Lavender Garden

"Lavender Garden"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The fragrance was heady and wholesome as we stepped into the  woman's back yard. It reminded me of my goat's milk and lavender soap but even more urgently fresh than my beloved bar. Her gardens were regally purple with blossoms whose scent totally enveloped us. 

From a photo I found of a distant lavender garden.

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Aqua-linear Synapses

"Aqua-linear Synapses"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 

Words are not flowing as fluidly as my brush did as I sit here tonight to write about this image. I enjoyed where my brain directed my hand and let it create the sense of aqueous space that you see, but I can't describe it. I plan to make another tomorrow, and we'll see if I can find words any easier than tonight. 

Carol

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Color Shifting

"Color Shifting"
5" x 5"
Oil on hardboard

The colors shifted so rapidly that evening, it must have been windy at higher elevations.  The aqua sky remained the base color, but the purple gave way to pinks and the orange that had mingled so beautifully with purple only seconds before.  

It was fun to paint consecutive sunsets based on the same sky within moments of one another. It certainly looks like a birthday girl's choice of sky, doesn't it?

Carol

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Evening Appetizer

"Evening Appetizer"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

I attended a birthday party the other day, after which I was pointed directly at this riotous sunset about dinner time. I photographed it with little hope of documenting the colors, but actually did capture them as I remembered. The meal was delicious on the heels of this amazing appetizer.  

Happy Birthday Cutie Pie.

Carol

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Morning Moon

"Morning Moon"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It was one of those times when Miss Moon, being quite full of herself, lingered in the western sky as her sizzling counterpart opened her arms to morning. 

Here's another little sky to enjoy while I work on larger pieces.  I love making them and making up their stories.

Carol

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Daylight Moon

"Daylight Moon"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It had been cloudy the night before, with no sign of Her Majesty's girth or presence. But as the sun rose, it was breathtaking to see her stage presence as she made her final curtsey over the frosted peaks. 

This painting was inspired after a difficult day, made when I didn't think I had it in me. Alas, I do now!

Carol

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Celestial Overload

"Celestial Overload"
30" x40"
Oil on Museum wrapped canvas

I've gone from painting on a ridiculously small to a ridiculously large canvas within a day or two. The brushwork is similar, the colors too, but the physical exertion on my body reminded me of my mural painting days. This is not like painting a rose. Nothing at all like it. 

Remember, none of these paintings are signed on the front. There is no right or wrong direction for them. It will be up to each individual owner to decide.  They are, however, signed on the back.

Carol

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Far Away Farm

"Far Away Farm"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Far away, but not long ago, this sweet little farm was visited by a friend. The soil was the same color as the crops when the photo was taken. But for the tread lanes, it would have been mistaken for some sort of grain.  

Today was a landscape kind of day. A landscape of THIS world, not the world where I've been hanging out lately.

Carol

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Flaming

"Flaming"
4" x 12"
Oil on museum wrapped canvas

It's a small canvas and the same brush as I've used on the other paintings, so it appears that the strokes are larger.  I'm still experimenting. Learning the steps in this new dance.

This piece is 2" thick so it's almost like a large brick and painted on all five sides…  like a "fire brick!"

Carol

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Ripples

"Ripples"
18" x 24"
Oil on wrapped canvas

The brushwork in a section of one of my last paintings reminded me of ripples on a dark pond. There are concrete ponds at the Botanic Gardens, painted that way to reflect the sky and vegetation surrounding them. 

I didn't refer to any of my dark pond photos to paint this. I drew from within, allowing nothing but feeling to dictate where the brush would go and what color would be on it. The background is purple blue and green.

Carol

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Celestial Synapses III

"Celestial Synapses III"
12" x 36"
Oil on museum wrapped canvas

After a weekend of joyful celebrating, gallery visits and art museum tours in Chicago I was happy to be back in my own studio today. Another snow storm stamped its approval on my decision to stay in. 

I've decided my brain is weary of looking at the same 35,000 photos I use for references and that's why I've gravitated toward this style of painting… for now. It's coming from within and I seldom allow myself to draw exclusively on what's going on inside me.  

Carol

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High Flying Clouds

"High Flying Clouds"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It was morning, I checked. I was facing east and the ball was lifting off from its below-the-horizon launchpad. I had just wakened, a box of Fruit Loops was on the counter and my toothbrush was still wet. I'm positive it was sunrise.    

I'll never be ambiguous about the time of day that my sky paintings are again. I got asked some pointed questions when I claimed I didn't know if it was sunrise or sunset.

Carol

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Chemtrails

"Chemtrails"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The sky in my part of Illinois often looks crisscrossed like this.  Yes, I live near O'Hare airport, but these, I'm told, are not the vapor trails of passenger planes. Their reality is based in something more sinister than benevolent. 

Carol

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Celestial Synapses II

"Celestial Synapses II"
12" x 36"
          Oil on museum wrapped canvas

Number five in the series is in complementary colors. I narrowed the field to two colors on this piece, opting to explore how little value change I could get away with before rendering it boring. 

I'm loving this process. It frees me to pull from within, rather than exercise my power of observation. I have two more large canvases to explore, then I'll have to order more and do something smaller in the meantime.

Carol

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Celestial Synapses

"Celestial Synapses"
16" x 20"
Oil on wrapped canvas

Happy Valentine's Day, my loves! 

Number four in my celestial series was painted in three primaries. The secondaries and vague tertiaries were a result of blending. I'm enjoying developing this new process so much, it hardly seems possible that at this stage of my career anything could generate this much enthusiasm.  I feel as comfortable with this as I am when I paint a delicate petal of a rose. 

