Steps to create a still life

This is the process that I tend to follow when painting a complicated still life or landscape

Look what I found! Opportunities for Paintings in my adult class

Looking through the computer I found a power point presentation that I never got to give to my adult students due to some conflict in files between my flash drive and the school's computers.  Anyways here is what the possibilities are for my adult students to learn.

Hot Peppers 6x6 oil on canvas

This is a little painting that I revisited the other day..... which proves my theory that if you leave a painting with us long enough, we will have to get our hands on it again.  This painting used to have 3 peppers in it and that 3rd one, although present when I painted it, didn't do anything for the composition so out it went and back on to ebay.  To bid ( starting bid $49 with no shipping charge) click here

Hot Peppers

Blooming Vetch SOLD!

Apples 6x6 oil

Last week's daily painting sketch
It is a little brighter in this photo than in real life.  I need to adjust those reds.  I will try to post a better pic.  To visit my ebay gallery and possibly bid on this painting click here

6x6 oil on canvas  Apples

Jesse Aycock and Lauren Barth Live @ Folk Alliance 2016

Live @ KJHK Singles: "First to Last" by Jesse Aycock

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A Sketch at Dusk oil on canvas

To Bid on this Painting and Visit my Ebay Gallery, Click Here

One of my favorite places is just a couple miles from the house, through a fence, up a hill and across the fields.  That is where the yellow orange grasses grow.  They light up at this time of day.  It is so pretty and one has to paint quick in order to capture it.  This is a plein aire sketch from a couple of days ago.  I often love these sketches more than a painting that is a labored over, large painting.  This one is perfect just as it is and coveys a feeling of joy at being in that place at that moment.  My husband mentioned that we only have a small window of opportunity to paint in these wild places before the chiggers, ticks and heat arrive.

lemon

to bid

I have been enjoying these little daily paintings of one or two objects.  This one is up for bids on ebay right now. or contact me to purchase outright.

We are on Airbnb!

Basement Apt Historic Area Downtown

Tulsa, OK, United States

Charming, artsy, Oklahoma music themed basement apartment in quiet, historic Brady Heights,but just a few blocks from downtown Tulsa, Route 66, BOK, restaurants, music, nightlife, golf course, par...

Vacation Rentals in Tulsa

We also rent the treehouse apt in the back and a mother in law house on Route 66

A beautiful evening

Well this weekend I was left to my own devices as Scott was out of town, taking a group of young, and not so young musicians to the Folk Alliance in Kansas City.  It has been unseasonably warm here with this particular day rising to the 80s!... In February!  When ever it gets like this I am always in a quandary, 'to garden, or to paint?'  So this day I gardened until my dog told me that it would be a great idea to go take a walk down to the back 40 of the Gilcrease Museum, just down the block from us.  So I packed up my paint and my pup and off we went.  We parked ourselves down by the prairie garden where I had a great view of my favorite field to the left and to the right, some amazing clouds lit by the fading sunlight.  A full moon began to rise as I painted and it made it into one of the paintings.  They are both for sale on ebay this week or better yet, purchase here for $25 off each one  The first one is 9x12 on linen, on board $225

 The 2nd is 8x10 on wrapped, stretched canvas $200

Shipping is free in the USA.  Outside USA please drop me a line before purchasing.

Here's how we do it... Artistic Financial Record Keeping

Lemons SOLD!

oops, I ripped your painting :-(.... And How To Repair a Torn Painting.

Well my husband was cleaning up and moving stuff the other day and something heavy fell onto my painting that was leaning against the wall.  I had painted it on a less expensive stretched canvas.  I have noticed these canvases are very easy to tear, almost like paper.  I still have some that I bought on sale once upon a time, and will probably continue to use them but try, in the future to spend a few dollars and get the better canvas, even for class demos.  This painting began as a class demo that I really liked and finished it out.  Well not wishing to crop out and re stretch this canvas, I sent my husband to Home Depot to buy some of that aprox /1/3 inch masonite type board.  Sorry I can't remember the proper name for it but I know many of my artist friends have been using it and gluing a nice linen on top for painting so I figure it would work to glue an already finished painting.  So that is what I did.  Here is the process:

The tear :-(

Get a big brush, mix up some wood glue with a little water and apply to both surfaces.

 This is what it looked like after I put it back together.  It took 3 applications of oil paint to kind of fill in the tear to bring it slightly above the surface which was then sanded.  After sanding, I then re painted that portion back to its pretty self.  It is now a much stronger surface than it was before the tearing.  Yippie!

Octoberfest Ferris Wheel

To Bid or Visit my Ebay Gallery  CLICK HERE

font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This painting was inspired by a photo that a friend posted ( Thanks, Dennis! )from an evening at Tulsa's Octoberfest.  I loved the sunset behind the ferris wheel.  I did this as both a demo and an experiment in my adult oil painting class.  I wanted to see if the old watercolor technique of using a liquid masking product would work on oil.  IT DID!... I painted the background yellow everywhere and allowed it to dry and then added the masking product to mask out the lighted metal bars and lighting around the tent and then painted right on top of it, the sky.  It was fun to peal it off and see the revealed bright yellow lines beneath the deep blue, black sky.

