"Bodyguard" --- SOLD

This must be my week - I just found out the 2 paintings I entered into the Salon International show were accepted (a huge honor)! For those of you in/near San Antonio, the reception for this show is April 12th (check out the website for the Greenhouse Gallery for more details).

"Pears on Dots" --- SOLD

I think there's something to be said for warm vs. cool when it comes to shadows and light, especially when the light you're using is yellow (or when you're outside - yellow again). In the only workshop I ever took the teacher discounted the whole warm/cool "thing", so I decided to too. But I think there's something to it.

Today was a good day for me. I got a call from the Cohen-Rese Gallery in San Francisco wanting me to send a couple of paintings in for possible representation! They were among the 10 I submitted my work to last week.

I also (not today) got an invitation to teach a workshop in Jacksonville Florida at the Corse Gallery and Atelier (and show my work at their gallery). It will be a 3-day daily painting workshop the last 3 days in October, and I will post the registration info in the column to the right of this with my other workshops, and on my website.

"Don't Push!" --- SOLD

I thought of several different titles for this one, but my husband felt his was best so that's what I used. : ) I really like how colors change in shadow. The "pink" ground was actually a light purple, but the light I used is yellow, and it looked dark blue-purple in shadow, and orangey-pink in the light. Crazy. I've also awlays liked putting things of a certain color right next to something only a slightly different color, like these pears on green. I don't know why.

"Bull Creek" --- SOLD

I finally got out again for a little plein air painting yesterday, after probably a year of only studio work. It was very refreshing, although the landscape was a bit bleak with no leaves on the trees. I painted with my two good buddies, Laurel and Randi.

Panel Holder

Somehow I managed to delete the photo I took of today's painting (a landscape actually), so I decided to show a picture of my nifty panel holder instead, and post 2 tomorrow. My genious husband invented this for me so I could paint all the way off the edges of my panels without constrictions. The wood is masonite (with a white coating on one side here, but this is not important). He cut the shapes you see here and glued down two pieces. The third piece is moveable and uses friction to hold the panel in place. This is a 6"x6" panel, so you can get an idea of the dimensions. I love it but it really only works for these small panels. Any larger and they tend to pop right out.

"Disturbed Shadows" --- SOLD

I did a large painting yesterday with these three pears in it - pretty much in this same configuration - and a bunch of other stuff. I really liked the long shadows and the three pears sort of in a line, so I decided to try it again on a smaller scale. My favorite parts are where the third pear shadow goes off into the blue, and where the white fabric folds up at the bottom edge.

"Four Berries" --- SOLD

I worked SO hard on getting the proportions of this plate right. Proportion is especially difficult when the object is cut off like this. I still don't think I hit the nail on the head, but close enough. And now, it's been a long, tough day, and I'm off to sleep.

"Blackberries" --- n/a

So yesterday I talked about putting in the lights first and how that kept them from getting muddy. In this case I put in the darks first, and then the lighter parts of the shadows, getting lighter and lighter until I got to the ground and then the highlights. I think different orders work in different situations, and it has a lot to do with how much of each there is (light or dark), and how much contrast you're going for. Still experimenting with it and thinking of better ways to say what I mean. : )

"Stem Shadow" --- SOLD

This was a fun experiment. I did a large painting with these green pears today, and had some time left afterwards. I wanted to see what would happen if I painted the pears FIRST, going past the edges with the colors, then painting the background and kind of fuzzing the edges a little. Unfortunately I came in too dark with the background and so I had to lighten it - thereby losing some of the fuzziness. BUT, I like this technique, especially when I have a lot of contrast. If I paint it the other way around I tend to get mud in the light parts.

"Pear Bottoms" --- SOLD

Thank you everyone who responded about my website! I really appreciate the feedback. I changed the daily paintings gallery so that it takes you to a page with some of my favorites, with a link there to my blog. What do you think? And I changed "still lives" to "still lifes" ... duh. : )

As I have gone along on this journey of daily painting, I have gotten quicker and quicker with my paintings, to the point where some take 30 minutes. But lately I have been slowing down again and am liking it. I'm trying to really OBSERVE my subject and get a feel for each part of it before I put down each stroke.

