Portrait of a Life

22"x 24"
Oil on Canvas

This is the full painting that you only saw a fragment of on Friday. It is of my great-grandparents, and my guess is that it is their wedding portrait. I love the details of his uniform and her dress. I think the background is a painted backdrop, which makes me think the photo was taken in a studio.

I have had in my head for a while to paint a very formal portrait, but to do it in an unusual color. My original idea was to paint it all in shades of red, but the only red I had was a fairly obnoxious fusha. But, by mixing it with a bit of black I got this beautiful shade of purple.


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A Facinating First Impression

4"x 4"
Oil on paper covered wood panel
The sides are 1" thick and painted light blue
$40

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

What is it about a mirror that is so fascinating to a baby? Or perhaps it is just us who are fascinated by the baby's reaction. We wonder what it is like to get that first glimpse of ourselves, trying to work out exactly what it is we are seeing.

I imagine that my Grandfather took this picture of my Grandmother giving my aunt a look at herself in the mirror. Covering the panel with paper allowed me to paint in both the light and the dark areas to capture the high contrast of the image.


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On One Bench

5"x 7"
Oil on Canvas
Sides are 1 1/2" thick and painted light blue
$60

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.


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Sketching and Sunburn

I spent today lying on a sunny patch of grass, sketching, reading, doing business-type stuff, and most likely burning in the hot sun, but it was totally worth it. I don't draw that often, typically because I prefer the fluidity of paint, but sometimes it feels good to just sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper and create something with it. This piece is done on watercolor paper with colored pencil. Thanks to my friend Sara for lending me the photo from her family pics.


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More Summer Vacation

Every time I say that I am not sure if I am finished with a piece, I end up staring at it for several days (or weeks) and leaving it just as it is. So, that may be the fate of this piece, because I am not sure if it is finished or not. This is one of those pieces that looks one way when you are far away, and totally different up close. There is something I really like about the loose, sketchy quality of it, though. What do you think?




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Towards the Camera

11"x 14"
Oil on Canvas
$200

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

I have several projects that I am in the middle of working on, but something about today called for something new. Maybe it was the beautiful blue sky, or the sunshine, or the fact that it is Friday, but I needed to start something fresh-and to finish it. To do something fun, just for me, that had no expectations attached to it. I love this photo of my grandmother and my aunt. It is so casual and spur-of-the-moment, and I think that just ads to how lovely it is. I was concerned when I first started that I had chosen the most obnoxious shade of yellow imaginable for the background, but now that it is done I like the lightness and energy it gives the piece.




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A handsome pair

Still working out the details on this piece, but I'm starting to like the overall look. I hope all of you are outside enjoying this beautiful weather today! Happy Friday.

To see her smile

I've been working on filling in the details on my Empire State Building picture. Yesterday I spent most of my time working on the figure of my grandmother- putting detail in her clothing and hair, adjusting her facial features. I am very happy with the likeness. I am very fortunate to have known all of my grandparents for a good portion of my life. This grandmother passed away when I was in high school. But I wish there was a way I could have known her in this moment- a young woman in New York, clutching her guidebooks and going to to top of the Empire State Building with her sweetheart. We don't think about the people we love having a life before us. I love getting these little glimpses into my family before I was a part of it.

Calling this one finished

A Day At the Beach
22"x 28"
Oil on Canvas
$525

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

Obviously, I decided to leave in a lot of the red background color. I like the contrast of the red against the black and white, plus I wanted to maintain the sketchy quality of my original drawing. I focused mainly on the details in the clothing, umbrellas and faces. I really love this one, though I don't think the photo does it justice. If you get a chance, swing by the studio and let me know what you think. Thanks friends!

A day at the beach

A couple weeks ago I posted this photo along with several others that I found on my recent trip to Hickory. The woman who is second from the right is my great-grandmother on my father's side. My interest in vintage fashion doesn't usually run this far back, but I absolutely adore this photograph and could hardly wait to start painting it.

I am not finished yet, but I am in love with this piece already. The various styles and details on their bathing suits are great (yes, in fact they are bathing suits!) This would have been around the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Women's bathing clothes were very similar to their everyday clothing styles, except with a few less layers, and women began to show off their arms and sometimes ankles (shocking!) I am still debating how much of the red background to leave in the piece. I like the idea of it just peeking through around the edges, but I may change my mind.

