Rainbow Cloud

"Rainbow Cloud"
6" x 6'
Oil on hardboard

High cumulus clouds drifted over the lake that evening, but so, too, were some colorful low lying rainclouds that caught the light of the setting sun behind me. It was the strangest sight to see rainbows in the clouds that were actively dumping into the huge body of water near where I live.  

Carol

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C Lily

"C Lily"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

My grocery store had bundles of "C Lilies" in buckets near the checkout. It was as if some little miss smarty pants couldn't decide which lilies they were — calla, canna, crinum or any other appropriate word that might suit these lavender beauties, so she called them "C."  I photographed several of them as I stood in line to pay for grapes.  

It was fun to paint a flower again. I've been painting on a guitar for several days. It's finished now, so I'll post it in a day or two.  It's unlike anything I've posted here.

Carol

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Got Kites?

"Got Kites?"
8" x 8"
Oil on hardboard 

The prairie, vested in verdant attire, beckoned for me to run in zigs and zags with a paper kite. Spring was in the air, and soon, too, would be the carefree symbol of my joyful youth.

I long to fly a kite in the balmy skies of a month with fewer than five letters in its name. Doesn't January take her sweet time?

Carol

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Aren't We A Pair?

"Aren't We A Pair?"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Pears are plentifully-in-season where I live; sweet, colourful ones with round bellies and sturdy stems. Not all of them sit upright like models, but I prefer the quirky, non-traditional ones with more to offer than just their good looks.    

This was a quick study from real life, and then ... I ate them! Dee-lish.  

Carol

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Rise and Shine

"Rise and Shine"
10" x 8"
Oil on canvas panel 

My mother used to waken me and my siblings with cheerful encouragement, especially on summer mornings by saying, "Rise and shine, the day's a wasting."  I don't remember ever wasting a day as a child, or as an adult, for that matter. Nor do I remember her being so mean as to waken us at daybreak.  She was a great mother and my friend. 

I'm testing my ability to paint sky with traditional oil paints. I've used primarily water miscible paints from the beginning; however, I'm taking AND teaching a workshop in the next few months so I'll be using these to get accustomed to them — and using mineral spirits instead of water!  Yikes.

Carol

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Borrowed Bleu Birds of Bliss

"Borrowed Bleu Birds of Bliss"
10" x 10"
Oil on wrapped canvas

Gaunt Gert and Portly Portia knew the drill.  Wait for the squirrels to finish eating their fill of peanuts and the suet/seed ball was theirs. It was too bad that Gert had agreed, yet again, to stand watch while Portia dined first. 

Glass birds. I've wanted to find one or two to paint, but have had no luck, so I borrowed these two.  It was just dumb luck that they'd both be blue, rather ... bleu?  Gert, here, is a frosted Lalique Blue Jay.  Portia is a hand blown beauty from the sixties.

Carol

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Ears Another One For Ya

"Ears Another One For Ya"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The father in this family grows a beard easily, but it isn't his signature look.  I may repaint his beard area if he doesn't like the way it looks.  Everything else is fine, but the beard, well it's hokey. I'm sure he'll let me know if it should go or stay.  

This is my son-in-law, Jared's ear. Two little boy-ears are next.

Carol

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Hearing Aid

"Hearing Aid"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Back in December when I painted the my first two ears — ever, I asked for more left ears for my series. Four new ones came in from one family.  Meet the mother, my daughter, Natalie.  

I'm not a portrait artist, by any stretch, but I have a feeling this will become a family portrait for this Wisconsin family.

Carol

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Dusty Dawn

"Dusty Dawn"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It appeared like a lunar landscape in the distance. Bumpy little nubs — from this height, but not in reality. It was morning, a dusty cold dawn with the promise of snow in the air.  

Another sky to mark time while I work on larger pieces.

Love,
Carol

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In the Pink

"In the Pink"
8" x 10" 
Oil on wrapped canvas

I resurrected a blah painting, this one, today when I did a demo for a friend to show him my dry glazing technique.  It's something I devised to suit my own needs, and it turns out to be innovative and pretty darn effective.  I will be teaching this technique in a workshop in Virginia late in the Spring in The Red Queen Gallery where I'm represented.

Resurrecting paintings that fall flat, or come up short will be the theme of my workshop. I'll let you know when it is scheduled and where.

Carol

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Algid and Aloft

"Algid and Aloft"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

I think this is how it would look from the cockpit of a Cessna 172 around 5:13 in the morning as I approach my favorite airport in Colorado. It's a dream, of course, I would never fly a Cessna — at that time of day!  

I found a little number 2 shader brush in my stash of about 600 brushes that just loves to paint mountains. You may see more of them underneath my skies in the future.

Carol

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Wake Up!

