Blue By You

"Blue By You"
11" x 14"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo 
I was building a blue painting when I picked up a bottle of "citrus" green instead, and placed a droplet into the blue. Yikes! It pushed the drying blue into a hard dark edge, but looked kind of interesting.  Then I intentionally dropped several drips of "cranberry" onto the blue and formed a little blue island surrounded by red.  

Intentional is not a word I associate with alcohol ink. Nor is deliberate. It's more like happenstance, WTF and whodathunkit.  

Carol 

Embrace

"Embrace"
9" x 12"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo
Oh, boy, you must think I've abandoned my oils for alcohol ink. Well, I haven't. In fact, while these are posting, I'm working on commission pieces, including a dog portrait! Yes. I'm doing a pastel painting of a pooch. 

Here is a combination of many of the techniques I learned from Pat Hamm. My work is nothing like hers. It would be almost impossible for me to duplicate her efforts in this medium. Nope, hers are hers, mine are quite definitely mine.

Carol

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Camellia Blue

"Camellia Blue"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas 
A year ago I went to a flower show in Chicago. I painted this white camellia from photos I took while there. Tonight I revisited that white camellia, sort of gray, actually, and gave her a makeover. She is theatrically stunning tonight. Ready for her closeup. 

The white camellia no longer exits as she did a year ago. I glazed over her with color in the style of a New York artist I found in an Art Expo Magazine.  Irina Gretchanaia  is the painter/source/inspiration of my new verve.  Our basic subject matter is the same, but now my flower has more... life.

Carol

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Dawn's Early Light

"Dawn's Early Light"
12" x 12"
Oil on canvas panel 
As a respite from the LaCrosse paintings… I offer a larger sky than I normally paint. I felt passionate about making this one and a six by six just wouldn't cut it. 

I had to handle the yellows and blues very carefully to not make green, and the purples and yellows so as to not make brown where I didn't want it. This one is quite nice in person.

Carol

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Reflecting

"Reflecting"
10" x 8"
Oil on canvas panel

There were bushes at the edge of the lake on the distant shore that had turned yellow and red before any on my side of the lake. I saw them that morning and decided to document them with only a few strokes.  

Quick, thick and juicy brush studies are fun to paint in thirty minutes or less. They loosen my hand, my heart and my mind for whatever I'm about to paint. It's an exercise that happens to become something tangible.

Carol

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Fusion

"Fusion"
  24" x 36"
Acrylic on wrapped canvas
painted black border
Two elements, solids in their own right, collide. They swirl, liquefy and amalgamate. The synergy of their fiery union bears repeating. 


Please enjoy one of my favorites in the series of abstracted swirl paintings. Today's canvas is not only filled with swirls, some of them have developed tails, adding an active element to the mix.

It's warm, come sip ginger ale with me.
Carol

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Fractalish Desert

"Fractalish Desert"
24" x 24" 
Acrylic on wrapped canvas 
I've confessed to my passion for swirls and have painted a lot of them with a ball motif in hot colors, so when I stepped back to look at them as a body of work I recognized the opportunity to explore the concept with different colors and motifs.  This is what happened.  


I totally enjoyed making this piece. It satisfied my desires to paint sun, sky and mountains without looking anything like a landscape.

Please come back to see more tomorrow.
Carol

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340 pieces of my art
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Fractalish

"Fractalish"
24" x 36"
Acrylic on wrapped canvas
black and blue painted border
When I first saw Jock Cooper's artwork I was drawn to his computer generated images with Fibonacci swirls and a bold use of color.  Once we became friends, we both wondered how a painter would execute the essence of what math equations had done for him via a software program.  I assigned myself the challenge.  


This is another in a series of fractal-like paintings I made during this particular quest. I hope you enjoy the series while I work on a few more house portraits.

I always appreciate your visits.
Carol

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Log Cabin

"Log Cabin"
24" x 36"
Acrylic on stretched canvas
This is my take on a log cabin quilt with the red hot chimney around which most cabins were built.  As you can see I got bored with the traditional cabin piecing within about two strips, so I abandoned it and went for something a bit more daring.  


This is one of my "less recent" pieces while I work on a larger current piece.

Thank you for visiting.
Carol

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Gabriel

"Gabriel"
24" x 30"
Acrylic on wrapped canvas
painted black border
Great joy makes my heart sing. When my heart sings I turn to wings as a source of inspiration. I adore wings, having witnessed them in a near-death experience. I titled this Gabriel, but it could be called a different name just as easily.  Joy of this sort transcends...   


When I painted this series I painted black borders that wrapped around the sides on some of them.  It made for a very cohesive look when exhibited together.

Thank you so much for today.
Carol

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If I Had a Muse

"If I Had a Muse"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
If I had a Muse, he'd check in on me every morning, to see if I needed inspiration. He'd arrive with coffee, dressed in beads, chains and dangly things. He'd bestow kindness upon me, read poetry and make me laugh. And when my pump was primed he'd steal away to allow me to create in peace.  Then he'd pop back in at the end of the day to say nice things about my art.   

Sounds like a fantasy doesn't it, but that's what I'd like. Do you think my Muse would agree to the beads and dangly things?

Thank you for peeking in to see what I'm up to.
Carol

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Lily

"Lily"
20" x 16" 
Oil on panel
From my earliest recollection, I've loved water lilies and their gaggle of pads.  I think it's the roundness of their leaves, the invisible stems, and their unspeaking mouths. I remember sitting quietly in a rowboat as my father fished, looking at the mysterious plants that didn't appear to grow in dirt.

Yes, it's this color on the painting. The lily was blue, the leaves golden, and the sky was reflected in the water droplets.  It was an exercise in painting what I saw despite the believability of it.  I like the colors, and it looks pretty cool sitting here in my studio.

Thanks for peeking in.
Carol

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