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.

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.