Northern Flickers

Northern Flicker 2008
8 x 10
Sold






Northern Flicker 2007
8 x 10


Sold


Note cards available






Above are images of Northern Flickers. They are (obviously) paintings of the same bird using reference photos by Jared Hobbs. He has wonderful wildlife photos you can check out at Jared Hobbs. I have also used his photos to paint a Stellar's Jay, a Pygmy Owl, a tiger, and a Mexican Spotted Owl that is still in process. Thank you Jared!

I seem to be on a bird binge. The Spotted Owl is roosting for the moment and I have just started 3 hummingbird paintings. Small ones. I have bright colorful photos all over my studio and I love them! This is going to be fun! I can't wait to show you. I usually don't work on more than one or two paintings at a time but these are small. Now it is time to stay away from the computer and paint hummers.

Cha Cha, the loose goat

Cha Cha

8 x 10

Sold

People ask us if we live on a farm. I don't know whether it is a farm or not, but we do have 3 goats and 9 chickens as of now, plus a dog and a "barn cat". (The barn cat prefers my daughter's bed.) At one time we had 17 ducks and soon we will have bees. My husband calls our home Wanna Bee Farm, but that might change after he gets them.

Cha Cha was one of our first goats. In this painting she is lounging on a rock behind our house. I started this painting sometime in late 2006, or maybe early 2007. I used masking fluid on Cha Cha and painted the background and some of the rock. (Masking fluid is put on to watercolor painting to prevent the paint from going there while you paint around and over it.) I lost interest in the painting and put it away for months.

I came back to the Cha Cha painting one day. I removed the masking fluid and realized it hadn't worked so well, or maybe it didn't age well. Cha Cha had green on her face. Brian, my old watercolor teacher suggested that I make her a brown and white goat. I couldn't do that to Cha Cha. She is a pure bred Saanan and needed to be white.

I thought, "what do I have to lose?", and loosened up. I splashed a little more green paint on her and some pink to balance it out. The rest was much easier than my usual paintings because I wasn't invested in painting a perfect realistic goat. I had fun and worked quicker than usual and it was done. I kind of like it! Overall I think that loose is overrated, but it can be fun and it sure is easier!

Epilogue: Cha Chas was bred and gave birth to a buck. She had a huge udder with lots of milk and was nearly impossible to milk. After a couple weeks of goat wrestling we dried her off and later sold her to a farm in Western Connecticut where they use milking machines. I still have the painting.

Regarding Painting Painted Turtle Post

The last post didn't work out so well. I lost the images of Baby Turtle and the two reference images I tried to post. This happened while I was trying to wrap the text nicely. I tried the preview to hunt for the missing images and that made my whole draft completely inaccessible to me. My friend in Vermont published it for me on his computer, just to get it up. Sorry for the mess. This will be resolved I hope when we get DSL!

I am trying again to post the image of the painting Baby Turtle and the reference photo I used for it. The painted painted turtle is on a small log instead of the lily pad root. I can't tell if this is working at all because everything is showing in HTML instead of showing me pictures and normal text. I apologize. Thanks for your patience! I'll be better at this soon.

Painting Painted Turtles

Painted Turtle, 2005

11 x 14
Sold






Painted Turtle II, 2006, 5 x7, sold

I love turtles, frogs and salamanders, so I paint them. Painted turtles lend themselves to paintings because of the bright colors which got them their name. My first turtle painting was done in a class at the Farmington Valley Arts Center in 2004. I wasn't a professional artist yet and was using a photo provided by the instructor, from Blooms and Blossoms magazine. There are 5 turtles on a log with their reflections in the water; a lovely composition. That painting became one of my first successes. It also gave me practice painting turtles . I still have Turtles. I am unable to show or sell it because I used an image from a magazine without any rights to it. That is fine for a student in an art class but makes the painting almost non existent for a professional artist. No photo of that

image here.

Reflected Turtle, 2008, 8 x 10, Sold

I began a quest for my own painted turtle reference photos. Omega Institute, a holistic camp in Rhienbeck NY provided the perfect location. They have a lake filled with Lily Pads and teaming with turtles. My family went in 2005 and I got enough photos for many paintings. While my daughter went to a children's program, my husband, Jeff, took Leif and I out in a canoe. Jeff paddled from the stern and Leif, who was about 3 years old, sat in the middle. I sat in the bow with my camera poised and took shot after shot of turtles. I LOVE having a digital camera. I had never been much of a photographer in the past but it is fantastic to be able to take 100s of images and delete the ones that are not good. I took at least 100 images.


My first professional turtle painting was Painted Turtle in 2005. Yes, I need to get more original with my titles. I realize that. It is an 11 x 14 watercolor of a painted turtle posed on a lily pad root complete with lily pads and yellow blossoming flower. It is still one of my favorite paintings and one of my first note cards. A student in my watercolor class bought the painting, almost before it was even dry! This image is at the top of the page.

My next turtle painting was a 5 x 7 of the same turtle, done in 2006. Painted Turtle II is simple, colorful and makes a nice note card also. The painting sold at the New Hartford Festival of Arts in October, 2007. This image is 2ND from the top of the page.

