Two Bottles and Small Red Onion

This painting was all about the glass jars: the reflections,  the highlights, the illusion of transparency, the lost and found edges, and the sparkle and shine.  In order to simplify a complex subject, I elevated the still life to eye level so that the oval perspective of the glass became a straight line.

Red Grapes and Glass Jar SOLD

These red grapes are huge and in season.  Notice all the stems without grapes. It makes the compositions more interesting to have "holes" in the bunch of grapes, but I also like to nibble as I arrange the still life!  This painting is at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery for their December show.

Veteran's Day Antiques

"Veteran's Day" because it was November 11 and the sun was low in the sky and caught my eye shining through these flags.   "Antiques" comes from the sign board in the lower right hand corner. 

This is my December entry in the Bold Brush Painting contest.  To vote for my painting go to http://canvoo.com/boldbrush/painting/15141 and click on like.

Red Grapes, Backlit SOLD

These grapes are huge and in season.  They are red, but also have a lovely russet tone that says "Raw Umber" to me.  I like trying to capture the values and hues without getting too fussy and still convey the feeling of light coming through the grapes.

Kiwis, Glass, Red Table SOLD

More Kiwis, more glass jars.  The fun of painting this glass is in losing the edges so that it becomes part of the background rather than being pasted on top of the background.

Kiwis, Glass, Gray Table

Kiwis again.  The fruit is so translucent.  Light shining through the green flesh actually glows a little bit on the outside of the kiwi too.  I really enjoyed those reflected highlights in the glass.

Mt Chiginagak

We used to have a hunting camp on Lower Ugashik Lake in Alaska.  Mount Chiginagak could be seen on a clear day and with binoculars you could see smoke rising from fumaroles on the sunny side of the volcano.  This painting is in my current show at Artique Ltd. Gallery in Alaska

South on Highway 14 SOLD

This is my entry for the November Bold Brush Painting Competition.  A view of Nebraska in the late afternoon.  I really liked the light hitting the side of the grain elevator.  I also like the pale colors of the distant horizon.   You can vote for my painting at http://canvoo.com/boldbrush/painting/14462

Kiwis, Glass, Blue Table

Another painting of kiwis.  I really had fun getting the lights on the glass without making the painting too tight and fussy.  And I liked the subtle reflection of the kiwis in the glass.

Kiwis, Black Cup, Polkadots

I had fun with the colors in this painting. These kiwis have lots of intense and interesting color. And the dots on the blue table cover allowed me to repeat the gold-green of the kiwis.  Love those reflections in black cups.

"Kenai Bluffs" SOLD

These are the tall sand cliffs of Cook Inlet near Kenai.  This painting is in my current show at Artique Ltd Gallery in Anchorage, Alaska.

Kachemak Stream

Fireweed next to a stream in Kachemak Bay. This is in my current show at Artique Ltd Gallery in Anchorage Alaska.

Two Sunflowers with Dots SOLD

I really like this subject matter.  So many varieties of yellow.   I especially like the difference between the light struck back of one flower and the shadowed yellow of the other flower.

Glacier and Two Trees SOLD

A view looking towards the Matanuska Glacier on the Glen Highway.  This painting will be in my November show in the Artique Gallery in Anchorage, Alaska

Kalsin Bay SOLD

The view looking back across Kalsin Bay towards the town of Kodiak.  This painting will be in my November show at the Artique Gallery in Anchorage Alaska.

Kachemak Glacier

This is a view of Kachemak Bay with the glaciers in the distance.  In the foreground is fireweed which tells that it's July and it's salmon season.  This painting will be in my November show at the Artique Gallery in Anchorage Alaska

Beach at Ft Abercrombie SOLD

The beaches on Kodiak are very rocky.  This is a favorite picnic spot near Lake Gertrude.  When the tide is out the rocks are full of tidepools with seaweed, anemones, hermit crabs and sculpin.  This painting will be in my November show at Artique Gallery in Anchorage AK. 

One Sunflower With Dots

I had a piece of polkadotted paper that I put behind this vase of perennial sunflowers.  At first when I added the dots, I thought "this just isn't going to work," but by the time I had put them all across the background, they receded properly and added interest.  These are perennial sunflowers--the bush grows back each year from the ground and winds up 6 feet high by 6 feet wide with hundreds of autumn flowers.  Great!

