ORIGINAL PAINTING SWING UNDER THE CURLY WILLOW

Hey Friends,   I painted this just a couple weeks ago.  It was sunny and warm not much thought of autumn.  Than BAM, it all changed so fast.

My sisters place again.  She found this vintage swing in Salem.  It's much prettier than pictured here.  I love this curly willow and when you are in the swing, it makes me think of Alice in Wonderland.  The curly foliage envelopes you, so it's sort of a wonderland.

This is available HERE.

Have a great week.

Happy Trails

ORIGINAL RAVEN PAINTING "The NOSE"

Hey Friends,  A bit of whimsey coming up.  This is my fourteenth painting of Raven's.  I think his title should be "The NOSE".  His beak looks more like a nose, don't ya think?

He is available HERE.

Another reminder every day until Sat. the 10th.  Please come say HI! to me and my Friends, the Double Line Painters of the Blue Ridge at South Peak.  The hill top village across from Tanglewood.  We will be there in the afternoon, I will need to get the exact time.

Happy Trails

"FLOWERS FOR A TABLE" NEW LARGE PAINTING ON EBAY

Hey Friends,  Just finished listing this big painting on Ebay.  Interested in seeing what happens.

CLICK HERE, doesn't engage until 9pm tonight.

I felt like a photo in a real setting might show the scale better.  I know this can be done virtually somehow but you know I can't figure it out.  This works OK, has a little glare.

Comments or suggestions are always nice.

Happy Trails

IT'S GREAT TO BE BUSY, BUSY

 

Hey Friends,  Meet up with my plein air buddies this morning at Longwood Park in Salem, Va.

We had to put a base coat of color on some canvas for our workshop, being held at Evergreen Lavender Farm in Appomattox this Saturday morning.

You still have time to register (it's almost full) just click the purple above.

 

Top photo is what I'm working on in this photo.  I scrubbed it off and started over.  What a waste.

 

 

Did not have to scrub this one off.  This will be at the Little Gallery on Smith Mountain Lake soon I hope.  Will post a new blog to let you know for sure.

 

Thanks for coming by.

 

Happy Trails

Day 26 Almost done ! Myrtle Beach State Park #3

Hey Friends,  Some trees at Myrtle Beach State Park, SC.  I was told the salty sea air causes the trees to naturally prune themselves by dessicating the foliage on the sides facing the ocean.  The trees were more naked and flat on the right sides but it just looked stupid to me in this little painting.  So I fixed it OR did I?
CLICK HERE for the ebay auction.

Happy Trails
Travel Well

Day 24 of 30 day Challenge. "Dune Grasses #2"

Hey Friends, Day 24 brings another view of the grasses on the dunes of Myrtle Beach, SC.

For auction on Ebay, CLICK HERE if interested.
Happy Trails
Travel Well

Ebay Store re-opened

Hey Friends,  Several years ago I opened a store on Ebay.   I have recently learned from a generous gift from Jack White (he is a Famous artist and author) that I was indeed to impatient.  It takes forever and a bazillion days to have any success on Ebay.  He created a fictional character to paint pictures to auction on the giant.  And he had good success after about a year. !!  A whole year !!

So I'm giving it another go.  First time I only lasted about a month or so.  And was totally ignorant about the words to list, etc.  Hopefully, I have learned from Mr. White (I mean, I hope he's not pulling my leg).

I'm sure I've mentioned sometime in the past that I have a boatload of paintings in my studio to do SOMEthing with.  So this might be a good way to get going.  I'm starting each piece at $.01.
Yes, that's the advice I've been given, so ONE penny it is.

Another thing I'm doing with some of this overstock is sanding and re-gessoing to paint MORE.  I shall be participating in Leslie Saeta's challenge  again this January.  That's 30 paintings in 30 days.

I'm hoping I can list these in my DPW shop and connect to Ebay just like I did for my Etsy shop.
Won't that make my life a bit easier?

So Click here if you want to see what my Ebay listing looks like.  (Fingers are crossed)
Happy Trails
Travel Well

Day 22 of Leslie Saeta's Challenge

Hey Friends,  I must be honest,  this piece of work has not been shown before BUT I didn't paint it yesterday.  I made this about a month ago.  There now you can chastise me.  I made a post here on my blog sometime ago, I will attempt to link to it so you can see that I made the stamps for all of these critters.  I did enjoy carving the stamps and thoroughly enjoyed creating a design to fit them into.  So please leave a comment, tell me what you really think of this.
You can also check some close-ups in my Etsy shop.   Click Here.
Happy Trails
Travel Well

Bob-O-Link in wax

Hey Friends,  My latest avian themed presentation for the 30 in 30 challenge.  This is a collage of  cold wax mixed with oil paints that is applied to an inflexible surface such as ampersand products.  Then you heat and while very soft imbed stuff in it such as a picture of a Bob-O-Link and a strip of glittery tissue paper and gold stuff and some webby stuff (sorta looks like a weave up there on the left side).

