“One After The Other”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $550.00 USD

I was able to find another rose to paint in a friend’s yard. This time a tea rose and not a lowly climber. Cool nights have not yet put them into dead flower shock…

“Late Season Rambler”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $550.00 USD

The late rose season has been long this year. By now frost has usually had its way with any flowers still in bloom. Here and there in sheltered corners a bud or two attempt to unfurl their colors…

“Magnolia Muse”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $550.00 USD

I sketched this the other week but just could not finish it until now. The magnolias bloom, flower and fade so fast that I knew to go back to complete this would be pointless….

“Magnolia Jungle”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Regularly painting for 5 years without much of a break, I am back to my palette after a month of not working. It was nice to not have the daily pressure of creating, but I did miss painting spring this year…

“The Rose Roof”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

This painting was started last year. I could never find the light I wanted to be able to finish it. This day I went up there as fog started lazily drifting in and I was able to combine my earlier vision with today’s reality (obviously the roses were from the earlier attempt). It always feels good to finish a painting even after time has past…

“The Bend”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

This was the third day I have spent down at the Bend farm painting. The first day was mainly exploring as it is partially surrounded by bush/forest. The second day I was on tenterhooks from sun-up onward as rain came and went. After finding a very ripe blackberry patch and having to run to a big old gum tree for shelter, I ended up painting this from inside the horse run-in shed out of the rain drops…

“Winter Hibiscus”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

It’s wonderful to have a flower pop in front of me unexpectedly. I was painting china in the hutch the other day. When I walked into the next room, this hibiscus stood out like a house on fire. I couldn’t wait to finish what I was doing to get to this blossom…

“Late Bloomer”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I wandered about at the Polly Hill Arboretum this evening scouting for subject matter. I found only one bloom from the bigleaf magnolia cultivar. This is one of my favorite magnolias, Magnolia Macrophylla “Julian Hill”. The leaves are almost a foot wide and sometimes almost 2 feet long with giant blooms 18 inches wide! It was just past ripe and the weather had begun what would become a long, slow spitting contest which carried on through sunset. When I returned emptyhanded to my studio, I looked in my unfinished pile and found this magnolia I had started a while ago. The visit to the arboretum had given me the right idea on how to finish this piece…

“Spring In The Air”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I was introduced to this yellow blossoming magnolia tree a week and a half ago. I have been watching and patiently waiting for the full bloom to come. I received the email early this morn that today was my day. I have not been disappointed. It is a magnificent creamy yellow citricy color, quite different from the whites and the pink blush white blossoms I usually have painted. A real challenge to create out of a limited value range of yellows and still stay on track. There are no pure white highlights, but the lightest light yellows. I did cheat and put in 2 areas of white on top of the yellow highlights just to give it a final push against the subtler darker yellow values. But they do not read as pure white as the traces of the underpainting of yellow contaminate the attempt…

“Old Chilmark Quince”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I have been chicken sitting for some friends. This house actually is part of the chicken sitting job. Inside lives a very sweet Maine Coon Cat, who, coincidently, needed some sitting, too. My marching orders were: feed everybody and leave them in their respective domiciles. Yesterday was my first day “on the job”. Today, when I returned (and it was a beautiful day in case no one noticed) I just couldn’t find it in me to again leave the chickens crowded up in their small chicken coop. Neither could I leave the cat locked up in an empty house all day and night. So I liberated everybody. And then I realized I would have to hang around until dark because you just can’t tell a chicken what to do and when to do it. And a cat? Are you kidding! So I got out my gear and set up shop and did this painting of the quince in bloom with the house behind. And, yes, the kitty stayed right near me the whole time and no red tail hawks swooped in for the kill. I packed up my paints at dusk and cat and I couldn’t find the chicks. But there they were, all ready for bed on their roosts in the coop. I think I was lucky…