Oil Painting of Cantaloupe and Plums

"Cantaloupe and Plums"

5"x7"

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

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Original Oil Painting of Cantaloupe

Oil on Canvas

"Cantaloupe"

6"x6"

$35.00

Original Oil Painting of Flowers and Fruit

"Summer Flowers and Fruit"

16"x 20"

Oil on Canvas

$240.00

I am back from a wonderful vacation of camping and hiking and lots of inspiration. I'm ready to get back to painting. This painting I did before I left and it ended up being a real challenge. I like to paint out on my back patio sometimes, I like the effect of dappled sunlight. This still life was on it's way to being nicely blocked in when a gust of wind came along and blew my vase off the table and shattered it. I managed to salvage the flowers and stuck them in a canning jar. I had to finish the vase from memory and change the flowers a little.

Oil Painting of Flowers in a Basket

"Basket of Flowers"

16"x20"

Oil on Canvas

$240.00

I started out planning on doing a smaller painting, but I picked a bigger bunch of flowers than I intended and they seemed to go perfectly in this basket, I liked the arrangement so much that I decided it was worth doing a big painting. I'll be on vacation for the next week. We're going on a camping trip, and hopefully will come back with lots of new landscapes to paint.

Oil Painting of Plums and Pitcher

"Plums and Pitcher"

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

6"x6"

$35.00

I have been working on brush work. In my lessons through the Virtual Art Academy, I have been learning to use a bigger brush for most of the painting and only use a small one for a few of the finishing details. This is a good technique for the kind of art I am the most attracted to --impressionistic. I love to see lots of lively brush strokes and color. It's harder to master than it looks, and I still have lots of practicing to do. I have also been studying about warm and cool color contrasts. This painting is kind of different, placing a white pitcher in front of a white background, but the pitcher is warm while the background is cool. The plums are also cool in color except for the warm red spot on the front right one. I love experimenting with color.

Original Oil Painting of Flowers and Fruit

"Summer's Bounty"

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

9"x12"

$110.00

Original Oil Painting of Upper Priest Lake

"Clouds Over Upper Priest Lake"

Oil on Canvas Panel

11"x14"

$155.00

Here is another Upper Priest Lake painting. I think skies are very challenging to paint. There is such a variety of shapes and values. The trick is to simplify the clouds while still trying to get them to look like clouds, something I haven't mastered yet. Midday colors are somehow easier for me to capture than sunsets and sunrises. These clouds were so billowy and dramatic. I really liked this tree with all it's exposed roots.

Click here to see more Priest Lake Paintings

Original Oil Painting of Priest Lake Sunrise

"Priest Lake Sunrise"

Oil on Canvas Panel

11"x14"

$155.00

This is a picture of one of my favorite places on earth, Upper Priest Lake. I've gone on camping trips there since I was a kid. Now we've taken our kids there for many camp outs. It is a beautiful lake not far from the Canadian Border. It is connected to Priest lake by a thoroughfare, which makes a lovely canoe trip. We camp right on the edge of the lake on a sandy beach and enjoy views like this. Fortunately Andrew takes wonderful pictures, because although I like to paint en plein aire, I can't paint fast enough to capture this kind of light.

Original Oil Painting of Moon Over Lake Coeur d' Alene

"Morning Moon"

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

9"x12"

$110.00

I have been wanting to paint a picture of Lake Couer d' Alene from our favorite nearby hiking place, Tubbs Hill. My husband, Andrew is a photographer and decided that the best light to get a good picture would be at sunrise around 4:30 a.m. Fortunately it is a short ten minute drive from our house. It was definitely worth the getting up so early. Having the moon still up as the sun was just beginning to rise was a nice surprise. It was definitely a moment worth preserving.

We headed off for our traditional Fourth of July camping/canoe trip. I'm taking my paints, so I hope to get a good picture done. Happy Fourth of July!

Oil Painting of Pink Peonies in a Green Pitcher

"Peonies in a Green Pitcher"

8"x10"

Oil on canvas panel

$80.00

I taste a liquor never brewed,

From tankards scooped in pearl;

Not all the vats upon the Rhine

Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,

And debauchee of dew,

Reeling, through endless summer days,

From inns of molten blue.

When landlords turn the drunken bee

Out of the foxglove's door,

When butterflies renounce their drams,

I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,

And saints to windows run,

To see the little tippler

Leaning against the sun!

Emily Dickinson