Magnolia Blossom

If you only saw the painting, you might think, "Oh, it's a big white flower done in an artsy way."

But... 

... if you saw me holding it...

... Then you might think, "Oh my!  It's a really really big white flower done in an artsy way!"

Next you might wonder, "Does she set her camera to the 15-second delay on the porch banister then run back and forth until she gets herself and the painting in the frame?"

Finally you might ask, "Why?"  

Well...

Yes, It certainly is.

Yes. That's exactly what I do.

And, well, why not?  Many months (years?) ago, I when I needed a big 24"x 24" canvas, I placed the order and saw the discount if I ordered 5. Needless to say, the other 4 have been in the way... waiting patiently for a long time.

My Weekly-ish Challenge was "A Single White Flower."  

First I started a sweet little painting of a hummingbird that I'd watch flit around my hostas, the hosta plants I'd dug from my Dad's house as little plants that have now become big and beautiful and blooming to entice hummingbirds.  The bird sipped from one of those single white flowers.  Yes, I will eventually finish that sweet little painting, but I decided that I would simply be playing it safe if that was to be the painting I submitted. 

I'd watched a tutorial by an artist named Nicol Wikman who encouraged "going big" and "painting loosely" by "holding the brush as if it was a magic wand."  I loved it.  I tried it. I love it.

Yes, I'm going to put it in my Etsy shop and of course I will be excited when it does sell, but honestly... until that day comes... I think this one is going on my bedroom wall where I can enjoy it myself.

Original Oil Painting on 24"x 24" Wrapped Canvas

Visit Magnolia Blossom if you want to take this off my wall and put it on yours.

Easter Lilies (Palette Knife)

Easter lilies, day lilies, tiger lilies, surprise lilies, calla lilies, stargazer lilies, water lilies... I do love a good lily. I love seeing them... growing them... and painting them too.

This one's different.

It's not very colorful... and it's a pretty loose style....

There are several different meanings listed for the Easter lily. One is that it's symbolic of new beginnings.  I like that. I'm kind of at a place of rediscovering, redefining, and reclaiming myself as an artist. 

Maybe this Easter lily will be a new beginning for me.

I love it.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 12" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

White Calla Lilies

When I walked to my sister's front door one day last summer...(It was the summer of 2020, so I'm sure I wore a mask, walked to the front door, dropped something off on the step, didn't touch anything extra, and tried not to breathe... Please, COVID, go away soon!)

Anyway... She always has beautiful flower beds, and on this particular day the calla lilies were so gorgeous that they looked like they couldn't be real. I took a dozen photos thinking that one day I'd paint them.  That day was this week.

It was my first time to paint on a black canvas, and quite frankly, I didn't expect to like it much. The first tricky thing was how to get my drawing to show up.  Here's the trick I used.  I covered the back side of my drawing paper with chalk.  Then I laid it on the canvas and traced over the lines I wanted to show up.  That pencil pressure left the chalk where I wanted it on the black canvas.  Ta-da!

I was surprised at how much I liked painting on the black.  I did have to be careful to choose the more opaque paints (titanium white, chromium oxide green, cadmium yellow, etc.) because the translucent ones didn't pull their weight on covering the black.  I ended up covering all the black canvas with deep greens to bring some life into the flat, dead black of the canvas.

I really do love the final product.  I think this one has a very dramatic feel to it. 

I already have a plan to paint on black again soon.

My weekly art challenge was "On Black."  Kind of nice how that worked out, huh... (It was, after all, my week to choose the topic.)

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Stretched Canvas

[SOLD]

How Do You Say Peony?

Is it PEE-uh-nee?

Or is it pee-OH-nee?

I didn't even know that first one was an option until a few years ago!

Either way, it looks like somebody turned the volume up on this pretty pink peony!

It didn't start out this bold.  It's been through a few "I'm finished" moments.

I've always hated... been afraid of... avoided... been challenged with painting what I call "fancy, fluffy flowers" like roses, peonies, carnations, etc. so I turned to a YouTube lesson for some help. (YouTube's a great teacher when you don't have a teacher handy.)  I picked a YouTube artist whose peony painting was beautiful, and her instructions were easy to follow. 

Day 1

I did my best to follow her process, match her strokes, use her colors. At the end of the session, it was a good try. It looked like a peony.

But, it was ugly, and I was frustrated. 

I wiped it off. 

Day 2

I determined to try again.  I followed her, but not as closely.  Somewhere during that time, I began to understand that I was painting one flower, not twenty separate petals. That sounds silly to say, but it changed my mindset. 

