Wildflower Evening - 6x6 Oil Painting

6"x6" oil painting on archival canvas panel
Click to purchase this painting on eBay

Maybe it's the extremely mild winter that has me thinking of wildflowers lately.

Untamed - 5x7 Oil Painting

5"x7" oil painting on archival canvas panel
Click to purchase this painting on eBay

I'm very much enjoying working on a few of these smaller wildflower paintings right now.

Hide and Seek - 8x10 oil painting

8"x10" oil painting on linen canvas
SOLD

I painted this on one of the linen canvases I recently ordered to give a test run. It's the roughest weave I could find, Claessens #29. I had a great time working with it; it can take a lot of paint without a problem, and reminded me of working with soft pastels.

I'm still waiting on so many things to dry to the touch, and since I'm not sure exactly how long each painting is going to take, I'm listing many (like this one) as longer auctions, with the additional note in the auction that they still might require additional drying time before shipment.

Field of Poppies - 5x7 Oil Painting

5"x7" oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

I'm kicking myself for not adding some galkyd to speed up the drying process on several of my latest paintings, and now they're taking forever to dry so I haven't listed any of them yet. In the meantime, here's a poppy field.

Firewheel Field - 4x8 Oil Painting

4"x8" oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

Another hit and run post; hope everyone had a great weekend!

Bluebonnets and Paintbrush - 4x8 Oil Painting

4"x8" oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

Sorry to be a double-poster, but here's another recent one of bluebonnets and indian paintbrush.

On a side note, the weather has been ridiculously beautiful the last few days and I'm already seeing leaves on the ground. I always get extremely happy when I see the signs of autumn approaching. Summers in eastern NC are just way too muggy but the fall is perfect to me.

Bluebonnet Field - 4x4 Oil Painting

4"x4" oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

I'm so glad Windows has that system restore option, which is basically a nice "undo" button for when I do something stupid. I was trying to update my email software a few days ago and after the update found myself staring at emails from 2003-2005 and nothing since. I completely freaked out thinking I had lost all of my recent emails, but thankfully remembered that I could roll back my computer to where it had been the day before and pretend like nothing ever happened. I was smart enough to back everything up before I tried again, and now have everything updated the way I wanted.

Beyond the Fence - 5x7 Oil Painting

5"x7" oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

Can you believe it's almost September? I'm surprised at how fast this year has seemed to go. I know a lot of people are back to school and it's a busy time of year for many so I hope everyone's taking a chance to relax and unwind at the end of the day.

Bluebonnet Hill Guardian - 4x4 Oil Painting

4"x4" oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

I'm trying to go a little more subtle with my wildflower attempts by keeping the values of the ground and flowers closer together. If you're a big wildflower fan like me, check out the books by pastelist artist Elizabeth Mowry, especially her book Landscape Meditations. Whenever I see her work I just want to pick up pastels as a medium and get to work, forgetting just how sneezy I used to get whenever I got the chalk all over me.

Bluebonnet Sunset - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 Oil Painting on Canvas Panel
SOLD

This painting of a sunset started with an open field, but I thought it looked pretty dull. I almost tossed it out but decided to throw in some bluebonnets to liven things up and give the focus it desperately needed. I'm just happy the addition saved it from a trip to the trash can!

Last Glow - 4x8 Oil Painting

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

This painting took a while to find its direction. I built the concept on the similar two 6x6 paintings I posted a few weeks ago. I'm currently enthralled by sunsets so expect to see a lot of those coming up.

Dying Light Over Wildflower Fields - 6x6 Oil Paintings

6x6 on canvas panel
SOLD

6x6 on canvas panel
SOLD

These two were painted at the same time so they'd be able to work together as a pair or alone. That last glance of blazing light before sunset is always a wondrous site to behold.

Bluebonnet Field - 4x8 Oil Painting

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

I've finally added another blue paint to my working palette. It's a Michael Harding's brand of oil paint, the name is Phthalo Blue Lake. It's a very intense blue that leans toward the green spectrum and has very strong tinting properties. I used it some in the painting above, mixed with my usual Winsor and Newton French Ultramarine.

I recently discovered that Dick Blick has these useful color swatches for each paint color on their website, in case you're buying online and want to compare differences between brands. I found it very useful when I was trying to decide between blues. Below is the swatch for Michael Harding Phthalo Blue Lake from the Dick Blick website:

Bluebonnet Flower Hill - 4x4 Oil Painting

4x4 on canvas panel
SOLD

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'll be heading to the mountains later this week for a family get together, but hopefully will be able to schedule some posts to autopost during my absence.

During my trip I'll be stopping at an art outlet and will be looking for a vivid blue oil paint. I was thinking of trying Da Vinci brand's Lapis Lazuli, which looks like it might be promising for a strong, vivid blue, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm very much open to them. I currently usually just use Winsor and Newton's Artists' French Ultramarine, but sometimes I need something more striking. I also have a tube of Cobalt Blue.

Free Painting Giveaway for May!

4x4 oil painting on canvas panel

It's time for my May Painting Giveaway! Up for the giveaway this month is the painting above of a field of bluebonnets, a 4x4 oil painting on canvas panel.

1. Email me by 11:59 PM EST on May 30, 2009. DON'T just leave a comment on this blog post (though comments are always welcome!), you have to email me to enter!

2. In your email, include your name and physical mailing address. Your address is not given away and is not used for anything other than this contest, and is deleted after the contest is over. I like to already have it on hand if you're name is chosen so I can get the painting out quickly!

3. That's it! I'll use the random number generator at random.org to chose a winner from the entries, and the winner will be contacted shortly thereafter.

Red Poppies Under the Oak Tree - 4x4 Oil Painting

4x4 on canvas panel
SOLD

Thankfully this little painting of poppies came out without a struggle and was enjoyable to paint. Working on 4x4s is usually either a complete struggle as I get stuck in details, or just flows from beginning to end with minimal fuss; I'm glad this was the latter.

Spring Hill

4x8 oil painting on canvas panel
SOLD

Since lately I've been working in layers on paintings, I decided to mix things up and do a quick and loose painting with a 30 minute time limit. I think I'll try some more during the upcoming week just to shake the cobwebs off and as good practice in between some larger pieces I'll be working on.

Rows of Lavender

6x6 on stretched canvas
SOLD

I took a break from larger paintings to do this little lavender painting. A friend gave me a lavender and vanilla scented liquid potpourri so lavender pops in my mind every time I pass by it, and thus this painting was born.

Mustard Field Tree

6x6 on stretched canvas
SOLD

I felt the urge to paint a happy little tree, and since spring has me thinking of the subject I wanted to plant it in a field of mustard. I'm currently working on two other different sized paintings with different subjects, so I'm trying to keep busy even though I feel like I'm not getting anywhere specific fast.

R. Garriott recently posed a few questions on his blog about how artists manage their time, and just how long an artist spends each day painting. I think I usually manage about 4-6 hours of actual painting five days of the week, and then of course I still have art-related things to do even if I'm not actually painting, like listing and shipping. I give myself a two day break of no painting to regroup and refresh myself because painting can be exhausting, both creatively and physically. There are days where it's hard to get going, and I just have to plant myself in front of the easel and get to it.

Poppies Revisited

6x12

My mom wanted a larger version of the poppy painting I did recently, so this is a larger imagining of that scene.