Pomegranates and Pears

I've been in the still life mood lately. These little pieces were done last week. So fun to paint those pomegranate "arils". Plus we had them with dinner and they are pretty good!

Crab Apples

Here are a couple little 9x12s I recently finished using some crab apples I found. I discovered that since we Westerners read from left to right, it is a good idea to leave some empty space to the left in the composition to give your eye time to see the objects. Interesting!

Strawberries and Silver

Here's a little 8x10 I did a few weeks ago when the local strawberries were in season. Painting the light blue highlights that surround the seeds was a new challenge for me, but fun!

Yellow Iris

A few weeks ago when they were freshly cut from my garden, I painted these yellow iris. I was really drawn to the way they all flopped to one side. They are such a complicated flower, but simple at the same time. The day after I painted these, the buds had opened up into blooms already! And the blooms only looked good for one more day before quickly fading. Glad I was able to finish them in one sitting.

Peonies

Here's a painting I recently finished of some peonies that grow in my garden. They are very short-lived and so fragile. They were in the latter part of their lives when I picked them. Within a couple of hours, they began to droop but were still beautiful. They were hard to paint! The silver urn is one I bought at an antique store and finally got a chance to use it in a painting--it requires large flowers to fill it well. Thanks for looking!

Copper & Gourd

This still life was painted during a workshop I took with artist, Qiang Huang a couple of weeks ago. This was the one I did on day 1 and I think it turned out the best of the 3. Qiang is a wonderful teacher and an even more wonderful artist! I learned so alot from him.