Claire SOLD!

This painting started out with an idea from Richard Schmidt, a photograph from a friend of her daughter, and a photograph that I took on the Hughes ranch near Bartlesville Oklahoma. I incorporated all three into the finish painting

 

Larry’sHouse SOLD!

 This was a commissioned painting of my friend Larry's home.  He asked me to include himself, his dog and if I could squeeze his cat into one of the flower pots he would be happy.  This is what I ended up with... thanks to my husband who posed on the front steps for me.

a little landscape lesson

Since my class can't meet right now I decided to send them a little assignment.  I might as well share it with you too so here it is....

Moonlight Rodeo

$750 16x20 oil on canvas  Contact through my blog if interested.

today's paintings for sale

I am happy to send a close up of any painting you wish to purchase.  Shipping is not included in the price.  Contact me if you wish to purchse.

Apples

A cold and windy day.... what to paint?..... Apples on a sunny table.
visit in my ebay auction  or contact me directly for purchase.
8x10 oil on canvas

Rainy Night in Tulsa

This is a painting that I did from a photo of Tulsa at night that I took last year.  The photo was just after a rain and I wanted to make this painting a little later in the evening and a little more rainy.  I just darkened everything a bit and softened some edges w some diagonal brush strokes to indicate both rain and fog.  Hopefully I was able to pull it off.  This one is for sale by auction through my ebay gallery or you may contact me directly for purchase.  Click here to visit my ebay gallery and view the rest of my auction items and full price paintings on Ebay

SOLD! Cecil plays the Piano Oil

I did this painting, which is kind of a departure for me, for a show that Scott and I did last year at right about this time.  The show was a back and forth between painting and poems.

Here's the painting that is on auction this week on my ebay gallery site, Click here to visit.

Here is the corresponding poem written by Scott Aycock

CECIL

Cecil keeps our yard trim as a sailor’s beard-

not a blade of grass out of place.

With a surveyor’s eye he places poles along

the hedge row,

making Grandma’s English Boxwoods

level as poured cement,

stretching the length of the drive.

He starts early and works through, into the

heat of the day.

I am just a boy.

Cecil comes to back door, hat in hand, like a child asking a favor of a man.

“Mr. Jo Eddie’s grandson, you ‘spose I could have me some ‘freshment?”

I go under sink where grandma keeps the

drink, pour comfort from a bottle.

I place a capful in a glass, fill the rest with water.

It turns the color of rosin.

That’ll do, Mr. Jo Eddie’s grandson, don’t need no ice.

He tips his head, tosses the drink, and wipes

his mouth.

It is a litany of motion.

Five drinks into the day, his tools put away,

Cecil comes to the door-  a final drink to stay

the blues away.

I being home alone,

Cecil points with fingered bone

towards ivories lined up in a row.

“Mr. Jo Eddie’s grandson, I can make that

coffin sing.

Some folks they scared a dyin’, but they ain’t got that rhythm thang.”

Cecil straddles piano bench, with one leg north, the other east,

to work the pedals, to keep the beat.

With both hands poised on whitened keys,

his long black fingers fill spaces,

make dark holes in the music,

as he begins a slow growl, a low moan.

“How…how…how…uh…uh…unh.

Gonna’ chase those blues.

How…how…how…uh…uh…unh.

Gonna’ chase those blues.”

Bowed over the keys, eyes closed,

Cecil is there in some sepia-toned place. 

It seems with every note, with every chord,

Cecil spills more of himself between the keys,

as though the music is drinking him one note

at a time.

With an ear bent to the ivories, listening for the sound of suffering as it leaves his fingertips;

Cecil’s hand begins to jitter, and juke, and then to jive,

into some boogie-woogie slide.

 His huge black hands, like crows,

flap the width of the piano,

as  Cecil tosses back his head, enraptured.

I am just a boy held in time. 

Watching.

As Cecil’s shoulders sway in time to the beat,

mouth open, he eats.

Drinking notes, swallowing chords,

half-digested they come spilling forth,

crude and primitive.

A truer sound.

Garlic from my garden, Blue Bowls and Cutting Board

This was our latest class project.  I had a bunch of new students and thought we might try something that didn't look too scary.  I really liked the way it turned out.

I had a nice harvest of garlic this year and it is one thing that you can leave out for an extended time with out it fading away or shrinking.  I just put this on auction on my ebay gallery.  To visit this piece in Ebay and wander through the gallery, click here

Back Yard

I got inspired the other day.  It was such a warm and wonderful afternoon and all my work was complete.  I had a couple hours left of daylight and my neighbor's fully leafed out willow tree looked so pretty against the rest of the barren trees and the cloudy day.  I ran in and grabbed my brushes and set about the painting.