Faceted Cup Stack SOLD

These delicate white cups had gold rims and no other color.  I tried to suggest the gold rims rather than paint a solid line.  I did like how the delicately curving shapes of the cups are described by flat pieces of gray.

White Cup with Gold and Blue

I like the shadow colors on the cup - blue and lavender with yellow reflections. Putting the subject matter at eye level flattens the drawing.  It's more difficult to draw a convincing three dimensional shape.  At the horizon line, a circular saucer becomes a straight line, but by the time your eye travels to the top of the cup, there is a subtle curve. 

Lemon Slices and Knife

I like those shadow colors on the lemon slices.  Add the complement of yellow, purple, to make a neutralized shadow color.  If you just add black to yellow, you get olive green.

Red Pepper on its side

Another favorite subject in a simple pose.  I do like the shiny waxy highlights --they manage to convey the texture of the skin without being too shiny or too dull.  The bottom of the pepper was in shadow but had lots of reflected light from the tabletop. I painted it a very saturated but somewhat cooler red color and left the light struck front of the pepper a little warmer.

Five Sun Gold Tomatoes

The tomato crop was hampered by a cool summer, but the sun gold tomatoes in the greenhouse still had lots of flavor. They are my favorite cherry tomato and have an orange color rather than red.  I like the bits of reflected light on the bottoms of the tomatoes. 

Blue Cup, Green Grapes, Purple Wall

Yes, another blue cup painting.  I like the shiny dark element as a foil for the pale green grapes.  You may notice there are stems with no grapes on them - that's because I have a habit of eating the grapes before I get the composition finalized. Though the paintings always seem better with fewer grapes-maybe because they drape in interesting ways with gaps and holes where I've picked the grapes.   

Bunch of Carrots SOLD

I like the carrots that are laying down in the background which have brushstrokes that are going against the grain.  It suggests the crosswise texture of the wrinkles on the carrots, but done in a quick loose style to match the loose style of the green tops and the carrots in the foreground.

Red Grapes and Pewter Cup SOLD

I like the play of light in this painting.  The grapes and cup are on a piece of glass which gives a reflection of the highlights on the cup and on the grapes.  Also there's the translucency of the back lit grapes and last there's the reflection of the grapes and shadows in the pewter cup.

Green Pepper with a touch of Red

The green pepper looks great against a purple background.  And because the background was purple, a touch of yellow (complement of purple)  in the paper on the tabletop made the light area seem more intense. 

Eglantine Pinwheel SOLD

This panting is from several months ago when the Eglantine first bloomed. I like the pinwheel like arrangement of the leaves, stem and petals.   I also like how the darks of the leaves surround the lights of the flower petals and the most intense color is at the center of the pinwheel.

Cherries in a Corner

The sweet cherries are all over for this year.  This is the last of the paintings until next year.  I really like the limited palette with red - very Rembrandt.  The strong top light gives some lovely bounced back reflections.

Corkscrew Red Peppers

Hot red peppers with a twist.  These were hard to pose - they kept falling over.  Their shape seems to say "we're super hot--we can't sit still!"

Blue and Orange on Red

I can't get enough of shiny blue cups.  They reflect like mirrors and are a great foil for oranges and reds.  I like the dark and light sides of the orange slices and the reflections on the cup.  I even managed a few lost edges in the lip of the cup and on the orange slices. 

Red Yellow Blue Cups

Another painting which I recently reworked.  The background was pale blue, and there was a lack of color dominance--the blue cups and pale blue background fought with the warm yellows and reds.  I put yellow on the background and made the painting yellow-red-warm dominant.  Suddenly the blue cups no longer seemed like they wanted all the attention and the red in the cup and saucer was saturated enough to balance the darks. 

Republican River Valley SOLD

This is a view south on Highway 14 near Superior, Nebraska. What interested me about this view was the very broad sweep of the valley.  The sun was about to set and the colors were getting interesting.  I liked the touches of sunlight on the tops of the water tower and grain elevator.
This painting is entered in the Bold Brush September painting contest.

Apple-Like Red Pepper

I had so much fun painting this red pepper--getting the shine, the saturation of the red color, and the reflection of the tabletop.  It wasn't until I stepped back and looked at it that I realized it looked like a red delicious apple with a very thick stem.  But then maybe red delicious apples look like red peppers!

