LIME!

"LIME!"
6" x 6"
Acrylic on hardboard
After painting the mango, I looked for something else to paint from life. It's easy to paint an ellipse on a table but a lot more fun to paint its juice bursting through the skin and onto the background. It yells "LIME!" instead of "lime." 

I'm having fun with my knife. It gives me the opportunity to explore subjects I've painted before with new eyes and spirit. 

Carol

Hostas in the Back

"Hostas in the Back"
6" x 6"
Acrylic on hardboard
Dee's flowers were thriving at this corner of the house. Ornamental grass dipped in front of the hostas and bright yellow daisies or mums of some sort brightened the foreground. 

 I gravitated to the spot in the garden where the spiky flowers stand in the back row like the tall kids in the class photo.

Carol

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Begonias

"Begonias"
5" x 7"
Acrylic on canvas panel
In the Wegner Grotto were several tubs of begonias. Perhaps they had nothing to do with the park, but they were there. I felt compelled to paint them in the final moments of the competition, and this is how they turned out. 

I like the composition and the way it turned out, but it was not what they were looking for.  It was fun to paint in about thirty minutes, though.

Carol

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At the Fence

"At the Fence"
7" x  5"
Acrylic on canvas panel
Here are more hollyhocks from my trip to Door County, Wisconsin.  They were nodding their pretty heads at every bend. I love adding spiky plants and flowers to my little landscapes.  

By the time this posts, I will have been painting in Wisconsin again. I'm hoping to find more lovely things to photograph and bring back to my studio.

Carol

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Golden Star

"Golden Star"
5" x 7"
Acrylic on canvas board
I attended a plein air event in Cataract, Wisconsin over the weekend. We could paint three pieces in the two day event. I painted this one first. It's a mosaic star at the Wegner Grotto. I painted three other pieces and eliminated this star. Wrong choice. The judge told everyone that my star would have won first place had it not been swapped out for a begonia piece I finished five minutes before the end of the competition.  I did not win, but I could have. Broke my heart. 

Carol

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Potted

"Potted"
7" x 5"
Acrylic on canvas panel
I'm so drawn to colorful potted plants and flowers this summer.  I haven't seen many roses so I'm making do with what's available.  

I found a tool to scrape the canvas to "fracture" the paint as I apply it.  It's the Princeton Catalyst Silicone Wedge No. 1. I couldn't find the kind of scraper Julie Ford Oliver recommended, then remembered the ones by my friends at Princeton Brushes.  I'm using the dark gray one and I love the way it feels to hold it and the way it pushes away the paint… but also reapplies it where needed.

Carol

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Hot Pink Hollyhocks

"Hot Pink Hollyhocks"
7" x 5"
Acrylic on canvas panel
I photographed this part of a public garden in Fish Creek, as you come into town. It delighted me in the dark, so I photographed it the night we arrived in town. Come morning it was in deep shadow, but by afternoon, when I had already painted and turned in my canvas for the competition, the sun shone on these gorgeous flowers.  You'll see more of them in days to come. 

Carol

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White Hollyhocks

"White Hollyhocks"
7" x 5"
Acrylic on canvas panel
When the sun rose, I was able to see the color of the pale hollyhocks I had found the night before — white. They were in full bloom and luscious, ripe for painting.  

I'm preparing for another competition. This one is for small art, either 4"x 6" or 5"x 7" postcard size.  I'm excited to be going up to Wisconsin again, this time to a plein air competition sponsored by the Kohler foundation.  We'll see how it goes!

Carol

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Delphiniums

"Delphiniums"
6" x 6"
Acrylic on hardboard
After painting delphiniums for the competition, I decided to give it another try, close up this time.  It was fun, but in my next painting, you'll see that I'm trying a new style with my knife paintings.  

I bought Julie Ford Oliver's video on how SHE uses her knife. I tried it today and think with a bit of practice, I'll be wielding my knife with a little more finesse.  She's the master (mistress) in my book.  Thanks for making your video, Julie. It was fab!

