The Hibiscus

This lovely flower came to me by way of God. Yes, that's right I said "God". I had a few paintings I wanted to do, then in the way that God does, He showed me this image sorta like burned into the backside of my eyelids. It was this deep throated red hibiscus flower. Giant too like an O'Keefe painting. I said to God, "But God, it's already been done before by other artists" Ya know, like whining to Him! I think we are very amusing to him sometimes. Anyway, so, that's the origin and inspiration behind this painting. Now for the particulars. It measures 18"x24"x1 1/2" gallery wrap and is an oil on canvas. The painting part is done, however, I will be laying on some impasto medium over the top to give this painting some gloss and texture.

First Wine and Paint

This is the happy crew from 16 Main gallery's first ever Wine and Paint and boy did we have fun. Did'nt all the students do great!?

This friday night, the 21st!

Wine and Paint night lesson at 16 Main Gallery

This Friday evening at 6pm come and join me for a Wine and Paint night at 16 Main Gallery in Madison Alabama.
BYOB of your choice, $35.00, all supplies included.
We will do study of wine bottles in acrylic paints on canvas. You will leave the evening with a completed painting and a smile on your face! We do have fun!
Call for reservation: 256.325.0161

New Painting, Crescendo

This painting I did last week. Another friend and I were working in the studio, she with her project of mixed media and I with another knifed abstract. I started this painting not knowing at all where it was going. With some rather calm music I scumbled in the colors I wanted to use , putting down an underpainting. I felt drawn to those colors even though they are not my usual color palette. When I was sure about the color combination I got excited. I knew I was going to get the knives out. As the excitement in me grew, the music changed and built up, escalating into an explosion of musical notes. I began applying the various paint selections following some internal rhythm.
When I put the last of the paint on, finishing all that I had mixed, I felt a release. The music ended and I knew the painting was nearing completion. Now, all that remained was the musical notes that threw me into this frenzy!. The notes, the black and yellow droplets, are high gloss latex and glisten when the light strikes them, standing out just like they did in my minds eye during the music. Well, the music now was calm again and then I realized what this whole painting was, the crescendo! So, that's what it is called, " Crescendo", 30"x30"x1 1/2" gallery wrap.

February class samples

I will be teaching a couple of classes next month at 16 Main Gallery. This first one will be on Feb 11th, a Friday night," Champagne and berries." Acrylic. Of course it's a BYOB so ........

This second painting will be on a Saturday afternoon the 26th I think. This one is an oil and is entitled," The Flame and the Flower."
Each class will run 2-3 hours and is designed for most skill levels. We will have still life props by which we will paint by.
These classes are sooooo much fun. I hope you can join us.

....by any other name

My friend Martha took a picture of a rose recently and I loved it. I decided to do a close up of this rose and try and get a really velvety feel to the petals. Normally I would have done a rose in oils but I felt like challenging myself with the acrylics to get this feel. So, as usually occurs, in my jammies late at night, the rose came to life.

Blue Green

After a period of artistic abstinence, due to house guest, I needed a painting to wake up the right side of my brain. I knew I wanted the color blue green as the background so that part was easy. Next I had to just do a simple style of painting to loosen up my brush hand and stroke. I am in a flower mood of late so this came out onto the canvas and I didn't fight it.