Merry Christmas 2022

 Roger and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the New Year.

I did a few Christmas paintings for gifts and also to show in The Owl and Rabbit Gallery.  Our son Mark cut the tree shapes for me.

The above paintings are about 14" high, and the ones below are about 8" and 5" high.

I did a few other paintings for friends but sorry to say I forgot to take photos of them.  

I want to do some new paintings to take to the gallery after the first of the year, but I am suffering from artist block and am having a hard time coming up with new ideas.  It was so much easier when we lived in Tucson when most of my paintings were southwest subjects.  I loved painting cacti and desert scenes, but, sorry to say, they don't sell in North Carolina. I was thinking of doing some domino train stations which sold like hotcakes in Tucson, but not many people here are familiar with Mexican Train Dominos.  I may give it a try just to see if any will sell.  When I decide what to paint and then get to work making art again, I'll do a new blogpost featuring that work.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year.....Pam

Happy Thanksgiving 2022

 

Here is a painting I did that has an autumn theme that I thought would be appropriate for my Thanksgiving post.

I did two more paintings for the holiday season at the Owl & Rabbit gallery. One of them is a small version of one of my favorite paintings, "I Love to Paint Roses."  Here is the original painting which I did when I lived in Tucson.  The size was about 28X15.  I sold it at an exhibition I had at the Skyline Country Club back in 2012.  

Here is the more recent one which is size 10X8.

The other painting I did for the gallery is called "Cardinal on Snowy Branch".  It is 10X8.

The other items I painted are all craft items.  The first is a round wooden plate with "Mare & Foal" and the other is a wooden tray with "Flight of Fancy".

I also did a number of boxes.  The first is a large jewel box and the rest are small trinket boxes.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Old Truck Paintings and some yard sale bargains

 This will be a short blogpost featuring a couple of new paintings and photos of 3 items I bought at yard sales.

This is titled "Old Truck & Apples".

This companion painting is "Old Truck and Pumpkins".

Both of these paintings are hanging at the Owl & Rabbit Gallery.

Roger & I like to go to yard sales just for the fun of it.  In the past few months, we found some items that were real bargains.  A few months ago, we bought this oak desk for $20.  

A couple of weeks ago, we got this Japanese quilted hanging panel for $2. It matches all of my artwork.

  This past Saturday, we got this chest for $10.

Someone's "trash" has become our "treasures".    

Art I created in the past 6 weeks

 Happy Labor Day to all.  It is 6 weeks since my last post.  I have created a number of pieces of art in that time frame.  

In my last post I showed a peacock painting I did at the request of my son Brian.  When I finished it, I decided to do another to fit an 8X10 frame that I may show at the Owl & Rabbit Gallery.  Here is that painting.

My friend Vikie gave me some frames that she purchased at a yard sale.  I did a magnolia painting to fit one of the frames and gave it to her as a gift.

I liked the painting so did another to also show at the gallery.

Since I like painting flowers, my next painting is one I call "Yellow Roses in Decorative Vase.

I had a number of trinket boxes that I got at a yard sale and painted a couple of them.

I received a friendship plaque as a gift from a friend.  The colors on the plaque did not work with where I wanted to hang it, so I repainted it to match my color scheme.  I wish I had taken a before picture, but I forgot to do that.  Here is what it looks like now.

The last thing I did was to paint this wooden vase for myself.  I painted magnolias on it and filled it with artificial flowers.  

You may have noticed the magnolia theme on my paintings in this post.  My inspiration was the magnolias on this ceramic plate that I got at a yard sale.  I paid $2 for it!  It was a bargain that I couldn't pass up.

Most of the paintings I have done recently have been for family, friends and myself.  I really have to get busy on some work to show at the gallery.  My problem is that I have been suffering artist block.  I have not been able to come up with some new and interesting ideas for subject matter.  It was so much easier when I lived in Tucson and everything I painted had a Soutwest theme.  I sold almost everything I painted.  It is different since I moved East.  I have to constantly come up with new ideas.  Hopefully I will get some inspiration soon.

Floors, fireplace and new art

 We finished our latest and last home renovation project.  We replaced the floors in our great room area and refinished the fireplace.  It is hard to believe, that after being here for 4 years, we have finished all the home renovations.   Here are photos of both projects.  

 

The fireplace was dark green marble and looked okay, but I thought it was just too dark for the area.  The first photo is the before and the second photo is the after.

I took a break from painting for a while but did get 2 projects done.  The first is a peacock painting I did for our son Brian.

The second project was a box that my friend Gay had me paint for her.  The subject was Magnolias.

