I'm in Breckenridge, CO, at our condo at 11,000 feet. You flatlanders would be a little short of breath up here. I won't be posting any paintings until next weekend, but that does not mean I'm not painting! I just can't upload from my camera to my husband's laptop - have to wait 'til I get home.
Yesterday it rained all day long so I got THREE small paintings done. They were specifically created for my show up here in Breck over the fourth of July. They have an aspen leaf theme. The aspens, by the way, are so beautiful right now. Their leaves are new and bright green. They flutter and tremble on the slightest breeze.

Well, gotta go take my coffee out on the deck, and drink in the incredible view.

I seem to be stuck in this multi-canvas 12x12 format. It's called operant conditioning. Robert Genn wrote about it in his newsletter. He said that if you're successful with something, you will tend to repeat the thing that gave you success. Because the last two multiple canvas paintings (Jigsaw,9050, and Color Quad, 9051) sold so quickly, I'm destined to keep going in this format.

This one is a much more subdued palette than Color Quad, but it works on many levels. I left the canvas exposed between each of the segments, then covered the whole thing with a quinacridone gold wash which resulted in orange lines. It also turned some of the turquoise areas to green.

Someone said it reminds them of stained glass, which is ironic, because I used to have my own stained glass studio. I love doing stained glass, but it is SO EXPENSIVE and very time-consuming. Painting is much easier.

For purchase information, please see my website.

This painting is a triptych on panels. I had trouble with the photo. The panels are not that dark on the bottom. If I lightened the bottom, the top was over exposed - AAARRRRGGHH. I cut out the leaf forms from thin metal and then nailed them to the panels.

My next outdoor show is over July 4th in Breckenridge, CO. Artwork with an aspen theme sells well in the mountains - especially to Texas tourists who want to take a little Colorado home with them. For purchase information, please see my website.

The Summer Art Market was a huge success - I sold 14 paintings, but it was not without its harrowing moments!!! Saturday night it hailed 6 inches just a few blocks north of where the show was set up. Hail FLATTENS tents.
On Sunday, the skies got darker and darker. We could see rotation in the ominous purple clouds above us, then a white tornado started to form. We could see it above our heads and everybody was taking pictures of it. The sirens were wailing. It was eerily calm - like all hell was about to break lose. I wanted to run for cover, but this customer was deciding about a $600 painting. She was sending a picture of it to her husband with her phone and waiting to hear back from him. The whole scene was surreal.
She bought the painting. The storm never had an actual tornado, but strong winds tore down some trees, and, miraculously, all that happened north of where we were. All we got was another deluge of rain. I had to move all my crap (cardboard boxes, chairs, umbrellas, stuff) that is normally outside the tent to the inside, and it looked like a disaster zone. Sold 3 paintings to people who just wanted to get in out of the rain. LOL

This is probably my last post until Monday, 6/15. This weekend I'm in another outdoor art show in Denver, sponsored by the Art Students League of Denver.

Weather in Colorado in June is often very unpredictable. A couple days ago a tornado did millions of dollars in damage about 5 miles from my house. Today the tornado sirens went off again. There wasn't a tornado, but about 10 miles from my house they got 2 inches of hail. All we got was rain.

I'm worried about getting blown away or flattened by hail this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Ah, the joys of the outdoor art festival circuit.

Full report on Monday (if I'm still here.)

This is the latest challenge for Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. The subject this time is this colorful plate of summer vegetables. I tried to emphasize the light/shadow and keep a painterly approach. For purchase information, please see my website.

I'm participating in the Art House Canvas Project 2. The Art House Coop is a gallery in Atlanta, GA, that sponsors art projects in which thousands of artists are invited to participate. They have many projects open for participation. The one I chose, Canvas Project 2, will exhibit all the submitted work at the Atlanta Airport and then at the Art House Gallery.
With this project, the artists receives five 3x3 mini canvases and a list of 5 words. The artist is to paint an interpretation of each word. My five words were FUSION, CONCAVE, LAPIDARY, INSIDE OUT, and BLIZZARD. It was fun to try to come up with a painting representing each word.
I finished them off with an epoxy coating, which is the glare you can see in the photos. Can you figure out the words represented by the five paintings?

