Day 6 of the 30 in 30 - Duck Norris

Well, yesterday's painting sold fresh off the easel!  I thought there may just be a need for some karate ducks after all, so I painted a sequel today. :)  I love painting these ducks and am so grateful that there are people out there who appreciate them right along with me.  There is an interesting story behind these two guys, and if you'd like to read more about them, you can check out my blog post from yesterday :) 

Duck Norris, oil on panel, 6x6, to purchase click here

Day 9 of the 30 in 30 painting challenge - "I Love New York"

Back to globe trotting... Today's painting is a glimpse of the world's 5th most visited place - you guessed it, New York City.  This was the most challenging painting in this series so far for many reasons... the biggest of which is that New York is not just ONE thing.  Of course neither is Paris, or Bangkok, but, New York is just so many things.  The people,the buildings, the scenery, the energy! So much to see.. It is impossible to choose just a glimpse of New York to try to represent the city. So, I ended up opting for a traditional city scene, right near Time's Square, with a traditional "I Love NY" sign displayed... 

I painted this one more loosely and with lots more paint to attempt to capture the energy and life of the city.

I Love NY, oil on panel, 4"x18"
to purchase, please click here

Day 26 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "Duck Duck Blue Chucks"

So, I am really enjoying mashing up my painting interests.  This is my 3rd Fowl in Footwear painting, and there will definitely be more.  Its just too fun!  Ducks are a type of fowl I haven't painted before. I am sure, they will make their way into more paintings too!

Duck Duck Blue Chucks, oil on panel, 6"x6"
to purchase please click here

And don't forget to enter for a chance to win a free pet portrait! Enter at my website at www.karenweberfineart.com.

My latest newsletter is out!  If you'd like to read about my painting process, you can read it by clicking this link: http://eepurl.com/ctEaez

Saudade & Day 15 of my Holiday Painting Spree

Today is the beginning of the 3rd week of my Holiday Painting Spree! That means I have a new painting to giveaway.  This is one that I painted during one of the 30 in 30's I have taken part in and is a landscape from somewhere in Brazil. I found this scene while wandering around Brazil in Google Street View and the clouds and patterns in the landscape captivated to me!  The painting used to have a different title, but I've changed it to "Saudade", a beautiful Brazilian word that is unique to their culture.  According to wikipedia the meaning of Saudade is "A deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves." Somehow, I thought it was a fitting title.  Enter today for a chance to win this painting at my website, www.karenweberfineart.com  Thank you and have a great day!

Saudade, oil on panel, 6"x6", framed

AND...

Today's Holiday Painting Spree painting is one of a series of butterflies I have been doing.  Today's is titled "Something Special". This painting is framed in a unique double frame, making it extra special! To purchase, please visit my DPW gallery here

Something Special, oil on panel, 

Day 14 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "Refuge" + the winner of my Painting Giveaway

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats" - Albert Schweitzer

I love how you can find quotes on the internet on just about any subject... This one from renown Nobel Laureate, theologian, and musician Albert Schweitzer seemed fitting for today's painting of a scruffy yet lovable looking Tom cat.  This kitty is asking for attention, or maybe a bowl of milk?  Whatever the case, he probably is willing to bring some relief to the miseries in his master's life.  The genuine joy of having a companion pet is the unconditional love they give, whether deserved or not. On the flip side, there are those of us two legged beings who provide much needed refuge to animals in need. My mom is one of them, caring for rescue dogs, wild birds, the deer that frequent her back yard and most recently, a scruffy cat who lives in the woods behind her house. <3  For sure, we should all treat our animal friends with kindness and refuge.

Refuge, oil on panel, ready to hang
to purchase please click here

And, the winner of this weeks painting giveaway is...

Day 12 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "Curiosity"

You know the old saying, Curiosity killed the cat. :( So sad to think that wanting to know the answers could possibly be fatal.... Well, look at it this way, Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "I have no special talents.  I am only passionately curious." Curiosity is what finds answers, solves problems, and uncovers new discoveries.  I have always been a passionately curious person myself.  When I was a child, I remember a treasured book I was given by my parents called "Tell Me Why".  They got it for me as I was always asking questions... Loved that book and indeed, still have it today, although much of the information is sorely out of date. :)  

In today's painting, this cat seemed to be to be asking a question too. What she is asking I will leave up to you... Curious cats are hopefully luckier than that old saying....

