Recent Work Through 2/27/09

Sunrise Poppies V
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

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Prairie Sky and Country Road III
Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

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Here are two new paintings from the Sunrise Poppies and Prairie Sky series. My patrons really gravitate to these compositions, so I like to keep them happy by having new editions of these paintings available on my sales venues.

Today I'm going to be working on some new paintings to list on my sales venues, and I have some new commissions lined up that I need to get started. I'll post some of today's work later this afternoon, so stay tuned.

Quote of the day: "Artists have to show us what is not going well within the person and within the society, not try to cover it up." --Thich Nhat Hanh

Alaska Commission Update 2/26/09

Alaska in Early Fall
Original 60" x 60" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics

I think this painting is done (yay!). I sent a proof to my publisher earlier today, who said it was "superb", and has forwarded it to the client for approval. Here are some closeups:

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Quote of the day: "That stroke you are about to make on a painting is as much you as the next word you utter or the next breath you take." --Harley Brown

Alaska Commission Update - 2/25/09

Alaska in Early Fall
Original 60" x 60" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics

Here's the latest photo of my Alaska commission. I still have some work to do on it, but it's coming along nicely. My publisher is happy, so that makes me happy too. I hope to finish it up tomorrow, unless he asks for changes.

I need to get busy. I'm working on a painting to list tonight on my sales venues. I'll post an image of that later on.

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Fauve Landscape IV
Original 22" x 28" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

This is a new composition in the Fauve Landscape series. The Fauvists were noted for their use of bright colors. The most notable of the Fauvists was Henri Matisse.

Quote of the day: "To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul." --Mahatma Gandhi

Twisted Apple Tree with Pink Blossoms

Twisted Apple Tree with Pink Blossoms V
Original 24" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

This painting sold today on one of my sales venues. I enjoy painting this composition because of the contrast the pink blossoms have with the blue sky. The tree trunk seems to get more twisted every time I paint it. The weather has been very spring-like the past few days, and I look forward to seeing real blossoms on the trees in a couple of months.

I made some great progress on the Alaska painting today. My publisher is anxious to see where I'm at with it, but I didn't have good enough light for a photo today. I will post an update here tomorrow.

Quote of the day: "Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." --Leonardo da Vinci

Alaska Commission Update - 2/23/09

Alaska in Early Fall
Original 60" x 60" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics

I still have some work to do on the foreground, but my publisher is THRILLED with what I've done so far. I typically save the foreground until last in order to get the atmospheric perspective just right. I worked on this painting today and managed to crank out two others for listing on my sales venues. It feels good to paint--and I'm grateful for my ability to work for myself and be a working artist.

Tall Red Trees VI
Original 66" x 28" x 0.75" painting - Three 22" x 28" canvases
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Here is one of the other paintings I worked on today for listing on my sales venues. The Tall Red Trees composition is one that I've reproduced for many patrons over the past 5+ years. This abstract composition lends itself well to large canvases.

Quote of the day: "As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it." --Thich Nhat Hanh

Red Trees

Red Trees VI
Original 72" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

I've had a couple of requests recently to reproduce this composition--including one from a woman in Toronto who wants this in a large format like this one. This painting is a variation of a composition I used when I started painting for a living almost six years ago.

It's been a wild ride getting started in my own business, and I think often about how far I've come in establishing myself as an artist who can make a living doing what I love to do. I have a lot of gratitude for that.

Quote of the day: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." --John F. Kennedy

Recent Work

Prairie Sky at Sunset
Original 30" x 40" 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas


Red Poppies on Yellow VII
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas


Still Life with Daisy Bouquet and Red Vase V
Original 18" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's paintings are variations on two of my favorite compositions: the floral Red Poppies on Yellow series, and the abstract landscape Prairie Sky at Sunset. The third painting is one I painted a few days ago, and is a very popular still life in the Still Life with Daisy Bouquet and Red Vase series.

One of my patrons who owns a restaurant in Vail, CO purchased the previous iteration of the Daisy Bouquet painting along with a painting in the Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky series, and a painting in the Fauve Farm series.

I worked on the Alaska commission more today, and should get that painting finished tomorrow. I'll be sure to share a photo of the finished painting with you.

Quote of the day: "At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough." --Toni Morrison

Alaska Commission

Alaska in Early Fall

Original 60" x 60" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics

Here's an in-progress photo of the Alaska commission I'm working on for my Atlanta-area publisher. I'm working from a patron's photos from his recent trip to Alaska (see below). Stay tuned to see the finished painting.