Green Grapes, Silver Bowl, Orange Reflections

I was about to post this painting yesterday when I decided I needed to work on it some more.  There was a strong horizontal hard edge where the background met the tabletop.  It was focusing attention where it didn't belong.  So I went back in & smudged the hard edge and now the background recedes and the subject matter is more important.  I don't always make the right choices the first time through and even a small painting can benefit from a second look.

Five Cherries, Two Rows

More cherries on a reflective surface.  The cherries generate both a shadow and a reflection.  Here the shadows are cast to the side, but the reflections are directly vertical.  Where the shadows and the reflections overlap, it's dark, but where the shadows land on top of a light reflection, the shadows disappear.

Five Cherries, Three Standing SOLD

Cherry season was here and now it's gone.  I've been so busy picking cherries and berries that I almost forgot to paint them.  Cherries are difficult to paint because I always wind up eating at least half before I even get the still life arranged.  So sometimes a still life that looked good with seven cherries becomes a still life with five or three cherries.

Sunset at 6th and Idaho SOLD

A sunset scene from Nebraska.  This painting is from a couple of years ago, but I just entered it in the Bold Brush painting Competition. You can vote for my painting by going to http://canvoo.com/boldbrush/painting/12487  and clicking the like button.

Red Pepper Half Lit SOLD

Red Bell peppers are a favorite subject, and are especially fun to paint because of their intense RED color.  It's hard to make a light struck red without going pink. So fun fun fun!

Black Cup, Orange Slices, and Reflections SOLD

I like how the colors are kept simple.  Just black and orange, but there are bits of lavender and burnt sienna and thalo blue and yellow.    Fewer colors, more harmony.

Blue Cup, Oranges, Reflections on Green

I especially like the orange slices in this set up. They are translucent which  allows the light to shine both on and through them, and they are reflected in the cup and on the tabletop.

Tree Cloud Sunset SOLD

This painting  is from a couple of years ago.  Yesterday I was gallery sitting and started a conversation with a customer who told me she "owned a Gretchen Hancock."  I said "I'm Gretchen Hancock!"    She'd bought this painting two years ago but we'd never met.  Total serendipity.

Three Red Cippolini

For some reason, I don't like to paint "larger than life". Objects should be actual size or smaller, not just slightly larger -that looks like a mistake.  These small onions are about 1-1/2" wide and fit in the space on a 6" x 6" panel without crowding or seeming too empty.  (I am also compulsive about horizon lines being horizontal in paintings.)  

Three Cherries on Blue SOLD

It's cherry season again.  I like the black cherries because they're sweet, but I find it is easier to paint the red cherries because there's more middle value to exploit.   That's what painting is--rearranging the facts to suit the art. 

Pink Wall

Passengers and reflections on the Vashon-Fauntleroy ferry.  I just entered this painting in the Bold Brush painting competition which is a monthly online Art Competition.  Those of you who use facebook can vote for a favorite painting (the favorites get valuable free PUBLICITY)  To see all the entries go to  http://canvoo.com/boldbrush/paintings
and to vote for MY painting go to      http://canvoo.com/boldbrush/painting/11659  and then "like" the painting.     If you are not a facebook user, you do have to sign up with facebook in order to cast a vote.  That's all, it's free.  And thank you to all the facebook users who participate.

Five Red Cipollini

These little red onions have the flattened shape of a cippolini.  Maybe a recipe for sweet & sour onions (cipollini agrodolce) would be good. 

Eglantine on Gray and Orange

The Eglantine Rose is the Sweetbriar Rose of Shakespeare.  It has wicked thorns and makes an impenetrable hedge with long arching canes.  These are the last of the flowers but in a month or two I'll be getting red rose hips to paint. 

Orange and Blue Variations

I like those reflected lights.  Oranges and a blue cup, a theme that I return to again and again, as long as I can find oranges for sale. And I like those lost edges on the cup rim, in the plate rim, between the oranges slices, etc.   

Slice of Lime

The pulp of a lime is a very delicate color- hard to describe.  Sometimes its just a very pale green.  Sometimes, when it's backlit, there's a little yellow in the green. Sometimes when it's in shadow there's a bit of lavender.  Cool but summery. 

Oranges, Glass Bowl, Blue Cloth SOLD

A clear glass bowl is exciting to paint because you have to analyze what it is that you're looking at.  Is it the oranges seen through the glass or a bit of color reflected from the background or the tablecloth?   And I had fun with the oranges - getting the shadows and reflections without overworking.