Mannequin Gone Wild!

In honor of "casual art" Friday, I'm posting a fun painting of my little wooden mannequin--Manny. I've always loved other artist's paintings of their studios, own personal spaces, favorite supplies, etc. and that's what inspired this painting. Enjoy!

Artist tip of the day: Paint something you use everyday.

Imagine: A Work in Progress

Last fall I attended a truly inspirational live art event in downtown Denver. It was a "Paint In" created to honor John Lennon on his birthday, October 9.

I started this large mixed-media piece (and am still working on it) in honor of the event. The piece includes some very old sheets of music I bought at a tag sale. I hope they have the event again this year--am already starting to think about what I will paint to honor Lennon and his music. Peace out!

Tuxedo Nap

To quote Jean Cocteau: "I love cats because I love my home and after a while they become its visible soul."

Before I move on to some other work this week, I just wanted to post one more cat. As a former children's library assistant (many years ago), I've always wanted to illustrate a children's book. I was thinking a "tuxedo" cat might be an colorful, interesting character so painted cat (using my trusty studio cat a as a model) and then making up the pattern.

Aqua Tabby

Like many painters, cats are, and always will be, one of my favorite subjects. In particular, I love tabbies--their"mini" tiger attitudes and amusing "striped pajama" patterns make for great studio muses. This painting was inspired by my beautiful blue & cream tabby, Dashiell.

Size: 16 x 20
Medium: Oil on gallery stretched canvas
Available for sale, please drop me a note. I also welcome feline commissions.

Sea Sparks

This is one my favorite recent abstracts. I was instantly inspired by a Gulf beach trip. Isn't it amazing how the colors and textures of various organic matter washed up from the night before look so vivid and mysterious against a soothing, silvery neutral background of the beach?

Appaloosa Duet

It's been a long time since I worked on a series so I'm really trying to focus these next few weeks on a relatively cohesive (for me) collection of equine inspired paintings.

Today, I decided to challenge myself in three main areas: Mixing colorful gray, keeping the horse shape simply, and arranging an interesting value pattern. Am still working on that last one a bit.

See in you in the studio!

Manely About Color

While working on my equine painting a few weeks ago, I was inspired to do a quick color study of a single horse.

I love abstracted horse forms and while I didn't approach this painting as loosely as I originally planned, it was still an enjoyable practice of the equine form. As I often do at the end I worked some calligraphic strokes and line work into the piece, I like to do this in pure color sometimes to add that certain sparkle.

I've always loved the color of buckskin horses--the great contrast of glowing ivory coats with lush dark points as accents.