Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Three

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"Lemon Slices"

Oil, 6" x 6" on stretched canvas

$200.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me


#23 - I have always been blonde. In fact the first time I "lightened" my hair was last year.

It is also true that I have never used lemons to lighten my hair either. The only lightening technique was the natural sun for the first 54 years of my life. Last year I finally broke down. Thank heavens! And truth be told, I love getting my hair highlighted!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.

 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty Two

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"Waiting for the Vodka"

Oil, 6" x 6" on stretched canvas

$200.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me


#22 - I own four meyer lemon trees.

That's right. We have four meyer lemon trees. Three are planted in South Pasadena and one is in Ventura. And why do I have so many meyer lemon trees? I love cooking with lemons. My favorite salad dressing is Meyer Lemon Dressing. And, I love meyer lemons in my vodka tonics. It's that simple.

One of my students in my workshop here in Ventura told me today that I can freeze the lemons. She said to slice them with a mandolin, lay them on parchment paper and freeze them. Once they are frozen just put them in a zip lock bag. I am so excited about this because some months I have 20 lemons and other months I have none. What a terrific idea!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.

 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty One

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"The Mighty Six"

Oil, 6" x 6" on stretched canvas

$200.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me


#21 - I paint with a limited palette.

And this painting represents my color palette.These are the six colors I use to mix the colors for every one of my paintings. They are, from left to right, Pthalo Green, Sap Green, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Yellow Medium. That's it! So all of the colors you see in my paintings are mixed from some or all of these six colors.

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.

 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Twenty

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"Enchanting Eiffel"

Oil, 11" x 14" on stretched canvas

$750.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me


#20 - My favorite city in Europe is Paris. 

If you are ever in Paris you must take the two hour bike ride city tour that starts at the base of the Eiffel Tower. It's a a wonderful and easy ride and such a great way to see the highlights of the city. If you are flying straight in to Paris from the U.S. I highly recommend you take the bike ride/tour on your arrival day. It's the best cure for jet lag that I know!

This is day twenty of the Thirty Day Challenge. We are two thirds of the way done!!!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.

 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Nineteen

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"Two For Tea"

Oil, 8" x 10" on stretched canvas

$400.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#19 - I am an antique flea market junkie. And one of my favorite things to "hunt" for is silver. 

About twenty years ago I discovered the Rose Bowl Antique Flea Market. Then I found the Long Beach Antique Flea Market. I even made a trip to Brimfield which, by the way, is amazing. A year ago I found the Ventura Antique Flea Market. I hesitate to even write this but it is an undiscovered treasure. Prices are cheap and it seems that every time I find a great treasure. Plus, it's every week ... every Wednesday. I love that!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.
 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Eighteen

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"Hungry Cows"

Oil, 36" x 36" on stretched canvas

$1750.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#18 - When I was ten years old I fed a cow a bunch of plants one day. At the time I didn't realize I was feeding him poison oak. I ended up in the hospital. 

Unfortunately I have no idea what happened to the cow.

My girlfriend and I were at the local creek and there were two of the cutest cows just hanging out at the fence. They looked hungry so we fed them. Four days later I had poison oak on about 75% of my body. It was between my fingers, in my eyelids and just about everywhere else. It was brutal. But I  still feel bad about the cows.

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.
 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Seventeen

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"Floating Trio"

Oil, 24" x 24" on stretched canvas

$1450.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#17 - It's not the boats I like to paint, it's the reflections.

Gotcha! You all thought I loved to paint boats. But it's really the reflections that I enjoy painting. I also love painting silver because it's all reflections. Most of my paintings have some kind of a reflection in them ... just saying.

Tomorrow is the last day of my "Painting Large Workshop". I am blessed with an amazing group of women in my workshop. They are talented, fun and really inspiring! We painted these boats and then this afternoon moved on to large cow paintings. I am very excited to see these finished paintings. Plus, we have survived the heat (106 today) and the fake snow in front of our house from the filming. I am not sure how they are going to get all of the fake snow out of the inside of my house. It is everywhere. Ugh!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more. 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Sixteen

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"Lonely Pear"

Oil, 6" x 6" on stretched canvas

$200.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#16 - My favorite fruit to paint is a pear.

