Cute Cow

This cow was at the Ann Springs Greenway in Fort Mill. I thought he was cute and took a photo.SOLD

Weddington NC garden

We visited a lovely garden in Weddington a few days ago. It was cloudy and threatening rain but I was able to get most of the painting done. When it's done, I'll post it.

Ganondagan

Ganondagan is a New York State historic site near Rochester, NY. The Seneca Indians once lived here and a longhouse sits on the property for visitors to explore. The scenery here is wonderful. I especially like visiting in the fall. I've been here several times to paint and several times as a school nurse on school field trips. This painting was done from a photo.

Blue Bowl Again

I'm entering a small works show in Greenville SC. I will probably submit this painting and the one below- of the yellow apples. I can submit two, but they only accept one- IF I get accepted at all.

Yellow Apples

I love this bowl and how it creates interesting reflections.

Route 51 Farm- Work in Progress

This is a studio piece from a plein air painting of this scene. It's such a "traditional" scene that I couldn't pass it up.

Slices

Weddington Park

Had fun painting today in Weddington with my plein air friends. I made the scene more like "fall" to get away from an all green painting

Baxter Village Park

I did this today in the Alison Park area of Baxter Village.I was trying to use the "colorist" approach instead of using all greens and local colors. It's hard for me to do this without making the colors too garish- still trying!There were two lawn workers cutting grass and blowing leaves around with a loud leaf blower. The noise almost made me quit- but I stuck it out.

Thinking of Carol

I worked on this painting a bit more after posting this photo. I'll try to update it tomorrow. I love Carol Marine's blog and website. I was so sad to hear that her house and studio burned in the Austin, TX fires this week. I painted this today in honor of her. She makes painting tea cups and fruit look SO easy- but it's certainly not easy at all!

Deborah's Back Porch

It's a little crooked, but I like the light/shadow effect. Deborah, a fellow painter, invited us to her home in the NODA area of Charlotte for a day of painting. It was a lovely location! Thanks Deborah! We also had a delicious lunch at the backyard picnic table.

River Walk in Rock Hill SC

This is a new river front park along the Catawba River in Rock Hill, SC. There is a lovely 2.5 mile paved trail along the river. Kudos to Rock Hill for picking a wonderful location for a park! Both of these paintings were done 100% plein air- they still need some touch ups.

No Camera

I have some new paintings to post, but I have lost my camera. My kids are traveling and at camp with their cameras, so it might be a week or two before I have any news posts. But, I will update as soon as I can.

My acrylic paints are holding up very well down here in South Carolina. The days have been hot but the humidity is helping to keep my paints moist! That has been very helpful.

Sunflower field, Gaston County NC

Wow, we went to a great place today! The countryside was beautiful and I was glad to find such a nice area. My camera is still missing, so photos are not the best quality.

Fort Mill Farm

This farm is near the intersection of Gold Hill Road and Route 160. I saw the owners outside shucking peas and I asked if I could paint from their field. It was a rare cloudy and cool day. A few touch ups and it will be finished. On a frustrating note- my camera has been missing for more than a week, so I'm using my daughter's camera for blog photos.

Grand Canyon

We visited a few years ago. This scene is an overlook that had a railing and lots of tourists. I replaced them with the horses- seemed more interesting!

Neighbor on the corner

It has been very hot so I've been standing in my yard and painting what I can "see". Then I can go into air conditioning and cool off! The acrylics are holding up well in the heat- I think the humidity is helping.

Our House

Matthews Weddington Road

Luckily there was some shade here because it was about 93 degrees! This little dog decided to hang out with us.

Three Daughters

I made my girls pose for this about eight years ago. Hard to believe two are now in college and the youngest is 12! I don't do many portraits, but after seeing the Robert Henri show at the Mint Museum, I'm considering doing a few more. This is a big one for me- 36X24. Definitely some varnish glare on this one.

Rainy day painting

Had plans to go plein air painting but the weather was questionable so I stayed home. I like to do these make up paintings. The shadows and the shiny surfaces are really good practice.

Baxter Village Roses

This was a tough one for me! The fence and the building shadows were tricky and I almost didn't complete the painting. It still needs some work, but almost done.

Cedarhill Farm, North Carolina

Had a great time with my plein air painting buddies- Nancy and Debbie. I'll have to post a photo of them soon.

Charlotte Garden Club Event

As part of this event I was able to visit two lovely private homes and gardens and do some plein air painting.It was very enjoyable. I'll have a few more garden paintings to post here soon.

Old One from Rochester

I decided to finally finish this painting from a few years ago. It was fun painting it in the snow!I only needed to touch up the sky and the tree on the left.

Charlotte Garden

A small group of us went to a lovely home in Charlotte with gorgeous gardens. I think it was the prettiest yard I've ever seen. This painting needs a few touch-ups but it's mostly finished.

The Neighbors

This is the late afternoon view from my driveway. I love the way the light hits the houses at this time of day. This is the first 6X6 square painting I've ever done. It was tricky getting the perspective(somewhat) accurate in such a small space.

Baxter Village

This is the main business street in the Baxter neighborhood. It was built about 10 years ago but it was designed to look like an old fashioned village street. Its a great place to do paintings. The camera seems to be making the reds look more intense than the actual painting.

Peach Orchard Springtime

These lovely peach orchards are just about a mile from my neighborhood. I loved painting them!

Two nice awards

These two paintings won recent awards in local art shows. The orange slices won first place in the Guild of Charlotte Artist 2010 holiday show. The vineyard road painting won second prize in the Matthews Artist Guild spring 2011 show.

Treehouse Vineyard, Monroe NC

Today we went to a vineyard with elaborate treehouses. You could rent the treehouse for the night! I should have taken a photo. I'm working on seeing more colors in the greens. At first this painting was way too colorful and I spent a lot of time toning it down.

Kiwis

For the last two weeks, I've been making myself complete two or three small paintings a week- this is helping me recognize my errors.The last few months have been a huge "painting struggle" for me. I feel an improvement coming...but I'm not quite there yet. I am starting to see my mistakes faster, so this is good. I started out with a "colorist" idea- but I slowly started painting local colors. Ugh. I will try again!

Rocker Shadows

A few fellow painters and I went to a local horse farm today. I decided not to paint horses! The shadows on this rocker appealed to me. It still needs a little touch up on the back of the rocker but it's mostly done.

Paint brushes

This 6X6 was done today for a charity event. It was fun to do something different.

Crowder Mountain State Park, NC

Did this one today. I'll let it "sit" for a few days and then touch it up. The water was driving me crazy!

Cape Cod Beach

This was done partially from a photo of Cape Cod and partially made up.

Behind the shopping plaza

This clump of trees was behind the "Arboretum" shopping plaza in Charlotte.

Different Style

Trying to loosen up my brush strokes. I keep making small changes to this painting, but not sure it is really helping. The scene seems a little too empty... so I'm debating about adding a boat, a small house or maybe some children playin in the sand. I will leave it alone for a few days and then decide.

January Plein Air

It was great to be painting outdoors in January.