Chicory Ridge

"Chicory Ridge"
4" x 4"
Oil on canvas panel

Parading right through the middle of the field where I walked my dog the other day was a brazen blue streak of chicory, or corn flowers. August is their time to bloom, but I wasn't expecting to see them there. I'm used to their presence alongside the road, instead. 

Another little cutie on my four inch canvas.

Carol

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Fel Pro Pond

"Fel Pro Pond"
10" x 8"
Oil on hardboard

I painted en plein air today in the county west of here. It was the perfect summer morning and the best place to stand was also lit beautifully. The wildlife around the pond acclimated to my presence, after a bit.  The turtles climbed back on the logs, frogs on the grassy bank and two sand hill cranes even made an appearance. They are TALL birds ... a foot shorter than I am!  

I saw signs of more leaves changing color today. Soon this season of green paintings will be in the past. I just hope I can bundle up enough to stand in the cold to enjoy what's coming.

Carol

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Radishes

"Radishes"
5" x7"
Oil on hardboard

I bought radishes at the farmer's market to use in a large painting, but they weren't right for the composition, so I painted a quick study of them posing on a dinner napkin before the leafy tops wilted.  They're not my favorite veggie, but they were fun to paint. 

I used very few brushstrokes in this painting. I wish I had counted them, but it was fewer than 100, I'm sure.  Not at ALL my normal style.

Carol

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Backlit

"Backlit"
4" x 4"
Oil on canvas panel

I was fascinated by the verdant halo around a cluster of trees as the sun nestled below the horizon the other evening. I liked the way, it  glowed the color of kiwi against melon.  

I acquired a stack of these tiny canvas panels and ... LOVE them. It's fun to paint this small again, like I did when I belonged to the miniature painting society in Florida. Strangely, I also painted murals during that same stage of my career.  Ridiculous AND sublime.

Carol

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Tree Line Sunrise

"Tree Line Sunrise"
5" x 7"
Oil on hardboard

Treetops poke at the colours in the morning sky, as daylight replaces the beauty of dawn with a variety of heavenly blues. 

Carol

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Field Weeds

"Field Weeds"
6"x 8"
Oil on canvas panel

Late in the summer, field weeds explode into a riot of color for the sole purpose of delighting the eyes of a gentle passerby. I happened to be one of those people, camera in hand, and captured a moment to bring back to my studio.  
I didn't paint outdoors today, but offer this little landscape nevertheless.

Carol

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Morning Over Water

"Morning Over Water"
5" x 7"
Oil on canvas panel

Morning greeted us with a bright smile and the promise of a beautiful day at the beach. 

Carol

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Above the Clouds

"Above the Clouds"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

On the way to Denver a few years ago I remember breaking through the clouds and witnessing a sunset over the tops of a cumulonimbus sea. It was a short-lived display, but very much different than the weather I left on the ground below. 

While I finish my detailed vegetable painting, here is a sky offering.  

Carol

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Gossamer Veil

"Gossamer Veil"
5" x 7"
Oil on canvas panel

Clouds veiled the fullness of her face, as Miss Moon twirled in the sapphire sky sprinkled with the glitter of a gazillion twinkling stars. 

Here is another entry for the night sky challenge while I paint cabbage leaves on a large still life. 

Carol 

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Night Sky

"Night Sky"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The last vestige of day groveled on the horizon, while streetlights dashed their amber glow to puddles on the ground.

This night painting is a weekly challenge on Dailypaintworks.  Since I paint a lot of skies, I thought I'd paint as similar to the sample sky as possible.

Carol

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Head In The Clouds

"Head In The Clouds"
7" x 5"
Oil on canvas panel

I painted these twin silos tonight while my vegetable painting dried in areas that I dared not touch while wet.  I met these two guys on a recent trip to Bull Valley.  They were two fine specimens of their species — concrete, tall and handsomely sturdy.

Carol

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Closer ... Still

"Closer ... Still"
8" x 10"
Oil on hardboard

When I finished the first painting, the light had changed and I moved closer to the pond, cropping out many of the golden weeds.  I focused on the purples in the landscape and enjoyed the stillness of the beautiful summer morning. 

This was a thirty-minute painting. It doesn't have the detail my paintings in the style of Andrew Orr have, but it looked finished to me, so I stopped.

