Poppy Prints for my first attempt at linocut printmaking!

Painting on a cold, windy Sunday made me yearn for warmth!

I felt the need for warmth, romance and a little mystery today when I found my inspirational reference photo. I choose a horse grazing at the edge of Aspens and wanted to leave a lot of it to the viewer's interpretation so I stayed as loose as I could for today.  Enjoy this late summer day!

"Horse in the Aspens"

20"x30" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$575.00

Rainy Day Project!

How do you overcome the last of the winter blues when it's dark and ominous out?  

You paint!  We had downpour after downpour and gloomy weather, so I started looking through my inspiration file that houses all my reference photos I collect to get my creative juices flowing, and I found this bright, cheery scene of lovely spring daffodils.  

It didn't take much to decide this was a good subject on such a dreary day.  I will create my own sunshine!

Hope you enjoy.

"Ushering in Spring"

24"x12" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$625

Finally!

After a drawn out move, some travel mixed in and a lot of adjusting to a new town, I have gotten my studio space set up and finally put some time aside to paint yesterday.  I decided to "go big" and painted a 20"x30" floral painting.  Pretty ambitious for not having picked up a brush in over a month, but I loved the process, tried some different techniques and loved the result.  It brought me right into Spring and Summer on a cold rainy night here in Bend.

 I hope you enjoy it too!

"Wildflower Field"

20"x30" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$750

Painting Today with Children! So fun!

I had a fantastic day today painting with a 6 year old and a 9 year old.  Showing them the "tricks of the trade", allowing them to explore their creativity, amazed at the results!  I wish I had taken photographs of their art to post.  They did an amazing job and produced three paintings each!  I didn't believe they would be able to focus that long, but they really got into it!

I did this kind of abstract flower painting to give them some pointers on how to fill the canvas, using brush strokes, etc.  They made me wish I was a kid again!

Abstract Flowers

12X12" oil painting on museum quality flat panel

$80f

Warm Tropical Flowers cheer me up in the dead of winter!

Took advantage of the wonderful winter sunshine and painted another floral small.

"Warm Azaleas"

8"x8" oil painting on museum quality flat panel

$80

A bright pink rose in the middle of winter!

Today, on a super snowy winter day, I found good light, so I decided to paint.  I looked through my hundreds of reference photos, but kept coming back to flowers.  So today I did a rose and I might get one more painting in before the early dusk settles in.

"Pink Rose"

8"x8" oil painting on museum quality flat panel.

$80

Countdown to Christmas!

So I am a little later on my Christmas cards than I had expected to be this year and when I was rooting around my photo files I could not find any new pictures of this past year that I wanted to share, so I decided to paint a card instead!

"Christmas Ornament"

8"x10" oil painting on museum quality flat panel

$45

Flowers from a distance!

I was drawn to flowers again today, but in a much different format.  I haven't painted on a flat panel in ages and I remembered why today.  The slick feel of the panel doesn't give me the nice toothy feel of a canvas and so the paint acts in a completely different manner.  It produces a whole new texture than I typically like, but I liked the way this turned out.  Enjoy!

"Wildflower Mountain"

11"x14" oil painting on museum quality flat panel

$100

More flowers!

I started to paint today and really wanted to get poppies out of my system so I could find a new and more intriguing subject.  Although I still adore poppies, I am thinking it's time to branch out and find something completely outside the box and my comfort zone.  Time will tell if I find that subject!

So for now, enjoy the poppies!

"Poppies III"

10"x10" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$100

Today's Painting - on my wedding anniversary

Today is my anniversary.  I am married to the most incredible man.  It feels like we have always known each other and have been together since we were kids.  Hard to believe it any other way.  I guess that is what it feels like when you find someone so very compatible and on the same wavelength when it comes to the important stuff. 

My dear husband is out of the house today working and I decided to paint and I guess I felt inspired and loved and so very content.  I hope I put those feelings of joy and love into this painting today.

Enjoy!

"Close Up of a Poppy"

12"x12" oil painting on 3/4" profile canvas

$125

If you like ocean critters - stay tuned!

I felt particularly inspired lately to paint and with some new ideas that came to me late at night.  I have 7 paintings lined up and ready to go...

Here is the first of the sea life series drawn from my sister's love of the ocean, diving and her adventures down below.

"Hammerheads of Galapagos"

18"x18" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$200

Second Painting of the Day!

"Rooster"

12"x12" oil painting on 3/4" profile museum board

$140

Deva's Ganesh

My friend Katy Latta has a lovely little 3 year old daughter named Deva.  She's full of life, full of love and since she thinks Ganesh is the coolest thing ever, I decided to paint the elephant God for her so she could have him look over her all the time.

Hugs to my friends!

"Deva's Ganesh"

16"x20" oil painting on canvas

Sold

Yesterday's Effort

A great artist and friend, Dreama Tolle Perry, talked about "just showing up" on her blog yesterday and it got me inspired to get in front of my easel, even though I wasn't really sure what I wanted to paint or feeling especially moved to paint.  

I rifled through some of my reference photos and was tickled by the feel of some poppies, so I just "showed up" and let the rest happen.  

Here is the resultant painting.  Makes me smile, so it's a masterpiece in my mind!

"Poppies II"

12"x12" oil painting on canvas

$150

Who doesn't love manatees!?

Today's painting!  My biggest canvas to date!  4'x2'!  I love manatees, I love the tranquility and peaceful feeling when I look at this.  The colors and subject make for a happy, serene experience!

Hoping my sister will want it for her Florida water front home!

"Manatee"

48"x24" oil painting on canvas

$400

From Flowers to Jelly Fish

Well, I am drawn once again to the jelly fish today when I was looking through my inspiration photos.  I hope the people who keep asking for jelly fish like this!

Jelly Fish

18"x18" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$200

Delicious buttermilk gluten-free pancakes!

Wow!  These turned out even better than the typical buttermilk pancake!  I didn't even miss the gluten!

Obviously, to cook GF you need special flours and starches, so I recommend either hitting Bob's Red Mill in Portland (as I did) or going online to King Arthur Flour and finding the ingredients and keeping them handy.

So far I have made GF pizza dough (yummy and crispy!!), GF pancakes now and GF bread.   All worked out great once I got used to the different texture and long list of ingredients that accompanies GF recipes.

Give these pancakes a try.  They were so good I ate mine sans butter, sans syrup and sans jelly.  They were so good by themselves!!

1 1/2 cups of GF Flour mix (This is a blend of 140g of brown rice flour, 47g of potato starch & 23g of tapioca starch/flour)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons sugar (I used maple sugar!!! Made it delish!  Could smell the hint of maple sweetness and taste it too!)
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk at room temperature (I use the dehydrated buttermilk powder so I can have buttermilk in the house all the time - this stuff is amazing)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 extra-large egg, room temperature

Heat your griddle to medium high
In a large bowl, place the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and whisk together well.
In another bowl whisk together the egg, buttermilk and butter.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients on top and whisk until all the lumps are gone.
I ladle the batter onto the griddle and when one side looks dry and has holes in it, I flip over and cook until lightly browned on the other side.

These are best served nice and hot off the griddle!

ENJOY!!

Pink Poppies

Pink Poppies

14"x11" oil painting on 1 1/2" profile canvas

$80

White Poppies

My painting today!  Enjoy!

"White Poppies"

12"x12" oil painting on 3/4" profile canvas

$150