Karin Jurick is up to her tricks again on unsuspecting artists in her Different Strokes for Different Strokes blog challenge. This time we were to post our interpretation of this bucolic scene of the Pennsylvania countryside.
The trick is that the reference photo she posted for us was black and white. We had to come up with the colors ourselves. It's harder than you would think. As you can see, I cropped the image so that the center of interest (the farm) wasn't smack dab in the middle. I chose an 8x20 format to accentuate the panorama look.
For purchase information, please see my website.

The inspiration for this abstract came from viewing the work of another artist by the name of Lois Foley, who is deceased. I saw three examples of her abstract work and was blown away by her use of color. Her style was much less structured than these pieces, but the color inspiration is what mainly impressed me.
The triptych I recently finished, Jigsaw, has some of the same compositional elements as Color Quad, but the muted tones and very limited palette of that painting seemed to set me up for this explosion of color.
I had so much fun painting these, I completed them all in one day - about a 10 hour painting marathon.

And the rain rain rain
Came down down down
In rushing rising rivlets,
And the river crept out of it's bed
And crept right in to Piglets.

That's the gist of a song from Winnie-the-Pooh. I could not get that song out of my head. Colorado averages 15 inches of precipitation per year and I think most of it fell this weekend on my art festival.
The good news: my tent did not leak.
The bad news: I paid extra for a corner booth, but the wind and rain was coming from the side on which I could have expanded my display, so had to button up the side most of the time.
Good news: Crowd size was pretty good in spite of the weather.
Bad news: Few had money to spend.
Good news: The hail missed us.
Bad news: I ate almost a whole bag of Twizzlers by myself.

Anyone who did not get juried into the Downtown Denver Arts Festival should count their blessings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SO excited about this triptych. It is just so cool. Each piece is cradled MDF board, 12x12inches and about 1.5 inches deep. I used several metallic elements including stainless steel, silver art paper, metallic acrylic paints, a variety of brads, tacks, nails and paper fasteners. Each piece has about 50 nails, tacks, etc. and many of them had to have a hole drilled in the board before I could attach them.

But the REALLY COOL thing about this painting is that each piece was finished with a layer of epoxy resin. I have never done that before. The resin hardens to a thick crystal clear layer that seals all the pieces and protects the shine of the metals.

Honestly, I was scared to death to pour the resin on top of my completed paintings because they were a LOT of work. If the resin didn't perform properly, I would have a mess and a waste of many hours of work. It turned out perfect.

The photos cannot capture the shine and sparkle of these pieces. I will have them at the Downtown Denver Arts Festival this weekend. For purchase information, please see my website.

To read my latest newsletter, please click here. To sign up to receive my infrequent art newsletters in your inbox, please go to my website and click on newsletters. I promise not to share your email address with anyone, and will not bombard you with lots of miscellaneous emails.

This Mexican cutie was posing for tourists and making big bucks. For purchase information, please see my website.

I just learned that this quadtych of mine has been purchased by Kaiser Permanente for their new medical office building in Parker, CO. I used to work for Kaiser for many years and, when an employee, I was not eligible to have my art purchased by the company. Now that I am retired from Kaiser, I can finally have my work in their permanent collection.

Kaiser purchases original art to decorate the public areas of their buildings. If beautiful art can inspire and comfort patients, and perhaps take their mind off their troubles for a moment. it is well worth the expense.

This quadtych is an abstracted view of the Grand Canyon looking straight down at the Colorado River. The composition is heavily textured and flows from one painting to the next.
SOLD

Spring is in the air and the tulips are putting on their annual dazzling display. The colors seem so brilliant, or is it just because after a long winter we are not used to seeing anything so colorful? This painting is on three gallery wrap canvases with the sides painted.
For purchase information, please see my website.

This is my version of another DSFDF challenge. Karin Jurick, our fearless leader, supplied the photo of bustling New York City. I thought I would change the time of day to early evening. The lights have come on and everything is bathed in a glow from the golden sky.
I've never painted a cityscape before. It was challenging and tedious. I COULD NOT STAND to do every little window, so the buildings are just a suggestion of what is in the photo. I would make a terrible architect. The main thing I wanted was the beautiful effect a glowing sky has on the scene.
For purchase information, please see my website. SOLD

This painting features several metal elements. Copper, gold and pewter embossing metals were used. There is extensive use of metallic acrylic paints and acrylic modeling compound for texture. Because of the reflective nature of the metal components, photographing this piece proved to be a problem. The colors are somewhere BETWEEN the front view and the side view. Both photos taken with identical lighting, just me moving a few feet to the side for the side view. You can see what a different look the painting has depending on the angle you're viewing it from. It's maddening. For purchase information, please click here for my website.

