Ice Cream Cone

Favorite Ice Cream Treats:

Cold Stone - Cake Batter with Almonds & Heath Bar

Braums - Chocolate Almond in a Flat-Bottom Cone
Shakes - Concrete with Snickers or Heath Bar
Dairy Queen - Blizzard with Snickers or Heath Bar

Home - French Vanilla with Peaches or Raspberries

So many choices...

Cherries candied? or fresh?

Peaches chopped on top? or blended in?

Strawberries fresh? or syrup-y?

Chocolate ice cream? or poured on top?

Pecans? or Almonds?

Candy sprinkles? or cookie crumbles?

Homemade? or store bought?

Sherbets? or frozen custard?

Soft served? or hand dipped?

My Weekly-ish Challenge was "Pink & Red," so voila!

Sadly, I developed an allergic reaction to strawberries a few years ago, so I can't choose strawberry ice cream to eat, it was perfect to paint. And, with all that palette knife work, I can't wait until it's dry enough to run my fingers across... Zoom in! Those paint smears look good enough to lick... but don't!

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Wrapped Canvas

Click Ice Cream Cone if you want to have this one on your own wall (so you can touch it)!

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.

Pretty Poppies

 It will be many weeks before we see bright red flowers growing.  

I did see that the daffodil shoots are thinking about making an appearance.  They better wait though, more snow's on the way. It's pretty gray outside these days... and by "pretty" gray, I don't really mean pretty at all.... blah...

Maybe I just needed some bursts of brightness.  I'm finally coming back to life after a week of the flu. (Yes, I had the vaccine.) It's been a long time since I've been so sick, and fatigue is real. It's kind of not fair how long it takes to build up muscle and stamina and how quickly it goes away when you lay around for a week.

Before the bright reds wave in the breeze, we'll have the yellows and purples of March and April first. Then there will be some whites and oranges in May and June.  In the meantime, these pretty poppies can brighten my wall.

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Caw! Caw!

I've been playing with the palette knife again. 

I finished the first one then just wasn't quite finished with this guy and painted him again.

I can't decide which one I like more.

I love the attitude of the first guy. I love that the second one and his background interact.

I was watching a crow outside my studio window yesterday. Is it an age thing? I never used to pay a bit of attention to birds. Before I know it, I'll probably have a field guide and binoculars! Surely not!

My Weekly-ish Challenge was "Crow." So... no tricks here, just a simple crow... or two.

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Canvas Board

Click HERE if you'd like to purchase the first one.

Click HERE if you'd like to purchase the second one.

Flowers & Shadow

I love smearing paint with a palette knife.

The *WordSpark* for my little painting group this month was "Shadows." As is usually the case, I was completely blank as to what I might paint for the topic.

I was walking through the garden center at Walmart, (the part where it's inside, but open to the sky) when I noticed the most lovely perfect shadows this plant was casting on the concrete.  The plant was on the floor marked down to $4 because nearly every stem was broken. But... some scotch tape to hold the stems upright-ish... some wire to prop the dead-ish ones up... some artistic license to fix it up was all it took!

My companion piece was fun to create.  

• I started with scraps of collage paper in purples. 
• Then I fussy-cut (a term I learned from my quilting friends) the flowers off of a paper party napkin.
• Next I created a "found poem" about shadows from a page of Charlotte's Web. (It's the scene where Charlotte was sending the rat, Templeton, to the fairgrounds to get her a word so she could weave it in her web one last time.)
• A found poem is done by taking a sheet of text and marking out everything you don't need until you end up with words that make up a description/feeling/image/poem of what you do need.

The Cool of the Evening

In the cool of the evening, shadows darkened the air. 

Without saying anything, he started off. 

The shadows came as a welcome relief.

The sky seemed high, and you could hear music.

The man felt refreshed.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Wrapped Canvas

Click Flowers & Shadow if you'd like to purchase this painting.

Yellow Daffodils of March

This painting was so fun for so many reasons.  

The combination of turquoise and purple... Yummy!  

Smearing paint with a palette knife... Yes please!...

Daffodils... Love!

March is the month of yellow where we live. 

The Weekly-ish prompt was "March."  

Thanks to Sara for a reference image that I used once with irises and again now with daffodils.

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Red Window

 

A little fun with the palette knife!

A little turquoise sneaking in where it doesn't belong!

A little imagination!

That's a pretty good recipe, I think!

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Red Fox

I love smearing paint with a palette knife. 

I love seeing how it looks on the canvas.

I love rubbing my fingers over the texture after it dries.

This  little fox was done with a lesson from Tamara Laporte in a Sketchbook Revival 2023 lesson.

What a pretty little vixen!

I do try to be friends with watercolor, but I'm afraid it's just not a relationship that's meant to be. The very parts that make watercolor special and beautiful (like the blotchiness and unfinished look) also annoy me. 

For some reason, "Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day" is stuck on a loop in my head.

If you're wondering... yes... still trying to use up that left over paint, but it's almost gone!

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Little White Church in Winter

 

The longer I thought about my last Little White Church, the more I knew I had to do it again.  I can't exactly put my finger on why, but I am so much more pleased with this one. It's done more loosely and painterly, yet it's oddly more realistic.

I called my art mentor and told her I wanted to change my response to our weekly-ish challenge for "Little White Church."  She laughed since we've been making up our rules as we go for as long as we've been doing this.

*Thanks again to Sara for the image that I used... then used again!

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Field of Poppies

This was by far the largest canvas I've painted with a palette knife.  I was thrilled when I was asked to do it and couldn't wait to get started.

Now that I've done over a dozen paintings in this style, I wanted to reflect on what I like about painting in this way.

💖I love the laying the loaded palette knife on the canvas and swiping the paint off.

💖I love the way colors smear but don't completely mix together.

💖I love the challenge of making blobs and smears look like something more.

💖I love that I get to use up old paint that needs to be used up.

💖I love that it stays in the ugly stage a long time before the image begins to form.

💖I love the loose painterly look of the finished painting.

💖I love to glide my fingers across the texture after the paint is dry.

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 18"x 24" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Poppy Field (Palette Knife)

 

I painted some poppies a few months ago, and as I was doing so, I realized that I don't think I'd ever actually seen any poppies growing.  Since then, I have! And, of course, I loved them! 

Our city has beautiful flower beds around The Square. The beds on the corners were filled with pretty red poppies a couple of weeks ago.

There's always so much to see/hear/taste/smell when you visit The Farmers' Market on The Square.  Fresh fruits and vegetables... flowers... someone wanting a signature on his petition... musicians... someone wanting your vote... pets from the animal shelter that need homes... well-behaved dogs (which means we never take ours)... craftsmen and artisans... friends...

I had two favorites today.  One was a kid who called out to me. "Do you want to hear a joke or see a magic trick?"  I said I'd like the joke.  "What to you call an angry teapot?" Tell me. "Steamed!"  Ha ha. Ok. Not sure how much the joke was worth, but his courage to take up a post and ask with a grin was worth a dollar in his hat. 

My other favorite was this band. Who would have ever thought one old guy singing into a megaphone, his buddy on the banjo, and his other buddy on a marching tuba would be so fun to listen to!  I hope their open instrument case was filled with dollar bills by noon.

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]