Curiosity, oil on panel, 6"X6"
to purchase, please click here

Day 10 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "White & Black"

"If everything isn't black and white, I say Why the Hell Not?" - John Wayne

What does that mean? I am not quite sure, but it made me laugh.  Today's painting is 10th in line of my Holiday Painting Spree paintings.  An upcoming show I will be hanging in is themed "Black and White". As a painter, you come to realize that there isn't ever true black or white in an object or scene.  This is because surfaces are always reflecting their surroundings and the ambient light.  So, a white car may actually have shadows that are purple and reflections that could be any color of the rainbow.  So, maybe this is an answer to Mr. Wayne's question above... Because Mr. Wayne, as the impressionists found out a long time ago, black and white do not truly exist in nature..... Without further ado, here is today's painting, "White & Black".  Had to paint another VW beetle... just one of my favorite subjects to paint... :) 

White & Black, oil on panel
to purchase this painting, please click here

Day 9 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "A Minor Bird"

Sometimes birds are just too cute.  This little guy is all puffed up probably keeping warm as the weather is cooling down here in Eastern PA.  3rd in my chickadee mini series, I painted this painting with both brushes and palette knives, which is more complicated than it sounds.  I need to perfect this method because I love it when it turns out the way I intended. The title comes from a Robert Frost Poem of the same name. I included a copy below. Enjoy!

Rounded Up, oil on panel, 6"x6"
to purchase, please click here

And, here is an idea of how to decorate using small art...

Day 8 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "Spirit"

Painting is one of the few activities in life that can take me out of my head and into the moment. This painting is titled 'Spirit' after a quote from Leonardo Da Vinci that resonates with me - "Where the Spirit does not work with the hand, there is no Art".  I believe that all artists draw from their inner spirit to create something new, out of nothing... We fight it sometimes... and sometimes we let our brains take over, which usually yields less than acceptable art! But when we listen and follow Spirit, that is when masterpieces are created!

Spirit, oil on panel, ready to hang
to purchase, please click here

Also! Today is the first day you can enter for a chance to win my painting, "Fuzzy Dice" of a classic Thunderbird. I love this painting and so will you if you win!!!  Enter at my website, www.karenweberfineart.com, or you can enter by going to my instagram page, follow me and tag a friend! Thanks and good luck!

Click here to enter

Day 5 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "Monet"

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

It is Turkey day here in the USA and I will be busily cooking and eating throughout the day! I hope everyone has a wonderful day with family and friends and eats so much that you wonder why you did that to yourself.  

In other news, today's painting is 2nd in a mini series of roosters I am painting.  Today's painting is titled "Monet" in honor of the great impressionist, Claude Monet.  I heard a great story about him and his career yesterday - While he lived his later years enjoying the fruits of his artistic labor, evidently he started out quite poor, having to resort to borrowing and begging for money! (Gives me hope...) Anyway, it was fascinating to hear that he spent loads of time and money designing his famous gardens at Giverny - importing water lillies and installing complex water features and irrigation systems. 

When painting today's rooster, I couldn't help but imagine him pecking around those gardens in Giverny. I wonder, did Monet ever include chickens in any of his paintings?

To purchase this painting, please visit my DPW store here

Monet, oil on panel, ready to hang, 6"x6"
to purchase please click here

How 2 rooster paintings could look hanging in your home :)

Day 3 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "Tuesday's Blackbird"

This happy little girl flew in with the wind yesterday... Amazingly, in this wild wind we had here, I saw flocks of black birds flying in synchronized plumes of ever changing shapes and lines of them huddled on high wires... Black birds must be sturdy little birds to withstand the extreme weather!

