Breakfast in France, and other thoughts

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to go wrong?  I know, we all do. Recently I went to the Dr. not feeling really great, expecting the usual, "we can't find anything let us know if it gets worse."  Instead I got," think you had better go off wheat and gluten." I really didn't want to hear that, seeing as I happen to love carbs! Suddenly all I could do was think of everything I couldn't eat! Which led me to reflections of breakfast in France! Oh how I loved the croissants, and fresh bread every morning with a pot of steaming milk to make cafe au lait. After mourning my loss for a week, which accounts for not posting, I decided if I can't eat it I can paint it! I think I will be able to find quite a few things to paint. Let me know what you think. Before I go I just wanted to mention Leslie Saeta and Dream Tolle Perry's Artists Helping Artists blog. It is so fantastic and they are so generous and giving of advice.

Too Many Peppers

I love the little peppers, and Costco had some, actually quite a few, so I thought I would do a small painting. This was fun to do. Of course after I finished it I thought of several other arrangements that would be better. Isn't that always the way? Has anyone read the Arthur Dow book  Composition Understanding  Line, Notan and Color. He refers to the composition as "the putting together of lines, masses and colors to make a harmony. Notan is a japanese word meaning," dark, light" or the massing of tones of different values. Notan beauty is the harmony resulting from the combination of dark and light spaces. The book is interesting, let me know if you have read it, or are going to read it.

Here we go again

Today I am trying another photograph to see if it reproduces better than yesterday's picture. I lost my first attempt at a new blog, apparently it is out there in cyber space! The girls in the picture are all grown up now. Both are in college, the little one in the chair was my model for the last book I illustrated, Wild Beach. Let me know what you think. It was a fun painting to do, I would really like to do more interiors, they fascinate me. Looking at the picture I see more glare now. If at first you don't succeed try try again!
Well, back to the drawing board. This painting was done in oils not oil bar, think I will try it in oil bar and see how that goes. All comments welcome! I love hearing from you, the art blogging world is very exciting.

Does this work?

Well, here I go again, trying to photograph my art. This is a small painting 3x5" that I did for a friend who owns Murphy, my dog Minnie's favorite playmate! Murphy is a chocolate Labradoodle, and Minnie is a Chocolate Lab. They go crazy when they see each other. My friend Decky and I have walked them since they were both several months old. I will post this and we can see how it turned out. Please.....any comments are welcome. Ok I can see glare, I shot this next to the window, I'll have to try again.

Papayas in January

We have had such cold drizzley weather lately that I have started thinking about our days living in Hawaii. I had a note with a friend's Christmas card wondering if I was going to visit. Ah yes dreams of Papaya for breakfast and days at the beach. I love doing breakfast still lifes. It started during a painting trip to France with my friend Lilly, from Hawaii, who paints fabulous landscapes. I have only painted landscapes when I had to for illustrations in the children's books I illustrated.

 So there I was in France feeling overwhelmed with the landscape. But, the breakfast table didn't overwhelm me so I started sketching breakfast!  Remind me and I will give you the recipe for papaya seed salad dressing, it is so good! I love using blue, and sometimes think I should branch out, but am always more happy using blue. What do you think?

Hope you are enjoying your new year. Let me know what you are painting, and, once again thank you to all who have stopped by.

Three to get ready.......

 Happy New Year.  Thought I had better start posting and keep my resolution to post on a regular basis. So, I painted three apples to get me going! Thank you to all who have stopped by and left comments. This is a different palette for me. I am hoping to try some new colors this year.  Michelangelo said "I am still learning." I love that attitude, and I look forward to sharing my attempts this year.