A Yellow Pear

Oil on Board, 4 3/4" x 6", $85.00 Go to eBay

I really love the yellows in this pear, and the contrast

with the blue background. Overall, I was pretty happy

with this painting. It was a nice break from some more

complicated paintings that I've been working on lately.

Sunset over St. John II

Oil on Board, 1o" x 7" SOLD

This is another view that I am obsessed with. Probably because

I haven't been there in three years. I love the Caribbean. If someone

were to ask me where I would rather go right now than anywhere on

earth, and I could choose any place, it would be the Caribbean. It i

a magical, beautiful place.

The colors in this painting did not come out well in this photograph.
They were much more luminous. The yellow was yellower, and the
pink was pinker.

I had a strange experience today. I get Chris Bolmeier's blog post.
She's a fascinating character. Does good art, can write up a storm,
has a fantastic voice - multi-talented. Well, she suggested watching a YouTube
video with Karin Jurik laying out her palette. I love those
things, so I did watch it.

It was uncanny. One by one, I watched her lay out every single
color I use on my own palette!! I should have had Twilight Zone
music playing in my head. Our work is nothing alike. (I admire
hers very much.) But, we obviously both love to have a lot of color
to work with, because she had about fifty, just like I do, and just
about the same, exact colors! Weird....but interesting.

Thanks for visiting today, and have a nice weekend.

Portrait of Mary-Elizabeth

Pastel & Carbon Pencil on Drawing Paper,
9" x 16", NFS

I love drawing Mary Elizabeth, her high,
round forehead would have been the envy
of every woman in the Renaissance. I did
this is an open life class, and was very happy
with the results. Usually I find it hard to
concentrate.

Mary is also a swimming coach, so she
is a very graceful and imaginative model,
and just wonderful to draw.

The Eastern Shore at Midday

Oil Pastel w/ Van Eyck Painting Medium on White Acrylic-

Sized Paper, 9" x 7 7/8", $100.00 Bid Here

I have a set of Sennelier oil pastels - actually I have two - one that

I have never touched because it is so beautiful I can't bare to touch

it, and another that was bought over time; piece by piece, also a Holbein

here, a Sakura there, that's been used and used.

I just love this image,

and thought I would play around with it using oil pastels. The Senneliers

are so soft, they are literally like lipstick. The Holbeins - and I forgot to

mention the Caran d'Ache, are somewhat firmer, but still incredibly

smooth and satisfying to work with.

I will put some color down, and take a deerfoot brush ( these are

brushes that I used for blending in oil painting) and dip it into a

tube of Sennelier Van Eyck Painting Medium (gelatinous but delicate),

and you can push the oil pastel around with this, and blend it together.

It is really fun.

Sometimes I feel really serious about my work, and sometimes I think

it brings out my (caution: over-used word alert - ) "inner child". I'm

planning on doing a series of figure paintings next, and they are very

demanding, so that is probably why I am doing this, and why I did the

pears yesterday. Just something light, and.....entertaining.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Two Bosc Pears in a Blue Light

Oil on Gessoed Rag Board, 8" x 7 3/8", $100.00 Bid Here

These pears were painted on a piece of rag board that had been

covered with pink gesso. I love the slight irridescent appearance

caused by laying the blue glaze over the pink. I think one of the

reasons I love oil paint so much is that it is so versatile, and you

can do so many different things with it: use it thickly, smoothly,

tranluscently (called a "half-paste" - see Titian), transparently

(a glaze), or whatever else you can think of. As long as you are

careful with your mediums and solvents and drying times, you're

OK. It's really fun, and challenging too.

Thank you for visiting today.