Yellow Cup Stack on Glass

Another stack of cups  on a sheet of glass to give more reflections.  I enjoy the limited colors, yellow, black, and white and that hazy yellow gray streak that interrupts the reflection on the glass.

Turqoise Plate Yellow Cup Lavender Shadow

My titles are really plain vanilla.  When you do so many paintings it's actually hard to remember them all.  Hence the verbal clues about what it looks like.  I do like all the colors in this one.  There's enough reflected light to move the color around, and every color sings against the neutral black white and gray.

Cherries with Gold and Silver

The silver bowl acts like a distorting mirror for the reflections of the red cherries and the gold tabletop. I reduced the contrast and darkened the reflections to subordinate them.  I especially like the gradations on the interior of the bowl - it almost makes the hard metal seem soft.

Three Cherries on Glass SOLD

Here are three more sweet dark cherries.  I added interest to the composition by placing the cherries on a clear sheet of glass. That way I get both a shadow and a reflection and the color of the tabletop shining through the glass.  And I get more of those lovely reflected lights on the underside of the cherries.

Silver Bowl and Three Cherries SOLD

It's cherry season again.  Black objects are hard to paint so I look for a red dark sweet cherry rather than a black cherry.  That way there's more contrast between the light struck areas and the darkest shadows.   I like the cool reflected lights on the bottom half of the cherries.  Lots of reflections in this one.

Orange Slices and Orange Stripe

I think I found this little plate at Target last year and when I got it home thought "Why did I buy that?" and put it in the closet.  But I dug it out recently and discovered I'm a better shopper than I thought.  The square shape and the angular cast shadows go well with the angularity of the orange slices.  The color is just the right shade of green - sometimes it's duller than  the background, sometimes it's more saturated; I can explore all sorts of subtle shifts of color and intensity.  It's a perfect plate!

Shiny Bowl Reflections

More orange slices.  The bowl was in shadow, the oranges were in the light.  It was fun to try to paint the reflections without being too tight.  Really love those shiny metal bowls.

Blue Cup Two Orange Slices SOLD

I enjoy painting these dark shiny cups and orange slices.  And I especially like the reflection in the shiny cup.  Blue and orange are of course complementary colors, and mixed together they make wonderful grays. 

Orange Slices Green Plate on Lavender

I really like this square green plate. (You may have noticed I've used it before.)  It is so vibrant and really sets off the orange slices.  This painting is done in a triad of secondary colors- orange, purple, and green.  Because the three colors are high key (light in  value) they harmonize rather than clash.  The purple covers more area of the canvas, but the orange is more saturated (intense) and thus the dominant color. 

Kwanzan Cherry Tree in Bloom SOLD

This was painted from a photo of a magnificent Kwanzan cherry tree near the post office.  I took the photo several years ago, late in the afternoon when the sun was peeking through the clouds long enough to light up the cherry blossoms.  I really like that late afternoon glow.

Oregon Coast Near Bandon

I did this painting last year, but decided to rework it last week to make the piece more painterly and to move the distant rocks back.   I have a tendency to use a small brush way too much - so my goal was to allow just a few small strokes in the distant rocks & waves, and to repaint most of the foreground with a few close colors and a large brush. My mantra was "simplify, simplify."

Silver Bowl Eggplant on Chartreuse

Every now and then I buy these lovely eggplants.  They are small and purple and shiny and hard and have such a lovely shape.  And I usually forget about them until they have started to turn to mush in the refrigerator.  This time, however, I did get them painted first.  And cooked them afterwards, too!

Silver Bowl Limes on Lavender Pink SOLD

"Lavenders and Greens love each other." I'm quoting Edgar Whitney from a watercolor workshop I took, oh, quite a few years ago.    I've made most of the painting lavender pink but balanced that with a small area of very saturated lime.  I surely do like the pink color in the reflection.  It's just a little darker and a little more neutralized than the tablecloth color.

Silver Bowl Tangerines on Pale Green

Another in the tangerine series.  I usually paint the same subject for a while until it gets too squishy to move easily.  I'm really enjoying the reflections in the silver bowl.

Silver Bowl Tangerines on Pink SOLD

Gotta love those shiny bowls.  When I first painted this I had more distinct reflections of the tangerines - and it did that unfortunate mental jump of creating a cartoon face.  Once you see it, you can't not see it.  So I removed detail from the reflection and dulled it down and the face went away.  It's easy to get caught up in the details but then get surprised when you step back and really look.