More Adventures in Watercolor

6"x 6"
Watercolor on Masonite

Today I continued to work on my love/hate relationship with watercolor. While I love some of the effects I can get with the medium, I am still trying to figure out what I can and cannot do with it. For example, there is something that I like about this piece, done from an old photobooth photo of my grandmother, but I an not completely happy with the drawing of her face and wish I could adjust it a bit. If this were oil paint, I would just wipe it off or paint over it. What I should do is a bit more pre-planning on pieces like this, which is not something I am used to doing either. I always like to just dive right in. But, I do love the lightness in her face, as well as the texture I was able to create in the background with the watercolor on masonite.

This photo is part of a strip of photos of my grandmother. I intend to do a larger version of the whole strip in oil. There is something facinating about photobooths and the pictures they create. A lot of "happy accidents", as Bob Ross would say, and candid moments in amongst the posed shots. And I have noticed that photobooths have an almost hypnotic pull on people. Try walking past one without at least thinking about stepping inside! I know I have shared the link to Square America before, but I wanted to specifically point out their collection of photobooth photos from the 1930's through the 70's. Lots of fun to look through.

 Photo courtesy squareamerica.com

Sunshine, Progress, and Changes!

I have so much to write about today that this may be an extremely long post, but I have so much news to share. First, I hope you noticed my fabulous new blog header. It was designed by D at The Photo Spot. Be sure to check out her Etsy store to see many more of her fabulous designs. And speaking of Etsy shops, D designed a beautiful new banner for my shop as well, and I will soon be launching a line of small mixed media pieces only available in my Etsy store. More on that in the coming week!

Today was such a beautiful and sunny day that this morning I decided to set my easel up outside the studio and paint in the lovely spring-like weather. I loved chatting with all the folks who stopped by to watch! As you can see, I did some more work today on the painting of my Grandparents on top of the Empire State Building.

I spent a lot of time working on the buildings in the background. I wanted the background elements to be readily identifiable, without painting in every little building and every window. I love how you can tell that it is a skyline, and yet it is still fairly abstract. I also started working on some of the clothing details, as you can see in my Grandfather's uniform.

Finally, for those of you who have been readers of my vintage blog, you may have noticed that I haven't posted there for quite a while. I recently reached the point where keeping up both blogs was too much. However, I don't want to give up sharing all my vintage inspirations with all of you. So, I will periodically be sharing some of my vintage finds on this blog, as it will help demonstrate where I get some of my ideas and inspirations for my paintings. I will start off today by sharing with you a link to a great article about female fighter pilots during WWII. I love these women, and I am so happy they are finally getting the recognition they deserve!

The Joy of Life

8"x 10"
Oil on Canvas
$150

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

I started this piece last week, and decided today was a great day to finish it. It is from a photo of my sweet mom when she was a little girl. I just love the look of joy on her face as she is standing out in the yard. Who knows what she was in the middle of doing when someone called her name and snapped this picture.

And, on a totally different note, you should all head over to my friend and artist Kyle Buttram's new blog, Famsterville. Kyle posts one of her creations daily, and if you are the first to correctly guess where the photo was taken, you can win prizes, including your very own Famster! Below is my prize, Famster Frank, hanging out with me in the studio!

Continuing on

Today I continued adjusting the initial drawing, and added in more of the mid-range and lighter areas. Also sketched in a few buildings in the background.

To make a painting

Yesterday I posted a picture of my grandparents on the top of the Empire State Building sometime during the 1940's. I get asked pretty regularly how I put a painting together, so I decided to document this one from start to finish. Someday when I have a good video camera, you will get to see pieces in action, but in the meantime photos will have to do.

I always start out with very thin oil paint, and scribble the whole piece onto the canvas. The thin paint is easily wiped off and moved around, until I am fairly happy with the layout. I also try to cover up as much of the white canvas as possible. I will later go back in and add the highlights and light areas back in. For example, the background is fairly light in the photo, but I went ahead and painted it all blue and will lighten it up later.


Next, I use a little bit thicker paint and, starting with the darkest areas, I begin adding in some details. I continue to refine the layout of the piece and move things around as needed.

Check back frequently over the next couple of weeks to see more of how this piece comes together!