Watermelon and Grapes

My favorite fruits! These are two more of my 5 inch by 5 inch paintings.

I tried to have a looser feel to the Seedless Watermelon It was fun to do but I think I miss the seeds.

The Grapes I thought would be hard because of the detail and because of the colors. The detail of the grapes was not as hard as it looks, but it was the color that was challenging. The challenge was to keep the reds and greens from making a muddy brown color while maintaining that transparent jewel-like quality of the grapes.

Three Red Pears

I am really pleased with how "Three Red Pears" turned out. It is larger than the little 5 x 5 inch paintings I am used to doing. I have been trying to try different methods, techniques and sizes. One thing that surprised me was that the pears seemed to have a personality of their own when I was finished. I am thinking of renaming this painting Gossiping Pears or Three's a Crowd since the two pears on the right seem to be "talking" about the third pear. I am going to work at putting more personality into my fruit paintings. Maybe I will do a series called "Pears are People Too" I know it sounds silly but I think it will be a fun direction to go with these still life paintings and it may help the fruit feel more real and alive.

Three Red Pears, 12 inches x 12 inches on gallery wrapped canvas. It is available on my website.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a day filled with gratitude. This quote came in an email today.

"Ours is the responsibility to show our gratitude by the actions of our lives."
--Thomas S. Monson

I need to think about my life and make sure my actions reflect the gratitude I feel. If they don't, am I really grateful?

I do have so much to be grateful for and I do give thanks in my prayers everyday for the blessings that God has granted me. This has become my favorite time of day, because it fills me with peace and happiness. No one can ever have too much of those!

Art Boot Camp - The Technical Course

I got home Monday night and have been trying to process all of the information that Rob tried to stuff into my head. I may have to go back for a refresher course someday.




Here is a pic of just some of the things we learned about the first morning. We learned about supports, and how to prepare them. How to stretch, size, and prime canvas. How to use the many various mediums that are available and why to use them. We learned to properly glaze a painting. We learned how to apply varnish to achieve a beautiful finish and how to build a crate to pack it up and ship it to our buyers! (Can't wait to have to do that!)

I have to admit that by the end of the first day I was overwhelmed by everything and certain that I will never be able to learn all of this. But Rob Howard is an excellent teacher and by the end of the course I was so excited to get home and start working with all of this new knowledge. Rob is an inspiration! I am so glad I was able to go to Boot Camp.