Tahlequah Sunset

This is the view from my yard towards Tahlequah on the south end of Vashon Island. I painted this sunset several months ago when the sun was still setting to the south.  It's fun to do these quick plein air studies, and this was so convenient - right in my own back yard.

Oranges on Black and Gray

These oranges seem especially saturated - probably because the blacks are so very neutral and make the colors pop more.  I really enjoy setting up these still life compositions with a cast shadow across the background-- it enables me to get such interesting angles in the shadows and reflections. 

Orange Slices, Glass Jar, on Lavender

Back to those orange slices.  And the oranges have been so tasty, too.  I like the orange/lavender color scheme and enjoy that little bit of yellow and splash of blue that keeps it interesting.  Still working on those lost edges.

Orange Slices Green Plate Leaning Right SOLD

These orange slices lean so that the light is coming through the slices producing a marvelous translucent color.  I really like those intense colors together.

View from Hake Road SOLD

On Maury Island looking north towards Dockton from Hake Road.  First it was forest, then it was farmland, but now it is filling up with houses on five acre parcels.  Every houseowner clears their property towards the view and plants trees to screen the neighbors.  The trees are coming back, slowly but surely.  

Bandon Lighthouse SOLD

This is one of the paintings I'll be showing at the Barnworks during the Vashon Spring Arts Tour.  May 7th & 8th, and May 14th & 15th.
This lighthouse is at the mouth of the Coquille River in Oregon near the town of Bandon.  I liked the way the light felt intense and hazy at the same time.  All that sunlight and moisture washes the color out and makes everything seem soft and insubstantial.   This view was from the sand dunes looking south and west towards the sea.  The far hill is on the other side of the Coquille River.

Monashka Beach SOLD

A beach in Monashka Bay, Kodiak, Alaska.  The view looking from Ft. Abercrombie towards the Three Sisters mountains.  When it's sunny, there's no place more gorgeous than Kodiak.  

BLack Cup Orange Slices on White and Gray

I put the still life set up on a piece of glass laid over a white tablecloth.  It's similar to a mirror, but it gives fainter reflections, and allows the white tabletop to come through.  I really like the gray shapes in the shadows areas, and I like the purple color of the yellowish pith in shadow

Grapefruit Slices, Pink plate SOLD

I had the pink plastic plate in the studio and I set some leftover orange slices on it while I was arranging another still life. I started working on the other still life, looked over and realized that the wild colors looked exciting, so I had to paint this one too.  What's the dominant color?  I think it's the vivid areas of warm reddish orangeish pinkish color in the center of the canvas.  But maybe its the orange of the slices. 

Orange Slices on Green Plate

I love the vibrant colors.  The total effect is harmonious because the colors of yellow-green, yellow, and orange are analogous (next to each other on the color wheel).  You would think that the lime green would dominate, but because the orange is dark and so intense, you still see the orange first.

Four Orange Slices on White SOLD

Another painting of orange slices from a while back.  I hadn't posted it, so I thought it would fit in with my current orange-mania.  I like the white around the slices.  It's actually mostly blue-gray, but your mind tells you its white.  

Internet fame

I've just been featured on another artist's blog.  Jane Sloss saw my paintings on ETSY, liked them, and featured me on her blog.  She did an interview with me and posted my work on her blog.
Go to http://waterpaintings.blogspot.com/ to see my work there.

Four Orange Slices on Blue-Green SOLD

This is a painting from a while ago but I hadn't posted it and I'm on an orange slices obsession just now. I like the shadows cast by one wedge onto another wedge.  And I like the translucence of the color in the shadows. And I like the complementary contrast of the blue-green and red-orange colors.  And oh, oranges are good to eat, too!

Blue Cup, Orange Slices, Sail Shaped reflections SOLD

Another painting of orange slices and a shiny blue cup.  I placed the cup & orange slices on a piece of glass to get reflections.  I like the angular shadow shapes created by the combination of shadows & reflections.  And I always like the orange, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue color combinations - they make lovely grays.

One Radish on White

The radishes aren't up in the garden yet, I was getting spring fever and bought this one at the grocery store.  My intention was to keep the background very high key,  and to work on those loose edges

Green Apples Black Cup Silver Fork

I know you can't eat apples with a fork, but the fork looked more interesting than the knife.  I like the yellow and blue on the tines.  I also really like the reflected light on the apples.  A strong downlight gives a great bounce back on the underside of the apples.