I finished the peony!

I was pleased.

Then I stepped back and looked at it.

It had the right shape, but it was cold and lifeless.

Well, that was disappointing...

Day 3

I took a photo to look at it on a screen and get a different perspective, and I decided it was worth saving... my way. 

I brought it to life... and maybe put it on steroids... but I do love this "fancy fluffy flower" now.

This week's art challenge phrase was "Lots of Pink." I certainly did use lots of pink.

Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas

Click Bold Pink Peony if you'd like to purchase this painting.

Sunflower Shine

At midday, when the sun is high in the sky, the color shimmers off each petal as it reaches upward.  All day long, their faces follow the sun's path across the sky.  I stand quietly at the edge of the garden and watch their silent nods, a show that gives me pause, reflecting on a season well spent.

Photo by Sara Harley

I was inspired by both the image and the writing from this month's Inspiration Collaboration image.  Sara wrote, "Late in the day, when the sun is lower in the sky, the light bounces off our small outdoor fish pond and into our home. For a short time, the glow dances across our living room ceiling in shimmering aerial ballet. I sit quietly in my chair and watch the silent performance, a shape shifting show that gives me pause, reflections and afterglow of a day well spent."

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 10"x 10" Wrapped Canvas.

[SOLD]

Daisy

He loves me...
     He loves me not...
He loves me...
     He loves me not...
He loves me!

Daisies are such happy flowers.

Until this one, I'd only painted one other daisy.  It was the fourth painting I ever did.  Although it was only my third lesson and way back in March of 2007, I have a clear memory of it.  We were to learn about seeing the color in black and in white. My teacher gave me a calendar page with a big white daisy on it. "Look at all the beautiful colors in that flower!"  Oh, dear... something was wrong.  I only saw a white flower.  She said, "Yes, it is white, but look closely and notice the purples and yellows and reds and browns and blues!"  Wait, did I get the wrong picture? Mine's just a white daisy!  She said that her goal was to help us to see the world differently, to notice the subtle variations in the colors of nature. Clouds weren't just white. Trees weren't just green. Water wasn't just blue. I tried. I tried to pretend I saw more than just white. 
The background was black... wasn't it?  "Yes, it's black.  But black has no life, so we won't open the tube of black paint." Oh, dear... Should I quit now? Will I ever "see the world differently" like she wanted me to?
Yes.
Yes, Over time and through practice, I would learn to see the world differently, through artist eyes.

Photo by Sara Harley

Sara's Inspiration Image for July's Inspiration Collaboration gave me the idea to give painting a daisy another try.  And, yes, it was much easier to "see the color" in the white flower on a black back ground.

You can see my painting along with several other works of art inspired by A Touch of Sunshine.


Original Oil Painting on 5"x 7" Wrapped Canvas.
[SOLD]

Purple Iris, the Silver Lining

I love irises. 
They bring the purple into spring every April.

Here are a few of mine that bring such joy each year. They are beautiful and I love them, but they don't really have a story.  The one in the painting has a story worth telling.

We moved into our new home the week of September 11, 2001. (Yeah, that September 11...) It was a busy time.  The country was reeling from the events of the week, the school year had just begun, and we were setting up our forever home.
A friend told me she was thinning her iris bed and asked if I'd like to have some for our new yard.  Um... YES!  Like I would ever turn that offer down!
Like I said, it was a busy time of getting settled, and building a flower bed wasn't high on the list of priorities.  But we had this great little hillside just down the drive. (I painted this little hillside earlier this year.)  I could just imagine this hillside covered with irises, so I poked the bulbs into the ground all over the hillside and waited... The next spring their light green flags were tall and beautiful... but not a single flower.  That's okay, it takes a year for them to get really grounded, so I waited... another year... and another... and another... Lots of green flags... zero flowers... ever...
Now, friends, look at the painting of the hillside, what do you see?  
Lots of trees... too much shade... not enough sun for irises to bloom... ever...

Fast forward... 8 years... 
Every one who has who lived in Northwest Arkansas for a long time will remember the winter of 2009... the ice storm of the century... branches breaking through the night with gunshot-like cracks, treetops splintered, no power for 8 days... devastation everywhere... 

So much clean up...  a mission team from a Baptist church in another county, men we didn't know, just showed up with their chainsaws... just came to help... so humbling...

Then the weather warmed... spring arrived... April came... and... 
     Surprise...
          Surprise...
               Surprise...
The irises on the hillside bloomed for the first time ever!
How could that be?
All those toppled trees and broken limbs... let the sunshine in...