As with the other three, I have not signed my work on the front. They can be hung in any direction. It's not that I'm ambiguous, I'm giving my viewer options.

This post is number 800 on Dailypaintworks.com.  Eight hundred paintings in nearly as many days.

Carol

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Celestial Mid-tones

"Celestial Mid-tones"
18" x 24"
Oil on wrapped canvas 

Here is my third offering in my celestial series. I'm thoroughly enjoying the freedom of playing with color and line with the underlying concept of outer space.

I'll be making another one tomorrow. Perhaps using a different palette altogether.  But it will be grounded in black, as the others have been.

Carol

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Sea and Half Sun

"Sea the Half Sun"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Sea and half sun,
See it glow.
Up or down,
We'll never know. 

I couldn't decide if this was the sun emerging or fading, so I'll leave it to my viewer. Some prefer the delights of morning, others prefer the dark.

Carol

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Celestial Undertones

"Celestial Undertones"
12" x 36"
Oil on museum wrapped canvas

In a darker part of the sky is a more peaceful world, not as rambunctious as yesterday's red and orange section. Oh, it's active and has a lot going on, but it could also be that this is merely a slice of the heavens. 

I painted both of these paintings, yesterday's included, in every direction. I have not signed them, as I'm not certain which direction they should hang. Perhaps I'll sign the backs and wire them to be hung any of four ways.  They are also painted on the sides, so won't require frames. This one is two inches deep on the sides and the art wraps around.

Carol

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Celestial Overtones

"Celestial Overtones"
20" x 24"
Oil on stretched canvas

I had been drawing a huge intricate canvas of about 60 rusted wagon wheels when I realized I didn't want to paint them. I wanted to paint something tempestuous, passionate and wild. So I looked at some photos from the Hubble and closed my computer and made my own version of what it looks like "out there."  

This was a profoundly satisfying painting to produce.  I did it in one sitting tonight. I figured out the process of making these marks with a Princeton brush and the tip of one of my fingers and had my way with the canvas.  I'd love to make more like this one.

Carol

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Flight

"Flight"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

There hadn't been any signs of geese in my zip code until the temperature soared into the thirties the other day. They bundled up in their downy vests and made a last ditch effort to relocate, hopefully this time ALL the way south. 

I've been asked why my sky paintings always seem so lonely. I've made hundreds of them, apparently lonely. So I thought I'd spice this one up with a sprinkling of life. I'm feeling alive, so why not show it.

Carol

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Sunbeams Above

"Sunbeams Above"
5" x 5"
Oil on hardboard

A wayward little cloud drifted in front of the sun that evening, and did me the favor of shielding my eyes as I drove. The resulting sunbeams reminded me of my Sunday School days when Jesus wanted me for a sunbeam. Do you know that song?  

I hit my studio running this morning and painted a few skies. You'll be seeing them over the course of the next few days while I work on something larger.

Carol

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Yellow Rose

"Yellow Rose"
16" x 12"
Pastel on black canvas

"She's the sweetest little rosebud 
That Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds,
They sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine,
And sing of Rosalee,
But the Yellow Rose of Texas 
Is the only girl for me."

I noticed that many of my cohorts are painting roses this time of year. I wonder what that's about?

Carol

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A Prickly Pear View

"A Prickly Pear View"
6" x 8"
Pastel on black canvas

I love the shape and texture of prickly pear cacti. They're so round and bristly and surprisingly moist inside. Some people eat them. And they come in such an interesting array of colors. I don't know in what season they turn to shades of mauve and greyed greens, but those are my favourites. 

I'd like to do this one in a larger format. At least the plant part of it. Okay, I admit it, I keep painting small panels black, because I'm afraid to expand to the larger format. Will I be able to make a large painting with these same marks?  Gulp.

Carol

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"Dusty Field"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It was evening over the dusty prairie, late in the autumn. Particles of sand blurred the sky, but made for a resplendent sunset. 

I begin every sky in the upper left hand corner. The colors are usually whatever I've been using on a larger painting, not yet ready to post. This is one of from a yet to be seen piece.

Carol

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Recurring Eucalyptus

"Recurring Eucalyptus"
16" x 12"
Oil on canvas panel

Here's the eucalyptus tree again, this time without the distraction of the left side closeup trees.  I've drawn it in pencil, in pastel and now oil, with subtle differences in each rendition. 

Seldom do I repaint a subject so soon after I've posted it, but these trees intrigued me. A point of interest is that the foreground is a brushstroke akin to the ones I use with my pastels. It just began happening, so I let it. The middle ground where the focal point is is more detailed.

Carol

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Meandering Into the Sunset

"Meandering Into the Sunset"
8" x 10"
Pastel on black hardboard 

If I had been on a horse that evening, I would have ridden to that point on my painting where the water reaches the tree line. I would have made it there before night consumed every last bit of color, and back again.  Or not. 

Carol

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Big, Fat, Luscious

"Big, Fat, Luscious"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

A photo of this big, fat, luscious rose was sent to show me that somewhere in the world roses are still blooming in yards. Just because it's way below zero in Illinois doesn't mean that it isn't summery elsewhere.  Keeps me from being myopic. 

Carol

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Some of Them

"Some of Them" 

I participated in Leslie Saeta's Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge for the month of January and here are some of the pieces that were included in the month.

Actually, some are from other months, but they ended up in this collage for some reason. I wasn't about to disagree with my computer and the program she provided. . . which, by the way is PicMonkey. Fun and easy to use.

Carol

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