Storm Sweepin' Through

"Storm Sweepin' Through"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Here on the prairie we get some pretty interesting weather patterns sweeping through. But this is not from today… or yesterday. It's sleeting here, the leaves are gone and very little is still green… or gold.  We're down to sticks.  

However, I just tonight signed up for a six day trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico to paint at Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch in February. I'm so excited I can hardly sit still. HUGE ROSES are in my future again!  I'm starting one tonight.  A gal has to be … prepared :-)

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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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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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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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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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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Cloudy and Cool

"Cloudy and Cool"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The field of soybeans had been plowed under by the time the first nip of autumn stung my skin.  The weeds in the field next to the black dirt were sporting golds and bronzes to carry them through to spring.  The scrub trees were holding onto their leaves for as long as they could. It would be a long, cold winter. 

Thankfully, winter no longer resides in my zip code. The magnolias are nearly finished blooming, rosebushes have leaves the size of teaspoon bowls and the lilacs are about to atomize their fragrance at the pulse points of my neighborhood.

Carol

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Rain Across the Lake

"Rain Across the Lake"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

I considered going out in the kayak that evening, but decided against it when I couldn't read the sky; what the clouds were telling me. It looked like it was raining across the lake, but where I was making the decision was sunlit and calm. There was no point in putting myself at risk, I'd wait until morning to paddle around the water lilies.  

I rather like this sky.  I'm going to use these colors to make a few more.

Carol

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Dawn Over the Lake

"Dawn Over the Lake"
8" x 10"
Oil on canvas panel

Morning crept in as usual; colourful, radiant and mystical, with no apparent sign of turmoil. Yet some had been brewing off shore, so very far away. How strange to hear of it, when it was so beautiful here. 

Lake Michigan is such a lovely place to see dawn. I'm glad I live near enough to her shores to enjoy the show on occasion.

Carol

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Quiet

"Quiet"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 

There had been so much going on; planning, laughter, cooking, conversation, entertaining, frivolity, feasting, then nothing but quiet. The quiet of a household after a five-day party is often as unnerving as the commotion of a full to overflowing house. This painting depicts what it felt like when they all left. Quiet. 

My family celebrated a fifteen-year tradition of Faux Thanksgiving over the weekend. Friends and family came to eat turkey and play for five days.  It happens two weeks before real Thanksgiving every year.  And every year it gets louder while they're here and quieter when they leave.  For all of this, I am thankful.

Love,
Carol

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Flat Bottoms

"Flat Bottoms"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The clouds in my zip code are trying on the garments of the next season. They are darker and heavier than the billowy summer frocks of the last quarter.  Soon that dark will be too heavy to carry and it'll be tumbling toward the ground in six-pointed crystals. I can't even type the word. Not on the first of October. Nope. I can't do it. 

Carol

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Little Puffs of Steam

"Little Puffs of Steam"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

They weren't serious cumulonimbi drifting across the plains, but more like little puffs of steam, the kind that sputter from a too-full tea kettle before it boils onto the stove. Or the steam iron that spits angrily the second you hold it over the blouse you simply have to wear that day.

I'm working on a large rose painting that is requiring more of my attention than usual, but she'll be worth the effort.

Carol

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Majesty

"Majesty"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The sun nestled into a bank of clouds, upstaging the mountains, and snuggled in the downy fluff like a kitten in a basket of tangerine yarn. 

Here's another in my series of skies. I cobbled this one from several photos in my files.  While I still have paint on my tiny Styrofoam plate, I'll probably make one other one to post tomorrow night. I love making them.  Can you tell?  

Carol

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At Joanie's

"At Joanie's"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

We were outside at sunset when Joan noticed the color of the treetops, that they were viridian, despite the drought.  "The sun's playing tricks," I said.  Joan was happy it wasn't the wine she had with dinner, instead.  

Another twenty minute painting, done with Joan in my studio with me!  No wine was consumed while painting this sky... well, almost none.

Carol

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Good Morning

"Good Morning"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

"Good morning my love, come see the sunrise. I'm glad you're waking up to watch it with me.  I wasn't going to waken you, but now that you're... honey?  My darling?  It's okay, we can watch the sunset tonight, instead." 


I enjoy making these small sky paintings.  They give me satisfaction and joy to be able to produce them from passion within.

Carol

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Pink Joie

"Pink Joie"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The sun rose over the treetops without disturbing a twig.  She welcomed the new day with various shades of joyful pink.  


As promised, here is Pink Joie.  Not a flower, but just as joyful.

Carol

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Good Night

"Good Night"
6" x 6"
Oil on gessoed hardboard

The end... came as a shock when we'd been having so much fun.  It was daylight one moment, all bright and sunny. Then the clouds moved in, the colors changed and suddenly it was dark.  Too dark to say "Good Night?"  

I painted this thirty-minute painting tonight after a long, difficult day, and before I knew what hit me, it was time to clean my brushes and try... to fall asleep.   

Thank you for staying close.

Carol 

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Storm Over the Pond

"Storm Over the Pond"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard panel

The sky wore a convincing look of winter as it rolled across Wisconsin's farmland, despite the balminess of the actual temperature.  


I toned the board with burnt umber.  Which means, I rubbed the white with a warm brown, then wiped it off.  You can see it through the clouds, in the water, and trees.  I love this look in landscapes. It unifies everything painted on top of it.

This painting is for purchase on Dailypaintworks.com.

Thank you for looking in today.
Carol

Wisconsin Sunset

"Wisconsin Sunset"
15" x  30"
Oil on wrapped canvas

The sun set so quickly that I either had to photograph it, or enjoy it with my eyes.  I liked this particular shot. There were so many colors in the air over this waterway, I wondered if it was a gaseous effect of the marsh, or just focused wishing. 

This is another early oil painting.  I've only been using oils for a short while.  They delight me with their ability to let me ponder as I paint. Being a watercolorist and a muralist, I made a lot of art on the fly!

This painting is listed with, and for purchase through a Daily Paintworks Auction.