Bon Chat

This painting is from a photo I took in the small French village of Chevieu. We were invited to paint in the beautiful garden of one of the local families. This little girl lives across the street. She and her mother came over to visit, and the little girl was very drawn to the kitten. She was so gentle petting it. You can just see the contentment in the cat's eyes.

The Proposal

My daughter recently became engaged. Her fiancé hid the ring in a plastic Easter egg and left it in some tall grass close to where he was fishing at his parent's fishing camp in El Campo. Since it was the day before Easter, she thought maybe it was one left over from last year. When she picked it up, he went down on one knees and she knew she had found a very special egg. My husband and I had been given a heads up and were there to help celebrate along with his parents and sister. Of course, I had to take lots of photos. They are using the painting for their "Save the Date".

The Water's Fine

I enjoyed watching the children on the beach. The little girl was so timid about getting into the water, even though the boy was having a great time. I am enjoying painting on small canvases.

Alone Time

The painting was accepted into the Randy Higbee Gallery fall show in Costa Mesa, CA. The opening is Dec. 3. The paintings will hang until the end of December. They were only able to accept 50% of all the submissions, so I am pleased to be in the show. All of the paintings are 6x6 and are all framed in King of Frame frames. It makes for a good looking show. If you need some frames, they have a good selection of terrific, affordable frames.

La Jolla Cove

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I spent August in Carmel painting. However, after looking at all the paintings I did there, I felt each one needed a little "tweek". So this is a beach scene from La Jolla last summer. Even though the sky is a relatively small part of the painting, I wanted to make it interesting. I used a variation of color from left to right. I love doing these small outdoor scenes.

After a hard day of painting

After painting Chateau Julien Winery we had to sample the wares. It looks like we were really thirsty, doesn't it? These are some painting buddies who were able to join me in Carmel for a week.

Chateau Julien Winery

I spent the month of August in Carmel, California in order to do a lot of plein air painting. So you will see a lot of beach scenes and wineries on my blog. I was captivated by the light on the turret. I tried to emphasize how the shadow is harder closer to what is casting it and then gets softer as it goes away. Also, I wanted to show how all the green from the vineyard reflected into the shadow of the wall. I'm not sure this shows up enough, so I may concentrate on it more if I do a larger painting.

Santa Fe Arroyo

I was trying to get all the colors you see with the wonderful Santa Fe light.

Villa Escondido

This is a friend's house in Austin, Texas. However, it could just as easily be a villa in Italy or Spain. I love the red tile roofs and stuccoed walls.

Catalina Island

I did this small outdoor painting a couple of years ago. I have not been good at keeping my blog current. I thought I would go ahead and post some of my favorites and then post my most recent.

It is easy to see why Catalina is called the Enchanted Isle. Plus, I love being somewhere with no traffic. It is easy to walk almost anywhere on the island. There are great views of the ocean from just about any vantage point.