a few fun studies in the Pre Raphaelite vein

Pre Raphaelite Girl in Oklahoma Field 20x24

I am on a Pre Raphaelite kick and a red coat/sweater kick :-)  This painting was done earlier this year but is on auction this week so I thought I would re post.  To Bid

SOLD! Girl Wearing a Red Coat Walking in Snowy Field

We recently attempted to beat the storm out of Arkansas.  We set out on I 40 only to find that the roads were already icing over, the delta fields were covered in a thin layer of snow.  Fortunately when one is in a car that is driven very slowly, you can take non blurry photos out the window.  When I got home I used the photos to create some interesting new paintings.  This is one of the paintings I just completed.  It is on auction through ebay this week.
To Bid

Prairie Walk 16x20 oil

It is Christmas vacation and I get to paint what I want to paint ( not that I don't already do that :-) but since I am not teaching, I like to play.  This painting is a combo of several photos and my imagination.  I really like how it turned out.  I put it on ebay for sale this morning.  If I leave it out over the holidays it may get some more work ( as often is the case ) but perhaps not.

If you would like to purchase or make an offer, see the other things I have been working on over the holiday, click here to visit my ebay gallery.

Big Sale up to 65% off on our Zazzle Stores

Zazzle is having a sale of up to 65% off which includes http://zazzle.com/margaretaycock  and http://zazzle.com/folksalad.  Check them out if you have been wanting a great T shirt, apron, canvas bag, cup and more!

Downtown Heber Springs Window Dressing

While in Heber Springs Arkanas over the holidays we decided to peruse the music shops and art galleries.  Being Christmas, most of the shops were closed but we were entertained instead, by this great dress.... Yes, it is camouflage and pink taffeta... and pink cowboy boots to top of the ensemble.  :-)

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.  

to bid

SOLD ! Sunset on the Gulf 8x10 oil

This is a little painting that I did while on vacation in the Gulf.  I was finally able to break away from the crowd as they all went out for seafood and I got to feed my soul.  It is on auction on ebay for the low start price of $39 with free shipping.  To bid

Scott's Pretty Vangoghish Landscape

I know, I usually only post my own work but this time I am posting one of my favorite student's work.... My husband, Scott.  He has been studying w me for about a year now.  He has finally graduated to have some paintings that are worthy of selling after only a very short time, I might add... Anyways he has sold one already and is on the way to selling a 2nd one this week as it has a bid on it in my ebay gallery.  This one is also in the ebay gallery with a low starting bid of $45 and no reserve.  It is hanging in our kitchen right now and I love to see it there but would be happy to let it go to just the right person :-).
To Bid
To visit my blog
To visit my zazzle store

Big sale on ebay

I just finished having a huge sale at my house.  It reminds me of the old " Little Rascals" series that we watched, growing up.  My artsy, craftsy girlfriends and I got together and decided that we needed to raise a little cash and so we said, " Let's put on a show! "  An art/craft show, that is.  I opened the house from top to bottom and we all set up in every spare room and on top of every spare surface.  We had handmade, Cherokee baskets, hand made ceramic, beaded jewelry, tons of paintings, soaps and more.  After it was all over I decided to extend the sale of smaller items to my ebay auction site where this one is listed for only $29 with no reserve!  Lots more at bargain prices too.
To Bid
To visit my store where you can purchase aprons, cups, bags w my designs

A great sale at our house this weekend

14 artists, Holiday Sale

Open Studio on Sunday, Dec 2nd  from 12-4:30 at our house.  Drop by 1135 N Denver
Can't make it?  Check Doran Gallery or Philbrook Art Museum and Equality Center for more of my paintings.

My book on Painting the Still Life is now available on Kindle Just in time for Christmas

link to my book on Kindle

Group of Little Paintings

I try to keep a collection of these up on my ebay site and one, a week on auction there.  I love how they look in groups and thought I would take a pic of them together.

My cheery little studio

                                                    cleverly disguised as a kitchen :-)

Oklahoma Tornado

This is an original oil painting on stretched 11x14 canvas. 

