Plein Air in the Backyard

For the past two afternoons, while the kids are at school, I have been experimenting with painting my backyard "en plein air." What amazed me about this process was how interesting my old backyard was once I started concentrating on it! When I first looked at it, I was like, "Ok, I have this enormous 30x30 inch wood panel and nowhere else I can lug it to but the backyard, but it's a shame all I see is green, green green."  Apparently, somewhere along the way, this perception expanded to include some other colors! I am not done with this piece yet, but I will keep you posted. So far, this is a really interesting experiment.

Artwalk 2013

Fellow artist, Demerise, and I had a wonderful time representing The Firefly Gallery yesterday for the Northport Artwalk. It was a great opportunity to meet the many art lovers not just in Northport but in the surrounding towns of Long Island and as well. Thank you to everyone who came out to support the local long island art scene!!

Sketching vs. Photos

Pastel sketch at Caumset Park in Lloyd Harbor, New York.

 

 

I have been doing more plein air sketching lately. Today I went to Caumset State Park -- a spectacular place -- and rode my bike through the sprawling grounds in order to sketch this seaside scene. I'm using these enormous pastels on cheap paper, but I think even with my clunky supplies, there is something so special about drawing from life. For one thing, it seems like my eyes are able to see details that the iphone camera just blends together. When I looked at this scene, I saw so many colors, but when I look at the photo vs. my drawing, there are so few. Have you ever noticed that? It makes me want to venture out more and brave the sand gnats to do more drawing. :)



Autumn Ride

  "Autumn Ride" Original 16x20 inch painting on wood panel. Available through Lyrical Fine Art.

The idea for "Autumn Ride" came from a late afternoon of sketching in pastels down at Crab Meadow beach. I had ridden my bike there with all of my sketching supplies and ended up just amazed at the beautiful shifting light of the setting sun. It turned everything it touched to unexpected colors. When I got back to the studio, I created a finished painting on wood panel from the sketch. You can see the sketch above along with another from that same day of the nearby marsh.

Hello Summer!

 

 

Now at the Firefly Gallery at 127 Main Street in Northport, NY, I'm showing a collection of my favorite summery framed prints!

 Pictured above is "The Boys of Summer."  Many of the prints shown here are available unframed on my Etsy shop: "Day Off," "Spun," "Aloft," and "Hello Summer" as well as others.

I'll Leave a Light on For You

"I'll Leave a Light on For You"

 

I've just added this print to my Etsy shop. It's now available as either a 7x7 print or an 8x10 print. 

TRUST

Acrylic on Wood Panel. Original and Giclees available through LaMantia Gallery.

 

Another in the Cont/Text series. This one truly is my favorite so far. I want it over my own fireplace. Because the woods and stars have always held romance for me, I can smell the pine needles and the crisp night air as these two embark on their journey into the unknown. The night is dark, and they are far from home. The wind has kicked up with twilight. Yet they are holding hands. Their trust in each other keeps things from getting too overwhelming -- or one would hope.

The Dreamlife of Winter

"The Dreamlife of Winter"

16x20 inch original encaustic & mixed media on 1 3/4 inch wood panel. For sale here.

This is the sequel to my painting, "Autumn Lullaby." In that piece, I was imagining that Autumn was a time when the earth was "falling" asleep. Then I thought that winter - with its long, frozen hibernation - might be a time not only of sleep but of dreams. What would the earth be dreaming about? This is my interpretation. So, while there is a winter scene at first glance, upon closer examination, we can also see flowers, butterflies and birds hidden in the icy colors. On the bottom of the panel, I added the word "DREAM" in color (so it is really hidden from most viewers who look at the painting head-on; it is beneath the surface like dreams themselves).

Infatuation

"Infatuation" - 6x6 inch encaustic & collaged paper on 2" cradled wood panel. The panel sides are coated in black encaustic paint. Prints available here.

Ahhh.... infatuation. This is also part of my 6-piece current series. It is, of course, a story. And here is the part where everyone falls into giddy blissful joy. I chose abstraction for this piece because infatuation is so much like a swirlying, whirling experience of the freefall of love. Nothing stays in place for very long, everything is blooming, and the world seems super-saturated with color. Here is my interpretation (though, I must admit, I could do about 20 paintings on this theme).

New Encaustic Painting: "I Know That You Love Me"

My first large 28x20 inch wax encaustic painting on 2" cradled wood:
"I Know that You Love Me." Original is SOLD.

Here I am posing with my painting in the studio. I figured I would take the picture while wearing a matching sweater!

Detail of girl holding flower in the forest.

A detail of the forest.

And here is "I Know that You Love Me" temporarily hanging in our living room until moving to Caffe Portofino this weekend.

