Good Morning Rose

"Good Morning Rose"
8" x 8"
Oil on wrapped canvas
On this snowy spring morning I imagined what it would be like to wake up in a climate where when you opened the door to get your morning paper there was a red rose blooming in your front yard. What a glorious sight it would be to see it first thing. What a greeting it would be on any morning. 

I'm not accustomed to painting red roses, but this one had my name on it. I love… roses.

Carol

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Rust Never Sleeps

"Rust Never Sleeps"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
I'm listening to Neil Young tonight again while I paint. His voice is casting a melodic spell in the sanctuary of my studio.  MOG is in its final days of existence, so I won't be able to access him whenever I want… for free. 

This painting of rust is from a photograph I took of a painted blue "space capsule" kind of device.  And once again, the painting shows the detail and colors a lot truer than the camera can reproduce. 

Carol 

Surf

"Surf"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
I've been yearning for my skin to be warm, moist and sunbaked. I've thought about the various beaches I've sunbathed on, and have willed my spirit to revisit them, if only for a moment. 

 Oh, to be forty degrees warmer than it is here today. Our weather is so blasted fickle.  If I painted this painting en plein air today, the white you see on this painting wouldn't be foam, but the ice breaking up on Lake Michigan and pounding into the sand.

Carol

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White Rose

"White Rose"
5" x 5"
Oil on wrapped canvas
This day turned into such a joyful and productive day that late in the evening I decided to paint a small white rose as a token of my love. Spring is in the air. Gardening is being done, muscles are sore and plans are being made for beautiful things to blossom. 

 Friends everywhere have written to tell me that it's spring where they are. They've tilled the earth or planted or seeded.  I have to believe it will happen… Spring is here!

Carol

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Fleeting Flames

"Fleeting Flames"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
The sky that evening dispersed its color with such abandon that I had to check to make sure that it was only the setting sun and not a raging fire giving off that kind of light.  

I love to paint skies with this much color and motion. Of course, as I've said before, it shows better in person — has more depth and variety.

Carol

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Roadside Splendor

"Roadside Splendor"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 
I drove through some pretty textured areas of Iowa last summer when I visited friends there. It was the peak season for many of the weeds and some of the crops. I'm glad I shot as many photos as I did. Days like today seem to beg for lots of plant matter. 

Nibs of spring greens are bursting through the soil and bringing me great joy. As I look at my Iowa photos, I think about how I took all that green for granted.

Carol

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My Quiet Place

"My Quiet Place"
5" x 7"
Oil on hardboard 
Near my home is a place where waterlilies toss their leaves about like breadcrumbs on water. It's a quiet place, but certainly not a drab one when the sky is strutting her stuff. 

I've painted this pond several times before, but it always gives me such comfort when I do, that I revisit my photos periodically.

Carol

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Lavender

"Lavender"
12" x12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
A bush of … these bloomed over my shoulder at the conservatory in Chicago the other day. I liked the blossom because the ornamentation was specific to one petal with spillage onto the ones next to it. I was amazed to see asymmetrical patterning in nature. 

I'm not certain of the name of this flower, but it was beautiful in its lavender petticoat with the painted panel and numerous reaching tentacles.

Carol

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Indian Paintbrush

"Indian Paintbrush"
10" x 8"
Oil on wrapped canvas
In some parts of the country there are flowers blooming already — wild flowers, not in a conservatory, not in a clay pot or wrapped in a clear plastic sleeve from the grocery store. Spring is in full bloom in some parts of the country, not here, but somewhere.  Oh, to be where there are blooming things. . .  

I grew up where a plant of this name was a rusty orange and not particularly … pretty. I find this species of the genus quite fetching. I wonder if it has a fragrance as divine as its color?

Carol

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Bluebonnet Pansy

"Bluebonnet Pansy"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 
It's her season. She's in full bloom, receptive and open to the possibilities of Spring.  The bluebonnet pansy was one of the beauties I dropped my hat to at the conservatory the other day. Imagine a field of them… I have. 

 The veins on this beauty reminded me so much of my celestial/synapse paintings. I had to exercise restraint as I dragged color across the petals, and not make them into little works of art in and of themselves.

Carol

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Over the Dark Water

"Over the Dark Water"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard 
The sun was setting over the cold, dark water of one of the large lakes near me. It went down in a flourish becoming a summer night. But it's not summer. Not even close. In fact, it feels like summer will just slide by with a passing wave this year. 

I seem to be grousing about the temperatures in my zip code again, don't I? I'm just so ready for warmer weather, brighter skies and for color. I miss color.

Carol

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Camellia

"Camellia"
12" x 12"
                                              Oil on wrapped canvas
I had the good fortune to attend three different flower shows in Chicago yesterday. I lunched at Macy's on State Street, stood on one of those perspective-distorted chalk drawings, saw the Tiffany domed ceiling, photographed a man proposing to a woman, ate fine chocolates and met charming people on the train. 

This camellia painting is from one of over two hundred photos I took in the course of one magical day. 

Carol 


Ribbon Ripples

"Ribbon Ripples"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
Here is another of revelation of what's going on in my brain. I just paint these. They emerge. Develop. Evolve as my brush drags across the canvas. I have no explanation for them. I just do them. 

 Once again, however, what appears to be blue here would be categorized more as purple in my mind. If you are considering buying it, it's not a BLUE painting.

Carol

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Magenta Stocks

"Magenta Stocks"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
I happened on several plantings of stocks in the Lincoln Park Conservatory last spring and delighted in their generic "posy-ness."  They are the epitome of what the word flower means to me. I wish I had a garden full of them in all their various colors.

I hope I get to see stocks in bloom again this year. While they are beautiful in their own way, they appear to be early prototypes for roses.

Carol 

Still Winter

"Still Winter"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
Across the flat prairie, the land is still barren and dusted with winter's most recent effort. It's now April, but it still feels and looks like February.

I trust there will be signs of spring emerging through the matted leaves pretty soon. Do I sound desperate, or whiny?  I'm so sorry if I come off that way. April has to be better, doesn't it?

Carol

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Ambrosial

"Ambrosial"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
I caught a whiff of her fragrance before I saw her beautiful petals that evening in my friend's garden. The air was still, and her heady scent wafted with nearly-visible wiggly lines toward me. 

It's been about seven weeks since I've painted a rose. Winter has stepped in between me and my passion for whorled petals. But I saw some in the store this morning and decided to venture into the land of fragrant pinkness, no matter what was falling from the sky.

Carol

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In Full Regalia

"In Full Regalia"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 
I went to the Lincoln Park Conservatory to photograph the spring flowers nearly a year ago. This festive beauty was warbling her regal song as I passed, so I captured her likeness and brought it to my studio. 

I wish I hadn't waited so long to paint her. She was a delightful subject, what with all her colors and completely new shapes to articulate.  I plan to paint more orchids.

Carol

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Simply Stated

"Simply Stated"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
Here's the simpler painting I mentioned yesterday. It's dioxazine violet and cobalt blue intertwining with one another, using white to pull the colors into the foreground and black to push them back.  It's really very much more interesting to look at in person, as are all of the pieces in this series.  

Carol

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Split Synapses

"Split Synapses"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 
I revisited the synapse theme today, but in a different palette of colors. I'm using a split complement of blue violet, yellow green and yellow orange. The mixing of the colors as my brush flowed from one place to another gave me what appears to be a russet.  

It's not my favorite palette, but I tried working outside my comfort zone. I would have preferred reds and oranges with my violet, but as I said, it was a challenge.  I limited my palette for tomorrow's post. Very limited!

Carol

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