This has been a great week for me in terms of being turned on to talented, "new" artists. I found 3: Rita Foster, Stacey Peterson & Abigail Ryan. Check them out.

I need your help!

I am just about to send packets off to potential new galleries and need help double-checking my website to make sure it's perfect. If you have time could you please let me know if there are any typos, bugs, confusing bits, bad paintings, etc. Specifically I need someone with a Mac to check it out for compatibility issues. Thank you in advance!

"3 Bananas" --- SOLD

This was tough because these bananas are a bit old, and fairly brown. My goal, despite the brown, was to exaggerate certain colors a bit that I thought would ... make it better. To do this I looked at my subject and thought about what colors were missing ... just a feeling. I decided there should be more green in the shadow, so I emphasized what was already there. I would like to experiment with this more ... perhaps with some fresher bananas.

"Wistful" --- SOLD

Carnations are tough to paint. I did a large painting with these the other day and thought I'd give them another go. I think the only way to really get it right is to squint at them the whole time and paint the fuzzy shapes/colors you see. It almost gets abstract then, but when you back away, it looks right. Ok - it's late, my brain is frazzled, and I'm off to bed.

"3 Red Pears" --- SOLD

My parents just left for a month-long trip to New Zealand - I'm so jealous. I dropped them off at the airport yesterday. But before they left they watched me do this pear painting. It always changes the experience to have someone watching, but I'm happy with the result. When I got home and tried to post my painting I realized the internet was down. So I waited ... and waited. We finally called Time Warner to come out, which they did - this morning. We went 16 hours without the internet. It was really hard. And that's why I'm posting this today.

"Inside Job" --- SOLD

I used to think green and orange could never go together, but I've changed my mind. Perhaps it's a little odd ... but what the heck - I like odd.

"Persimmon Blocks" --- SOLD

I feel so stupid when I have to tell the grocery store people to be careful with my produce so it will still "look good" when I get home. I can't say how many times I've said "I'm an artist - I paint still lives," thinking maybe they'll be impressed, and they just look at me like I'm crazy. Oh well.

These persimmons (finally found some that looked pretty good) are very square-ish, hence the title. I actually started this one twice. The first time I painted in the blue background first and when I tried to paint in the orange it turned to mud. So I wiped it all off and restarted with the orange first - much better. I've decided that so much of painting is about putting the paint down in an order that works well. So far I've only seen some vague patterns that I haven't yet analyzed. I swear I will soon so I can teach it!

Someone asked me recently to talk about cast shadows and reflected light. I think these two things specifically should be as accurate as possible. Many other things can be exaggerated, but these two things ... it is so impressive to have these things look REAL. And how do you make them look real? Really observe them, and paint what you observe. It CAN be as simple as that.

A series experiment --- SOLD

I tried really hard to make this series spectacular, but in my opinion they turned out only ok. I've decided therefore to post them all today, start them all off at $50 and call this a learning experience. I even changed the price for the first one that I posted on the 10th to $50. And I did learn from this - mostly that I like more color in my paintings! I'll try to say what I learned specifically with each one. (note: if you want a challenge, paint white on white!)



With this one I learned that the shadows aren't really so dark (as in "A Closer Look"), darkest bits are right around the bottoms of the objects, and that it's easier to put in the not so dark shadow FIRST, and then go back in and define the darker line.



This one I really liked the concept of and so I paused here to do a larger version. I especially like the title which, believe it or not, I came up with all by myself. : ) I also considered "Pear Affair."

With this one I learned that if I do 4 paintings in a row (5 including the large one) of the same thing I start to lose interest. : )

It was an interesting experiment and I'm really ready now for something else.