This painting is my first foray at making a larger-sized (28x20) encaustic painting, and it is my new favorite piece ever. It was quite an interesting (and somewhat challenging) process. The hardest part was applying the wax in my semi-freezing studio/sun porch. The porch is heated, but when I turn on my heat gun, a fuse blows all the time. So I usually just forgo heat in lieu of art-making! But with such a large area to cover with wax, it was tedius to apply the big sections of color (and to fuse them all with the heat gun). Yet I truly love this painting, and it will be hard for me to part with it.


Yet "I Know that You Love Me" will soon be hanging in Caffe Portofino in Northport. This is because this beautiful cafe has sold 8 of my paintings in the past week!! So I had to create something new to replace them. I can't wait to put it up on the walls this weekend (though it does really match our living room!).

i am the queen of my imagination

"i am the queen of my imagination" 10x10 original encaustic & gold leaf on 2" cradled wood. This is a section of the image.

I finished this piece today while Christophe took the little ones to Gymboree, preschool and the library. I wish that you could see the whole piece because it has a greater impact in its full square proportions. This painting was such a learning experience for me. I finally got up the nerve to apply a full canvas of color (this blue), and I figured out how to include gold leaf (just rubbed it in -- how easy could it get??!). The crown is mostly gold leaf, and there are also incised gold portions of the star to the "queen's" right.

My favorite part of this painting is the part that made me giggle as I inscribed it. It's word "ME" inside the heart on her chest. After all, she is the queen, and it's her imagination! :) I loved creating this painting so much. It will be hard to sell the original. But prints will soon be for sale on Etsy when I can photograph the whole thing.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some special little gift boxes that I've been creating for the past week. They are super groovy if I do say so myself.

French Kiss

"French Kiss" -- 8x10 acrylic & cut paper on wood.

After weeks of painting a stroke or two on this piece between bouts of baby cry interruptions, I finally woke up today at 4:30 am and finished it. My little guy has been sleeping almost through the night lately (yesterday he went from 9:30 pm to 8 am!) so I think I was just restless after sleeping for 6 hours. I decided, after lying in bed for 20 minutes, to just go downstairs to the studio to paint. It was a tad cold, but after a cup of coffee, it was SO fun. And as an added bonus I got to see the sunrise over the water through my window! Gorgeous.

This painting was inspired by my recent engagement (well, Christmas...) in Paris and all things romantic that come along with crisp fall air, love and freedom.

It will be available on ETSY by the end of today.

Sanctuary

I completed this new painting, "Sanctuary," today in honor of SPRING. The weather has been a tiny bit warmer and sunnier (which isn't much here in the northeast), and I was filled with a desire to capture the feeling of warm, sunlit air and blooming flower and trees. It seems like nature was on the same page, because we apparently have lots of little flower buds peeping through the soil in our front yard. I'm so excited!

Some of the colors here are inspired by the new Benjamin Moore line for Pottery Barn. My mom sent us a gorgeous tray from Pottery Barn that came with the catalogue and a chip book of paint colors. I think we are going to paint our living room "Oak Ridge" (the beige color here) and add lots of bright artwork to liven it up. But that's the only color I can count on knowing for the future because I chopped that paint chip book to shreds for some of the leaves on this colorful tree. All in all, it was a very fun Thursday -- my official painting day.

This original painting is available for sale on my website, and prints will be up on ETSY tomorrow.

Seeing Stars

I know it's cheesy to blog about such things, but who doesn't sneak a peek at US magazine once in awhile? So, please forgive me. I can't help myself. Last week Susan Sarandon purchased two of my prints, and I am just tickled. It's funny because we read so much about famous actors and actresses, but we hardly ever get a chance to see what kind of artwork they might be drawn to. Can you guess which celebrity purchased which artwork?

And here is the artwork...

"Okay to Be Different" (print)

"Adagio" (original painting)

"Room for Everyone" (print)

"February" (original painting)

ANSWERS:
Susan Sarandon purchased the two prints "Okay to be Different" and "Room for Everyone." Julia Roberts purchased the original painting, "February." And Owen Wilson is the proud owner of "Adagio."

I didn't get to meet Susan or Julia, but I was there when Owen Wilson started pulling "Adagio" off the wall at the Ten Women Gallery holiday party. I was outside chatting with my friends when I went in and asked, blushing beet red, "Can I help you with anything?" and he said "I'd like to buy this one." Of course, I was more than happy to bring it up to the cash register -- and my mom ran up to him and said "Oh, that's my daughter's painting!" I'm surprised she didn't ask for his phone number. : ) He was really cute in person, and quite a romantic, it seems.

Sigh.

Of, course, I think that everyone who purchases my artwork is a STAR! And I thank you all for being so supportive and for helping me to keep doing what I love. Have a beautiful weekend (it's snowing here in New York).