Three New Paintings

On this Thanksgiving Day 2011 I am posting photos of three paintings that I finished in the past couple of weeks. 

Talavera Tortoise
11 X14

This is the latest painting in my Talavera collection.  I got the idea when I was doing the St. Phillip's art festival and saw someone wearing a tortoise necklace.  I decided a deseert tortoise would be fun to paint in my colorful style.  I may do a Kokopelli as my next Talavera painting.

Sunflower Saguaro
24 X 10

I have done a number of traditional sunflower paintings in the past few months which proved to be popular so I decided it was time to put them on a saguaro.

Pastel Cacti
11 x 14

This is a painting that I started a couple of months ago.  I was going to put it in a gold frame.  As I worked on it I was not happy with how it was progressing.  I think it is because I usually do vibrant intense colors and I was not happy with the pastel look.  I put it aside and haven't looked at it for awhile.  When I went yard sale shopping for frames I came accross a couple of really nice yellow frames.  Last week I was thinking of what I could paint to compliment the yellow frame when I spotted the pastel painting I had put aside.  I set it in the frame and realized how the color of the frame brought out the color of the painting.  I went to work on finishing the painting and am now happy with the results!