Work in Progress

I am still pursuing my painting .... just been busy with other things during this Christmas season.

This is a commission I am working on and will be finishing between Christmas and New year's Day. Until then, other things take priority.

I am trying to decide what background color would work best.

Homesteadin' Series #2

This is the 2nd painting in my Homesteadin' Series. Please forgive the glare as it is fresh off the easel.

"Happiness is Homemade"

3" x 4.5" oil on stretched canvas mini

(available)

On wash-days my Mom would cut thick slices of home-made bread and add a big scoop of strawberry jam to keep us kids happy until suppertime. I think I was a little stingy with my slice .... I'll have to fix that :)

The Quilt Maker

"The Quilt Maker"

16" x 20" oil on canvas board

(Sold)

This is a commission for a quilt maker. I had some fun with this as I am a quilt lover and do a bit of quilting myself when time allows.

Painting sold!

Remember this? I posted it late September. I had painted it as the harvestor was running in our soybean field after dark. It sold today!

I was so excited! First to be sold since starting Sunny's Studio blog early in the summer. I also have 2 other commissions I am working on at the moment.

Just had to share..... :)

Back to the Easel - Homesteadin' Series #1

Finally, after hubby's third surgical procedure and us both contracting the flu, I can get back to painting. I worked on this last night.... still needs some touch-up

The first in my "Homesteadin' " series, this series will be from familiar scenes in my kitchen and around our farm life.

"Can You Say Cheese?"

Oil on 3" x 4.5" stretched canvas
(available)

Recipe as follows;

1 gallon of fresh raw goat or cow milk, heated in my stainless steel pot to 185*. Add a flavor-cultue packet if desired, and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar or Real Lemon lemon juice concentrate. Stir and let set 10 min.

Scoop into a cheese-cloth lined colinder to drain, and then hang to finish draining. I let it hang for about 4 hrs or until it finishes dripping.

Take down and put in bowl. Add 1 tsp salt and stir in some chopped or dried chives and garlic for a wonderful spread for crackers! Refridgerate. It will keep about a week.

Happy painting!

Historic building -Ghost letters

"Old Elkton Cash Grocery"

Oil on 10" X 8" stretched canvas

NFS

This building now houses the State Farm Insurance Agency of Elkton KY. This painting was done at the Todd County Welcome Center looking across the street on the north side of the square. Finishing touches added later. Available at the Harvest Fest this Saturday in Elkton.

Hen Party!

I have been known to get a little quirky sometimes and this is one of them. My daughter's and my chickens used to have "conversations" back and forth between KY and PA ..........
Seriously! ........... ;-)

This painting is the result....

Can't you just see them yakking back and forth??

I think the black one is a little put out because she has not produced any eggs to set yet.

"Hen Party"

The frames were 2 doors I had taken off of an old kitchen cupboard top that I then used for my nesting boxes. Hubby rabbited the doors and cut my canvases to fit. This painting will be one of the several I will have at the Harvest Fest this coming weekend on Saturday, Oct 2, at Todd County (Elkton) Kentucky and will be for sale there.

Thanks for viewing. I welcome your comments.

Soybean Harvest .... after dark

" Soybean Harvest at Night"

Oil on 8" x 10" canvas panel

Our soybeans were being harvested yesterday. It went on all afternoon and evening, and into the night. The harvesting process sure creates alot of dust! The small field on the right was the last to be done. The truck on the far side of the big tree was waiting to have beans loaded into it. You could see the headlights and reflections through the dust. There was a huge harvest moon shining and I thought the scene very beautiful and needed to be painted!

Days of Autumn

Our visit to a Mennonite farm a couple evenings ago inspired the idea for this painting. It was the perfect end to a beautiful sunny day. The air was growing cooler as the rush of the work day was winding down.

"Days of Autumn"

Oil on 10"x 8" panel

The old broom leaning against the porch wall near a bench where they remove their boots before entering the house, seemed to be saying it was ready for it's fall job of sweeping the leaves.

I am having WAY too much fun (Puppy Portrait)

"Gemma"

This is my SIL's puppy that I have been going to paint for some time. I have never tried this type of background before. It just kind of came about on its own....

sorry for the glare , it is still wet.

