Autumn Colors

I liked this one best when I got done and started to cut a matt for it and liked the raggedy edge, which I leave on greeting cards sometimes, so I just mounted the painting on a piece of gold matt board, then cut a matt to go around that, leaving a thin area of gold. Sort of neat, huh? This one is barely a 4x8 but I left a big matt on it so it can be cut down to whatever frame one has. Watercolor is so fun, so quick and easy. I took a lot of new fall pictures this weekend, can't wait to try some in watercolor, then get serious again with some oils or Golden Open Acrylics. I just love them! Well, I just love it all.

Road in Fall

This is just a quick little watercolor. Not too fond of it but did like the autumn colors. Looks like I got a spot on the liner. It's really not there, my scanner must have had a speck from an oil that wasn't quite dry. This one is 6x8 and matted to an 8x10.

Pomme in the a.m.

I have been making little watercolor greeting cards but when I get one I like better than others, I matt it, sometimes frame it. I like the morning light on this one so matted it and decided to blog it. It is just about 5x7 but matted to an 8x10. When I don't want to get out the "oil mess", I just sit and do some little wateracolors. I made about seven the other day and decided to matt three. This is the first one. Nothing serious and good, just fun.

Lunch at the Truman House, Big Cedar

I did this one very fast and furiously as the light was changing so fast. I started to redo it today but thought I would just leave it and maybe use it as a study for a larger one later on. This is an 8x10 oil on Fredrix linen panel. I very seldom do anything like this and it was really fun. I took a photo of this same setting in a different light later in the day and will try something from it someday. I sat in the yard of one of the restaurants and painted this looking toward the other restaurant. People were having such a good time on such a lovely day. And so was I.

Landscape @ Big Cedar

This is a 6x8 oil on a Raymar panel. I love these panels also. This is the view that was behind me, so turned around and did this one. I painted three from my spot by the car but sold one and forgot to photograph it. And of course, it was the best one. I think this one is crying for a little more help so I may add to or take away to make it stop crying. Hopefully. It seems a little "stiff" to me. But then again, I may just start with a fresh one and a photo. I sold three paintings at the show they had for us and forgot to photograph any on them. I painted about seven small paintings in our three days there, with the largest being two 8x10's. I started another 9x12 but it really needs some "brain surgery". If I succeed making it better, I will blog it later. What a wonderful experience!!

Landscape Flowers @ Big Cedar

This is a 5x7 oil which I painted at Big Cedar at the paintout last week, near Branson, Mo. Since I don't walk too well, I have to park the car, set up my stuff and just paint what I can see in each direction. This was close to me so I just painted some of the flowers that were along the walk to one of the restaurants. It was quick and fun. What a wonderful 3 days of painting with over 100 artists on the grounds of Big Cedar. This is painted on a Centurion linen panel from ASW.

Autumn Road in Cedar Co.

This is a small 5x7, painted with Golden Open Acrylics. It looks nice in a gold frame and sits on a gold easel. This was painted from one of many road scenes photos that I take a lot. Most of the time, there are a lot of changing and rearranging. I have a habit of doing too much "refining". The scene was not as "manicured" as I always seem to do to them. Oh well, that is just me I guess. This is on a Centurion linen panel. Just love these for the oil or acrylic.

Lane From the Cabin

This is a 5x7 on a Centurion linen panel. I love the surface of these panels and they are quite inexpensive for linen. As we were leaving the cabin one day and the trees were just beginning to turn, I took this photo. It made a nice little painting and looks real nice with a wide gold frame around it, on a little gold easel. Lots of fun! I sort of feel sorry for people who don't paint. When one starts to paint, they start seeing everything in terms of a painting and colors and ideas emerge and they begin to see things so differently.

Yellow Tree

This is a 6x8 oil on a panel. Again, I started out with a photo of the trees down a road and it just wasn't working so I wiped out the road, added some greens and a stream where the road started through. I had the dominant tree too close or something. It just didn't balance. So it had to have "major surgery". I think I will leave it alone now. I have tons of photos of trees along roads in the countryside that I have taken through the years. I get them out, choose one, and try to make a painting from it, sometimes doing a lot of changing and sometimes using the photo almost "as is".

