More Summer Painting: Owl #2

"Short-eared Owl" acrylic, 2014

Since I enjoyed working on my first owl painting (a barn owl as seen below), I thought: why not do another owl painting? There is something about owl faces and the line of their wings that really draws my eye. I am not a bird-watcher or raptor expert, but I believe that this one is a Short-eared Owl, which are more commonly seen in the UK. 

Here are the two owl paintings together:

 

Nantucket Painting and Photographs

A stay on the island of Nantucket a few weeks ago inspired this painting.  Living in Colorado, I admit that I do miss the beach and the ocean. After a few cloudy days, the weather chose the day that we left Nantucket (of course) to give us a beautiful day with blue skies and sunlight shimmering off the water. I took some photos from the deck of the ferry as we slowly made our way past the anchored sailboats near the harbor. This painting is based on a shot of the Brant Point Lighthouse with two anchored sailboats in the foreground. There were some other details (beach goers, buoys, etc.), which I chose to eliminate to keep the image more simple.

"Green Sailboat" acrylic, 2014

It's interesting how different the color of the sea can look from different angles or in different lighting. Below are a few photographs that I took of the water from the ferry when we got further away from the island. It went from looking dark blue to a luminescent sea green color. Composition-wise, these aren't the most amazing shots, but I love the colors!

"Green Sea" 2014

"Green Sea 2" 2014

Below is a photograph of the ocean at Sconset Beach.

"Dunes at Sconset" 2014

African Elephant Painting: for Tanzania Trip Fundraiser

My husband and two other teachers will be taking a group of high school students on a trip to Tanzania in June. They plan to climb Kilimanjaro and then volunteer at an orphanage in Tanzania. As the trip is expensive, they are doing some fundraisers to offset the costs for the students. I painted an African elephant to donate to their silent auction fundraiser. I titled this one “Les Larmes d’Eléphant” (elephant tears) because it looks as though the elephant is crying. Although, the part of the painting that I'm drawn to the most is actually the smooth contrast created by the light hitting the ear and the shadows around it rather than the eye of the elephant. So why is the title in French? I prefer how the sounds of the words flow together in French versus the more chopped up sound of the title in English. In some ways, this painting goes with the elephant painting (view here) that I did last summer. However, I think that this has much higher contrast and less of a pastel look.

"Les Larmes d'Eléphant" acrylic, 2014

Painting During the Flood

We've had a lot of flooding in Colorado, but luckily my studio stayed dry and I had the opportunity to work on a painting while we waited for the rain stop. I love the iconic "Tree of Life" image-I even do a "Tree of Life" sunset painting project with my students based on Gustav's Kilmt's painting of the same name. So, I decided to create my own "Tree of Life" themed painting while the rain was pounding on the windows and creating rivers across the roads.

"Tree of Life-Deluge" acrylic, 2013

Portraits... of People

I don't have much of a background in portraiture--and by this I mean that I have no training in painting portraits and almost as little experience. Consequently, I've hesitated to choose this as a subject matter for my paintings. I do enjoy painting animal portraits, but here I'm referring to portraits of my own species rather than my beautiful dog Zoe. I can't say that I remember what inspired me to try it out this time, but I actually enjoyed creating these two portraits. This may be the start to a series. We shall see....

"Somnio Mons" oil paint,  2013

"Laetitia Surgit" oil paint,  2013