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.

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.

Gilcrease Museum back 40

This was a painting that I worked on with a class.  Each of us kind of created our own little scene using a few photos of skies and hay bales.  This particular scene was created with a specific time and place in mind.  A favorite walking spot just about a mile from my house on the back 40 of the Gilcrease Museum.  I really liked the way it turned out.  I quickly took the photo and then realized that I was taking it at the same time of day when the sun is so low and beautiful in the sky.  It was perfect lighting except for the shadow cast by the frame on the bottom edge :-)  Clicking below will take you to this painting on ebay and give you access to my other paintings in my ebay Gallery.
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Help Support the Art and Healing Program at the High Risk Unit

I have worked for the Tulsa Arts and Humanites Council for many years as an artist in the schools, art in the parks and for the past 9 years, for Art and Healing Program.  Well that program is running out of money and so I thought I would put these little studies up for auction to help raise money for the program.  The first one was done on request for a Route 66 art show this year.  It is multi media w photo and pencil and features my mother as a young woman as she traveled from New York to California on route 66.  It is on masonite board.  The portrait is a little demo for my class on looking for planes on the face.  The 3rd one is a little oil study of our own Gilcrease House.  I was leading a workshop there and afterwords, did this study before returning home.  90% of the proceeds go to support the program which serves young pregnant women who are on strict bed rest at a local hospital, many of whom must be confined for months at a time.  This is their only outlet.  It is so much more than art sessions.  It is the one time they are out of their rooms.  They, through the art program, can now meet other moms on the floor in similar situations.  Instead of stress, depression and confinement, they experience joy, make friends who they can visit with during the week ( otherwise they would never have a chance to even meet the woman who lives in the room next door to them.) , share knowledge of their condition, parenting, and of course, participate in creating at the most creative time in their lives.   
bidding starts at $5 with free shipping.
Of course, anyone wishing to donate to the program w/o the auction can do so at the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa.  Make sure to earmark your donation as Art and Healing Program at the High Risk Unit at Peggy Helmerich Women's Center Tulsa.  THANKS!!
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Pre Raphaelite Girl 16x20 oil on canvas

In my adult painting class we usually start with a master painting and use it as a jumping off point in which to do a work of our own.  Since I teach demonstration style I like to have the same source material available to all students which in an ideal world, would be a live model but in our case we are working with first time painters and there is a lot to teach about measuring, how to hold the brush, paint mixing, values, etc so it is easiest to work from photos.  I included 2 photos that we used to spark our imaginations.  It is remarkable to watch what everyone comes up with using the same photo.  We often find that there is a slight resemblance to the artist in the work.  Anyways, this one is on auction this week through ebay with a very low start price and no reserve.  

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