DVAA Winter Show

My "Butterfly Paradise" series on display at the Deerfield Valley Arts Association Winter Show at Wilson's in Greenfield.  The show runs through March 12th.

Butterfly Paradise - The Lacewing

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas

This is the final canvas of my series "Butterfly Paradise."  All five pieces will be in the Deerfield Valley Art Association Winter Show at Wilson's Dept. Store in Greenfield, opening this Friday (2/25), with a reception on Sat. 2/26.

Paysage Bovin

12" x 36" Acrylic on canvas

This is a view from Cook Farm in Hadley featuring the Holyoke Range.  I started this painting in the fall and finally got around to finishing it.

Butterfly Paradise - Blue Morpho

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas

I'm having fun with this series!

Butterfly Paradise - Cairns Birdwing

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas

My second butterfly!  I'm very happy with how loose this painting is.  Given this is my third painting in the series, I see how the experience of painting similar subjects is so beneficial.

Butterfly Paradise - Hecale

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas

This is a little accompanying painting to "Bird of Paradise."  It is meant to hang to the right of "Bird of Paradise," but can also stand on it's own.  I'm currently working on another 6"x6" that is meant to hang under this one.  I will post a picture of how they all go together as soon as I've finished.

Bird of Paradise

16"x 20" Acrylic on canvas

It was fun painting such a tropical themed painting in the middle of winter.  I worked from a photograph taken by Louise at Magic Wings.

Five College Art Mug

11 oz ceramic mug

I wanted to incorporate the 3 distinguishing features of the area:  the five colleges (Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire, Amherst, UMass), the Connecticut River (including the Oxbow) and the Holyoke Range.  I placed the colleges in their approximate locations along the river.

 Here is a full view of the image.

The buildings featured are:
Mary Lyon Hall, Mt. Holyoke College
Lyman Conservatory, Smith College
The Yurt, Hapshire College (home of the on campus radio station)
Johnson Chapel, Amherst College
W.E.B. Du Bois Library & Old Chapel, UMASS

If you are interested in additional Amherst sites, please visit the rest of my blog.  I also have several other art mugs:  The Emily Dickinson Art Mug and The Amherst College Art Mug.

Autumn View

11"x14" Acrylic on canvas
sold

I started this painted during the first day of Louise's workshop.  It was a chilly, windy autumnal day, so we stayed inside her studio to paint.  I like the abstract quality of the window on the right and the three little paintings on the left.

Cow at Rest

6" x 12" Acrylic on canvas board

I painted this at Cook Farm in  Hadley during Louise's workshop.  It was so fun to get out and do some en plein air painting again after such a long hiatus.  

Magic of Summer's End - Show

Please click on image to view larger - our latest show

Theo & Will in Space

36" x 12" (each panel) Acrylic on canvas

These are my first paintings since Theo and Will arrived....can't wait to hang in their room.

My latest and, by far, my best work!

My twins, Will and Theo, who will be 5 months old on Sunday!

Three Flowers in Green Vase

10"x8" Acrylic on canvas panel

Here's my other favorite painting from my workshop with Ellen Rolli. This was the last painting of the day for me and I feel that I was was able to incorporate a lot of techniques we talked about.

Rose in Green Vase

10"x8" Acrylic on canvas panel

I took wonderful 1-day workshop with Ellen Rolli in Boston this past Saturday. This is one of my favorite paintings from the day. It was a timed exercise - 15 minutes.

Kool Kat

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas

I had fun with this pose (same as "Tangerine Cat") and thought to do another painting in different but equally vibrant colors.

Nose to Nose

6"x6" Acrylic on panel

I painted this from my daily sketch posted on January 30th. I worked just from my pen sketch and am very pleased it! I am planning to bring this to our "Celebrate Spring at the Mill" show that is currently running at Mill Studio & Gallery at the Montague Mill. Stop by and say hello!

Tangerine Cat

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas
sold

It's fun to be painting again!

Sunshine Bliss

6"x6" Acrylic on canvas
sold

I think anyone with a cat will recognize this expression...

Birthday Cupcake

A special family member's birthday is coming up and I've been thinking of fun images for birthday cards.

Cupcake

Just fooling around with my color pencils and thoughts of cupcakes.

Sweethearts for Valentine's Day

These are such the quintessential Valentine Day candies from childhood.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a second version of my valentine ladybug done in watercolor and colored pencil.

Valentine Ladybug

I'm making this image into cards for Valentine's Day!

Art Opening!

As a founding member of "In Sight Artists", I am happy to announce we are having our first show of 2009 at Louise Minks' Millworks Studio & Gallery at the Montague Mill. Please click on the postcard above to see a larger view. I invite you to visit the "In Sight Artists" blog link under "links".

Fur Face Trio

Our kitty cats - Sammi, Sasha and Sabrina.

Cat Studies

I started with a pencil sketch of Sammi and did a couple of studies to play around with my watercolor pencils. Not surprisingly, one study ended up looking amazingly like Sasha (Sammi's brother). I really like the combo of my watercolor pencils and pen.

Out Sledding

It feels like winter is here to stay - for a long while!

Fancy S'more

I was thinking how fun it would be to make indoor s'mores since it's too cold to be outside!

after Pierre Bonnard, "The Table"

I read an interesting article in the NY Times this weekend about an exhibit at the Met of Bonnard's interiors. I'd love to go see it.

Nose to Nose

Aren't animals great just great!

Waving to the crowd

I saw an image of President Obama waving to the crowd and liked the compositional elements of having him in the foreground, from the back, in a sea of faces.

Abe

Have Presidents on the mind.....

Clown Fish

I saw this photo in a Smithsonian magazine and it brought back memories of being attacked by a clown fish on my first scuba diving experience. They're small, but don't underestimate them!

Sabrina's Dish

ok, it was late and I needed to get my daily sketch in. As you've probably guessed, Sabrina is one of our kitty cats.

Dev Patel

What an intense movie!

In Coach

Sketched this coming back from my impromptu trip out to SF.

View from Adagio Hotel

I tried out my colored pencil with this one.

Obama-rama

Obama!!

I started this as a blind contour drawing, then added shading.

California Street

I sketched this from a a magazine article - it brought back good memories of working in downtown San Francisco.

Brithday Breakfast 2009

I sketched this from a picture Christopher took of me as I ate my birthday breakfast sandwich. I really have to push myself to keep going, even after I've corrected angles, etc. That's the thing with sketching in ink- you can't erase or make parts lighter. It's a great exercise, though, and is helping me loosen up and not be so worried about my sketch being perfect. After all, its a sketch! Thanks to Christopher's well composed shot - I really like the composition.

Sammi & The Paper Clip

Sammi loves to play fetch with a bend rubber paper clip. She is hilarious! I was trying to capture her with the paper clip and had to take several photos. I thought this image was funny, although the lighting was terrible because of the flash and that she was so close. I love that the paper clip is in the center and that Sabrina is peeking up from the stairs.

Tropical Rain Forest Friend

This guy is the reason I bought my Tropical Rain Forest book - I saw this picture and knew I had to draw him.