This is such exciting news!!!

My daughter Sarah has spent two years writing, illustrating and self-publishing a wonderful adventure book for children and adults alike. I know you will all enjoy the magical story of a glass penguin that comes to life and travels from Oklahoma to Antarctica.

Find out more about the book Penguin in the Post and how you can order one for yourself by visiting Sarah's  blog Pen on Paper .

If you happen to live near Guthrie, Oklahoma there will be a book signing on September 11 at
G Gallery and Glass Studio where the main character in the book came to life. Yes, in case you didn't know, Guthrie has a unique studio where glass is blown. There will also be glass penguins for sale made by my other daughter Tera. Don't worry, if you can't make it to the book signing Sarah will gladly sign your book when you purchase. Glass penguins are available too. Just contact her... penguininthepost@protonmail.com

My daughter Tera modeled for me last summer while I photographed her gathering wildflowers on our property. I had so much fun painting these three paintings with the sunlight and the shadows, same theme... three different poses.

Every year Instagram announces your most liked pictures for the year. These paintings were some of the most liked of all my posts this year and are available for sale.

Paintings are 50% off for the rest of this week. Hover over the picture to see the sale price.
Please contact me if you wish to purchase. Thanks so much.

And remember Shipping is on me. :)

Autumn Still Life
8" x 10 " oil on canvas
$160 On Sale for $120

 Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Hope you have a wonderful time of giving thanks for all our blessings.

I'm having a lot of glitches in my website world, hopefully I'll get them all figured out. :)

Second week...

Day 9 ~ Mini Golden Rod and Zinnia Bouquet

A mini painting that I did of the beautiful bouquet I picked for the next larger painting on Day 10.  Flowers from my garden and Golden rod from the road sides...

Day 10  ~ Breakfast for Two

This is a painting of my actual dining room. The bowl, egg cups and coffee cups are Polish pottery, which I love. The bouquet is full of flowers from my garden and the surrounding roadsides. The miniature canvas I painted for Day 9 was of this same bouquet.

12" x  12" oil on canvas

Day 11 ~ So 80's

Two of my daughters back in the 80’s standing in front of a graffiti mural, I think in Santa Cruz, California. I’ve always loved the idea of painting from this amazing photo.

9" x 12" oil on canvas

Day 12 ~ Tasmania Bay

Not sure, but I think this might be the Bay of Fires in Tasmania, that I have painted several paintings of before. My daughters went to Tasmania a couple of years ago and I asked them to take pictures so I could paint some beautiful scenes that I will never get to see. I played around with a palette knife on this one. I’m really liking the textures.

This is actually larger and not square, but my regular camera is not working very well, so I saved this from my Instagram. The actual painting is 12″ x 16″ oil on canvas.

Day 13 ~ Henty Dunes

A little study of sand dunes in Tasmania...

6" x 12" oil on canvas

Day 14 ~ The Old Pier

Another study but this time of Guthrie Lake using a palette knife and a color palette I don't ordinarily use...

Third week...

Day 16 ~ A Little Bit of Fall

There are already leaves turning color and falling off the trees and I harvested three pumpkins from my garden. This is what inspired this little fall mini today, plus sunflowers from the Farmer’s Market…

4" x 4" oil on mini canvas
$35

Day 17 ~ Color Study

This is a color study I did for a commissioned painting. The real painting is on an 18″ circled panel.

10" x 10" oil on canvas

Day 18 ~ The Goldfish

Just joking about the title… I was so tired and brain numb that I asked my daughter what I should call this painting and she said I should paint a goldfish in the bowl… :) Love how this one turned out!!!

18" x 24" oil on gessoed board
$860

Day 19 ~ 22 Sunflowers

Hover over picture for description and price... or click on the picture to enlarge it.

Fourth week...

Day 23 ~ 25  Sunset on the Prairie

This is the commission I did the color study for on Day 17...

18" round oil on gessoed panel

SOLD

Day 26 ~ Sawtooth, Mt. Evans, Colorado

I need to do some fine tuning on this one, so it's not finished yet. Sawtooth ridge is often hiked by climbers to go from Mt. Evans to Mt. Bierstadt. Both mountains are 14ers. Looks pretty scary to me, but my climber son has done it.

