The sheer joy that these bring to their owners is something to behold. I just love watching people light up when they see them! Each one (except for the collie) is 2×2 inches. The collie is 2.5×3.5 inch.
Each of these little sweethearts measures 2×2 inches. I especially enjoy painting them on the black background. They just have more pizazz some how. Most of these were done as little Christmas ornaments but I guarantee that the owners don’t put them away after the holidays.
These are a few miniature pet portraits that I did by commission. For some reason I really enjoy doing pets in this very tiny format. the Shepherd is 4×4 inch, the puppy is 2.5×3.5 and the cat (belongs to my daughter) is only 2×2 inch. It is possible to learn an awful lot when doing a tiny subject.
This time I worked on more challenging mountain views from the back yard. I tried these views many times with a variety of success and failure. The pic on the left, I feel is more of a success, and the one on the right sort of ok. It is very tricky to learn to paint lots of tree branches, especially when they are covering distant objects that are peaking through them. The process of learning can sometimes seem insurmountable. There are times when one wants to just totally give up. It is very important to realize that the learning process is a long journey. Personally, when I started painting many years ago, I determined that I was going to do my very best to enjoy all the steps along the way. For the most part, I can say that I do enjoy it. But every once in a while there has been times of absolute discouragement and frustration. It’s imperative to push on through these time and not to give up. Sometimes I go back to a so called failed attempt and re work it. Overall I have learned a lot from this process. But once in a while I just have to toss the picture because it is too frustrating to look at any more (= That’s just the way it goes. And everyone goes through these times.
These are two more attempts at painting the mountains in my front yard en plein air. I really like the lighting that I was able to capture in the first one. It looks really warm and filled with light bouncing off other areas. The paintings are oil on board and measure 6×6 and 6×8 which are good sizes to use when beginning to learn to paint outside.
It would be possible to paint these mountains many, many times without ever repeating the look. They look a bit different every single day. So I actually took advantage of this fact to get in some practice using my outdoor painting set up. I definitely was learning a lot.
I tried plein air for the first time in 2020 and definitely fell in love with it. Other things took precedence over getting outside as much as would have liked but I made it a goal to get out a lot more in 2021. Early in the year I got out a lot then our weather turned very rainy, but I will share several of my experiences in the next few posts.
Here is one of my experiences getting outside to paint en plein air (meaning on location or out on location). This is Thunder Mountain which is right outside my front windows. So I did this in the front yard. It was helpful to get some practice close to home as I was leaning. It is very challenging to paint outside. So small steps can make it a lot more manageable.
My studio window looks out over our vegetable garden and on this particular, and rare sunny morning, I just had to capture the intense warm light shed upon it. I love the changing light on it whether it is cloudy or sunny, but this was irresistible! It is 6×6 oil on gesso board
And they all get a beautiful wooden frame handmade by my wonderful husband
I would love it if you would take some time to browse the galleries of my paintings. You can find paintings that are currently available to purchase on Daily Paintworks.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook.
This is my newest painting of a small boat launch in Juneau called Amalga Harbor. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we were going out to get some crab. I could not resist the contrasting warm light on the distant hill with the cool colors in the shady snow areas.
