Safe and Sound...

I was spring cleaning in the yard and found this heart-shaped birds nest and just had to paint it! The title "Empty Nest" ran through my head when I finished the nest and I just thought it looked odd without a sign of life, so I added the eggs and called it "Safe and Sound". This was a lot of fun to paint--getting very loose with the sprigs...

Poppies in Three

This was SO much fun!! Painting solely with the palette knife is something I found that takes a lot of courage...and a TON of paint! It's amazing how much more quickly the paint goes when painting in this style....and you must be deliberate in stroke and color (you can always scrape off, but I'd rather get it right the first time. There are really cool effects you can get when something has dried and you go back over with another layer. The most fun was the sky...think I'll do a BIG sky painting next...

"Hope" is Home

I went by the hospital today because I heard that "the giant" had made it to its resting place over the mantle of the fireplace in the Wellmont hospital lobby...it is my hope that it will bring a feeling of peace and tranquility to all who enter--for whatever reason.

Workshop in July

I am thrilled to have my mentor, Richard Palomino (or Lilla Duva, his "pen" name) come over from France to hold a workshop in Kingsport July 22nd-25th. He is self-taught in the Old Master technique of layering with his own handmade mediums and hand ground paints. He will begin with a value drawing (here is one he has done of me) in charcoal and white and create the painting based on that. He only works from life and is really a treasure trove of lessons, most of which he learned on his own through trial and error. There are still a couple of spots left!

Arts Crawl on Thursday!

I'm excited about Arts Crawl next Thursday! There will be more venues this year and lots of great food. We will have live music at the gallery and Sherrie's Cafe and Catering. Go to www.kingsportarts.org to get tickets.

ALIVE with Spring!

The gallery feels so ALIVE now with warmer weather and new displays, thanks to Michael. Here's the latest one above--he is like a found object magnet--constantly coming in with "new" old things to add to the beauty of the gallery...and we just got in another shipment of beautiful Craven porcelain that so nicely fills up this latest aquisition. And notice the lavender sprigs next to the lavender painting--Mary's idea--I have the best peeps!

Come by for Earth Day next Thursday--lots of cool stuff going on, and Happy hour from 5-7 with music, wine and munchies!

Lavender Fields Forever

This one was fun...I had such a good time with the palette knife on the triptik that I did the sky the same way in this...I'm dreaming of Provence!