Here's an updated photo taken later this afternoon. I plan to get this done over the weekend, and will post another update photo when it's done.

Patron's Photo: Alaska Wilderness

Quote of the day: "Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity." --Mark Rothko

New Commission

Autumn Sunrise Commission
Original 48" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Two 24" x 36" canvases
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

I work with an interior designer in Farmington, New Mexico who requested a commission of this painting as a diptych. My Autumn Sunrise II painting sold last week on one of the venues where I list my work, and she asked me to reproduce this composition for her condo in Durango, Colorado.

Tomorrow I'm going to get started on the large Alaska wilderness commission.

Quote of the day: "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." --Thomas Merton

Recent Works

Pear Tree V

Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Prairie Sky and Country Road II

Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

These are two paintings I've done in the past two days. My sales have really picked up this week, which makes me a happy camper. I'm going to be getting started on the large Alaska landscape commission that my Atlanta-area publisher has ordered for one of their clients.

The Pear Tree series is one of my favorite ones to paint. I recently sold a variation of this composition to a woman in Brooklyn who bought it as a wedding present. The Prairie Sky series is one I've done several different compositions for. I love painting the huge sky and clouds, and my patrons really love it.

Quote of the day: "Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order." --Virginia Woolf

Today's Paintings

Sunrise Poppies IV
Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Bouquet with Striped Cloth IV
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's paintings include two of my favorite compositions that my patrons also enjoy very much. I've done several iterations of the Sunrise Poppies series in recent months, but this is the first time I've done it on a large canvas.

The Bouquet with Striped Cloth series was the first painting on my blog, and it sold within a day or two after I listed it.

One of my patrons who's opening a gallery in Brooklyn bought a painting today, and has two other paintings he's bought from me rented out to a large law firm in New York. This is the piece he just bought:

Looking Back at Gallup at Sunset
Original 30" x 40" x 1.5" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Quote of the day: "It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures." --Vincent van Gogh

Rocky Mountain Sunset

Rocky Mountain Sunset
Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

I did manage to get this original painted today, in addition to a lot of reproduction work for other patrons. My commission work has picked up, and I've had a burst in sales during this past week. I'm pleased to say that this painting met the reserve price on eBay within a couple of hours after I listed it. I hope that this week is an ongoing trend in terms of my sales.

Quote of the day: "I do the same thing everyday. I go to work and paint. I try to turn out as many pictures as I can." --Andy Warhol

More of My Recent Work

Red Poppies on Yellow VI

Original 24" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Country Road Through Fields
Original 54" x 24" x 0.75" - Three 18" x 24" canvases
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

I've had a burst in sales at the end of this week, which has been great! I know that everyone's hurting now, and that art is a luxury purchase for most people, but hey--even starving artists have to feed their families!

The paintings in this post are two that I did earlier this week. I had kind of a mad scramble the past couple of days working on commissions and reproductions of my own compositions. The Country Roads Through Fields piece sold today to a friend back in the Hudson Valley in my native New York. He's renovating an older home that he's turning into a bed and breakfast place, and has bought several of my paintings to hang in his new establishment.

Red Poppies on Yellow IV is a composition I've sold in different forms to several patrons. People like the fat paint and brush work I do in this piece. It's a fun painting, and one I enjoy recreating. This painting, and many others, are available for sale on the venues where I list my work. Check my links at the top right of my blog.

Quote of the day: "The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?" --Pablo Picasso

Autumn Aspens IV

Autumn Aspens IV
Original 48" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

I painted this diptych yesterday in between working on some commission work that came in this week. I have been busy getting started on those, but I still feel compelled to get some new originals done and listed on the sites where I sell.

My publisher in the Atlanta area has requested a 60" x 60" painting for a client, and I have to get going with that. I also just finished a commission for an interior designer in New Mexico of an abstract piece.

My UK broker has received the embellished giclee prints I sent out last week, and is supposed to give me some feedback on them this weekend. As much time as those take to embellish I'm hoping for a big order from the samples I sent.

Quote of the day: "It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly." --Claude Monet

Today's Paintings

Red Grass and Cypress Trees

Original 48" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Twisted Apple Tree with Pink Blossoms IV
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's paintings are the latest in my seasonal, decorative line of paintings. For today's work I chose Autumn and Spring--my favorite seasons of the year. Red Grass and Cypress Trees is a new composition using the cypress motif that I started with over five years ago when I decided I was going to make a living as an artist. I haven't had to get a day job since.

