Center for Wooden Boats SOLD

Last August I painted this at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union in Seattle.  The day was still and there were just a few ripples in the water  and the light bounced off the water and back onto the hull.  I really enjoyed working on the water and the reflections.

This is one of several paintings that I will have on display at the Barnworks  at the Vashon Arts Tour.   Located at 12122 SW Cove Road on Vashon, the Barnworks  will be open for two weekends December 3rd & 4th and 10th & 11th.  

Serranos

The light was almost directly above these chili peppers and my angle of view was high, so the shadows were minimal.  I worked hard to observe and  include shadows, reflected lights and shiny highlights to add a feeling of depth and volume.  This was a fun composition to arrange - I spent many minutes with the viewfinder arranging and rearranging the chilis.

Fork Spoon Vinegar

Although I usually paint on a white canvas, this time I toned the canvas with a red-orange tone and red has found its way into all the gray mixtures creating a lovely harmony. Titanium white added to other pigments actually cools the mixture so the gray is warm from the red-orange and cool from the black and white pigments that were mixed together.   I was also having fun trying to get sparkle and shine from the metal silverware and the glass vinegar bottle. 

Silver Bowl Orange Slices Green Cloth SOLD

Another 10 x 10 painting that I did for consideration for the Vashon Allied Arts Auction held in September.  This one has lots of juicy reflections in the shiny silver bowl and some lovely saturated colors in the oranges.  And a fun bit of lavender in the shadow side of the orange slice and on the far side of the shiny bowl.   Even though the green cloth covers the largest area of the painting, I think the dominant color is orange because it is so intense or saturated.
A brief note about color: pigments have three qualities; hue - that means the name of the color like hansa yellow or azo orange or burnt sienna; value - the lightness or darkness of a color; and saturation - how much of something else is mixed with the pigment- a yellow straight out of the tube is more saturated than one mixed with white.  So the oranges in this painting are almost straight out of the tube, whereas the green is mixed with yellow ochre and white and purple and blue and a few other colors I can't remember.
Why create dominance? Having a dominant color gives the painting a theme; dominance organizes the composition and moves it away from chaos; it makes the painting stronger. And a painting can have dominance in any and all elements - shape, size, direction, color, value, line and texture.

Black Cup Three Tangerines on Pink

Another of the 10" x 10" paintings that I created for the Vashon Allied Arts commission.   I really enjoyed painting that spoon and fork and I like the dull brown color reflected in the dark cup.  It's really interesting how the change in size affects the composition.  A 10" x 10" painting is almost three times the size of a 6" x 6" painting.  So both the golden background and pink foreground seem quite intense because they cover a larger area.

Orange Slices, Silver Bowl on Pink SOLD

This is another  of the 10" x 10" paintings that I worked on for the Vashon Allied Arts Fundraiser Auction.  I painted several so that I would have lots to choose from.  I really like the orange slices and pink table reflected in the silver bowl. It feels like you could reach in and touch that silver bowl and it would be hard and shiny.  But it's just paint!

Orange Slices on Blue SOLD

This is the third painting that I painted as a commission for the Vashon Allied Arts September fundraiser auction.  I like the colors in the tabletop and in the shadow of the orange slices.  The blue goes from very saturated  to very neutral blue.  But it looks blue because it is against orange which is the complement of blue.  I also like the green stripe.

Black Cup Orange Slices on Green SOLD

The second of the three paintings I chose for the Vashon Allied Arts  September fundraiser auction. This time the orange slices are on a piece of glass on top of a green tabletop.  That way I get to paint the reflections and the cast shadows and the green color of the tabletop.  The gray in the background allows me to use a large number of intense colors The piece of calm gray balanced the orange and lavender and gold as well as that vivid lime green. I also like the reflections on the cup.

Paintings of Oranges - Orange Slices on Pink SOLD

Vashon Allied Arts commissioned me to create a work for their annual September fundraiser auction.   I painted several 10" x 10" paintings on the subject of orange slices and then chose three as a triptych.  Painting in a larger format was fun though it was difficult at first.  I like to paint items actual size, not enlarged, so the effect on the composition was to increase the number of orange slices and items that wound up on the canvas. 

Turquoise Plate Yellow Cup Sienna Wall

The same cup stack -- this time I put the turquoise plate on a piece of glass.  The light color under the plate is light bounced around by the glass.  I like the blueish-greenish stripe at the bottom of the painting- the color of the edge of the piece of glass.

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.