Eventually I will be getting back to "The Water-hole".....

Over the week-end....

"Pear Harvest"

Oil on 8"x 10" stretched canvas

Hubby wanted to eat these (actually wanted a pear salad) so I had to paint quickly, then follow up with photos I took. They were picked from our 2-yr old tree, and are not like the yellow Bartlett pears but more like Kiefer. I enjoyed painting this anyway.

A Big Thank-You!

To all followers and readers of my blog..... Thanks for all your recent encouraging comments and emails. Means alot to me ..... Lately it seems to just be the same-old, same-old, stick-to-it-itiveness of everyday life. Not much exciting.....

I am glad for the reprieve of somewhat cooler weather this last week, after the heat taking it's toll in the rabbit barn. Life seems to be settling down a little and I hope to get back to some painting soon. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying catching up on other's blogs, and studying techniques and paintings of other artists. Got to love this internet!

2nd Time Around ...

I had done this painting back in May, but had never been happy with it.... especially the fore ground. I have re-worked several areas and am now satisfied with it. It is from a photo taken near Franklin, Pa near Fisherman's Cove, a "retired" caboose now in use as a fishing camp.

"End of the Line"

I am also happy with the old frame that I found for it. I cut it down by an inch in width, put it back together, and used on this painting. I think it compliments the painting.

11" x 14" oil on stretched canvas.

Pea Ridge House of Prayer

This pretty little church is just down the road from us and I pass it everytime I leave to go somewhere. I love the shadows that fall across it in the late morning. The church actually sits right up to the road, and there is a horse pasture bordering it on the left. The members park at the cemetary lot across the road by the church sign.

Oil on 11" x 14" stretched canvas. I have a couple finishing touches to make but it is otherwise done and will be on display in our recently opened Todd County Welcome Center at the old court-house in the town square.

Now..... on to the "Water-Hole". I hope to get it done before knee surgery next week....

Two recent practice paintings.... revised photos

I have several paintings in the works, but I wanted to get these 2 done before starting on a major project. Both are on 6" x 6" stretched canvas and are typically shelf-setters.

I started painting this vase of Lily-of-the-Valley from my daughter's garden while on vacation in PA, but got interrupted and had no background on it. Don't ask how I came up with this... I haven't a clue, but I know I am truly blessed to live in the country.

"Get Out of Town"



I had such fun doing this next painting. It was inspired by a friend's ( Joann of Pieceful Afternoon) blog-post about a Re-enactment at Bellingham Bay, WA, and she remarked about seeing the "water-fairies dancing". Click on the image to enlarge. Maybe you will see them too!


"Dance of the Water Fairies at Bellingham Bay"

Yes, Jo .... this one is for you! I hope you enjoy it! It will be in the mail Monday.

Up-date ... a "plein air" painting ... almost

After company from TX visited 2 weekends ago, my husband had shoulder surgery on the following Wed. Getting things done in preparation for that, I stayed off the puter and when I returned, my power cord no longer worked. Checking it out, we discovered that it had been chewed on and was no longer holding together (thanks alot, Bailey :-/ ) So hubby ordered me a new cord which arrived yesterday.

Over the week-end, I had wanted to paint (like fingers itching, smelling the oils, empty easel standing there) .... but all the photos I wanted to use were on my puter.

So I just sat..... in front of my easel, get up and go back an hour later ... (needed to stay close to my "one-armed" hubby in case he needed anything) I found myself looking out the window, across the yard , through the fence in the bull pasture, into the woods .... where the lowering sun was playing among the trees .....

The result was my first, "almost" plein air painting

"Don't Fence Me in"

9" x 12" Oil on canvas panel

This took several hrs total. I had to wait to finish the next day to get the sunlight as close to the same as the day before as possible. (I am not a quick painter, but I am working on that...)

Just wanted to share..... Thanks for visiting!

Oh, and hubby is mending and was able to go back to work with his arm in a sling, on light duty for the next 4 weeks. He's been a real trooper :)

Painting while on Vacation

I had such fun doing this painting for my grandson, Kerry, who is quite into the music of his generation. This still-life is from his actual guitar.

