The Red Barn was Sold today!

I'm so thankful for folks who buy my art!

I'm feeling very blessed.

"Not For Burning" still life...details

I think this is finished....

While the oil can is cool...

I'm ready to move on!

 

 

 

Here's some of the details up close...

 

 

 

 

Why the name you may wonder? Well the old book I found was titled,

"The Lady is not for burning", but Not for burning is all you see..therefore..

the title. How could I argue with fate?

Art that inspires...

Not all art inspires, but great art is always inspiring,

even if it is fitting for the season!

I love this...Edgar Maxence, " Soul of the Forest"...
beyond lovely!

 

 

Regardless, if I could spend time with any artist

throughout the ages, if I were asked,
it would have to be John Singer Sargent.

So I wondered, did Sargent ever paint angels?
 

While many of the women he painted looked like angels,

the only angel I could find in his work was an early study

he did after Goya, 1879.  "Angels in a Transept"..

 

 

In my opinion, everything he painted was magic...

 

 

Memories for Christmas

As a girl growing up in the late 60's and early 70's

some of this somewhat tacky retro stuff

warms the cockles of my heart...

I love old blow mold Santa's and Snowmen

Ceramic Christmas trees with the little plastic bulbs

thick heavy tinsel and fake snow... ahhh...

 

so...I'm thinking about these memories today...

a picture from my family album...

my handsome dad, L.R., is on the bottom

left in the stripped street...

you can hardly see the Christmas tree

from that pattern on the wall...

ah the good ole days...simpler times...

 

so..with that in mind, I thought I'd draw my

tiny ceramic farm truck all loaded up for the

special season.  I'd love to have a truck

just like this one day...

till then this will have to do.

Goin' through stuff in the ole attic for Christmas!

As Christmas approaches, I've had less time at the easel...

so, I thought I'd share some oldies...
kind of like that scene where Clark is in the attic going
through a bunch of old stuff in the "Christmas Vacation" movie.
One of my holiday must see movies!!!

Here's some stuff from the attic..sort of...
The first one is a painting I did while in a workshop of Scott Burdick's.
This was one of his reference photos
I used when we had to paint indoors on a rainy day.
He actually did some touch ups to some of my orange leaves at the top!

 

 

The second one is a small, quick plein air study

I did while on a trip in Wyoming.

 

Paula Deen as Mrs. Santa Christmas Cards for Sale

Hey ya'll, I've made some prints and blank Christmas cards

of my Paula Deen as Mrs. Claus that I'm selling on Etsy
I only have a limited number of sets available.
 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/170837390/paula-deen-as-mrs-santa-christmas-cards

Old Found Things

I love finding old relics

for my still life work.

Here's some cool new finds...

An old used oil can, brass keys,

my birds nest that you've seen before,

old books, and some quails eggs.

 

Here's how it begins...

a pencil study of the oil can I'm using..

 

 

preliminary drawings done...

transferred to the canvas..

and just put a grisaille and

then a light wash..

 

 

a few more touches... mostly to the details of the oil can...

  

some background work and detail...

 

 

  

details...details...

the keys are slowly evolving...

 

 

Phew!!! Done! 

  

 

 

Wildlife Work

This is an older drawing of mine...

but I'm working on a few wildlife pieces

now...some illustrative and some not...

Keep watching!!!

 

 

A New Pumpkin Painting

Well, here we are already in November...Wow!

So, I decided to try one more pumpkin for the season...

to keep me in the mood till Thanksgiving

and all that yummy pumpkin pie!

Here's the process...

 

 

started with the drapery...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the final...

 

 

 

 

The Pumpkin King rises again!

 

So, I had to do something special for Halloween...

and this guy shows up every year for me...

so.. I thought I would submit him to Illustration Friday

for their "Entangled" theme this week and to Inktober's Facebook Page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Pumpkin for the Fall

 

Study of a Fall Pumpkin



Here's how it started...
 

The photo of the still life,

beside the initial drawing

which already has a thin

wash of color...

 

 

 

I really never meant to give this pumpkin this much of my time.
I decided to ignore the details of the surrounding material
and focus on the beauty of my subject.
Hum, now what will be it's fate!?

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Still Life #2 White Pitcher

White Pitcher


The Process:

So, since I decided to go a little larger for the new still life.

I've completed the drawing, transferred it to my canvas

and have completed an initial wash.

 

I'm still using the little wooden box that I found at an antique store

for my still life setups.  I wanted one that had wood with a warm glow.

I also bought the old book and little oil tin can, but the white pitcher

was an something I already had. The leaf was complements of the oak

outside my door.

 

Lots more work to do....
 

 

Day 3

moving forward.... continuing to build layers of paint
to create depth I focused on the pitcher...
really trying to keep in mind the light source,
the reflected shapes/colors,
and modeling the convex curve of the
pitchers shape as it turns away from the light.

I'm anxious to get that leaf going...
I hear fall calling me!

Day 5

details, details, details

working on the wood grain and more details...

 

final touches...

I worked on this painting about three weeks...
finished on September 28th...
My favorite part is the little red knot on the
top right corner of the wood box.
I'm ready to move on to the next project...
and ready for the fall...
my favorite time of the year!!!!
 

Birds Nest Still Life: for sale $50.00

Bird's Nest

The Process:

Well I decided to step back from my illustrative style

for a bit to sink my teeth into some still life work.

It was a bit spooky at first so I thought I'd better start

small. So here is the result and the process....

I wasn't really sure what to paint at first.

My ideas were bigger than my courage

when it got right down to it...

I spent a few days playing around with concepts,

but in the end...

I focused on this cute little birds nest one

of my biologist buddies (thanks Graham!)

gave to me. So here's what happened...

rough sketch.

got the basic shapes and values in...

working on the details....

down to the final stretch...

a step back... hum...a little more on the monochrome side of the fence, but it'll do...

a black frame maybe? I think I would have liked a blue egg in there...maybe next time?

That's where she stands right now, folks.

If you are interested in this little birds nest email me at samaraspring@hotmail.com 

Sales via paypal.

Paula Deen as Mrs. Claus

 This past Christmas, I had an idea for a painting. Mr. and Mrs. Claus. 

We'll the sketch turned out to look so much like Paula Deen, that I decided

to use her and her husband as my models. This was the result. 

However, I posted it on her website and it was shared so much that

eventually Paula herself saw it and loved enough to print it and

send me an autographed copy of my painting. (see below). 

What a wonderful gift! 

I'm hoping to sell prints and maybe cards of this on my etsy site soon.  If you are interested, email me at samaraspring@hotmail.com and I'll put you on the list.  I'll update everyone once I have that ready.

here's what she sent to me via snail mail...

Dorothy's Red Shoe from the "Wizard of Oz".

A commissioned work I received this summer...

One of the red shoes from the "Wizard of Oz".

 

The Patriot

 

Here's a quick journal glace. A doodle I did for

July 4th while watching a documentary on the

History channel on the American Revolution.