One of my favorite subjects is the ever changing, massive, Oklahoma Sky.  I have the best tornado dreams.  Maybe because I have been in spittin' distance from 3 of them and lived to tell the tale.  Well this one was a little further away but still.....
We saw this coming home from a day at the creek.  We pulled over just long enough to snap a couple of photos and then we hightailed it out of there.
This painting just came home from gracing the Governor's Gallery at the Oklahoma State Capital.
The full price for the painting is $300 and can be purchased in my ebay gallery for that price if there are no other bids.  There is no reserve on the auction :-)To Bid
To my Blog
To my Store

SOLD! Pallet Knife Experiment

I love painting the Oklahoma skies.  On this painting I wanted to experiment with the use of a pallet knife, which was used on the sunlit wheat fields in the foreground.  I listed this on ebay this morning for a bid ( with no reserve ) for only $49.
To bid
My Blog
My Store

My Ebay Gallery

SOLD! Cowgirls 16x20 oil on canvas

 Original  Oil Painting by Margaret Aycock.  

This is an original oil painting on stretched 16x20 canvas.  I live in Oklahoma and I have grown to love the west.  I decided to do a little still life that might center around a female for a change.  I imagined a young girl who loves the great outdoors, horses and the rodeo.... and perhaps a cowboy :-)  Just for a little whimsey, I included my husband's old cowboy and Indian plastic figures.

To bid  

My Ebay Gallery 

My Store

Miss Tess band to visit for a house concert

You all may or may not know that we have 1-3 house concerts at our home each month.  This month we are hosting a really cool band called Miss Tess.  You can check out our schedule on http://houseconcertsunlimited.com  We have such fun!

A walk in the Osage

Yesterday was magic.  The weather was as close to perfect as it could be and I felt a need to get out into nature.  Since my husband, Scott, is also a painter now, we both decided to take our painting supplies and head down the road to a parcel of land that we have access to.  As luck would have it, we brought most of the supplies but realized we left our brushes back at home.  As we walked for hours we talked about all the beauty we might have missed, had we plunked our selves down in front of one of these beautiful scenes.  Instead we got tons of exercise, explored new paths, saw 9 turkeys and countless deer, gathered wild, red berried branches from holly bushes to bring home to grace our table.  Who knows though... some of these photos will probably become paintings as we are kind of on a roll with Oklahoma landscape paintings.

SOLD Yet another painting of garlic 6x6 oil

I am really having fun with these.  I had a commission for a painting of garlic and now I am on a roll.  It is fun!  Anyways I have a couple of these on sale on ebay through my auction site there.  If you want to bid 

Click Here

If you would like to visit my blog Click Here

My Zazzle Store Click Here

And, just for fun:

Garlic Cooking Apron by Margaret Aycock by MargaretAycockDesign
Make custom print aprons at zazzle.com

Vampire Cure 6x6 oil

I have had garlic around for many years and have yet to have a problem with vampires.  Actually I had a commission for a painting of garlic and I couldn't help myself... had to do a few little ones.  This is a 6x6 oil on canvas.  It is on auction this week starting at $55 with no reserve.
to bid
To visit my ebay gallery
My Blog
My Zazzle store

Just for fun... between tenants

Basement Apt Historic Brady Heights

Book Online

Find a place to stay in Tulsa

We usually have a renter in our basement apartment but our next renter isn't moving in until November.  A friend down the street has listings on air b&b.  I thought we would try it.  If you are in our neck of the woods, we have the welcome mat out.

Persimmons, Oil on canvas 6x6 ( SOLD 2 persimmon painting

So I went to Arkansas to my husband's 40th class reunion and " all got was this Tee Shirt "  ... not really... I found a bunch of persimmons and after a few tastes, I decided to bag some up and bring them home for later.  As often is the case.... I decided to paint some of them before eating.  I sold the first  little painting last week and am posting this one now on my ebay site.  If you want to bid, click here
My blog

My Zazzle Store

SOLD! Wild Persimmons 6x6 oil on canvas

We went to my husband's 40th high school reunion this weekend and I can say that I came home with fodder for paintings... wild persimmons.  This is a 6x6 oil on canvas.  on auction this week on my ebay site.
To bid click here

My Store

SOLD! What Oklahoma Does Best!