To Bid or Visit my Ebay Gallery, Click Here

Great Read and Great Movie

I especially love a good coming of age story where the characters learn important life lessons and make tough decisions that support their enlightenment.  Two such tales crossed my path this month, one being a great book on CD... I can highly recommend checking this out from your local library and see if traffic jams and long drives across town don't turn into a pleasure ride.

So, if you are looking for a great read, try The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.  Just finished it.  ( she wrote "The Secret Life of Bees )  I foresee this book turning into a great movie as well.  It is fiction but based on a lot of facts and based on the stories of 2 real life women even though I see it as a coming of age type of book... my favorite. It takes place mostly in South Carolina during both the abolition movement and women's rights.  A beautiful, disturbing, and ultimately, joyful tale.  ( I must have the happy ending! )

 Sooo looking for a good movie too?  We just went to Maleficent last night and didn't expect nearly the great story telling that we got.  A lovely tale of betrayal, hate, jealousy, power redeemed by love and forgiveness.

Oklahoma Artists League

 

This photo was taken right after setting up for our first show... at the Polo Grill in Utica Square, Tulsa.  This was the inaugural show for our newly formed group of professional painters in Oklahoma, " The Oklahoma Artists League "

Thanks to Tulsa's premier dining establishment, Polo Grill for treating us like kings and queens as we enjoyed a complimentary brunch.

Check out the work of our group on line

Members:

Alan Frakes

Anne Spoon

Louise Higgs

Joey Friscillo

Me

Derek Penix

Christopher Westfall

not pictured: Gill Adams

Peonies and Primroses by Margaret Aycock 11x14 Oil on Canvas

I have been painting peonies as fast as I can this week.  I haven't even had time to put any of them in my ebay gallery until today.  This Painting is an original oil on canvas painted from life of Peonies and Primroses.  They have both traveled with us from house to house over 30 years, the Peonies having traveled through time even longer, coming from the home of my husband's grandmother in Arkansas.  I love painting them every year and having their sweet scent fill my house as I do so. It lists for $350 on my ebay website but for my blog followers it is $300  to purchase:

To visit my ebay gallery  click here

Red Roses in a Jelly Jar

One of my favorite paintings on auction this week.  To place a bid or just visit my auction site Click Here
To visit my painting blog Click Here

Spring Storm... Trouble.... SOLD!

I have to remember the sky is one of the main things I love about Oklahoma.  I got home just in time to cover some of the crops that have already popped up in the garden.  Yesterday I painted outside with my adult class in 85 degree weather.  This pretty little storm is expected to first drop hail and then tomorrow drop temps to below freezing and it is APRIL!!

This dramatic sky and others like it inspired this new painting.  My facebook pals had several suggestions for names.  I am leaning towards " Trouble."  Nothing spells trouble like an Oklahoma tornado and throw in a bad hair day....

Purple Ribbon and Silver Coffee Pot

If you want a little peek into my classroom, you can find it in the silver coffee pot :-).  The class groaned when they saw this still life, thinking they could never paint the reflections on the silver.  I keep telling them, "don't concern yourself with painting a silver coffee pot, just paint exactly what you see... The values, and shapes etc and low and behold, when you stand back from it, you will find you have painted a silver pot.  What is always fun to me is that you get so caught up in finding shapes and correcting values that often when you stand back you are surprised that YOU are pictured in the reflection and you didn't even know you were painting yourself.  This painting is on auction this week on ebay.  To Bid

A new batch of ACEO paintings on auction

At the request of one of my ebay art collectors, I started painting these little ACEO artist trading cards.  What a great idea for an affordable way to start your art collection and for us artists, a great way to introduce people to our work.

To check out this auction click here.  Bidding starts at $28.50 with no reserve.

Green Pears on Red and White Striped Cloth 6x6 oil

This is one among many daily and larger paintings on auction this week through my ebay gallery/auction site.  This began as a class project.... painting one object on a striped cloth.  My students breathed a sigh of relief when I mentioned that our next project involved only one object.  They breathed another kind of sigh as they saw the addition of the striped cloth rather than a plain backdrop.  heheheh
To bid

Avocado 6x6 oil on canvas

To Bid

I had a few people that were going to be absent from my class the other day so I changed the assignment to " bring a troubled painting to class day."  I had this painting kicking around for a while and decided to play with it.  It was from a 3 hour sitting w a model and although I liked it, I couldn't sell it on ebay so I decided to play with hair and make up and costume and see what happens.

To check her out on ebay, click here