...a silver lining... 

Do you have a "silver lining" story?  Share!!

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Stargazer & Buds

I love stargazer lilies.  They smell wonderful. They are so beautiful that you just have to stop and look closely. And, they remind me of my mother.  I gave her a stargazer lily plant one year for Mother's Day.  After enjoying it inside for a while, she planted it in the yard where if flourished.  After a few years when they moved, they dug the stargazer plant up and replanted it where she continued to enjoy it each summer.

This particular stargazer belongs to a friend from high school.  He'd posted a photo of it on Instagram, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to put it on canvas. Thanks for sharing the photo, Travis!
He sent me a photo of the same lily taken a few days later...  Wow...

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Pink Daisy II

I celebrated 12 years as a painter last week.
In honor of that, how about 12 things I love about painting:

• I love putting the highlight sparkle in eye of a person or animal.  (As soon as I do, I always say, "Well, hello! I've been waiting for you!")
• I love to paint on a really big canvas.
• I love signing my paintings in the bottom right corner. (Sometimes it has to be bottom left.)
• I love painting with purple and adding turquoise or orange in unexpected places.
• I love using a chisel brush to make straight lines, a palette knife to create texture, and a fluffy brush to soften a background.
• I love when the painting muse appears with a great idea.  (But, sometimes I have to find the next idea on my own. I can't always count on the muse; she has a lousy work ethic.)
• I love to touch a finished painting that was done with a palette knife.
• I love stepping away from what I'm painting then looking back at it with fresh eyes. (That gives the painting fairy a chance to do her magic.)
• I love it when someone wants one of my  paintings for their own wall.
• I love to paint alone.
• I love to paint with creative artist friends. (Thursdays 11:30-3:00)
• I love watching others learn and grow as painters. (Mondays 4:00-7:00)

Look at that proud face!

Original Oil Painting 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Hollyhocks

When I think of my grandma's house, I can almost smell marigolds; she always had them growing beside the front porch.  If I imagine myself sitting on that porch, I can look across the yard and see a row of hollyhocks beside the fence.  

I've been reading a blog called Ramblings from a Desert Garden lately.  No, I don't live in the desert, and no I'm not very good at growing beautiful plants.  But I enjoy her writing, pictures, and blog style.  When I came to this post about hollyhocks, it triggered a happy memory.

My mother once showed me how she and her sisters used to use the hollyhocks in their yard to make dolls.  She turned a big flower upside down to become the doll's dress.  The green part that holds the flower together (which I'm certain the AZ Plant Lady from the blog would know the name of) became the doll's body or shirt.  Then she picked a bud to become the doll's head and used a straight pin to hold it on.   My favorite combination... simple elegance.   

I kept thinking about that memory and Googled hollyhock dolls to see if anyone else had ever done such a creative thing.  Sure enough I found this precious little photo on a blog called Botanical Interests. It's much fancier than my mom's was with the little blossom for a hat and even a toothpick for arms. But I love thinking about how my mother and aunts would have played with these lovely ladies in pink, red, and white dresses.

(It's for sale in my Etsy shop, but my husband said, "I really do like this one.  I hope no one buys it." 😉We'll just enjoy it on our own wall until someone gives it a forever home.)

Original Oil Painting on 24"x. 12" Wrapped Canvas.
[SOLD]

Gulf Fritillary on Echinanea

Who doesn't love a butterfly?

A butterfly is the one insect that nobody wants to swat.  I've learned recently that butterfly populations are diminishing.  And, one of the reasons it's happening is because people keep their yards so manicured that butterflies can't find the weeds that they love to lay their eggs on.  This sounds like a good excuse to use for not mowing the lawn!

Thanks to my friend Lisa for letting me paint her gorgeous photograph. This little butterfly was enjoying himself on a flower in the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks.

Pink Bearded Iris

How may colors do irises actually come in?


I grew up on a farm, so there was no time or effort wasted on frilly, persnickety flowers.  But one flower that thrived was the iris.  We had a long bed that stretched down the fence row.  It never required a thing.  Oh, how I'd love to have transferred that row of gorgeous irises to where I live now.
I mentioned it in my poem "I Am From Home" in an earlier entry.


This was painted for the June challenge on Studio Atelier.  It's always fun to see the different variations on the chosen image.  All the same, yet all different.

Purple Iris

How long does it take to see the silver lining?


