Commission for a Friend.

Commission for a Friend.

Egg tempera 10x8in  SOLD

I was asked to do this painting by the sister of my friend, whose memorial
celebration I am out here to attend.
She asked for a rose to symbolize her sister, Lorraine, so I painted a beautiful one
in full bloom but partly in shadow because she lived with the shadow of cancer
over her for the last 20 years. She never gave up and she made the most of ever
year she had...taking a trip to Russia a few months before she passed.
She was a fighter for sure.
The shawl was asked for too because it is the one I paint a lot and Lorraine loved it.

Artist Note:

Egg tempera is a wonderful medium.  The oldest one after encaustic.
For those who do not know it, the same dry pigments
are used for oils, watercolor and acrylics.
It is the binder which is different.
The yolk of an egg replaces the
 gum of Arabic for watercolor, oil for the oil paint
and the polymer for acrylics.
The colors are uniquely beautiful and egg tempera paintings have stood the
test of time... from Ancient times.

Rose in the Style of Georgia O'Keeffe

Rose in the Style of O'Keeffe   Sold.

6x8in  oil on canvas board  100.

The new Challenge from Daily Paintworks is one I will enjoy.

It is The Picasso It Challenge posted by Gloria Zucaro
The goal is to paint something in the STYLE  of a painter you admire.

My "something"  is naturally a rose as I have just painted a series of them
I chose the style of Georgia O'Keeffe  because she became known for painting flowers. She completely changed the format of flower painting by making huge canvases filled with a close up view of flowers.
I have never painted a full frontal flower before and I found it fascinating. I refrained from making the image more sensual but I could see how she found it so...especially when she painted in monumental scale. I have wondered if she did this deliberately, knowing it would attract the attention it did.

Roses From Son #1

Roses for my Birthday From Son #1

6x8in  oil on linen mounted to board  100.

Life is great when your children spoil you and bring flowers.

I enjoyed a lovely surprise today. A fellow blogger, Haidee-Jo, painted me a birthday gift of a rose cupcake. She lives in France and I have never met her, but it is an example of a fellow artist's warmth and generosity. I hope you visit her lovely blog. Thank you, Haidee-Jo.

I painted the yellow roses completely with a round, #6 bristle brush. I used it mostly on its side and leaving the the point for details. Unlike the appearance of individual strokes the flat brush produces, the round brush blends colors together easily, but a swift side motion will give a clean stroke similar to the flat. You can see an example of this on the back rose and some of the leaves. A Russian artist I admire uses only round brushes for his paintings and does amazing things with them.

Changing a Challenge

Rose and Silver with Fruit.

6x8in  oil on canvas board  100.

This is the first time I have participated in the Rookiepainter Challenge #30. If you click on the link you will see my painting. Scroll down and you will see the photo of what is provided to copy.
I enjoyed doing it and then I enjoyed making the changes, which you see above, to make it unique and my own. Only one area was not changed. Do you have a favorite?

Someone asked why I did the Challenges. A good question and easy to answer. For me, it is like cooking the meals when all the children were around. Coming up with what to make was sometimes a problem. The same goes with painting these small paintings...what to paint? It is never a problem with my large pieces but trying come up with something every day can be challenging and obviously they would not use the title if it was not the same for many an artist.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Last Rose of the Season

Last Rose of the Season

Egg Tempera  9x7in  on museum board
For sale at gallery only
M.Phillips Fine Art Gallery

This is painted in Egg Tempera. (Not to be confused with the tempera paints you see used by children.)
It is a process of layering the paint in thin layers of powdered pigment to which the binder of egg yolk has been added. After encaustic it is the oldest painting medium. Fine examples of egg tempera from the 1st Century AD still exist. It was used by most artists until some genius thought of adding oil as a binder to the pigment...making oil paint.  Believe it or not, oil paint is believed to have been used in Afghanistan somewhere between the 5th- 9th centuries but was not adopted by the western world until 1500AD. Anyway, back to egg tempera.
 Andrew Wyeth  was a 20th century giant in egg tempera and lived long enough to see a renewal of interest in his chosen medium.
 Egg Tempera is without doubt my favorite media, but unfortunately you need excellent eyesight do do it justice. I can only do a few pieces a year so they are usually pieces I have strong feelings about. The shawl appears frequently in my ET pieces as I feel a huge, emotional bond with it.  Made by my Aunt Claire many years ago, it is the family Christening Shawl and has gone back and forth across the Atlantic to England for each new birth.

10 Minute Challenge

10 Minute Challenge

8x6in oil on canvas board  nfs

The Daily Paintworks group I belong to has Carol Marine's 10 Minute Challenge, this week.
Since I have been painting a series of roses I thought it would be easy and fun to participate by painting one. Well, it was fun at least, but easy?  Nope.
 The Challenge is open to everyone who wants to participate. All the Challenges are stimulating because they push you out of your comfort zone. For this one ( very abbreviated) you set a timer for 10 mins to do each square. The last one you paint should be better than the first one.
If you cheat and keep on working on it (the temptation is strong) you are depriving yourself out of a wonderful learning experience. I didn't get to finish the backgrounds on my first two squares and because the rose was opening up under the hot light, the last one was fuller, but it is the most complete one so I feel the system works.
 I really wanted to go back and fix up everything, but am giving myself a gold star for staying true to the rules.

Rose Study #1

Rose Study #1

 6x8 oil on canvas board  $85.

I did this painting before I left Albuquerque to return home after the Qiang workshop. The rose was in a tiny water bottle and I loved the quirky juxtaposition of the soft beauty of a rose next to a commercial, plastic container.
I will be doing a series of the rose studies so I can incorporate what I learned from Qiang Huang while it is fresh in my mind.