I've been trying to think of a good way to organize my oil paints. They were all in a large bin and I was constantly pawing through them and not finding what I was looking for. The other day, at Big Lots, I noticed this plastic 3 drawer unit for about $5. I bought it for organizing my oils.

I have different color groups in different drawers. Top is yellows, sienna, white; middle is oranges, reds, black, browns; bottom is greens, blues, and purples.

It's a simple way of organizing all those pesky tubes of paint and it really works. I'm going to get another one for my acrylic paints.

When I was little I remember the cat we had named Alger. My Dad named him after Alger Hiss, the political scandal figure of the 1950's. I guess the cat had a surly disposition and he hissed a lot.
No family pictures of Alger remain, but I remember that he was white and cream colored with green eyes, so this is probably a close resemblance.
For purchase information on this painting, including frame, please see my website.

What an age we live in! The internet and email puts me in contact with people all over the globe looking at my work. Their encouraging comments mean so much to me. I feel so gratified and thankful when they plunk down their hard-earned money to own one of my paintings.

Today I met a collector (Kay from California) in person. Some people you just click with right away. Kay is warm, vivacious and with a great sense of humor. Our lives paralleled each other in so many ways. It's funny when you feel you already know someone you just met.

Kay was here in Colorado visiting her parents. She spent many years living in CO and now misses it so much. Golden Moment is a fall scene of aspens on the road to Cottonwood Pass west of Buena Vista, CO, - a little bit of Colorado for Kay to take home.
SOLD

Need a spot of color on your wall? This fuchsia closeup may do the trick. As things are starting to really green up in my yard, the garden centers are gearing up for the spring onslaught. I'm remembering this pot of fuchsias I had hanging on the patio last summer. I like the double flowers which have all these folded, twisted petals. For purchase information on this painting, please click here for my website.

What I loved about this cat picture was the way the strong light caught the side of his face. I always love to paint cats because of their beautiful eyes. For purchase information, please click h ere to see my website. SOLD

This painting has stainless steel, aluminum, copper, and copper leaf embedded onto the canvas with acrylic modeling compound. In spite of the abundance of "cold metal" - the aluminum and stainless - it has a warm feeling because of the copper and the bronze and green acrylic metallic paints.

This painting did not evolve quickly. I spent the better part of last week working on it. As usual, there was a point when I was ready to trash it. I have learned not to despair or give up when all seems lost. That large bottom left section was blue at one time. And the vertical copper line was black. It was really cold looking then! In searching for a color that would warm up the blue area, I ended up with this "breen" - a combo of brown and green.

If you look carefully, you can see where I painted over the edges of the metal pieces with burnt umber. Two reasons I did that are (1) it softens a very hard edge a bit, and (2) it's difficult to get the glue and modeling compound completely off the surface of the metals so I cover up the imperfections. Maybe I should call it "Painted Lady."

Will someone call Grand Timber Lodge (where we have a timeshare) in Breckenridge, CO, and tell them this painting would look really good in their reception area? LOL (I wish.)
Please click here for purchase information on my website.

Dianne, from Calgary: I could not respond to your purchase inquiry because the Mailer Delivery System said your email address was invalid. Please try again. Thanks, Carol

This is a rework of a piece I did about 6-8 months ago. It's been sitting around my studio glaring at me that long. I never put the finishing varnish on it - that's tells me that, subconsciously, I thought it needed something else.
The top picture is the old version-very muted palette and the main feature I was interested in was the texture contrast between the black micaceous iron oxide near the top and the white squiggle made of clear tar gel.
I took it out of the frame and just started adding color. With the original as an underpainting, there are layers of rich color notes that give it such depth. I just can't stop looking at it now. Of course, it was difficult to photograph with all the layers of metallic color, but this is a fairly accurate version. Do you think this is an improvement?

