Day 2 - I'll Light a Candle for You

 It's day 2 of the January 30 and 30 and I'm in the groove.. Leaning into yesterday's spark of Simple Gifts, today's painting is a different take..  Titled "I'll Light a Candle for You", this one features a Duck in Chucks, a trope I come back to time and again.. kind of like peanut butter and jelly.  He's wearing a birthday candle for a hat, and is atop a soft rainbow. All together, the image feels like a simple gift to me...

"I'll Light a Candle for You", 8"x8", oil on panel, click here for purchasing details.

There is something to being able to appreciate the little things in life that helps bring happiness and peace to the chaos.. It's the simple gifts that make up our safety net, I think.. :) The wee duckling here agrees..

To take this a little further, I paint a lot of small paintings.. 8"x8", 10"x10" and 9"x12" are some of the most common sizes for me.. but, if you look closely, you will see that I try to pack a lot into every mark I make on this small space..  My painting style is what is known as Alla Prima, which means all at once.  This helps me to keep my marks fresh and along with my often thick and juicy textures, I hope to convey a sense of joyful life in each small image.  Take a look at some of the details below..

And my imagery is fairy simple when taken by itself.. What intrigues me is when you put the simple things together you often get a story. I try to make my stories ones that convey happiness..

Day 12 - Tea for Two

I have painted so many birds in my career as an oil painter.. but it's so strange that I don't think of myself as a painter of birds.  It's just that they often seem like the right thing to add into a composition.  They are often colorful, which makes it easy and fun to choose the perfect accent.  In addition, they are perchable, flyable, poseable, come in all sizes and add life to what could otherwise be a 'dead' composition... And, birds are revered by cultures the world round.. they appear in stories both ancient and new, as symbols, talismans, spirit guides and companions helping to weave a story within my work ..So Versatile are birds that no wonder they end up in many of my paintings! 

Cardinals are brilliant and very common here in PA.  Whenever I see one, I think of the belief that, when you see a cardinal, you are seeing a messages from loved ones who have passed and they are letting us know they are here, checking in... true or not, it is always soothing the soul to think about.

This cardinal is joined by an even smaller brilliant friend, perhaps a message to the cardinal, or perhaps coming in for a sip..  And so it is a cup of Tea for Two..

"Tea for Two", oil on panel, 8"x8", click here for purchasing details

Day 21 of the 28 in 28 - Delicious Monster

 Today's painting is the latest in my Hawking's snail exploration series where a precocious snail has found the pleasure of choice...  Today's shell choice is vase with a few stems of one of her favorite plants, the Monstera Deliciosa, or, the Swiss Cheese plant.  I prefer delicious monsters, myself and titled the painting as such... :) Either way, the shapes are luscious and the color... same. ♥♥♥

Delicious Monster, oil on panel, 8"x8"
to purchase, please click here

According to wikipedia,  "The specific epithet deliciosa means "delicious", referring to the edible fruit, while monstera means "monstrous", in reference to the size that this plant can grow to, over 9 m (30 ft) in many cases."

Day 18 of the 28 in 28 - Find Out How Far

Soon after the idea occurred to me, my daughter and I hashed out fun possibilities of Hawking's snail trying on new and different shells.  She suggested "a fishbowl", which I heartily embraced :)  this painting is tailored from that idea... Fish bowls are, by nature a strange thing.  Perhaps I can imagine a good kind of strange, though, if Hawking's snail is looking after them... 

The title? From a T.S. Elliot quote worth considering: "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go"   Could be..

"Find Out How Far", Oil on panel, 8"x8"
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Day 17 of the 28 in 28 - Ballooning for Fish

What does it mean to balloon for fish?  I'm not sure, entirely.  I do know that fishing is a sacred art and to some, it is almost a religion... Look up quotes about fishing, and you find things like "It's better to sit in a boat and think about God, than sit in a church and think about fishing." I won't promise you that this painting is as deep as all that, but it could be. All depends on how you are seeing it at this moment. I know I will get some folks who feel sorry for this very worried looking fish (reminds me of C-3PO a little..)  Don't worry.  No fish were harmed during the making of this painting.. <3 :)

And if you read my facebook post, you will remember that I was wondering also about why balloons are the things that help to make special occasions even more special.. what is it about balloons? My paintings aren't necessarily about answering these questions.. they are more just visual places to sit and ponder for awhile.. hopefully in a smiley kind of way..

"Ballooning for Fish", oil on panel, 9"x12"
to purchase, please click here

Day 11 of the 28 in 28 - On Call

Simply put, I love painting sleeping cats on phones. I've visited this subject before and for some reason, am not bored of it yet... a series within a series, it started with me exploring the concept of visual idioms - I painted Cat Call, Duck Tape and Rabbit Ears.. Then, the subject of a sleeping cat on a phone called me back again, and I painted another, thinking it would satisfy me.  But, not yet.  To me, there is much more to explore here. This one was my try at a black cat on a white phone. I love the challenge of painting black animals as their fur has so many hidden colors... the same can be said about white objects, particularly white shiny objects.  I was captivated by all of the reflected colors in the phone and how they interacted with the 'hidden' colors in the cat. :)  

The hardest part of the cat call series if naming them!  "On Call" may just be a temporary title until I come up with something a little more interesting.

Scroll down to see the 1st two in the series and thank you. ♥

On Call, Oil on panel, 10"x10"
To purchase, please click here