Friday, March 29, 2013

MUSICIAN SERIES IN ACRYLIC

I usually painting in oils but doing these little mini paintings of musicians called for acrylics as there was really no blending on these pieces, just application of paint, side by side.  I have just completed 2 series of these paintings and these were left overs.... I chose different photos of these artists to use in the final paintings..  Anyways I decided to do something fun on ebay and start the auction at $37 with the winning bid getting to choose which painting they wished to buy.  If you want to bid or if you would like to visit my other auctions click here


30% off sale today only on my artsy zazzle products

http://www.zazzle.com/margaretaycockdesign
Have your Cake and Eat it Too! aprons

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Avocado

You have to paint these things really quick as they get brown almost as soon as you cut them... That means you finish your painting before dinner and add the avocado to your favorite salad ... which I will do :-)
To Bid on this painting click here


A day in the life of a portrait lesson

This is a sampling of our work, mid project at TCC.  I think it is interesting to see all the different takes on the same photo.  We use a photo as a jumping off point and change anything we want.  Fun!  Mine will be on ebay soon.  See the photo attached to the middle painting.

Tornado

I have a great auction going on in both my ebay sites this week.  To bid on this painting Click here
To visit my other full ebay gallery Click here

Monday, March 25, 2013

SOLD! A Spooky Girl

Buyenlarge 06590-7P2030 The Aw (Google Affiliate Ad)Pre Raphaelite like painting.... I call it " The Good Witch"  I don't know.... I was demonstrating portrait painting to my class around Halloween and got into a spooky mood.  This one is on auction this week for a very low start price of $75 for a 16x20 original oil!
 I combined the bottom two photos and added a few of my own touches


To Bid Click Here
To Visit my Blog

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Community Garden in my Neighborhood

I love my neighborhood.  This is what I did on my very cold Saturday.... I helped 40 of my neighbors turn an empty lot into a garden.  We had 2 huge truck loads of manure delivered, tons of leaves and mulch, and cardboard were also delivered.... we made a layer cake of 1st, cardboard, manure, leaves and woodchip mulch.  We created  berms around our fruit trees ( planted 2 years ago ) too.  We had invited a permaculture guy who helped us and guided us.  The neighbors directly across the street fed us all a great lunch... they were thinking maybe 10 or 15 people might show up and rose to the occasion of 40 of us.  Someone else took care of hot coffee and breakfast snacks earlier.  I brought over some nice dry firewood and another neighbor brought some pinon wood and we built a beautiful bonfire to warm us in the drizzle. 
 along this picket fence grows blackberries
 see our cute pavilion in the back ground?
 young folks pitched right in with us
 my bonfire is just getting rolling
almost done... time for lunch

Friday, March 22, 2013

Red Roses

Sister painting to the one on auction this week through ebay.  This one is in my ebay gallery as well.  Check them out... click here

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

more pennies ( dimes and dollars ) from heaven

Well the other day I was feeling overwhelmed by some pretty big expenses...one rental house needed a new roof, the house next door needed to have the sewer snaked and the rental house my son and I own together, needed a MAJOR sewer repair that involves a $5000 street cut!  Anyways, those who know me, know I have this little theory, superstition, that folks on the other side who love us, send us a message of love and hope by leaving pennies on the ground for us to find.  So I get out of my car at the grocery store and what do I find, but a dime.  At my next stop, I get out of the car and what do I find, but another dime!  Well I put up a " Thanks for the encouragement to Jesus, Dad, Grandma and Beverly and went on my way.  I told Scott what had happened.  As unluck would have it, Scott was having an equally bad day.  When he arrived home very late after doing the radio show he threw something in my lap.  He said " This is what I found when I got out of my car at the station. "  It was a wadded up DOLLAR!... I told him of course that it was a message the he too was greatly loved and that he should put out a " message received to Jesus, Grandma Inez and Grandpa Parker. :-)  We are still muddling through but the refrain from the old Bob Marley song, " Every little thing's gonna be alright... " is echoing through our brains :-)