"Wake Up!"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

We had taken turns slipping in and  out of the insanity required to drive through the night. Dawn broke part-way into my shift, and there it was in the distance—the front range. It was no longer dark. No longer the plains. No longer time to be quiet. This had to be shared. "Wake up and get a load of this!" I said to my companion. 

I love to paint skies. I've done enough of them now to not dread whipping one out on a night when what I'm working on isn't ready to post. Tonight was such a night.

Carol

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Hope

"Hope"
24" x 24"
Oil and Acrylic on wrapped canvas 

January is a time of regrouping, renewing and becoming who we want to be, for whatever reason. It's a contemplative time, a meditative time and a time to give up or re-up. 

I spent today making this large painting filled with imagery and symbolism in honour of those of us who are in flux, in quandaries or just plain sick (and tired).  Give it your best shot, darlings! There's hope. Spring is within reach.

Love to all who ... struggle,
Carol

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At the Garden

"At the Garden"
10" x 10"
Oil on wrapped canvas

I had wanted to paint this scene that I photographed at the Botanic Gardens a couple of years ago, but never got around to it.  Now I know why I shied away from it for so many years.  There are just too many colors, textures, leaves and light patterns in it to be a successful painting. I could paint until it's about an inch thick and still not reach my goal.  I'm quitting right now before I suck the last breath of life out of it! 

Carol

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Flowers

"Flowers"
10" x 10"
Oil on wrapped canvas

I travelled out of the country this morning in one of my dreams. I saw a villa tucked amid a cluster of cypress and olive trees. The comfortable home stood in the the middle ground while a narrow strip of flowers, ripe with colour, filled the foreground. It was a fantasy fulfilled in my mind.

I seldom paint from fantasy, but this was vivid enough to capture most of the details without a photo reference.

Carol

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Smitten

"Smitten"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It has become my habit to paint skies when I'm pondering other subject matter.  The tighter a series, the looser the skies get. The more limited the color palette, the juicier the skies get. The styles balance one another. Can you tell that I'm painting seven pieces of brown chocolate by looking at this sky?  

Carol 

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For You

"For You"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

A plate of chocolates was being passed at the meeting. When it was in my hands I lusted over it. Inhaled the scent, and handed it off to the next person. When both hands were free I reached for the one trimmed in red, wrapped it in a napkin and put it in my purse. "I'm going to paint it," I said. They knew it was true.  I can't eat chocolate, but I can enjoy it in other ways.  It's still sitting here in my studio a month later. 

This is the 500th painting in my Dailypaintworks gallery.  I never dreamed, when I began, that I'd EVER get up to one hundred, let alone, 500!

Carol

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Begonias

"Begonias"
20" x16"
Acrylic on canvas panel 

I haven't had begonias on my front porch in years, but I came across this photo of when I did, so I painted it. I did this one a year or so ago, but hadn't posted it.  I may paint her over again, in oil this time.  She was fun, and I've learned so much since.  

I love to paint light coloured flowers with dark backgrounds. It makes the blossom seem really important. And when you look this good, why not totally become the star?

Carol

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Morning D'Light

"Morning D'Light"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

In the brightness of morning, I squinted as I photographed this luscious beauty. The intense light cast hard, colourful shadows on the nodding bloom, just opening her pouty mouth to the new day. Not until I imported my photos did I notice the morning dew on her lip and chin... er, petals.   

Morning light can suck the colour out of a white rose, but I was able to capture it effectively on this delightful bloom.  It was indeed a morning of delight.  

Love to my followers,

Carol  

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Serenity Pond II

"Serenity Pond II"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

I revisited this pond today—in paint only. It's quite frozen and gloomy in reality. Every feature that made it worth painting in the first place has died. Replaced by grey sticks, grey sky and grey ice.  No, it's no longer a place of serenity, but dread.  So I cheered myself by deceiving myself into a late summer mindset.  What harm is that?

The first time I painted this, besides using a smaller square format, I used a different palette of colors. It's not better or worse, just different.  I'm tempted now to enlarge it one more time to a 24" x 24" piece and do it in great detail.  I just may do that.

Carol

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Close Shave

"Close Shave"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

We had been walking through the woods when we realized the light levels were changing—rapidly. We made our way into the clearing to find the sun two fingers from the horizon, or about thirty minutes before dark. Nothing looked familiar, until I spotted a deer, or possibly a moose trail that I knew would lead me to the river where we left the canoe. Close shave.  

I was chosen today to have my art featured in the Dick Blick Art Materials catalog for Spring.  Two pieces of my art will be used as spot art in their publication. I'm tickled to have been chosen.

Carol

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Gah-ZING Ball

"Gah-ZING Ball"
20" x 16"
Acrylic on canvas

When I visited my friend's garden in the spring, she had a gazing ball that fascinated me. Someone I know has always called them gah-ZING balls, thus the title. I painted this a while back, but never posted it.  Also, I was in the photograph, but painted myself right out of the picture. 

Carol

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