This painting is the last (for now) in this mini series of blackbirds I did in the past few days.  She is for sale (at 20% off) at my Daily Paintworks site and is ready to hang!  Take a peek below to see how this painting could look in your home. :)

Tuesday's Blackbird, oil on panel, ready to hang
To purchase, please click here

Day 2 of my Holiday Painting Spree - "That's What Friends are For"

Today's painting is 2nd in a series of 3 blackbirds I am working on.  As I said yesterday, I enjoy painting blackbirds. They are common, yet intelligent, simple yet pretty.  There are many varieties, and this one is just your common black bird coming to call. She looks like she might be visiting, just when you need her the most.. something friends do!

I used the same palette for the background as I did yesterday's painting, so if hung together, they would make a handsome pair.  See below for an idea of how to hang a pair of my small art.

That's What Friends are For, oil on panel, 6"x6", ready to hang
To purchase please click here

Day 1 of my Holiday Painting Spree!

As I said in my previous post, my little paintings are popular with my followers.  I can see why! In the art world, a trend has been emerging toward personal, intimate, and small-scale paintings.  Not to mention, small paintings fit in difficult to design places and are more affordable than larger artwork.  I love painting in all different sizes, but I especially enjoy painting on small panels. It allows me to focus in on my subjects and paint alla prima - all in one sitting. So, I plan on focusing my paintbrush on these little guys through out the rest of November and into December.  

Today's painting is titled, "The Sentry".  I painted a series of little blackbirds a while back and sold most of them... Black birds mean many things to many people.  To me they can be pretty little birds that aren't flashy, but make a statement all the same.  And some of the species of black birds (crows and ravens for two) are quite intelligent. This guy is a young crow, keeping watch for you...  And stripes are back! I enjoy using the stripe motif in my backgrounds as they allow me to use interesting color combinations that I otherwise might not put together.

Remember, all my paintings are 20% off through December 17th, including this one!

To purchase this painting, please visit my daily paintworks gallery here

The Sentry, oil on panel, 6"x6",
to purchase click here

Day 28 - Graffiti Text

I snapped this picture as I was walking out of a Wawa (a PA based convenience store/gas station) a few weeks back. This guy was just perfectly posed right outside the door and I actually had my phone at the ready! The background was of course cars, gas pumps and chaos, but I opted for a background of graffiti, as it seemed appropriate.  I also was experimenting with the paint itself. I typically use a limited palette - Titanium white, Alizarin Crimson, Cad. Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue. (and sometimes Phthalo green)  But this scene called for something different.  The colors needed to be bright and pure.  Sooo, I used... Titanium white, Quinacridone Red (love that word), Transparent yellow, transparent orange, (by Rembrandt) and prussian blue - all of which are transparent colors (minus the white) that have a bit more umph to them.  I only added the white towards the end of the painting.  This is a technique I have known about from reading about another artist who uses this technique (Dreama Tolle Perry) to achieve pure, bright colors.  I am relatively happy with the results but feel I need to experiment with it more.  The graffiti in the background is simply because I am fascinated by graffiti, and have included it in several paintings I have done previously.  I love the ambiguity and abstract quality of it.

Graffiti Text, oil on panel, 18"x24"
to purchase, please click here

Day 27 - Learning to Fly

So, being an artist is just like being any other kind of person. When you get sick as a dog, many things you want to be doing come to a screeching halt. This happened to me this weekend and as such, the 30 in 30 I am participating in has taken an abrupt back seat to concentrating on getting better. On another note, I found this great website called 'Thought Questions' and thought I'd share a question that resonates with me. 

The question is "If you woke up tomorrow with no fear, what would you do first?"  So many people responded with answers that included flying in one way or another - flying to Europe, skydiving, taking a plane to a different country...  After painting this, the title seemed appropriate.  It seems we all want to get away, but fear is keeping us tethered to the ground.  Dreaming of birds, dreaming of the sky... Learning to fly.  This painting is up for bid on my page of the Daily Paintworks auction.  To place a bid, click here, or the link below the picture.