This is what Oklahoma does best... Skies... This is a 16 x 20 Oil on Canvas by me, Margaret Aycock.
To Bid : click here
My Store:  click here

A painting and song honoring 911

This is a painting that is hanging in the Governor's Gallery in OKC right now and is coming home next week.  It is on my ebay gallery site at http://midwest-fine-art.com if you wish to purchase it.

My husband wrote a song that goes with the painting and was written about a couple living in NYC during 911.  It is a beautiful song.  Give it a listen today.  Grab the tissues though.  http://youtu.be/AA4iUOdovH4

TCC Blog Assignment

You should be all caught up on your blogs by Tuesday. 
I need to see
all of your classmates' blogs listed on your site
A well written intro
photos and descriptions IN ORDER
all notes taken during class
Remember there are bonus points for visiting an art gallery/event over the weekend.  Write one paragraph about what you saw, liked etc.

SOLD! Oklahoma Lavender Fields 8x10 sketch

I joined a couple of different photos to create this painting while demonstrating to my students the process of painting a landscape.  I took photos from the lavender fields in Lenard OK and combined them w an old oil rig road that takes one out to the Osage Hills.  To bid on this painting ( priced very low w no reserve ) click here
To visit my blog where you can purchase instructional DVDs, my book and read about my life as an artist: click here

a new review of the show

Works by Tulsa artist on view at Oklahoma State Capitol | NewsOK.com

Jonquils 6x6 oil

This little painting was completed in the Spring. I just put it on auction this week with a portion of the proceeds going to the American Red Cross.  The Red Cross is helping our neighbors out a lot right now with all the fires that have burned over 600 homes to the ground just down the road from us.  To bid click here

my new zazzle store

Quiet River Bank 8x10 oil

I wish I could figure out how to photograph darks in a landscape so they come out right.  I have completed several little paintings of scenes along this river and none of the photos do any of them justice.  This one is on ebay auction this week, however.  You can bid on it here and enter into my ebay gallery. 

That's my Boy!

Jesse Aycock's new album draws in icons

Jesse Aycock rehearses in Church Studio while preparing his latest album, which was recorded in March. NEAL CASAL/Courtesy

By JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
Published: 8/11/2012  2:07 AM
Last Modified: 8/11/2012  4:11 AM

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Related story: Guitarist finds time to help out Tulsan.

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Tulsa singer-songwriter Jesse Aycock says there's sometimes a cosmic energy that brings things together exactly when they're supposed to.

"You can't plan this. I couldn't have planned this," he said recently.

Aycock is adding the finishing touches to an album he recorded at Church Studio earlier this year. It includes a constellation of stars - several of them his idols.

Two - multi-instrumentalist Neal Casal and drummer George Sluppick - are part of The Chris Robinson Brotherhood. That band makes its first appearance in Tulsa on Saturday at Cain's Ballroom.

Other guests on Aycock's album include Tulsa Sound icon and drummer Jimmy Karstein, Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo, Boondogs member Indy Grotto, longtime Tulsa bassist Eric Arndt and Little Rock studio wizard Jason Weinheimer.

Yes, the album's practically done. But it doesn't have a name, or a record label, or a distributor. Right now, he's OK with that, he said.

What's perhaps most impressive is how it all came together.

A somewhat peculiar incident put Aycock in touch with his idol Casal, "Way back when Myspace first came out," he said.

A woman from the Universal music group in London "contacted me after hearing my music and said I really needed to hear her friend Neal - Neal Casal," Aycock said. "I told her I loved his music. I had a bunch of his solo albums when I was a kid."

The woman sent Casal copies of Aycock's music.

In return, Casal wrote Aycock a letter.

"He said we should definitely do something, anything, sometime, anytime," he said. "He was working with Ryan Adams & The Cardinals at the time."

When that band came through Tulsa, "We hung out. We didn't do much, but we talked and talked."

