Sketches

These were just some quick sketches of my adorable cousin Gracy. She is a lot of fun to sketch... I love all of her flowing hair! I think sketching is important. It helps me to visualize a possible painting and keep up my drawing skills. As a painter, I think understanding value and being able to translate it onto the canvas is key. Sketching always helps me to focus more on value. These sketches were quickly done, not really studies in value but they still are a good exercise even if you only have 5 minutes!

Our Sweet Riley

We lost our sweet Riley this week to cancer. He was nearly perfect in every way. He was always happy and was eager to please us. He gave us a lot of love over the past 10 years and we couldn't have asked for a better dog. As you can see, he also was a great model. We love you Riley.

Recent Portrait

Sold

18 x 24

Oil on Canvas

This is one of my recent commissioned portraits. I had a lot of fun playing with skin tones and lighter hair colors. They are really cute kids! Who wouldn't want to paint those faces? It was challenging to have to paint black clothing from a photograph, but I tried to make it interesting by mixing my own blacks and making sure it was a rich black with some blueish highlights.

Costa Rican Cloudscape

This is a recent painting I did from a photo my husband snapped from a bus in Costa Rica. My original vision for the painting was a bit different, but sometimes they tend to take on a life of their own don't they? I honestly think it could be stronger compositionally, but I decided to leave it as it is and maybe my next cloudscape will be more of a study in composition!

A Mural!

Oh my! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything! It has been a busy spring with painting, landscaping season starting back up and getting our house ready to put on the market! Here are some photos of the mural that I worked on in March. I painted it for Sevenings Landscaping in Legacy West. (They work with my husband's landscape design firm Olive Branch). It was a lot of fun to do a mural for them and I wish them much success in their beautiful retail spot!

I really enjoyed working on this mural. It was fun to be doing something new and different from the norm. It also had me thinking of how to possibly do more mural work. It's just nice to get out of the house and do something else for a little while! So... if you know of anyone in the Omaha area needing a mural or decorative painting of any kind let me know! I think I'll be getting together a little portfolio of mural work/decorative painting soon!

Agnes Lake

Agnes Lake

oil on canvas

12 x 12

Available for purchase through my etsy shop!

This painting is inspired by one of our hikes up to Agnes Lake in Northern Colorado. It is such a beautiful lake - I recommend the trip to you all! Riley loved hiking through Colorado with us. The city parks here in Omaha don't quite compare. There are plenty of state parks around here that are beautiful though! We definitely don't take advantage of them! Anyway, Agnes Lake is one of my favorite memories of living in Colorado so I'm glad that I finally did a painting of it!

Riley

Riley

12 x 12

oil on canvas

Available for purchase at my etsy shop!

Here is another recent painting of my dog Riley. He has had a long, tough winter of not being able to properly play with the ball. I keep telling him the snow is melting and we will play again! This painting captures his "please, will somebody play with me" expression. It can also be seen at Long Dog Fat Cat.