Pomme de Terre River

I have taken so many photos in this area through the years and this is one of my favorite. I can't seem to capture the real beauty of mother nature but I like trying. This is another 6x8 oil. I may try a larger one later. I took lots of photos to work from and did very little changing. I painted this scene in a small watercolor one time with two little girls wading in the water. There are always lots of people around this area, admiring the beauty, and doing some fishing also.

Road in Fall from the Cabin

This is another little 6x8 oil (I just love this size to play around with). Again I started with photos of the trees from the cabin. It wasn't working, so I wiped most of it out, started again, changing areas, and just making up a lot of it. I think maybe it is still crying for help so I may have to work on it again. The fall colors are fun to play with, but can be difficult for me. Fun though.

Fall Trees at the Cabin

This is a 6x8 oil, which has been worked, worked, and reworked. I kept playing with this thing, took it upstairs and looked at it over and over and discovered I had the composition split right down the middle with no dominant tree. So I brought the left one forward and to the right and made it the dominant one. I moved the other back, killed the intensity of it so now I have a dominant tree, and the painting is not split right down the middle. Sometimes I have to study one for awhile, then "bam" it will hit me what the problem is, so I get the paints out again and see if I can fix it. It is still rather plain but I now have broken up the area so there is a dominant player. I was working with photos of the area and let the photo "take over", instead of just "spinning off of it" to get started, which I try to do.

Turnback Creek

This is painted from a smaller one that I posted earlier. I painted a 6x8 off of the photos that I took at this scene, then I painted an 11x14, sold it, so painted another and this is it. This is aother 11x14 oil. I would love to go to this spot and plein air paint the scenes around it. It is such a lovely spot. I love to paint outside but I guess I am a fair weather painter. Can't be too hot, too cold, too windy, or too many bugs. Some of my painter friends don't let these things bother them and their plein air paintings are getting better and better all the time. I find it a bit difficult. Lots of equipment to move and I have a way of getting more oil paint on me than on my canvas. This is painted on a linen canvas panel.

Cattle in the Field

Well, here I am back with the little ones. I have done about 6 this week. I go through my many files of photographs and see if I can make a painting out of one. This was just a field with the autumn tree, so I rearranged the trees in the background and added the cattle. This is a 6x8 oil on a panel. One of my son's friends liked this painting so I gave it to him while at Big Cedar this past week. So the new owner is Clay Self, who is an entertainer at the resort. We really enjoyed him and his sons. He gave me one of his T-shirts, which I will enjoy wearing while reminding me of the fun time we had there.

Floatin' on the Pomme de terre River

I photographed this last year. Don't you know these people were having a ball on this beautiful autumn day. This is a 16x20 Golden Open Acrylic. It looks quite bright as I photographed the painting in bright sun. I never quite know if sun or shade is the best. I think this one is painted on a Fredrix linen panel. It was fun, especially after doing so many little paintings lately. It is $450.00.  Note:  This painting was hanging in Fresh Gallery in Springfield, Mo. and these people in this canoe visited the gallery.  They recognized it as themselves and called me to verify the location, time of year etc.. Of course, they had to have it!!  I had met the woman at Evening Shade Farms, Osceola, Mo., where they make all kinds of wonderful natural soaps and other products.  I buy my soaps there a lot.  They have a website and you can order from there online.  Of course, I did not recognize her in the boat that day as I used a zoom lens to photograph such a lovely scene.  Such a small wonderful world we live in.  I hope they are enjoying the painting.  It made quite an interesting story.

Sycamores on the Pomme de Terre River

Well, I had posted this one before and didn't really like it. I went into my studio one day and it was crying for help, so I reworked it. I like it better now. I deleted the old one and am blogging this one. It is an 11x14 oil. I photographed this place last year along the river, took a drive there last week and it is getting so beautiful, I just had to try and make my painting better. Who knows, I may pick it up again if it crys at me again. I do that with a lot of my work it seems. It is $400.oo.