometimes I work on a white paper palette which is 

super easy clean up, especially outdoors.

But a hot pink palette?

It was crazy confusing for me at first but I really 

started getting into it and want to experiment with this some more. 

I did this by painting paper the same color as I toned the canvas

and placed it on the mixing area of my canvas. 

Then I put a piece of glass on top and proceed as usual,

well almost as usual.

All In

All In  16 x 20  Oil on Canvas

I'm really getting into this gaming series. This one is

quite a bit larger and took me about four painting

sessions to compete. Yet it was a pure

pleasure to paint!

There are alot of details in a painting like this

but my goal was to keep it as loose as possible.

I think the key to keeping the painting as

direct as possible is to be as

accurate as possible with the drawing underneath

before any real painting is done.

Fortunately I really like to draw and find

it very soothing.

for purchasing information click here

Three Martini Floor

Three Martini Floor 6x6 oil on museum board

 

to purchase for $100 click here

 

This painting was inspired by my friend Patti Mollica.

She made a cool artbyte on Daily Paintworks

call Fast Loose and Bold.

 

She had done some martini paintings that I really admired.

I have some in my studio and this was my

excuse to give painting them a whirl.

This is how it went:

Please click here to see short step by step video.

 

The Daily Paintworks challenge was to try a style of

another painter on the site whose work I admire.

I really want to be faster, looser, and bolder so

it was a no brainer for me to try to

use some of Patti's suggestions from her artbyte.

 

I would have loved to nit pick things more and 'fixed' stuff.

But I resisted!

I started with a one inch brush, but switched down to a half

inch when it started getting muddy.  I set the timer trying to spend only

ten minutes on each glass but spent fifteen instead.

It took 30 minutes to draw and stain the canvas,

45 minutes for the glasses

and another 15 to finish it off.

(That's not counting the photographs!)

So one and a half hours to paint this.

That's my best ever time!

Normally it takes me three hours.

Please let me know what you think, I enjoy the feed back.

Thanks!