"Kerry's Song

Remembering Grandma....

A Mother's Day tribute

My Grandma Miller has been a major inspiration and influence in my life. So for this recent Mother's Day I am high-lighting her life through her paintings.

While visiting my Aunt D, Uncle B, and cousins in Pennsylvania, I was able to get some photos of Grandma's paintings. These were done in the late 1950's and 60's.

Still Life... Grandma also did knitting, tatting and crochet....

An airplane painting for my Uncle Bill, who flew in the Navy. He also built his own airplane and did some flying demonstrations at the airfield in Titusville, PA.

Man in a Park

These paintings are from scenes from their travels across the states. she loved mountain scenes.

This one is from Lake Tahoe

From what I have been able to find recently, I believe this was a painting from a photo in Yosemite Nat'l Park.

A couple more still lifes....

After Grandpa retired from his job in CA, they moved back east to be near us. Grandma didn't start painting til she was in her 60's. While she painted, Grandpa sat and tinkered with his watch and clock repair. There are many, many more paintings she had done which are distributed out among the many children and grandchildren. These are the ones I was able to track down during my visit back to PA.

Finishing touches....

As I was putting the finishing touches on this painting, I realized I didn't like the dark background I had started out with... It was, well ..... stifling. These flowers just had to get out in the sun and fresh air, so thats where I put them :) I may add a leaf or two to the bottom just to "tie the flowers down".

Thought I would share ....

...... a couple oil paintings I have done, and my painting background.

It was fall in 1957. I was 12 years old and just entering high-school in 7th grade. Our high-school had an outbreak of Typhoid fever, and thirty-some kids in our Jr High came down with it, including myself. Back then it wasn't a simple thing to cure. Alot of the kids had to be hospitalized. (This was back in the day when doctors made house-calls!) Anyone who had Typhoid had to be quarrantined, and that meant no company for the rest of the family, either. Everyone in the family had to be tested and then vaccinated when the tests came back negative. I guess I was fortunate in that I did not have to go to the hospital. My loving Mom took care of me with help from my sister and brothers and Dad, as they all had more chores to do as I was unable. All dishes I used had to be boiled, all clothing and bedding dis-infected (remember the old Lysol??). Anything else I touched, if not able to be disinfected, had to be disposed of, after I got well. I was in bed for 3 solid months and basically it took time be able to walk again.

During the recent summer, my Grandmother and my Mom had started taking oil painting lessons from a local art instructor. And as it was hard to keep me occupied day in and day out after I started feeling a little better, one day Mom brought me a small canvas and some paint on a pallet and said to see what I could do with it. She came back a while later and I had painted the head of a horse (I LOVED horses .... couldn't get enough of Marguerite Henry's book "Album of Horses") at which she was surprised. So Mom gave me another canvas and I painted a ship with big white sails ......

Since painting supplies were a little pricey, Mom started me painting on pieces of the old textured window blinds (remember them??) I did a basket of yarn with kittens playing, and I traced one of those old wall-rugs at my Aunt Lois' house that had 4 Arabian horses and riders and a city in the background, and painted it on window-blind about 20" x 36". Then a painting of Jesus and children gathered round on canvas board, that was from a greeting card. In Sr -High I took the art class and we did self-portraits. During that time, I did a wild horse in a desert scene and Dad made a wormy-chestnut frame for it, sand-blasting it until it had grooves in that showed the grain of the wood. The frame was beautiful! I am sad to say I lost what few paintings I had in a house fire when my oldest daughter was ony 3.

When my Grandma passed away, she left all her oil painting supplies to me. That got me started again. A lady I cleaned house for, as her husband was deteriorating in health, told her to give me his paint supplies as he no longer had the strength to paint, and wanted me to have them. Shortly after that I painted this picture.....


"Pitcher Pump and Daisies"
which hangs on our living room wall. I wish I had made the background lighter.


"You are Invited"

.........a communion scene, lives in my daughter's house in Pennsylvania. There have been numerous others since that time but I won't bore you with it right now.... :) Since I am now "semi"-retired, (pun intended) I am enjoying getting back into it, and hope to post a painting from time to time.