I went back to Omega last summer for a painting class with Jeanne Carbonetti. I took a kayak out on the lake almost every day with my new digital Canon with the 12 x zoom lens. I was a happy camper. There were times when I had to back up the kayak just to get the whole turtle or group of turtles in the view finder! It was turtle photo heaven. I have more turtle photos to paint from, including groups of two, three and four. Now I even know how to edit and sort them in Paint Shop Pro.


I finished two new turtle paintings in the last month. Reflected Turtle is an 8 x 10 watercolor. The turtle in the photo was on a lily pad root that wasn't very attractive and viewers might not even recognize what it was. I painted the turtle on a log instead which was a kind of interesting process. Baby Turtle is a 5 x 7 of a young painted turtle. I changed the lily pad root to a piece of drift wood for this one. I happened to have a small piece in my studio to use as a reference. It was interesting to paint partially from a photo and partially from real life.


My attempts at posting the images and arranging the text didn't quite work. Baby Turtle and the photo references are posted in the next log.


Baby Turtle is still available for $115, including double mat and frame.

Giraffes

Giraffe 11 x 14

Original watercolor $450

Limited Edition

Giclee Print $95

Note cards available!

These are two of my favorite paintings. Some people wonder why I paint giraffes instead of something more marketable, but I love giraffes and think they are beautiful. I finished my first zebra painting and was immediately compelled to paint giraffes. I have sold two Giclee prints of each so people do buy them. The giraffe note cards sell well also. Originals still available.

I started the vertical painting first. It originally had a typical blue sky, similar to the one in the horizontal painting. I got some giraffe color in the sky that I couldn't remove and the giraffes weren't coming along too well. I temporarily gave up on the painting for several months. I started and completed the single giraffe without any major mishaps and eventually went back to the duo.

Giraffes

Original Sold

11 x 14 Limited Edition Signed Giclee print $95

Note cards $2.50

I completed the second painting and many people admire the colors in the background. I like it because it shows fun and creativity instead of my tendency toward photo realism. This is a result of my "messing up" the blue sky. Artists call those "lucky accidents". I think that the single giraffe painting might look too much like the photo.

I used photo references from a fabulous photographer named Scotch Macaskill. Check out his great wildlife photos at Scotch photo site.

Reference images shown below. I purchased an online "giraffe package" from him last year for $6.00. I looked today and now the packages are $10 which is still quite the bargain. He has MANY wonderful photos. I also did zebra and leopard paintings using his photos.

Bye for now. I have an owl to paint!

Reference photos

First day of my first blog!

Hello.


This is A LOT easier than creating a web site! I have someone else do all the work there but this even I can do this. (I think.)

Portland Head Light, 11 x 14, watercolor on Arches CP 140 paper

That was easy. The intent of this blog is to gather interest in myself and my artwork. Ideally, this interest will lead to worldwide recognition, artwork sales, and help me rise to the rank of a professional artist who actually makes a successful living at it. I sell paintings now but it is still massage that provides most of my income. I would rather paint! I always thought that the phrase "starving artist" was a very poor affirmation and that artists should have a better attitude. I am learning that earning money in art can be a bit challenging. I accept that challenge and you can watch while I achieve my artistic goals.


I hope to interest you with images of paintings, and information about them that you will not find on my web site. I will do some photo series that will demonstrate the evolution of a painting. (Example: "How the leopard got its spots.") I will share some interesting marketing ideas that have worked for me and hopefully will experience many more of them to share. Expect to explore real life art experiences from the perspective of a creative, emerging artist who believes in magic.


There may be some humorous blunders as I learn to navigate in a blog and start getting a clue about what I am doing. I have only been on one blog before. I think it was a blog.


The lighthouse image above is supposed to be down here. It took three tries to get it to show up at all so I will leave it where it is. It is the Portland Head Light, a well known lighthouse in Portland, Maine. My friend Allan Perrie took the reference photo and let me paint it.

I like to paint from my own photos and have been on a lighthouse quest for the last two years. I tried to get good photos in Cape Cod and on the coast of Southern, Connecticut. I was unable to get any photos that looked worthy of paintings. In July my family went on vacation in the Outer Banks in N.C. I finally got some nice lighthouse photos but they weren't spectacular. What is the point of a lighthouse painting that doesn't even have water in it? I painted the Bodie Lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse anyway. They are OK. You can see them on my web site and some people like them. I told Allan my dilemma and he told me about this photo. He emailed it to me and it was like a dream come true. I consider this one of my best paintings. The biggest complement was when I showed it to my teacher, Laura. She told me it was done! Laura usually finds about 10 ways my paintings can be improved when I think they are about done.

I finished the painting in November in time for the fall Connecticut Watercolor Show. I just got it back from a juried show at the East Granby Public Library and am wondering where to put it next. I am doing a signed limited edition of 100 Giclee prints. I sold at least one so far. I am very willing to sell the original because I can keep a print, otherwise it might be tough to let it go. It is $450 with the double mat and frame, and I am surprised no one has bought it yet. I know this painting will sell. The note card version is a best seller at $2.50.

I guess I better actually publish this post and see how it all works! Thanks for reading! I hope I still have time to paint now that I am a blogger!