A Vision of Poise and Beauty

This painting was inspired by a long ago sight.  I was a young girl going off to college and I was waiting in an airport for my flight when I saw the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.  She was very, very dark and very tall and slender.  Looking back now, I bet she was a model.  I just remember the way she carried herself with confidence and ease, a bright smile lit up her face.  Her sundress was crisp, clean and flouncy and moved prettily when she walked.  It was very light and full of flowers and made such a pleasing contrast to her ebony flesh.  I also remember her hair being very short which was something different in those times as many black people back in the 70s were sporting afros.  Anyways I often think of that sight and how happy and young she was, full of life and possibility and I thought it might be fun to try to recapture that image on canvas.  It is not nearly as pretty as she was but I had fun playing with the idea.  Because this is such a departure from my usual fare, it has a very low start price with no reserve.

To Visit my Ebay Gallery where you can also bid on this piece click here

bidding starts at $14!

I had a big artsy sale at my house over the holidays and invited all my art pals to participate.  I still have a few more fun little things for sale that I am putting on ebay.  This is a print on paper on board of a larger piece that I did for the Oklahoma Visual Artists Coalition earlier this year.  I really like the bright, cheery nature of my cute great niece, Avery who is the sunglassed girl in the picture.
To bid and visit the rest of my ebay gallery, CLICK HERE

Jimson Weed Violin

I have a friend who is a luthier .  He thought it would be fun to paint on a blank violin and I agreed!  This is one of my favorite painting which just happens to not be on a stretched canvas.  I just reduced the price of this masterpiece on my ebay site. :-)  To visit my ebay gallery and possibly bid on this painting/instrument click here  My pal will totally dress this out to a playable violin for you too!  While you are here check out  my books on painting either the still life or landscape in oil.   These books are full color, step by step, and written in a very easy to understand way.

Pewter, Pears, Brusselsprouts

Pewter, Pears, .. and then Brusselsprouts
This was a painting that I just completed in my adult class.  I stuck it on Ebay this morning and it is open for bids.   Happy Bidding!  Click here to visit my Ebay site where you can bid or browse through the rest of my ebay gallery.

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SOLD ! Ode to the Dusk Painting by me and poem by Scott both in our book, In Tandem

ODE TO THE DUSK

People, like fire, burn at both ends

until all that has been borrowed on this earth

turns to ash.

Smoke and spirit mix in the twilight of our lives,

and the warrior sings one more ode to the dusk,

lifting voice with the nighthawk and coyote,

crying out to the amber light and turquoise sky.

He paints himself the color of sunset.

One of my favorites Rainy Tulsa Sunday

To purchase/Bid

A break during rehearsal

To Bid
To Blog

A Few of my Favorite Things

Remember 'The Sound of Music?'  This painting was created after the song in that movie called , I think, 'Favorite Things."  Can you find some of the things from the song?
This is on auction this week.  you can bid, view or enter my ebay gallery here

Spray of Cardinals

This painting and its corresponding poem were in our recent show in Tulsa, OK.  To bid or visit my ebay gallery, Click Here

SPRAY OF CARDINALS

Looking out my window to the backyard,

cup of coffee in hand,

winter apple tree, for an instant, seems ripe with fruit. 

It is a desire for the return of spring that brings on this illusion. 

Closer examination reveals

cardinals scattered among the branches.   

Their crimson silhouettes,

stand, most brilliant against the bleak, washed sky.

For months, I have looked out on this scene--

Grey sky,

grey fence,

grey branches. 

Rooftops of neighboring houses are degrees of grey. 

My eyes now, weary of grey, are delighted by this late winter offering. 

I become aware that I am cupping my coffee in both hands,

as though receiving Eucharist.

Then, in a flash of red, the tree ignites in winged flight.

Startled, I blink, and everything is the same again, only different. 

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Stepping into Fall

 

Another painting from our show with the poem, " We Walk," written by Scott Aycock

 

WE WALK

We are on retreat—

a cabin in the woods.

Leaving behind cell phones, and computers—

we walk.

The path is wide, clearly marked—

no getting lost.

We feel at ease on this unfamiliar path,

whereas, back home, in the city

familiarity seeds boredom,

and yes, sometimes resignation.

Trodden paths turn to ruts,

roots are exposed,

like fingers pointing.

We are lost.

For now, though,

in tandem,

we walk.

me in front

and then pausing

to observe a mushroom,

or catch my breath,

she will take the lead. 

Out here, cooperation, not competition,

Rules the day.

I offer a hand crossing a creek,

and stopping to rest,

she offers me water and a smile.

Still we are cautious, but curious.

New trails are like that,

only a hint of what lies ahead.

We walk.

It is mid-September and already,

the sun sits lower in the sky.

Slant light is warm, almost hot,

as the trail steers us into one of the many grassy clearings.

On this high plane

we walk

among blue stem, cacti, and crimson-crowned sumac.

The path gives way and dips into deep shadows.

I stop before wading into

                Pine—

                                Oak—

                                                Juniper.

She steps beside me,

her arm brushes mine.

Standing there, she whispers,

“can you feel it?  It’s like leaving summer and walking into fall.”

True, the heat gives way abruptly,

cool moist air rushes up the descending path.

Stepping under the canopy

there is a hushed silence.

Instinctively, I reach for her hand and

we walk.

SOLD! Peonies