Merry Christmas!

Spiral Shells & Other Things (8" x 10") Colored Pencil Sold

Spiral Shells is from my "circulism" series, and the little pink shell on the left has been in several of my pieces.

This piece is owned by someone who was instrumental in my journey as an artist. When I lost my way, she listened to my stories, and helped me find direction. She is a special angel in my life (I have several). I believe strongly in miracles and angels here on earth.

Happy Holidays to All, my family celebrates Christmas and it will be a very special one this year.

Classic Tomatoes

Classic Tomatoes (7.5" x 11) Colored Pencil on Brown Colorfix (12" x 16" Framed)

These juicy little guys were from our local Wild Oats produce. I tried to incorporate as much color into the "white" cloth as possible.

There's something about fruits and vegetables that just intrigues me. I'd rather draw/paint them than eat them. I am a choco-holic!

Cling Peaches

"Cling Peaches II" (5" x 10") Colored Pencil on Brown Colorfix (Framed 12" x 16")

My favorite.....peaches!

Tea & Sympathy

Tea & Sympathy (8" x 14") Colored Pencil on Rust Colorfix (Framed 16" x 20")

One of my favorite pieces as it holds special meaning for me. This piece was also accepted into the 14th International CPSA Exhibit in Albuquerque, NM.

It did not start with an underpainting....I started with the background to see how light I could get the value. The little black teapot was next, so now I had one of my lightest lights and my darkest value. Everything else was relative to those two values.

Colorado Gold - Pastel

I do pastels occasionally...but I don't have much room in my little house, so pastel dust is really an unwelcome thing. But I do love to paint with pastels. Maybe someday I will have a larger studio and there will be room to "dust" off the pastels.

Colorado Gold (11" x 17") soft pastels on Wallis Sanded Paper Sold

Sweet Reflections

Sweet Reflections II (4" x 6") colored pencil on Stonehenge Sold


This is the complementary underpainting for Sweet Reflections II. I chose Dark Green and Celadon Green for the cherries to create the value study. Since the reflections were part of a mostly greenish-blue surface I chose Black Grape and Tuscan Red (complements) to create the values. There is a very light pink in the background to add a little variation to the greenish-blue background. The emphasis when working on white is to model the shadow areas, leaving white paper for highlights and pure colors.

AND NOW, THINKING IN REVERSE.........

This is the underpainting for Sweet Reflections I using White colored pencil. So instead of creating shadows (see example above), I am creating the highlights leaving the shadow areas the black of the paper.

Once the white underpaint is done, then I work the dark shadow areas with color, then the midtones, then color in the highlights comes last.

Sweet Reflections I (4" x 6") colored pencil on black LetraMax Sold

This is one of the few paintings I have done on both black paper and white paper. You can see the difference in the mood of the finished piece.