Pink Rose in Creme Bottle, 9" x 10"

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Today I wanted to paint a beautiful rose to symbolize my love for painting and the life that I have. Pink is the known as the color of unconditional love and I wanted to express that feeling today. To love the self unconditionally is a challenge in this life. Without this love of self how can one love others. To Love and To Life!

Out of Town

Joan has been out of town for several days and will post again tomorrow.

Gourd & Jug, 6" x 7" , oil on canvas

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Each one of these paintings seems to flow one after the other. I don't know why they relate to each other, yet are so different or why I choose certain colors. One has to pay attention to their moods to try and figure that out. Try not to read too much into these paintings. They are really just exercises in value and color.

3 Gourds, 6" x 6", oil on canvas

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These three gourds were so wonderful to paint today. I set them up next to my table and they were at the perfect height for looking down at them. The small green one in the rear is my favorite. My hubby has been suffering with a herniated disc, so painting is interesting these days. There are a lot of stops and starts as always in my day, but it seems to not change my rhythm as I find myself thinking about my work when I am away from it and what colors are needed. Painting is the type of work that one needs to be a good decision maker-I have decided. You have to build from the bottom up and that requires planned decisions.

Gourd & Jug, 6" x 6", oil on canvas

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The gourd came out better than I anticipated. I really liked the bumpy texture. The flower is from my front garden as are the geraniums and black eyed susans. I have hundreds of flowers in my gardens around the house. I was able to take many photographs of the bike trail yesterday. I also got some interesting shots of the vienna train station and red engine. This gourd symbolized my move into the fall season. Its also my birthday season--October and the air is smelling crisp once again.

Flower in Jug, 6" x 6", oil on canvas

Today I approached the painting process plein air. I like the results. Usually I will paint from a photo that I have altered in photoshop to get the values I want. I found myself looser and more willing to work in a traditional approach. I have been watching some of the other daily painters videos online and found them educational. I took a walk after painting and was inspired by the landscape around the WO bike trail. I grew up playing around creeks and in the wooded areas of Virginia. I have been planning to paint them for quite a while. Perhaps tomorrow is a good day to start stretching in a new direction. Just keep truckin onnnnnn.

Green Jugs, 9" x 9", oil on canvas

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What a long strange trip its been. Painting green jugs. It makes me think about what I do. I am an image maker. Thats what I do-not who I am. I make images and put them on view. You are a viewer and you view. I hope we can come to a meeting of the minds. Enjoy---and listen to the Grateful Dead. They are definitely image makers of a different wave length.

Geranium Kiss, 9" x 9"

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Often in painting, I remind myself that the areas left unpainted are perhaps the most ambiguous. Just like in life, when things left unsaid become obscured. I ponder these things as I am painting today. I am thinking about my brother Joe. I am proud of him and who he has become as a man. I would like to dedicate this painting to him. Love you bro and thanks for looking out for baby James!

Milk & Cream Bottle, 9" x 9"

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These milk bottles are a staple in my home. We buy milk, cream, cream cheese, cheese and butter from a local dairy. Usually we purchase it at the farmers market, but they deliver during the winter months. The importance of these products are that they are organic. I am committed to using only organic products for my family. These bottles also evoke a time in my life when the milkman delivered milk daily to our door. I have also changed up my size again. I feel most comfortable painting 8" x 8" format.

Coffee & Cream, 14" x 15"

This painting is considerably bigger than the ones I have been painting. Since I am used to painting on a large scale, I wanted to challenge myself with a daily image that is larger than the standard image of 6" x 6". Needless to say it was a challenge. The cream jar is from our local dairy and is filled with creme from heaven with the thickest plug I have ever seen. Caution--use sparingly or face the "fats"! I think I will go back to a smaller scale tomorrow. Probably 8" x 8" is the biggest I should go for one day--otherwise it gets too chancy to finish "the daily painting".

My Ya it's a Papaya!

 

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Its a good day in the studio.  The papaya definitely has some color in it.  I left out the seed because my kids didn't like the way they look--kind of like fish eggs.  Definitely not pod like at all. 

Chocolate Cupcake

What a blast it was to paint this chocolate cupcake. I wanted to keep it loose since yesterday's pancakes were so detailed. I plan on doing a series of cupcakes. What is your favorite flavor?

Bear Cakes

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Aubrey loved these bear pancakes. I had fun making the butter shapes.

Morning Coffee

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Coffee originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. By A.D. 1000, Ethiopian Arabs were collecting the fruit of the tree, which grew wild, and preparing a beverage from its beans. I love drinking coffee in the morning--but it usually ends up making me have fog brain by noon. This yellow cup is my favorite cup to drink hot beverages with. I am spoiled because we have a local dairy that delivers fresh cream and the cream plug is so thick on top that it seals the cream. Italians like expresso coffee. I usually brew coffee in my machine with expresso grind. Tomorrow I plan to switch back to my jasmine green tea in order to avoid the coffee blues at mid morning. Tea caffeine doesn't seem to have the same let down as coffee. I like Numi brand tea--they sell jasmine pearls by the pound- online- and it smells heavenly.

Aubreys Pancakes

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My 4 year old son , Aubrey, loves to eat pancakes. I make them for him just about every morning--and would you believe I don't use a recipe. As a matter of fact, most things that I cook I make up as I go. It is an Italian thing. I know the right amount of liquids, fats and rising agents a pancake needs, but do I measure--never. Sometimes I add stuff like bananas, oats, cocoanut and pecans. It depends on my mood and what I have available on hand. What do you like to add to your pancakes? Don't forget "real maple syrup". We only use the real stuff around here and forget chemicals, I am an organic girl.

Mango Tango

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Every day seems to be a fresh start in the studio as I approach this process. These mango's fell off the pallette and onto the canvas in a burst of energy this afternoon. Mango's really appeal to me because they look like large pods and have big seeds inside. I really enjoyed eating this mango before I painted it. I made a meal of it.

Milkweed Pod, 6" x 6", oil on canvas

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I really enjoyed painting the shadows in this painting. The milkweed has lots of small jagged points on its skin and makes for interesting brush stroke. During my walk today in the woods, I did not find any pods, but am reminded of the beauty of the woods and the creeks that my lab loves to play in. I hope to get some of these images on canvas soon.

Pod Pile, 6" x 6"

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These are the pine pods that I collected from the woods yesterday.  I tossed them onto the drawing table and they landed in a perfect composition.  Can you believe that.  Now only if these guys were all dices with the numbers seven on them.  Today I ran into another pod, but it was during dog retrieval.  My chocolate lab, Vira likes to run off whenever somebody leaves the gate open.  I chased her into the nearby field behind my house and right before my eyes was the next gift for tomorrows painting. 

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I would relish some feedback from any of the images posted.  Do you like the pods?

Pod #2

Todays pods are more to the point that I am trying to state in this work. The colors and the texture seem to pop out better than pod#1. I was being too careful yesterday. I find myself being careful a lot with these smaller works. As I stated yesterday, I find these pods or rather they find me during my morning walks. Today a group of pine pods--the color of muted citrus green--showed up at my sons soccer game. I walked into a grove of trees and there they were--dappled around a maple tree. At first I was puzzled and wondered if they were maple pods, but quickly figured out that it was the nearby pine trees that delivered these latest gifts. I plan on painting the group of pine pods I collected today during tomorrows daily painting session.