Day 27 ~ Farmer's Market Flowers

Tried to be loose on this one, but perhaps it ended up being too detailed. I think I’m going to try a deeper turquoise in the background to brighten it up a bit. Not the greatest photo as I took it with my phone.

Day 28 ~ Saddle Up

From an old photo I took of my daughter Sarah...

Day 29 ~ Cello Love

This one turned out to be one of my favorites. This is a portrait of a friend of ours. I wanted to capture the elegance and the grace she has when playing the cello.

Day 30 ~ Behind the Glass

I took a photo of this cute little guy when we were at our favorite Guthrie coffee shop Hoboken.

8" x 8" oil on canvas

That's my September challenge. I hope you enjoyed my review of it.

I've worked on a few paintings since then, but I'm also in much need of cleaning up my studio and making room for new paintings. SO....I'm working on a big SALE . Some things are already marked down in my Shop and I'm adding more. :)

Thanks for all the wonderful encouraging comments. Love hearing from you.

"For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." Romans 14:8

I have just completed another 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Usually I would post here week by week, but I am sorry to say I have been so neglectful of my blog, and my email updates. I do hope that some of you have missed me, though. :)

I started the challenge with a painting of a rose, an experiment in the old Flemish style of painting that uses many layers starting with toning the canvas with the lightest color of the rose. The second and third layers are done in various shades of umber… I did a fast take on the umber and  kind of fast forwarded to the fourth layer which is the gray layer, as shown in the first photo below.  After this layer it has to dry, so I waited until day 8 to do the first color layer which is the middle photo below. Then the painting has to dry again, so on Day 15 I completed the rose and added the leaves.

Day 1, 8, and 15 ~ White Rose

10" x 10" oil on canvas
$175

Day 2 ~ Misty Morning

This is the closest I get to plein aire in the summer here in Oklahoma, because it’s usually too hot and there are too many chiggers and ticks in the grass to stand in it with an easel… But on my morning walk I made a quick sketch of this misty pond and took a reference photo.

12" x 16" oil on canvas

Day 3 ~ A Little Floral

I painted several mini florals this month and I'm hoping to offer them all in a Giveaway very soon. They make such great little gifts of original art. I love them.

4" x 4" oil on mini black canvas with easel

Day 4 ~ Be Still and Know

This is really a self portrait… I slipped on a black skirt and my barn boots one day, because my daughter offered to take some pictures of the shawl  I had just finished knitting. Love the way the picture turned out so I stored it away to paint it someday. First self portrait I’ve ever done.

I thought the painting had an contemplative feel to it. When the song “Be Still and Know” came on my Pandora station, I knew that was the title for it.

8" x 10" oil on canvas

Day 5 ~ The Fig Tree

I'm doing a series of these paintings on black canvases. This one is the third and largest in the series. This painting needs some more work. When they are completed I will post a picture of them together.

16" x 20" oil on black canvas

Day 6 ~ It's Cold Out Here

This is my rooster Darcy. He is such a gentle rooster, and doesn’t like the cold one bit.

I have a frame that will be perfect for this little painting…

6" x 6" oil on canvas
$60

Day 7 ~ The Catch

A painting from another photo I took while out on my sunrise morning walks...

6" x 6" oil on canvas
$60

This was the first week of paintings. In the next few days I hope to finish sharing the rest of the 30 days challenge with you. :)

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by and that it was almost 6 months ago that I posted on this blog. I have several new flower paintings to share and they are for sale in my shop. Click on the photos and it links right to the shop. :)

These two paintings are adorable 8" x 8" gallery wrapped florals which are painted on the sides so they need no frames. They can be placed on an easel or hung on the wall.

This next painting is more impressionistic, painted with my special color palette, using freshly cut wisteria and peonies from my garden. 

Peonies and Wisteria
12" x 12" oil on gallery wrapped canvas
$250

One of my favorite floral paintings so far is this next one because it is so colorful and just brings a little joy and a smile... I call it "Peachy".