Carol

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Moraine Hills State Park

"Moraine Hills State Park"
9" x 12"
Oil on hardboard 

I spent several hours this morning painting in the shade of an ancient oak, overlooking a vista of greens and golds. I made two paintings in the course of my visit, one of which is shown here. 

Carol

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Tuscan Sunset

"Tuscan Sunset"
4" x 4"
Oil on canvas panel

I saw a photo of a Tuscan sunset the other day and remembered how the cypress trees played against the pink sky, while the sun washed light over the fields.  It was not unlike skies I've seen elsewhere, just the tree shapes were different. 

These tiny panels are fun to paint.  As soon as the idea blossoms and paint gets smeared on, it's nearly over and done with.

Carol

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... In A Long While

"... In A Long While"
9" x 12"
Oil on hardboard 

Tonight when I sat down to paint perfectly proper peppers, my wilder side begged to be playful. This is what happened when I let her play freely. 

It's been a long while since I've painted anything like this. Perhaps I never have. The urge to express was all that mattered. My brush fairly quivered and danced.

Love,
Carol

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Daniel Wright Pond Again

"Daniel Wright Pond Again"
8" x 10"
Oil on canvas panel  

In the nine o'clock hour this morning, this little pond near my home reflected colors other than green. From this time on, we will be noticing more orange creeping into the landscape. And a fair share of it creeping across the pond, in the form of some sort of scum, as well. Corn flowers dotted the foreground and so did a few magenta and peach-colored leaves. It's changing, I tell you. 

Carol

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Purple ... Phase

"Purple... Phase"
6" x 6"
Oil on canvas panel

I saw the most gorgeous deep purples and cobalt blues in the night sky just before dark the other night. I was driving in the country and was able to stop and enjoy the view at the edge of a field.  It was a colorist's treat. 

Carol

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Another Day

"Another Day"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

I've wakened early enough lately, to see the transitory colors of dawn handing over the wand to another beautiful day, a clean slate. 

Here is a sky painting for your enjoyment as I finish up a series of house portraits.

Carol

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Eriksen's Farm, Bull Valley

"Eriksen's Farm, Bull Valley"
8" x 10"
Oil on canvas panel

I painted en plein air in Bull Valley this morning on a farm that is close to the barn where my 8'x8' barn quilt hangs. I painted this family's flowers along the picket fence that shone in the morning sun.  I sold the painting on the spot. 

My barn quilt is included in a slideshow of the McHenry County Barn Quilt Project.  Mine is around the 29th quilt featured.  It's a rainbow colored star quilt with an eight-point star in the center.  It appears to be polka dotted, but each "dot" is a rubber stamped image of a sun, leaf, heart, spiral, rose, etc., twenty four different ones in all.  The white background does have a medium blue polka dot on it — thousands of them.

Carol

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Ireland House Portrait

"Ireland House Portrait"
10" x 20"
Oil on wrapped canvas

One of my house portraits led to a commission to paint a home in Ireland. I was given two gloomy photos of the place and urged to, "Make it look beautiful." During the interview I got permission to change the time of day, step inside the fenced field, and add sheep. I'm tickled with the outcome, and so, too are my clients.  It's a gift to the homeowner. A thank you for letting them stay in their home, this home, in Ireland.  

House portraits are a loving gift. I do quite a few of them for the agents where I work as a receptionist in a large real estate office on the north shore of Chicago.

Carol

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Flooded Field

"Flooded Field"
5" x 7"
Oil on canvas panel

As I drove to my destination in Iowa a month ago, I passed numerous fields that still had standing water after the late June rains. They were impromptu lakes with ragged, dirt beaches.  I enjoyed seeing their reflective bodies, but the farmers probably didn't share my sense of delight. 

Little landscapes are taking the place of small sky paintings as I work on house portraits and a large "Toulouse Your Moose... " painting to be juried into a show in a few weeks.  Enjoy them, there will be more.

Carol

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Duck Nap

"Duck Nap"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

Wouldn't you think it would be easier to hunker down on a flat surface to sleep, than balance on one skinny leg?  

A friend sent me a photo of this napping duck, and since I had never painted a duck, I thought it would be fun.

Carol

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