Learning to Fly, oil on panel, 6"x6"
to go to my DPW auction, click here

Day 23 - Still Standing Strong

Things are happening in this country that many people are not happy about. I read every day on facebook and in emails how worried everyone is because of the two candidates running for president. The news reports horrific things that are happening throughout the country. And so on and so on... If you were to listen to what people are 'saying' you would think we live in a country that is falling apart and the people hate each other and life sucks. But you know what? I am thinking about my family. My neighbors. All of the hardworking, honest people I know who keep on keeping on, doing what they do and proud to live the lives they are living. I am thinking of all the people I know who show love and friendship even with different political and religious views from me. No matter what the media says, and no matter how crazy this election gets, I still believe in the power and strength of the citizens of this country. They are what makes this country great and I believe that we are all still standing strong... and will keep standing strong. Don't believe everything you read.Look around you to find the good and keep fighting to live a true and honest life. Peace... :)

Still Standing Strong, oil, 6"x6"
to purchase, please click here

Day 22 - "Passing the Tower"

I mentioned the other day that I sometimes get inspiration from the Morguefile, an online free file sharing website.  Well, I also love to use Google street view to wander the globe and see places that I otherwise may never get to see.  This inspires me so often and I have painted many pictures from scenes I have found in street view... Prague, Ireland, Idaho and Paris are just a few of the most beautiful areas of the world, at least on street view anyway.  So, this scene  which I found while 'wandering' around Paris, inspired me because, one, this view of the tower is just impeccably perfect, and two, the young man on the bike in the foreground presented a nice mystery.... What exactly is his story?  It made me wonder "where is he was going?"  Maybe university?  A quiet cafe to meet a secret rendezvous? Maybe he's a delivery guy delivering important documents.  Maybe he's on his way to visit grandma.  Who knows?   Anyway, I liked the mystery this scene presented and I also loved the composition when I cropped it to fit one of my narrow panel left-overs.

Passing the Tower, oil, 4"x18"
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Day 21 - Half and Then Some

Today's is another painting done on an odd sized panel - 4"x18" to be specific.  I am enjoying cropping images to focus more on the negative space and look at the subject in a different way.  This one is also of my daughter, but her hair is not black... Just changed it here as it needed the intense value change, in my opinion. I am excited to see these narrow ones framed. :)

Half and Then Some, oil, 4"x18"
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Day 19 - Off the Clock

I am not a proponent of smoking... even though I had the nasty habit years ago... But this young lady seemed the perfect subject for me to experiment with some abstraction.  I tried the faceless approach a few paintings back (see here) and kind of liked the results.  I thought I'd try it again here.  Again, I 'kind of'' like the results.  This painting turned out to be more of what I don't want to do again as opposed to what I would like to try again (make sense?)  In other words, I'm not totally satisfied with the results of this one.  Although, the more I look at it, the more about it I see that I like.  The most exciting part of this painting is the background to me.  I brushed and smeared (with a palette knife) and scraped (with a paint scraper) and the slapped some more paint on and I am digging the layered effect going on.  I also like the muted neutrals I used in this one.  I need to learn how to use my grays more effectively.  The figure herself, I feel is a bit too formal and, well, just not lively enough.  Anyway, here she is, taking a break...  I will wager, however, that this painting will turn out to be someone else's favorite, as it always seems to be the paintings I don't care for as much are someone else's favorite!

Off the Clock, oil, 11"x14"
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Day 15 - Canine Constitutional

So, I am a member of a cool, cooperative gallery in West Reading (Art Plus Gallery) and consequently, I spend a lot of time in the town.  One really great thing is that it is a very dog friendly town. Any time of day, you will see folks out walking their dog(s).  It provides many opportunity for photo references!  I took this pic about a year ago and came across it when looking for material for this 30 in 30.  At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to paint it because the little sausage dog is only seen from the back.  But, I did really like the image, and decided to take the challenge... see if I could paint him and make him actually look like a dog!  Hope it worked...

And by the way, the wrinkles in those pants.... not easy!  And that was the last thing I was worried about .  It's funny how certain things present challenges that you aren't expecting.

Canine Constitutional, oil, 9"x12"
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