Twisted Apple Tree with Pink Blossoms IV is a composition that is a favorite among my patrons, and one that I really enjoy recreating. The pink blossoms really pop against the blue sky, which is one reason why I think this composition sells well.

Quote of the day: "Painting completed my life." --Frieda Kahlo

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky III

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky III
Original 72" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Two 24" x 36" canvases

Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvases

I must have Spring on the brain--this painting is the latest in my Flower Garden series of large, multiple-canvas, decorative paintings. This one is probably my favorite in the series. I'm trying to capture the essence of the seasons in each one of these seasonal series pieces that I'm painting lately. This isn't always easy, but I find that when I can relax and paint with my mind's eye it somehow brings it all into focus.

Quote of the day: "A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears." --Gertrude Stein

Town and Country in Fauve

Town and Country in Fauve
Original 54" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Three 18" x 24" canvases
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvases

The Fauve style of painting is one of my favorites, and this composition is a variation on one I've done in the past. I just sold two of my Fauve Farm paintings yesterday! (See January 27 blog entry.)

I am often asked to reproduce my own compositions for patrons, and this one--or variations on this theme--is one I've reproduced several times; so i know that my patrons enjoy the interplay of color and the folk-art-type of style.

Quote of the day: "The substance of painting is light." --Andre Derain

Poppies on Blue Sky VI

Poppies on Blue Sky VI

Original 72" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Two 18" x 24" and one 24" x 36" canvases

Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Here is another one of my favorite compositions--for my patrons and me. In fact, a gentleman from the East Coast licensed a variation of this image from me to use as part of his company logo. It is also the image I use as part of my company logo on lookoutstudios.com.

Today is my baby's birthday--Happy Birthday Hannah!

Quote of the day: "To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage." --Georgia O'Keefe

Autumn Sunrise II

Autumn Sunrise II

Original 72" x 30" x 0.75" painting - Three 24" x 30" canvases
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvases

This piece is another one of my new paintings in the decorative series. All of my paintings are available on the venues where I list my work. Someone asked me recently whether I paint "out of my head" or whether I use photos or objects as inspiration. The answer is: yes. I take my inspiration from multiple sources--including my imagination. The inspiration for this painting came from a memory of walking in the woods back in my native New York.

Another quote of the day: "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." --Albert Einstein

Autumn Aspens

Autumn Aspens III

Original 66" x 30" x 0.75" painting - Three 22" x 30" canvases
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvases

Aspens are quite common in the West, and they light up the mountainsides in the Fall. People often make an annual pilgrimage of driving in the mountains on crisp Fall days to view the colors. This painting is part of my new decorative series, and this composition is one of my favorites to paint.

The giclee prints went out the door yesterday (yay!!) so I'm focusing on originals exclusively for the time being. My UK broker hopefully will be placing a large order in the coming weeks, so until that time I am going to paint like crazy on originals.

Quote of the day: "Creativity takes courage." --Henri Matisse

New Line of Decorative Paintings

Autumn Sunrise

Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylic paint on gallery-wrapped canvas

I'm starting a new line of decorative paintings this week--large canvases, bright colors, more abstracted works. My goal is to get three or four of these painted and listed on a daily basis, so please check back, and please browse my listings on the venues where I sell my work. I'll be updating the New Paintings section of my web site too with images of my new decorative line as well.

I finished the embellishing work on the giclees for my UK broker today, and am getting those ready to ship by Friday. I'm excited to have more time to devote to painting originals again, and have a lot of canvases on order for my new line of originals.

Quote of the day: "For everything that lives is holy. Life delights in life." --William Blake

Wide Open Spaces

Red Prairie Sky with Creek

Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

One of my favorite subjects to paint are the wide open spaces of the West. Fortunately, I live in a place that has many dramatic scenes from which to choose my subjects. Colorado has many such dramatic landscapes to choose from: prairie, mountains, forests, and deserts. We are also close to other states in the West that offer equally dramatic contrasts in topography.

I originally came from New York. I grew up on the North Shore of Long Island, but I moved upstate as a teen. The Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains are beautiful places too, and I have done many paintings of that part of the country as well. What struck me when I traveled west as a young woman was how there were so many wide open spaces between the cities and towns. Back East you leave one town and enter another as you travel. Here in the West you can travel for miles through open country before you reach the next town. It's a dramatic contrast to life in the East, and one that I've enjoyed now for nearly 30 years.

This painting is currently listed for sale on all of the online venues where I post my work. I invite you to choose a link from the top right section of my blog to see this and other original acrylics I currently have for sale.