I always love hardy flowers like daffodils, lilies,and irises, but this one has a special story. 
A friend gave me a box of iris bulbs as a house warming gift for the house we were building. Unfortunately, we moved in during the week of September 11, 2001. As every American knows, that was a tumultuous time for many reasons. There didn't seem to be time to think through the perfect spot for planting the iris bulbs. Finally I poked them in the ground on a hillside beside our little pond just so they wouldn't dry up and be wasted. 
Every spring after that their flags (leaves) grew up strong and healthy, but never was a single bud or flower produced.
Then two years ago our part of the country suffered the worst ice storm in history. Our beautiful trees were broken and mangled. It took the summer to get the limbs cleaned up. The canopy of limbs was sparse to say the least.
But... surprise... the next spring the irises bloomed and were fabulous! 
The loss of tree limbs was the opportunity for sun that the irises had been patiently waiting 10 years for.


Visit Spring Irises or  Awesome Finds From Arkansas to enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of vintage items and art pieces) that celebrates purple!  Or visit I Is For.  It's a clever collection of things that begin with the letter i.  And, of course, you have to see Stunning Iris Displays!


Click to purchase "Purple Iris."

Fuchsia

Who doesn't love fuchsia!


Fuchsia is such a vibrant, fantastic color that a little goes a long way.  It takes some self confidence to wear fuchsia.  And, who paints a room fuchsia, buys fuchsia couch, or makes it a team jersey color?  
But then, who wouldn't love to paint a room fuchsia, sit on a fuchsia couch, or cheer for the team in fuchsia!
And who wouldn't love to have this gorgeous fuchsia plant growing by their front porch!


This little painting was done as a challenge piece for Artistic Sentiments.  I love to see the varied styles when artists paint from the same point of inspiration.


To purchase this little painting (and it's framed), click "Fuchsia."

Iweus Rose

Have you gotten roses lately? They're lovely, of course. But, how come they barely have a smell anymore? Did the smell get engineered out as their traveling stamina got engineered in?

Luckily, some people still grow beautiful, natural roses that also smell heavenly. This one was grown by my brother-in-law.

If you'd like to purchase blank note cards with this image on

the front, follow this link to my Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/27957684/rose-note-cards-from-original-oil

A single rose adds a feminine touch to anything. Have a look at this fabulous necklace I found on Etsy. I love it!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50674914/deirdre-necklace-free-shipping-yellow

Light Yellow Sunflower

Why do I love this particular sunflower so much?

Because it's balanced - symmetrical, but not really - just right? Because it was the biggest, tallest, strongest one in the garden? Because it's bright and fiery even though it's a soft yellow? Maybe because of the memory of how hard I laughed (and how mad I got) at the squirrel who climbed up the stalk for a feast on its seeds - while spitting seed shells all over the tomato plant below. Somehow it's just the right symbol to represent me.

Yes, it's for sale on my Etsy site, but I put a price too high on it and hardly ever renew it all in the hopes that no one will ever buy it. Is that silly? Wouldn't it be better to just take it off? Hmmmm... Maybe I should. Maybe I will.

If the day comes that someone else loves it enough to buy it, I'll probably cry as I package it up to ship.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Canvas Board
[SOLD]

Bright Yellow Sunflower

Nothing says summer like a sunflower!

I grew a great crop of sunflowers in my garden a couple of summers ago. They bloomed just in time for my nephew's wedding party that was held in my backyard. Luckily I snapped a few photos that day because I caught a squirrel climbing up a stalk and helping herself to the seeds the very next day!

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Canvas Board
[SOLD]

Tiger Swallowtail on Echinacea

Where do butterflies go when it rains?

I don't know the answer to that, but I know that this little guy was ready to play only minutes after a huge summer storm ended. He seemed to enjoy being photographed. He posed again and again for me.

I'd just spent two hours in an art museum seeing fine art, but you know what? This butterfly was the most beautiful sight of the day.

This little painting has been honored to have been featured in an a couple of Etsy treasuries (collection of art and vintage items) The most recent one celebrated Oklahoma art in a collection called Homemade Oklahoma..  Click "Flutterby Butterfly" to enjoy another one featuring butterflies.

Click the following link featuring a necklace with a lovely tiger swallowtail photograph glass pendant.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52323085/glass-tile-butterfly-pendant-necklace

Dahlia

This little painting was done through a challenge for http://rookiepainter.blogspot.com/. I love the concept of this site - an image is presented then artists are invited to share their art based on that image. It's so interesting to see the diversity in style. I felt proud like a little kid to see mine posted right alongside the artists' pieces.

[SOLD]

Gaillardia

Little surprises are all around in the summer.

To purchase this little painting, click the following link.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50103358/gaillardia-original-oil-painting-on-4x8