Carol

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Near Baileys Harbor

"Near Baileys Harbor"
5" x 5"
Acrylic on hardboard
I've been in Wisconsin at the Door County Plein Air Festival.  I've rubbed elbows with some of this country's and Canada's foremost plein air artists. They will be painting up there for the rest of the week. While zigzagging across and up and down the peninsula I found terrific subject matter to paint.  I'll be using the new material for a while to come. 

I got home tonight and painted this field of winter wheat mixed with a still-green grain.  The colors stopped me in my tracks as we drove to Baileys Harbor to see the artists on that side of the peninsula.

Carol

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Potted Plants

"Potted Plants"
6" x 6"
Acrylic on canvas panel
Across the patio from where I sat was an ice cream stand surrounded by potted plants that were flaming in the sunlight. I'm delighted to have shot a few photos of them to bring to my studio to paint.  

I shopped today for paint and bought fifteen new tubes. I didn't think I'd ever paint in acrylic after my mural painting days were over, but with knife painting, I did more than use up the remaining paint from those days. I found that I love the process and needed the right colors to continue to make art.

Carol

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Three Pots.

"Three Pots"
6" x 6"
Acrylic on hardboard
Three pots nestled at the lip of a concrete pond in a section of the English Walled Garden. It was one of those dark ponds, the kind if a frog swam up to the edge and offered a kiss, you just might accept it.

I worked entirely with a knife again — a tiny one that fooled me into thinking I had a modicum of control.

Carol

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Red Bee Balm

"Red Bee Balm"
6" x 6"
Acrylic on hardboard
I grew up where bee balm grew wild, but it was purple. The first time I saw the red variety I thought it had been dyed like the orange and blue mums for a football game.  Um… nope. Red is the most common color of the domesticated border flower, which is also used to make tea. 

This is the first of three small paintings I made at the Garden today. The others will post over the next couple of days.

Carol

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Flower Fields

"Flower Fields"
12" x 16"
Acrylic on canvas panel
My heart is back at the flower fields again tonight. I didn't put away my acrylics, and I had a panel gessoed, ready to go, so here's a sunnier take on what I posted on Friday.  I think I'd like to visit a place where something other than soybeans and grain grow in the fields.  Care to join me?  Let's...  

Some friends have asked why I paint this style in acrylic. It's a knife painting, so I smear color pretty thick to begin with. Then when it's dry the next layer, usually a variation of the first layer, is applied over the texture, like buttering a toasted English muffin.  I like to paint the crusty ridges.  Oil paint takes too long to dry. I would end up blending the colors instead of applying them one on top of the other. I'm also still trying to use up my acrylic paints from when I was a mural painter. It may take a while.  A long while. I was well-stocked.  

Carol 


Beck's Farmland

"Beck's Farmland"
8" x 8"
Acrylic on canvas panel 
I painted en plein air early this morning at Beck's farm while there was still pink on the horizon. The soybeans grew in various shades of green, depending on when they were planted, with a healthy crop of weeds separating them like fences.  

 This is a palette knife piece, one of two that I painted in the presence of hummingbirds, crows and hawks.  It was an idyllic meditative day in Hebron, Illinois.

Carol

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Taste and See

"Taste and See"
12" x 12"
Acrylic on canvas panel
I read recently that some people can taste color. "No way," you say, but it's true.  It happens by way of a neurological condition in which there is a "union of the senses" called Synesthesia.  Imagine the sensory delights one could experience in a painting such as this!  

Please enjoy another in my knife series of garden paintings.

Carol

June's Jewels

"June's Jewels"
12" x 12"
Acrylic on canvas panel
The months that ramp up to June in my zip code exist for the sole purpose of nurturing plants to produce treasured blossoms of ruby, sapphire, tanzanite and garnet, cradled in shades of jade. 

This is another offering of knife painting. "June is busting out all over" was a pretty accurate observation, according to Oscar Hammerstein.    

Thank you for visiting. 
Carol

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