Peachy
9" x 12" oil on Ampersand panel
$225

This next one is a plein aire painting that I did in the spring when the  beautiful red bud blossoms were so abundant. I'm happy to say that this painting was featured on Open Studio Online on Instagram.

Oklahoma Redbuds
12" x 12" oil on Ampersand panel
$250

Hope you all have a great rest of the summer.

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these." Luke 12:27

Snow is a rare event here in Oklahoma. At the beginning of the year we had a really good three inches of snow and cold enough temperatures that it stuck for a while. I love being the first one out of the house when it snows…making the first foot prints…listening to that crunching sound under my boots. Here is what it looked like from our front gate…my impression anyway…

Oklahoma Snow
12" x 12" oil on canvas
$250

In February I started a little bit of an art class with an artist that I really admire. I've always had a problem learning from other artists, and this time I came to the same conclusion, instead of being a joy for me, it was a real struggle, so I decided not to continue. Here are some of the paintings that came from that experience...

Sunlit Bouquet
6" x 6" oil on Ampersand panel
$60

Peonies in Blue
8" x 10" oil on canvas
$125

Blue Shutters in Provence
9" x 12" oil on Ampersand panel
$225

It probably didn't help that I was sick with the flu for about 10 days, but the bright spot of that was that my daughter Tera bought me some beautiful flowers that cheered up those long dreary nights and days, and I painted this little mini of that bouquet...

Cheery Mini Bouquet
4" x 4" oil on mini panel with easel
$35

Having been asked if I would donate a painting to the South Central Health Care Foundation’s Art of Healing Auction and Exhibition, I decided on this one...

Standing Stones
11" x 18" oil on canvas
SOLD

The auction will be held March 25th in Laurel, Mississippi at The Gables.
 
I have one more painting to share and then I will be caught up... This one was inspired by a fading bouquet my daughter Sarah had in her bedroom and the desire to try a different technique and a different color palette.

Fading Beauty
9" x 12" oil on Ampersand Panel
$225

These new paintings are now available in my Shop

By the way... have you noticed the little award on the right column of this blog? I have no clue how I  received this, but it was nice to be included in the Top 30 Oil Painting Blogs by Feedspot. Thank you, Feedspot. :)




"I will lift my eyes to the hills - from whence come my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." ~ Psalm 121:1-2

Lots of things have been happening in my little art world in the last few months...I just haven't been posting about them...so let's catch up.

Two of my daughters took an incredible adventure trip to Southern Australia and Tasmania last October. I told them to take plenty of pictures, because I wanted to paint some of the beautiful places they had seen.

This first painting is from the Bay of Fires in Tasmania. I loved painting the turquoise water and the orange hued lichen on the rocks. I painted two large paintings, one for each of my daughters as a remembrance of their journey.

Bay of Fires
18" x 24" oil on canvas

Incoming Storm ~ Bay of Fires
18" x 24" oil on canvas

I can't even tell you what a joy it was to paint these beautiful scenes of God's incredible creation. But there are more...

This next one, I'm not quite finished with... It's one of those paintings you set aside and look at it from afar, until you know exactly how to complete it...

Love Birds at Shelly Beach
12" x 24" oil on linen

And the last in my Tasmania Ocean series,  one of my favorite paintings...
I just love the way this one turned out...

Gull at Wineglass Bay
12" x 12" oil on canvas

Now here is a fun one. Have you ever heard of a Cushion Bush? These woody plants are endemic to Australia. "Leucophyta brownii is a small, rounded shrub with tangled tomentose branchlets that give it a silvery appearance." ~ Wikipedia

The girls were on a tour when the tour guide pointed them out and said that you could lie down in them. I'm glad Sarah snapped the pic of Anna and the tour guide relaxing in the cushion bushes. When I saw it, I knew I had to paint it. :)

Cushion Bushing
12" x 12" oil on gallery wrapped canvas

I'll save the rest of the catching up for another post. Hope you enjoyed this one. :)

"All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." ~ Psalm 22:27