"A Closer Look" --- SOLD

Click Here to Bid

This was a real challenge! I liked the composition because it seemed playful and light ... never realizing it would be so hard to paint. But, as with most challenges, I learned new things from this. Or rather ... I encountered some problems and have some ideas for how I could do it better next time. So I've decided to do a series with these 4 objects and try to learn from each one. Tomorrow I promise to talk specifically about what I'm trying out and what works and doesn't.

WORKSHOP UPDATE: Karin Jurick's and my March workshop is very full. We even have a fairly long wait list. Crazy! One person asked me if she could sit in on the business portion of the workshop where we cover daily painting, ebay, blogging, etc. (which in the past has taken 2-3 hours to cover and is lecture format with lots of Q/A). Karin and I decided to allow anyone who wants to attend that part, for $25. It'll be on the last day of the workshop, and we'll give a more specific time of day as the workshop gets closer. Email me if you're interested and I'll start a list. Thanks.

"Love Letter" --- SOLD

I just used these roses and letter in a larger painting yesterday and liked them so much I thought I'd do a smaller one with them only. The image is a bit sappy, and anyone who knows me will say this is out of character for me : ) but it was fun to paint - I enjoyed the challenge of the dramatic contrast between the letter and background.

"Shine Out" --- SOLD

I spent all day yesterday working on a large painting and by the time I was done I had lost my daylight and couldn't photograph this small one. The title has special meaning over here but has pretty much nothing to do with the painting : ) ...except for some reason it seems fitting to me. My oldest step-daughter (16) sings a song to my son (2.5) that includes the words "shine out." Every time she stays with us, my son asks "shine out, shine out?" even though these are by no means the main words of the song. It's cute. I enjoyed painting the rose. I plan to try more roses today and post them this evening.

"Quirky" --- SOLD

Here's an odd little painting. I broke a cardinal rule of mine on this one: never make anything up. Well, I totally made up the color of this vase - it was pink in real life. But I just really liked the shape of it with the flower, and the shadow it made. And I had another green vase that I used as a color reference in the same light. So it was a fairly safe experiement. And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. My husband's already gone to bed and my stepdaugther is off in her room with the door closed, so I had to come up with the title all by myself. : )

"Group Hug" --- SOLD

Well, I spent all day yesterday repainting the 12 hours and 2 wipes painting from the day before (see earlier post), and finally came out with something I like (not these pears)! Whew.

Then today I was setting up for a larger painting again and having a tough time - when I realized that these 3 pears, just a peice of what I was going for, would be great for a small painting. So here it is. I used glass for the reflections. I spent this evening setting up for the larger painting after all, and tomorrow I'll paint that.

WORKSHOP UPDATE: Karin and I are ammending the workshop to include 20 people because - well, it's filled up already. Crazy.

"Stacked" --- SOLD

In case you're wondering, the red thing is one of the small bell peppers from the other day. I painted this yesterday because I knew I'd be spending all of today on a large painting. And I am so frustrated because I ended up wiping the entire thing - TWICE! That's 12 hours of painting, and I've nothing at all to show for it. I HATE it when that happens. Argh!!!

Good news though, I'm teaching a workshop in March with Karin Jurick. In case you haven't drooled over her work like I do every day, please check it out - she's amazing! Here's all the info:

KARIN JURICK & CAROL MARINE - PAINTING A DAY WORKSHOP
March 14th, 15th & 16th, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
At the Art Center of Williamson County in Round Rock, Texas
(north of Austin)
More details and contact information available here.

We're only taking 16, so sign up quick. It'll be a blast!

"Carrot Tribe" --- SOLD

Coming up with a title has become a nightly project. My husband helps, and my stepdaughter, Maddie, too if she's around. Maddie came up with this one. I couldn't help painting the carrots again - they're a great subject.

"Ménage à Carrot" --- SOLD

Central Market is the place to shop for interesting produce! I found these little carrots there and had a lot of fun painting them and their long ... tails? The title is another from my husband.