Flash forward to an off-chance opportunity for Aycock to jam with drummer Sluppick through mutual friends in Little Rock. The pair became friends.

"Then, all this time later, I get a phone call from George. He said, 'Guess who I'm sitting with?' He was with Neal and said he'd just joined a band with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes called the Chris Robinson Brotherhood."

Aycock stops, then explains, "The Black Crowes was one of the first live shows I ever went to as a kid."

Flash forward to early 2012. Aycock said he was driving around town, thinking about all the songs he'd been writing, "and I was wondering what I was going to do with them. When was I going to make an album? I was daydreaming about doing something with George and Neal and right while I'm thinking about that - my phone rang."

It was Sluppick.

"He said, 'I'm down to play some gigs or make a record, man, what'cha got?'"

Within weeks, the pair flew into Tulsa - and walked into the iconic Church Studio, the former recording home of many of their music idols, including former owner and Tulsa Sound founder Leon Russell. They're all big fans of the sound, one which Aycock also embodies - a blend of soul, country, blues, folk and straight-up rock 'n' roll.

About that time, a seemingly unrelated tour rolled through town - the Hendrix Experience Tour - which featured Los Lobos guitarist Hidalgo.

A friend of a friend of Hidalgo knew he'd be in Tulsa a day before the concert and picked him up to show him the world-famous Church Studio.

"I was recording in there and we'd just finished a bunch of stuff for the day. I didn't even know he was there," Aycock said.

"It was this amazing thing. David looked at me and asked, 'You care if I try something?' A hero of mine who just happened to show up went and got his custom guitar and we just had this huge jam session and hit record."

Aycock also regaled them all, especially Sluppick and Casal, with tales of Tulsa Sound musicians like J.J. Cale, Russell and Jimmy Karstein. "I told them Karstein still lived in town - that I should introduce them."

And he did. Next thing Aycock knows, Karstein wanted to play on the album, too. And he did.

"That's just one of those weird times that you can't ever plan for."

Sluppick and Casal were soon schooled by an original - Karstein - on the "good old days" at Church Studio, when Russell was at its helm.

"It's a lot different now than it was in the 1970s. There was the gorilla skin on the walls, the whole place was dark all the time, and sometimes Leon would wake everyone up at 5 a.m. to go in and track music. The vibe's still here, and they felt it. They really got into it. There's a lot of music history in these walls."

And though there's a lot of excitement and anticipation from everyone involved about this album, this "cosmic" coming together, Aycock said he's not in a particular rush to release the album.

"Before now, I've just released everything on my own. I've paid for everything myself," he said.

This time around, he's "shopping" the record, and hopes to get help with national and international promotion and distribution through record labels.

"Yes, this is an indie album - we did it all," he said. "I'm just not in a huge hurry to 'dump' it just to get it out there. I want this album to be heard."

SOLD! Stormy Beach Reader 10x10 oil

This painting is an original oil on canvas.  10x10.  Painted from photos taken during my vacation at the Gulf Coast.  I want to read what he is reading.  A big storm was fast approaching as one lone reader remained.  I liked the color of the beach umbrellas, still in bright sunlight, against the stormy sky.

If you want to bid on this painting which starts at a very low auction price w no reserve, click here to visit my ebay auction. 

And even MORE fun!

Have your Cake and Eat it Too! by MargaretAycockDesign
Browse more Chocolate Aprons

Having more fun with my store

I will create a girly one too

Long Horn on the Wichitas by FolkSalad
View more Longhorn Belt Buckles

Pretty Floral Belt Buckle by MargaretAycockDesign
Browse Girly Belt Buckles

12x12 Fruit Stand

I just finished painting this scene of a fruit stand and noticed a little slackening of the canvas so I ran cold water over the back and set it in the sun to stretch.  I came back out in about an hour and noticed that ash from the fires that are raging about 30 miles down the road had entered the painting.  I took a photo of it but now I think I will clear most, if not all of them off.  But it does capture a moment in history doesn't it!?

I was painting this for inclusion in an upcoming 12x12 show where it will be for sale.  If anyone wishes to purchase it before then for $325, let me know and I will find something else for the show.