 Then you apply more cold wax (clear or with more oils added).  And then you must wait about 4 months for it to dry.  I'm told others don't have such a long drying time.  I don't know why it takes so long for me, that's why I don't work with it much.

I had to go back in with white oil to touch up his head and the little flowers.  This is a very tactile, expressive way to create. I enjoy it a lot but I'm too impatient.  It just doesn't work with my personality.  It's good to know your limits, in my case anyway.

Happy Trails
Travel Well

Jumpers

Hey Friends, This is the piece I started last week. Maybe I should have taken a before shot, but it wasn't very pretty. I was trying to make it look like a lake. But the water was just too dark. Now it looks more tropical than I intended.
This has been painted from memory. I'm sure that's why I had trouble. I think memory paintings take a lot of practice. And I don't have time for that, that's why I normally use photos.
AND painting people from memory is really tuff. I think the little guy on the left reminds me of SOROLLA's "Sad Inheritance". Mind you I said Reminds. If I were 1/10th as good at painting as Sorolla I would probably be wealthy !

I have not finished the Peacock ! Maybe Thursday. Please comment/critique - It always helps.

Happy Trails.

Alla Prima by Richard Schmid

Hey Friends, Thought you might like to know the book above "Alla Prima" is really worth reading. This is the third time I've read it and something new, just little tidbits, sinks into my hard head each time! Is it because I've painted more (experience?) or I'm in a different mood? or maybe because I wasn't reading in bed?
I injured the old knee again last night, almost made me cry, so I've been laying around reading and eating bon-bons, like a little queen. You guys have a great week painting!

Happy Trails.

A SHORT WALK

Hey Friends, Today I took a short walk or a stroll just to be outside. I live in Salem, Va. next to a tiny stream of water called Gum Springs. This little spring is dry most of the year. When we are lucky enough to get rain, usually the spring, I love to walk around the area just to look at the water. The photo above is directly at the bottom of our gravel, muddy driveway. Pretty small at this point. In a couple of months the area to the left will be covered in day lillys. In another 2 weeks or so, there will be a bunch of May Apples, Dog Tooth Violets, Jack in the Pulpits and several other wildflowers along with daffodils and perennial geraniums springing up everywhere. This is the best time of the year.

In the photo above, I'm further down the stream and its getting a bit bigger. Can you see the moss growing on the big rock? This is a very rocky area and most of them have moss growing on them. Again the Dog Tooth Violets are sprouting already. I have painted these wildflowers many times and this little spring also.

Now I'm almost to the end of our little country road. This farmer made a dam to create this little pond. Gum Springs flows into it and out again and on for several miles to merge with the Roanoke River. Don't know why he wanted this pond, he has no horses or cows. He probably likes the ducks that visit. I took a bunch of photos that I plan to use as reference for paintings. So come back again to see what I've done with the paint. Have a wonderful weekend and get outside, life is much shorter than you realize.

Happy Trails.

VINTAGE TABLECLOTH w/ COSMO'S

A few little cosmo's - last of the beauties this past fall. I took a couple of photo's then and just got around to painting this last week. My mom is a packrat that saves fabric, bed covers, tableclothes and more. This is from her stash. For purchase info click HERE.

"LANTERN & LILLY'S"

This piece of original art has pure gold leaf in the background. Gold leaf will not show up on a computer monitor but it is a really nice glowing surface. I love chinese paper lanterns and the mini-umbrellas and of course, the lillys. For purchase info on Ebay please click here.

'LAKE VIEW'

A friend with a home on Smith Mountain Lake let me use her view for this painting. SML is here in the southwestern mountains of Virginia. "The Little Gallery is here on this lake. They have a fabulous little gallery crammed with a zillion beautiful objects. You can find some of my work there if you get to visit the lake. Their website gives you directions-www.thelittlegallery.com. Today has been the perfect spring day with warm breezes and lots of sunshine. This would have been a great day to visit the lake or go for a hike or fishing. Hope you had a beautiful day! If anyone reads this blog and wants to take a few minutes to leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you. Maybe like how your day was , where you live! Thanks for stumbling in and if you would like information about bidding for this painting, go to ebay by clicking here.