Pink Cloud Landscape

 Oil over Acrylic on 1/2" thick wood panel, 6" square                              SOLD

Storm over Green Fields

Oil on linen laid down on wood, 6" x 8" - SOLD

As it is the beginning of the New Year, and as life has taken me away

from my work so consistently in recent months, I have made a New

Year's Resolution to complete a painting at least six days a week,

starting TODAY.

These paintings will be for bid starting at $100 in my eBay store.

They will range in size from "4 square, to 8" x 10", or sometimes larger,

and I can't promise they will always be oil paintings, as I love to experi-

ment so much.

This painting was photographed literally the minute after

I finished it - that is why it is so shiny.

Thanks for visiting, and I wish my "followers", and all else who visit

here the Happiest of New Years!

Priscilla

Imaginary Landscape #3

This is another watercolor and gouache piece, done in class as a demo for my students

yesterday. I was lucky it came out so well. That doesn't always happen!!

This was done on a wonderful new product which I just love! Fredrix Watercolor Canvas.

I had been painting on it already in oils, because it has a lovely smooth, delicate surface,

and I had been using mostly paper and panels, because I Hate canvas generally!! But this

stuff is very different.

But, for watercolor, and gouache, it's absolute revelation! You can lift, wipe back, lay

washes, remove whole areas of color - you name it, it's more like working with oils

practically when you work on this product. I've been having so much fun, I can't wait

to get up in the morning! Of course all days aren't successful ones, but one can always

try, and always hope! I'm planning on filling this whole sketchbook with these landscapes,

exectued entirely with brush, and having a feeling of being partially imagined. I've got

13 to go. The paper in the book is Canson watercolor.

I usually begin by covering my picture area with Winsor and Newton Lifting Preparation,

because right now I like to paint skies, and it is enormously helpful. Of course this isn't

necessary on the Fredrix Watercolor Canvas, but I sometimes do it anyway.

So much fun.

Thanks for visiting.

Imaginary Landscape #2

This is another example of a completely painted gouache landscape that I made for my

new class today. I was pretty happy with it, although I don't think it really comes across

very well in the photograph. I just love working in gouache. It is so forgiving. I even did

a decent demo in class in it today. Demos are ususally problematical for me, but I find this

medium very "friendly" and also intuitive.

I almost feel like it's "guiding' me to do the right
thing in a piece.

I could do this for twenty-four hours a day.

Imaginary Landscape #1

I was making some examples for my students in a gouache class that is going to begin

tomorrow, and I wanted to create an example of one done entirely with a brush - no

pencil lines at all.

This is what I came up with.

It isn't very big, but I like the colors, and

the composition. I feel the contrast is rather dynamic, and I wouldn't mind being in that

place, either.

Thanks for visiting.

Sketch of Potomac River in the Summer

Gouache and Watercolor, 4" x 6" $100.00

This is actually right near where I live. It is nice to live near the river.
I love to see it in every season, but my favorite is definitely the
summertime. It isn't so great when it floods - which it did a few years
ago, wiping out a lot of my neighborhood. That was not pleasant.
But, we must be crazy. We all know we live in a 100-year flood plain.
And we haven't left ......yet.

I did this in a Canson sketchbook. I have several of them for different
themes. They are great if you keep your pictures rather small. But, if
you do anything larger than 5" x 7" the paper starts to buckle, so it's
better to keep the compositions on the small side. That's OK with me.
I enjoy working small a lot of the time. Everyone's different!

Sunset after a Storm

Acrylic on Gessoed Board, 6" x 6" $100.00

This is another made-up picture. I guess it's the Caribbean. The

places that I have been there have made such an impression on me.

Particularly the skies.

This is one of my first acrylic paintings. You can probably tell....

There are certain aspects of acrylic that I like very much. For someone

who loves glazing as much as I do, the instant-dry factor is very

convenient. But, blending is problematical, and so is getting soft

edges. Spraying water on it, as I read David Hockney does, helps

a little bit. But it certainly is fun to play with. All in all, I think I'll

remain a big oils fan. I love the maleability of it, and the softness

of the edges that you can get with it like nothing else except maybe

pastel, or oil pastel.

Mrs. White's Yard

Oil on Panel, 6" x 8" $100.00

This was a really, really fast sketch I did of the yard next door. I
love very refined painting, as I am a diehard fan of early Renaissance
work. But, every once in a while I just get in the mood to really
let go and paint as fast as I can - even sacrificing reality if I have to
in favor of abstraction if that is what happens. I like the energy in
this little sketch - it was a cloudy day, so that is why you don't see
any shadows.

Memory of Ellett Valley, Virginia

SOLD

Watercolor on Acid Free Watercolor Paper, 7" square

This was one of the most beautiful places that I was ever in.
It was a valley that basically ran parallel to the town of
Blacksburg, Virginia, on the other side of a small mountain
range. Back when I spent time there in the 80's, before they started
building developments with "cul de sacs" and mini-mansions, it was
full of wonderful old pig farms, and Virginia vernacular architecure.
It also had rolling, twisting roads, almost like a roller coaster that
seemed to go on forever...not to mention the cornfields, sunflowers,
sweetpeas, and cows. I haven't been there in years. I think I'd rather
remember it like this.

Field with a Stream in Rappahannock Valley

Oil on Gessoed Archival Rag board laid down on same,
5 11/2" x 4 1/4" $40.00 SOLD

This is a scene in Rappahannock County, on the way
to the Blue Ridge. From a photo again. But, I don't
feel bad about it. Sometimes I find I can be more
imaginative when working from a photo than when
working from life. The memory comes into play,
and also there is a freedom to work with color that
the overwhelming presence of Nature sometimes
stifles in me.

I know Degas rarely worked outside,
and he is one of my idols. So, I guess if it was good
enough for him, it's good enough for me. I know that
when he died his family found boxes of photos in
his apartment - some of a nature they were not
so happy with, so they threw them out. Many were
photos he had taken himself.

I was quite happy with this small picture. It gives me the
same feeling that I have when I am out in the country, so
I must have caught something about the lanscape.
It makes me happy, and that is good.

Blue Ridge Mountain View

Oil on Gessoed Wood Panel, 3" x 5" $90.00

I felt like doing a landscape today, but I didn't have time
to drive out to the Shenandoah, so I dug through my box of
photographs and found one I found inspiring. I never tire of
making up pictures of that place, and never tire of going there.

The New River, McCoy, Virginia

Gessoed Wood Panel, 3" x 5 $40.00

I found an old photograph I had taken down at the New River and I just couldn't resist painting a picture of it. I love the mountains so much. I don't live too far from the Blue Ridge, but never seem get out there. They are never far from my mind or my heart though. They are aesthetically and spirtually inspiring.