Mayfest Fiddler 8x10 oil

To bid on this painting and enter into my online auction where I have over 80 paintings on auction for one week only, CLICK HERE

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Big auction this week on ebay

I will try to post a painting a day this week as almost every painting in my online gallery is on auction this week in order to raise $$ for a new roof and a new sewer line :-(  .  So if you have had your eye on one of my pieces and it was just out of reach for you, chances are it is within reach this week.  Many are priced less than 1/2 price and some real bargains at less than $40
to bid on this one and enter into my gallery, click here

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Magic Age

If you leave a painting too long in the artist's hands, she is going to end up changing something.  This painting was in the studio and got moved to above the fireplace a couple of months ago.  The longer I looked at it the more something bothered me.  It is great to see your painting with fresh eyes.  Anyways, after working out the problems in my head, I decided it was time to work them out in person.  The stripe on the ball was formerly way to bright and took a lot of attention. ( bad )  The boxes right behind the doll were too dark and needed to be brightened and lightened just a hair in order that the painting become more balanced.  So here is the new piece.  I will look at it a while longer and see if there are any more changes due before re hanging... Now I am thinking one bright marble on the box might just be the ticket :-)  Oh, I almost forgot.... I just put this on sale on ebay for one week.... at 50% off.  What a steal!  One of my favorite paintings.  I have about 6 others on 50% off sale too.  to view and enter into my ebay gallery click here

Friday, March 08, 2013

SOLD! Peaches and Cream 6x6 oil

I reworked this little 6x6 last week and posted to ebay with a very low starting bid and no reserve.  I actually have a couple of peach paintings on auction this week.  Both end in one day.  to bid click here
From that link you may also enter my greater ebay gallery where I house around 80 other paintings.  Always feel free to make an offer. 

Friday, March 01, 2013

China and Art

Well the word on the street is that the art market is being effected by Chinese pretenders.  It has probably been going on for quite a while now and I have been unaware of it.  I have long been aware of the icky "hotel, motel" art that pops up from time to town in traveling convention like sales that sell mass produced oil paintings but now these things are cropping up on ebay and some of them, at first glance, look pretty good. 

A recent drop in sales on ebay has caused me to go looking for the reason why.  Here is what I found.  Lots of very very cheep art produced  in China.  We can't even buy the canvas at the price that some of these "original" work is selling for.... sometimes only a dollar.   From my research on the net and through a personal, well known, artist, friend, apparently, not only is this stuff cheep, it is often stolen from us and reproduced!  My artist friend discovered ugly knock off bronzes that were coming out of China years ago that looked very similar to her own ( only not well made and the faces were unattractive).  They had the gall to even sign her name to the work.  I ran across others in the USA with similar experiences through the internet. 

I hope those of you who purchase art will forgo the cheep imitations coming out of China, and continue to support 'real' artists, working hard in this and other countries around the world.  Many of us work very hard at our craft, spend years honing our skills only to have our hard work stolen and reproduced in China and then sold right back here in the states.  Thanks for reading my little rant.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Quartz Mountain at the Gloaming 8x10 sketch

A trip to Quartz Mountain had me doing a lot of onsite oil sketching.  What a wonderful weekend.  Here is one sketch that was done just a few minutes before the sun set.  We had fun scrambling up onto the mountain shortly after finishing this sketch to try to catch the light and take some photos of ourselves.  Man, does that sun move fast!  We certainly got our exercise and also some great photos.  Ok, so back to this painting.... I just posted this on ebay for auction.  Those wishing to bid or enter into my ebay gallery, can click here

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Fairy Tales oil on canvas

I teach adult oil painting in Tulsa.  When I set up this still life for the class I kept coming back to the theme of fairy tales.  This painting doesn't depict any specific tale but has elements of many with the crystal ball ( wizard of oz , snow white.... )  , Black crows ( a symbol of impending doom maybe), a magic wand....books of spells, an apple ( snow white ) an empty box ( treasure, pandora... ) Anyways here is the finished painting which I quite like.  It is on auction this week on ebay with no reserve, starting at $395.  Click here to bid or to see more of my work


