My Peoney Garden

Keep a painting in the studio long enough and you are bound to rework it.  This one is on auction this week.  a really pretty little 8x10.  It used to have a darker background but I thought the softer bluer fencing looked better with the bluish shadows in the flowers.

to bid click here  ( very low start price and no reserve )

House Concert w Amelia White and Robert Mache

We had a great show at the house last night.  We are so blessed to have these amazing musicians/ singer/ songwriters in our very own home.  Two weeks ago we had the Stray Birds staying w us and shared their music w our house concert crowd.


                                                                        Amelia White

 

Stray Birds

A naturalist's Desk

It takes a great class to get me out of my comfort zone.  I open the discussion for themes for our next painting and ask for students to bring things from home.  I love that because It gets me away from my own still life stuff and opens me up to new ideas AND gets the class involved in setting up their own painting.  I actually set up the painting but with lots of input from students... Eventually they will need to be able to set them up from scratch and come up w decent compositions so It helps to give them some practice at that in a setting where they can get input from me.  Anyways this is what we came up with using an old drawing from my house, branches gathered in the woods by me, some of my favorite stones and pencil box.  Students brought bird nest, eggs, back drop, glass vase and a few other things that didn't make it into my painting.  This is on auction this week through ebay
I have written a full color book on the process of painting a painterly still life in oils and have several teaching DVDs in my Blog.

To Bid

Dreaming of the West

To Bid

I set up this still life for my new students this past spring.  We like to weed out the weak ones in the herd right at the start.  Those angles scared some of them away but those who stuck with it were soooo happy.  They surprised themselves as their first attempt at painting ( and drawing ) in oil turned out so well.  I teach demonstration style which is how I learned a lot in a very short time, and those of you who take workshops know how well this method works.  Anyways I taught my students a lot about using their brush to determine angles, measure for placement, and how to hold the brush for different effects.  So many new students come to me thinking that you hold the brush like a pencil.  Those old habits are hard to break but well worth the effort.  You can read more about my methods of teaching still life in my book which can be purchased through my blog , and through ebay.  If watching a video floats your boat, I have those too :-)

My Garden

A little Plein Aire painting in my garden.  This painting was exhibited this time last summer at the Governor's Gallery in the State Capitol Bldg
To purchase and visit my ebay gallery and auctions, click here

I have 4 pieces in the More Color Exhibition starting Thursday, the 13th of June

More Color Exhibition at the Equality Center
You Oklahoma folks stop by for great food, great entertainment, and it goes with out saying, great art..... Oh, and it is FREE!

Little Red Barn

Bidding starts at only $35 on this painting.  It is 9x11 or 11x14 or so... gotta go measure to be sure.  Oil on stretched canvas.  Saw this on the way to my painting class and decided to do a plein aire painting on the way home.
 To bid click here

The Garden at Notre Dame de Fidelite

While in France, I spent a lot of time just a few yards from the guest house, painting the scenery around us, in the garden, the poppy fields, the olive orchards.... Here is the original plein aire sketch, a photo taken of the garden, and the painting I am working on in the studio.  Check my ebay site for finished paintings and plein aire sketches.  http://midwest-fine-art.com

A Walk in the Woods 16x20 oil

I combined several photos for this painting and added a little imagination.  I was demonstrating the process of painting a portrait for my adult students and this was the end result.  Even though it is a demo, it is still a nice painting and is priced to go fast on ebay. 

To Bid

Studies from Provence

I recently had the opportunity to paint where Van Gogh and Cezanne painted.  I saw what they saw, and like them, was inspired to paint the beauty that surrounded me on all sides.  These are all studies done on site.  They will be used to create larger works and will also be sold as I will get them all to a finished place, here in the studio.  One of these was done by my favorite student, Scott Aycock ( my husband :-)

Peach on striped cloth

to bid
The last week of class I had spare time and decided to do a little study while my class worked on finishing up their projects.  This is on ebay right now.

on auction this week

to bid

Did I tell you I have a Traveling Exhibit in France?

hahahah!  A french lady staying at the guest house asked if I could paint over a hideous painting of palm trees that she has put up with for years on her van.  I tried to tell her that it really wasn't my area of expertise but agreed to it anyways.  Seeing her ecstatic face was worth stepping outside of my comfort zone.  The added plus is that I can say my work is shown all over France.

Wild Flowers in Provence

I recently vacationed in Provence, France at an abby where a friend who is a nun there, was celebrating her jubilee year ( 25 years at the abby )  I used my spare time to paint the beautiful fields, flowers, orchards and country roads.  This one is a finished sketch that I have for sale on ebay right now.  To bid click here

my lilac bush

To bid

40% off sale on Tees and Bags

Today I am having a sale through my zazzle store on my tees and canvas bags.  Type in the code apparelbags13 and get 40%off.
http://zazzle.com/margaretaycockdesign

Mayfest Violinist 8x10 oil on canvas

Mayfest is coming up... this is a little painting that I did this time last year.  It is for sale in my ebay auction this week.
To Bid

Revising old paintings

A day to rework old paintings... Every now and then I go through my work and look at things with a fresh eye.  This is a painting that I did last year and something about it kept bugging me.  I changed the face a bit, hair, chest and then changed the arm and added a cape ( if you can't fix it....  hide it :-)  I had made her forearm to long I think but the hand ended up in the right place.  Rather than change the arm I just hid it inside the cloak ... brilliant, eh? The colors are still a little off in the photo above.  it is actually closer to the coloring in the bottom photo.
To Bid

Here is a photo of the older version

Stopping to pick berries 16x20 oil

Last year we had a wild hair and decided to check out the wagon races in a small town near Tulsa.  So glad we went.  We found a great spot to view the whole thing from a little hillside under a persimmon tree.  I got to take a ton of photos and we got to see all sorts of horses, ponies and donkeys.  Anyways... when I got home I fashioned this painting from several photos taken that day.  I pulled it out of the studio and made some changes to the girl on horseback today and then posted it to ebay on auction.
To Bid

Pears

I was recently hired by the Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council to do a mini workshop so that people could test the waters of oil painting.  Since I have practiced daily painting for quite some time now, I knew that I could introduce people to oil painting with a simple still life.  This was the outcome of that workshop.  It is on auction this week on my ebay site.  I have my still life notes a few posts down on my blog if you are interested.
To Bid