painting: appaloosa glance

All the fairs and rodeos around here were cancelled last summer, but it looks like we’re on for this year. I’m hoping there will be lots of models like this handsome fellow. 12″x12″ oil on stretched canvas, available here. SOLD, thank you!

paintings: lemons, a chickadee, and more tulips

When I saw the reference photo (shared by Mary Beth Harrison) for these lemons, I was impressed by the vividness of the colors. The deep shadows play so well against the yellow, and the overall simplicity of the shapes is calming. I love it. 9″x12″ oil on cradled wood board, available here. SOLD, thank you!

painting: bee and lilac flower

Summer is underway! A few of days of this heat, and I find myself absurdly wishing for winter again. Well, not really. I wish for the temperate days of October, right before winter begins. But there’s only 3 or so or those days, and then it’s just too cold. Doesn’t the cold seem welcome right

painting: succulents

Intent on broadening my painting range, I stepped out of my comfort zone and picked an image with a lot of green. Some people make green look so effortless (see also: red), but for me, there is so much subtlety going on, that I don’t quite know how to blend it. Or maybe it’s because

paintings: tulips, and a rabbit

 A sweet little chickadee adds a touch of whimsy to a formal flower arrangement. I reworked the background color, changing it from gray to yellow. There are bits of gray showing through, which adds visual interest. I painted from a reference photo shared by Wendy Hodgkins Corniquet. 16″x20″ oil on cradled wood board. Available here.

3 paintings: a crow, a horse, a pug

I didn’t save the name of the person who took the reference photo (bad Sandra), but it was a photo shared on Free Reference Photos for Artists. 12″x12″ oil on cradled wood board. Available in my Etsy shop. I love how the moment is very different from most crow images. From a photo shared by

painting: English robin

A sweet little robin to herald summertime. I painted from a reference photo shared by Gillian Merritt. 8″x10″ oil on cradled wood board. Available in my Etsy shop. 😀

painting: horses at the stream

Oh, can I tell you how difficult this one was? Like pulling teeth. I got the horses painted, and then stalled. And stalled. So it sat on my easel for six months. Maybe longer. Mocking me every time I sat down to paint. I wasn’t sure I could carry off the water, and had put

painting: horse glance

What a gorgeous horse, it was hard to go wrong painting her–which is to say, there’s no wrong way to paint such a perfect moment. I painted from a reference photo graciously shared by Rita Gallaway at Majestic Spanish Horses. I may paint this horse again in another color-way. Actually, I’d originally imagined her painted

painting: mama horse and foal

A couple days last week I concentrated on being a little more expressionistic. Use the unexpected color. Try to paint looser. Loose is difficult for me, so I have to make a point of trying all the tricks and crossing my fingers. 11″x14″ oil on cradled wood board, available in my Etsy shop. SOLD 🙂