I love painting pears. They are fun to paint because they have so many different surfaces. I love the shadows, odd shapes and changes in colors and temperatures of a pear. I have probably painted as many pears as boats in my art career. I love painting a small pear painting on the first day of my workshops.

Today I started teaching a three day "Painting Large" workshop and we started out with a quick and small painting. Of course we painted a pear and it was fun and fast! Painting a small painting is a great way to practice painting with a palette knife. Of course the color mixing took way longer than painting the actual painting!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Fifteen

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"Hanging with the Buoys"

Oil, 36" x 24" on stretched canvas

$1950.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#15 - What's my new favorite thing about painting? Painting large.

I have no idea why I painted smaller paintings for so many years. I don't really have an explanation. Perhaps it was fear of painting large. (I kind of doubt that was it, but it sounds like a good explanation. Ha!) Earlier this year I started painting bigger. And I love it. I wish I had the time to paint larger every day!

I know "larger paintings" can mean different things to different people. To me, a large painting is a 24" x 36" or a 30" by a 40". Any size in that general range feels large to me.

Today's painting has been hanging around in my studio for a while. I was working on it when I was going through some scary stuff. (Don't worry, it was a medical scare that turned out to be FALSE. But it was the scariest thing I have ever been through in my life.) There were days that I think I stood in front of the painting for hours and barely painted. I guess you could say this painting and I were kind of going through a tough time. Finally, today, I was ready to finish it. That was a good thing since I needed a painting to post after a very busy weekend.

My next few paintings will be large because I am teaching a three day "Painting Large" workshop beginning tomorrow in my air-conditioned studio. I mentioned the AC because it is supposed to be 106 for the next few days in Pasadena. I should probably note we are also filming a commercial at our house ... and they are putting snow on the front yard and house. Of course, it's fake snow. Nothing like snow in 106 degree weather ...

By the way ... to the 1053 artists that are participating in the 30 day Challenge ... WE ARE HALF WAY DONE. That's amazing. And realize it is all down hill from here. And just take a look at the amazing artwork you have created so far this month! Congratulations!

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.
 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Fourteen

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"In the Bottle"

Oil, 6" x 6" on museum quality panel

$200.00

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Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#14 - I don't wear perfume. The reason is because I am allergic to practically all perfumes!

I did wear perfume about 33 years ago. And the brand is featured in today's painting. This bottle is a perfume called "Lauren" from the Ralph Lauren perfume collection. (I don't even know if it is still available. I kind of doubt it.) But over the years I have developed very little tolerance to perfume scents and I finally told my husband ... no more perfume!

Fortunately he likes the smell of my hair spray.

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.

 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day Thirteen

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"Bridal Shoppe"

Oil, 12" x 12" on museum quality panel

$500.00

Click here to purchase.

Thirty Things You Don't Know About Me

#13 - I made my wedding dress. And I wore it down the aisle 28 years ago today.

My mom taught me how to sew at a very young age. I am sure she had no idea that I would enjoy it as much as I did. But I spent a good 15 years of my life "sewing up a storm". I made gifts, coats, suits, party dresses, quilts, tailored outfits, Halloween costumes and my own wedding dress.

I designed my own gown and used four different patterns to make the dress. I made the entire thing in muslin first just to make sure the gown would fit and look how I wanted it to. Then I applied 1200 pearls to the lace (by hand) and made the dress out of antique silk. It was truly a labor of love. But I loved it.

It's hard to believe I wore the dress down the aisle 28 years ago today. I try to remember every day that I am a very lucky girl. I have a wonderful husband who is the love of my life and three amazing boys. I am truly blessed. And here is the dress:

Next week I am releasing my 2015 workshop schedule. I am coming to Cape Cod, Atlanta and Richmond in 2015! Plus you can paint and stay with me in Ventura, CA at the beach house! Click here for more information!

I am also offering Monday Online Studio painting classes beginning October 2014! Join me each month as we paint boats, roosters, glass, beach scenes, umbrellas, etc. with a palette knife! Click here to find out more.