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Peach 6x6 oil

I was looking over some of my paintings that have been in the studio for a while and decided to rework a couple.  This is one that got a little attention this week and is on ebay at $39 with free shipping this week.  to bid


Friday, February 08, 2013

SOLD1 Red Haired Girl 20x24 oil

This began as a class demo.  I started with several photos.  a few of pretty girls and a few from our trip to the Wichita Mts.  Like Frankenstein, I took a hand from one photo, a face from another, a pretty outfit from another and borrowed the hair from another photo.  All combined into this painting of a lovely girl taking a walk through the woods.  I think all little girls imagine how wonderful it would be to have very long hair.  If we grow up to be artists, we realize our dreams through our painting.
She is on auction this week on ebay .  To visit her on ebay click here


I reworked her flesh a little and then took a photo in a darker room.  Man the color sure is different.  I need to go retake this in light!


Better.  Can you tell what other changes I made?  see below for answer :-)
I took a little bit of hair off the top and left side.  I took a tiny bit off the chin and added a little to the left side of the forehead and left cheek.  I also brought a hint of blue further out to the left to suggest a portion of her dress.  I feel better.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Creativity Bleeds into the Garden "Bed"

A couple of months ago we got rid of a single bed and were left with the problem of the wooden box springs.   I first used them to put on new plants with a glass window on top as a cold frame in the garden.  I have sense given it a new look and decided to use it for its original purpose.... kind of.... as a "bed"  What I decided to do is create a slightly raised bed in my vegetable garden .  Here is how I did it.
 Step one.... and now I wish I hadn't already taken off the cardboard... remove all the fabric covering.
 I had some old fencing and scrap lumber laying around and used them for nailing to the sides.
 Here is the spot where it will rest.  First I will remove the mulch and flatten bed.
 Next I took a bunch of newspapers and cardboard boxes and flattened them out and stuck them under the box.

Then I threw in a bunch of compost and a little garden topsoil, complete with some nice earth worms and hopefully void of cutworm eggs or other nasty beasts.  I will continue to fill the bed with top soil, composted material and perhaps a little cow manure and peat.  I plan on having my little girl dream come true with a canopy bed in the near future as I will start with some cool weather crops and root veggies and ease on into  the summer with squash.  I plan to use a row cover to keep out the evil moths who lay eggs for squash vine borer.  I will beat them yet.

 Dead of winter veggies starting... Lettuce.

Friday, February 01, 2013

e books, my book is available

Just in case you don't already know... my book on oil painting is available for download through createspace and amazon.  I keep noticing more and more artists using tablets while painting and so I have made my book available in that format for those of you who find that is the way you learn best.  My book has great info for those of you who are  trying to learn the craft of oil painting.  The techniques in my book can be transferred  to portrait painting and landscape... the same principals apply.  For those of you who prefer to work with a video, those are available for download too... through createspace and amazon.  You can also order the hard copy, hold in  your little hand stuff from me through this website. 

Make me an offer!... on or off ebay

Just to let you art lovers know that you can always make an offer on anything you see on my Ebay website.  I know that some of these paintings are out of reach for some of my buyers... heck, I can't afford to buy art... BUT.... I am always up for a good deal.... a great barter...so shop on! http://midwest-fine-art.com

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Ruby's Slippers

I don't claim to be a tango dancer but I have a lot of fun trying to become one.  This painting was inspired by the tango and by the receipt of the dancing shoes once owned by my husband's Grandma Ruby.... Thus the title, Ruby's Slippers... To bid on this painting click here 


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Vintage Green Vase

This fall I went to a garage sale and came across this great little green vase.  I have been wanting to paint it for a while and thought I would set up a still life with it and some of the porcelain dolls I picked up as well.  The dolls scared the students... ( not scared like Steven King scared, scared like " I can't do this... , " scared.  Anyways I took the great dolls out and painted out a tea cup that was in it for a while and all in all came up with a very pleasing study!    This painting is 20x16 on stretched canvas.
 To Bid click here

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Remember When

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