Category: Paintings

Kylie 💋

    
Kylie, 8″ x 8″, oil on canvas

I wanted to make a painting for my nephew but he doesn’t have a pet so instead I painted his celebrity crush, Kylie Jenner. Hopefully he likes his Xmas present as much as I enjoyed making it. I was kind of sick of doing pet portraits anyhow and this now makes me to want to paint more beautiful people. I’d love to get more practice painting people and it seems perfect to start by painting strangers before people I actually know, so I can avoid offending anyone in case I do a terrible job!

Levi & Riley

  

Posting my latest paintings…a pair of dog portraits for my nieces of their adorable shih tzus for Christmas. It was the first time I painted 2 paintings at the same time. I enjoyed being able to go back and forth between the canvases. When I was bored with one, I could work on the other. The key to doing this is to use the same palette for both. In this case, I used a palette of titanium white, ivory black, burnt umber, cadmium yellow, and French ultramarine.

Levi, 8″x8″, oil on canvas
Riley, 8″x8″, oil on canvas

First Plein Air

 
Me & pup living our best lives

I was very excited today to try out my new ‘pochade box’ for painting ‘en plein air’ (outdoors). I’m looking forward to bringing it on my travels. I love that I have to paint kind of faster and looser than I normally would. I’d love to keep loosening up the brush strokes and get more impressionistic or even abstract over time. Today’s painting was made with a limited palette of burnt umber, phthalo blue, cadmium yellow, permanent rose, and titanium white.

My first plein air painting

Secret Harbor Beach

 
Secret Harbor Beach, 4″ x 4″, oil on canvas

This is my first tiny painting. It measures only 4″ x 4″. Sometimes when I haven’t painted in a while I feel overwhelmed looking at a big empty white canvas and I feel like I just don’t have the time, energy, or talent to do anything with it. But when I saw these teeny tiny canvases at the art supply, I knew they’d help for those moments and ease me back into painting after extended breaks.

It was also fun to paint with a limited palette of only 4 colors (titanium white, cobalt blue, lemon yellow, and burnt umber)  and alla prima (meaning “at first attempt”). Normally I take days to weeks to finish a painting. Very satisfying to finish a painting in an hour!
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Sleepy Kitty

  
Tomato II, 8″x 8″, oil on canvas

Belated birthday present for my nephew…this is his cat Tomato. 🙂 Last year I painted a different version of Tomato for his sister.

6 Bridges Gallery

  
“Living Room”, 11″ x 16″

Excited that my painting “Living Room” was selected to be part of the latest juried show at 6 Bridges Gallery in Maynard, MA with other local artists. The show is called “Habitat” and will be up until February 6th!

Selfie in Santa Fe

   
12″ x 16″, oil on canvas

First portrait / self-portrait… It took 7 (!) sessions to get to this, and they were all really terrifying versions! I wasn’t sure I could get to something decent, so I am really happy with this.

Tomato the Cat

  

8″ x 8″, oil on canvas

It’s my niece’s 9th birthday tomorrow 💕 so I  made her a petite portrait of her cat Tomato

Hiro at Salisbury Beach

  
12″ x 16″, oil on canvas

I liked the sketch I made of my pup so decided to make the painting. This was from a photo taken at Salisbury Beach. I used a limited palette with only 5 colors: burnt umber, French ultramarine, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and titanium white.

Still Life with Bust

  
16″ x 20″, oil on canvas

I think I’m going to start painting on bigger canvases for certain subjects.  It was a bit of torture painting all these objects on a 16″ x 20″ canvas …felt like I was painting in miniature.