I am trying to get back to painting again and have started work on a magnolia canvas.  I was inspired by the box.   

I'll do another blogpost when I have enough art to show.

Butterflies, Birds, Fruit and other things

 Today is the last day of June.  I can't believe how long it has been since my last post.  In the time since my May post and today much has happened to keep us busy.  In mid-May we had family members come for a week-long visit. As soon as they left, we started replacing the floor in our downstairs great room and refacing our fireplace.  This was a huge project and took a number of weeks to complete.  I will post photos in a future post.  I also spent many hours in my studio creating art for a new display at the Owl and Rabbit Gallery.  

Before I show those paintings, I will post the Santa paintings I did for our son Mark that I mentioned in my last post.  The first photos are before and after of the ceramic Santa I repainted.

This next photo is the Triple Santa painting I did for Mark to add to his Santa collection.

I usually do a theme for my display at the Owl & Rabbit Gallery.  This time I chose to paint butterflies, fruit and birds.  I did a number of canvas paintings and quite a few craft items.  Here is what I now am showing at the gallery.

I'll start with the fruit items.  I did 4 canvas paintings featuring fruit.

This first one is called "Tutti-Frutti".

The next one is "Green and Yellow Fruit"

 This one is "Poppies & Pears"

And the last one is "Pots, Plants and Pomegranates" 

I also did some craft items featuring fruit.

I did one butterfly painting which is a new version of "Flight of Fancy" along with a couple of butterfly craft items.

I did a couple of small trays.  One has birds and one butterflies.

My crosses are a big seller, so I painted 10 of them.  Three are standing and the others are hanging.

This last painting is one I did for myself.  I call it "Painting for Me".  I did a little rearranging in my living room area and had an open wall that needed a painting, and this is what I did

My next project is a peacock painting for our son Brian, and I have a couple of craft items that I must do for a neighbor.  

I'll post photos of our new floors and fireplace in a new blog soon.

New Art done in April 2022

 I am loving my new art studio!  I spent much time there in the month of April creating paintings for my family and myself.  

This first painting is one I did for our son, Brian.  I have a small abstract painting in my guest bathroom that he liked.  He asked me to do a large version of it for him and his wife.  This is the small 16x16 painting hanging in my guest bathroom that was the inspiration for the painting I did for him.

Believe it or not, the painting below is size 24X36.  For some reason that I don't understand. this program adjusts the size of larger paintings to appear small.  I had not given the above painting a title, but Brian called it a Jackson Pollock look-alike.  For that reason, I tilted his painting "JP Inspired".

Our daughter-in -law, Leslie, has a talent for finding the coolest things in thrift shops.  One of those things in this cute little rocking horse.  She asked me to turn it into a "Patchwork Pony".  I forgot to take a before photo to show that it was unpainted wood.  Here is the finished product.

The next paintings are things I did for myself.  The first is a small standing cross that I painted for Easter.

This "Home Sweet Home" sign is something I did to hang in the upstairs hallway over the door going into our new room.

The next painting is "Sunflowers and Apples in Basket" that I did to complement a sunflower arrangement I bought at a yard sale.

I painted a version of "Flight of Fancy" to hang in my new room over the door.

 The last painting is a very large abstract, size 28X54, that I did to hang high in the stairway to the upstairs hall. I call it "Reflections of Gold".

You can see both of these paintings in the photo below.

Our son, Mark, has started collection Santa's.  Like his wife, Leslie, he buys them at thrift shops.  He has a ceramic Santa riding a rocking horse that is peeling paint that I will repaint for him.  I am also doing tryptic painting of 3 Santas that I am working on now.  I'll feature these in my next post.

I want to mention that I started this post on May 5 but have not been able to get back to it until today. Here is what happened to delay me.  Our next home improvement project is to replace the floors in our downstairs great room.  We had intended to use the same vinyl planking we used in our master bedroom.  On May 5 shortly after I started this post, Roger decided we should go to Lowes to see how long it would take for a special order of the planking to come in.  We were given the unhappy news that the planking we used in the bedroom just a year ago was discontinued.  Long story short, it took 10 trips over 4 days to Lowes and Home Depot and another flooring store to finally find something that will work for us.  All the new flooring planks are almost 9 " wide.  They no longer make the 6" flooring we used in our bedroom a year ago and upstairs in December.  So much for having all the floors being consistent.  

 This is a big project so will take us awhile to complete.  We are looking forward to family coming for a visit from the 15th to the 20th so will not start work until later this month.  As always, I will post photos of my new paintings and our newest home improvement project.