Solstice Sky

"Solstice Sky"
5" x 5"
Oil on hardboard

It's the Winter Solstice. The sky is clear and filled with stars, even though the day was gloomy and gray as it's been for a week. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow.  

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
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Another Parrish

"Another Parrish"
6" x 8"
Oil on canvas panel

The sky and mountains intrigued me, as did the palm-like, yet deciduous tree. It was fun to think about painting this in Buffalo Grove, Illinois at Christmas time 2014, when the original was painted around a hundred years ago. This may be my last Parrish piece for a while, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Oh, and today's my birthday :-)

Carol

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Evening's Promise

"Evening's Promise"
6"x6"
Oil on hardboard

The sky glowed the promise of something better, and I believed it as evening closed in around me. I could use some… better in my life. 

I've been sick for a few weeks. Pretty darn sick. I've never gone for three weeks without painting, until now. Influenza and its companion complications had flattened me since Thanksgiving. But I'm back in my studio for the first time, today and happy to be able to lift a brush, squeeze paint and smear it around in the shape of something recognizable.

Thank you to those of you who have noticed my absence, for the emails and the prayers for my complete recovery.  I appreciate all of your good thoughts.

Carol

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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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Evening Warmth

"Evening Warmth"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

It was if someone had stained a part of the sky with crushed raspberries. 

I'm back up in Door County at the Plein Air Festival. Today anyone is invited to paint with the "big boys."  Gallery owners will be looking at the art as we make it, so I'm where I want to be.  Wish me well!

Carol

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Zero Edge

"Zero Edge"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Tonight as I paint, I'm listening to Schubert's 9th and thinking of being in a zero edge pools while the sun sets.  I'd love to add the colors of the sunset to all the other sensations I imagine I'd be feeling at a time and place like that. 

Carol

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Complements

"Complements"
5" x 5"
Oil on hardboard

It was fun to watch the sky demonstrate direct complementary colors before my eyes the other night. What better place to do such a demo than the pretty big sky over the plains. 

Carol

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Adrift in Passion

"Adrift in Passion"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The color wouldn't last but a few heartbeats longer, so we stopped what we were doing and watched.  We absorbed the warmth and light of the moment then continued on, tending to the mundane aspects of our lives with renewed energy. 

I fabricated this sky tonight, to have something to post while I finish a larger piece that is taking longer than planned. It was painted purely from passion and remembering a sky that looked like this.

Carol

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Fleeting Flames

"Fleeting Flames"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

The sky that evening dispersed its color with such abandon that I had to check to make sure that it was only the setting sun and not a raging fire giving off that kind of light.  

I love to paint skies with this much color and motion. Of course, as I've said before, it shows better in person — has more depth and variety.

Carol

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Still Winter

"Still Winter"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

Across the flat prairie, the land is still barren and dusted with winter's most recent effort. It's now April, but it still feels and looks like February.

I trust there will be signs of spring emerging through the matted leaves pretty soon. Do I sound desperate, or whiny?  I'm so sorry if I come off that way. April has to be better, doesn't it?

Carol

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Mounds

"Mounds"
5" x 7"
Oil on hardboard

The sky and the weeds looked so beautiful that when a couple of mounds came into view, I decided to keep them in the photo. 

Here's another small landscape as I work on a larger painting.

Carol

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Another Snowy Day

"Another Snowy Day"
4" x 4"
Oil on hardboard 

The mountains of snow nearly dwindled by half after two days above freezing. But the forecast is dismal for tonight and tomorrow. It'll round out the jagged edges and whiten the mounds for a few days.

I ordered and received 72 new gessoed hardboard panels that were on sale with free shipping over the weekend. I'm tickled to have miniature grounds to support my daily habit.

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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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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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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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

"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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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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"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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