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.

North Carolina Roses

The roses bloom almost constantly down here in the south. A fellow painter invited us to her lovely home to paint her gardens.

apples

First South Carolina Painting

It was great to meet some new painting friends! Felt good to get out and paint again.

Finger Lakes Vineyard

This is the last painting I completed in the Rochester NY area before moving to Fort Mill, South Carolina a few weeks ago. This vineyard was on a hill above Canandaigua Lake. The painting still needs some touch up work and I plan to work on it this weekend. My art studio (a very small room) is almost unpacked and I hope to start some new paintings soon.

Painting Again!

This is the first painting I've started outdoors in about ten months. It's definitely not my best, but it felt good to pick up a brush again. Hopefully future paintings will be better. I also have a new camera, so I'm adjusting to how to take and upload photos.

Painting on the beach

I almost didn't bring my art supplies to California this summer, but I'm glad I changed my mind. The finished painting is below.

Califonia beach

Usually I have trouble putting little people in my paintings because they tend to look stiff or fake. But this time it was the beach umbrellas that I struggled with!

8X10 acrylic

Durand Eastman Park

I love this park along the Lake Ontario shoreline in Rochester. There are a few ponds like this one in the park, and they frequently have geese, swans and blue herons. I painted this painting last March on an unusually warm, early spring day. I need to start painting more because I am running out of art to post on this blog!

Docked on Genesee River

I liked the idea of this painting but it just didn't work out. I started the painting on location and then tried to fix it once I got home. The river was a very muddy green color that day. I guess I need more practice with boats!

8X10 acrylic

Morning coffee

Acrylic 11X14

Telluride Colorado

This is just a gorgeous town in southwest Colorado. Telluride sits at almost 9,000 feet! It hosts a plein air festival every year because of the wonderful scenery. I painted this while in town for my brother's wedding. I hope to get back soon since I now have two brothers and two sister-in-laws to visit there! I started this one on site, but did most of the work at home. There are some things that could probably be corrected or improved in this painting but I think I will call it finished!

9X12 oil

Black Canyon, Gunnison Colorado

This is a beautiful and very steep canyon. It was hard to peer over the edges due to the steepness. My brother recommended we stop here on our way to Telluride Colorado. This is done from a photo and I replaced my family that was standing there with the horse and cowboy.

Spring time creek

I love this nearby creek because it always has rushing water and rapids in the spring. I tried to add a few fishermen that were standing on the rocks, but they didn't look right. So I quickly painted over them! This is a plein air painting done in Linear Park, Penfield NY. 8x10acrylic

Work in Progress

This is Crystal Cove state park in southern California. I hope to get this one finished eventually. I was here in July with my family. This is a plein air 11x14 acrylic.

A few paintings by my mother

Here is my mother, Moya Kirby. I've posted a few of her paintings here so she can officially be on the internet. One day we may have a mother, daughter, granddaughter art show if we can get it organized!

Another one by Mom

Here is another oil painting by my mother. She still works full time and doesn't do much painting right now. But she plans to start painting again soon.

Swansee Massachusetts Farm

This is a watercolor by my mother. She painted it by memory of an uncle's farm that she visted often as a child. Her relatives still live there today. Size is 8x10.

Slices

6x8 acrylic

SOLD

Summer Shoes

6x8 acrylic

Pultneyville NY

9x12 oil

Makeup

6x8 acrylic

Three apples

8x10 acrylic

Brockport Barn

8x10 acrylic