Monday, December 23, 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

"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?


Monday, December 16, 2013

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...

 
 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

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.




Monday, December 9, 2013

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.
 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

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.
 


Tuesday, November 26, 2013

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! 
  
 
 

Monday, November 25, 2013

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!!!
 
 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

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...
 

 
 
 

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

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.
 
 
 
 
 

 

Monday, October 7, 2013

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!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

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!!!!
 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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.

Monday, August 12, 2013

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".
 


Monday, July 22, 2013

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.