I'm back into my warm palette. These colors look so good in my house, I just may not be able to part with this one. Lots of texture and some metallic paints on this painting. I wasn't sure whether to file this under "landscapes" or "abstracts" on my website (it's under abstracts). For purchase information, please click here to see my website.

Sara Winters gave me the Passion for Painting blog award. THANK YOU! Sara is an incredible painter in her own right. Living in the northwest, she does a lot of paintings of boats, harbors, etc. Living here in land-locked Colorado, I can only imagine the beautiful scenes she paints. Check out her blog at www.winterspaintings.blogspot.com.

I now know that I have no interest in painting marble sculptures. This was the challenge painting for the blog, Different Strokes from Different Folks. Karin Jurick, manager of the blog, was in a truly diabolical mode when she presented the group with this photo to work from.

While is was a good exercise in painting the anatomy of the sculpture, I hated portraying the marble and being confined to shades of black, white, gray, with a touch of prussian blue and raw sienna. I struggle with painting fabric, especially when it's made from marble! For purchase information on this painting, click here for my website.
SOLD

I didn't start out with a southwest landscape in mind, but that's what I ended up with. Another of the allures of doing abstract work - as Forrest Gump said - abstracts are like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get. This 24x30 abstract on canvas can be purchased through my website by clicking here.

This is the THIRD reincarnation on these two 12x40 canvases. Abstracts can be SO DIFFICULT at times. There often are a lot of failures before success is achieved. I actually had to carve off some of the medium built up from previous efforts. I think I am finally happy with this effort.

About two years ago, I was in a scrapbooking store where I spotted these pewter alphabet charms. They have been waiting patiently in my studio for the right painting to happen. Since the theme of this painting is red, I used the r,e, and d letters on each side of the diptych. The charms have a lower case letter on one side and a capitol letter on the reverse. I've always liked little squares and these are smashing, don't you think? I embedded them in modeling compound to hold them in place.

I also used aluminum tape and stainless steel in this piece. I found the stainless steel in an art supply store. It is a thin guage that I could cut with a scissors. The aluminum tape is used for ductwork and I found that at Home Depot.

The whole effect of this painting is very sculptural with a clean, contemporary feel. There is a dramatic interplay of slick, shiny surfaces and heavily textured surfaces. I can see this painting in a corporate setting or home with ultra-modern accents.

For purchase information, please click here to see my website.

For those of you in the Denver area, consider this an invitation to the reception for the BLUE show, sponsored by Innovative Artists. The 3rd Floor Gallery is at the Parker Station Building on E. Mainstreet, in Parker, CO.

I based this painting on a photo taken by Bruce Norman, an associate of mine. What I love about this painting is the motion of the horses and the fantastic light shining through the cloud of dust and the horses manes.
I worry about the wild horses that roam the West. Their habitat is shrinking by the day. I would hate to see the end of this beautiful symbol of our wild west heritage.
For purchase information, please click here to see my website.

I love blue-eyed cats. Too bad I'm allergic to them or I would have a himalayan I think. Also I have 3 shih tzus, two of whom HATE cats. It would be chaos to add a cat to the mix.
For purchase information on this painting, please see my website.

This is another blue (more teal, actually) abstract. Because there are a lot metallic paints used, it was so difficult to photograph. The little squares are made with acrylic modeling compound that I spread over a grid pattern. After carefully lifting off the grid, I'm left with little cubes of acrylic medium which I let dry a couple days before painting.

On the tops of the cubes I put silver leaf. It was so glittery, I toned the shine down a bit with a glaze of Golden Primary Cyan fluid acrylic. This is the second time I've used Primary Cyan and it is lovely to work with - it's SO transparent - perfect for glazing. Mix it with Quinacridone Magenta fluid acrylic and you get a fantastic range of transparent hues from blue to purple.

For purchase information, please see my website.

My Daily Painters group assignment is to post a painting of something I would not normally do. I do just about everything, so I had to contemplate a bit about this. Then an ad for Geico came with the newspaper showing their little pile of money you could be saving with Geico.

When they first started this ad campaign, I thought it was kind of dumb, but now I love it. I think they should sell little piles-of-money-dolls or something. I had a lot of fun painting this one.