Catching you up!

Goodness- I'm embarrassed that it's been so long since I updated this blog! I'll try to catch you up, but a few  recently completed projects won't be posted until after they have been given as gifts!

These two paintings (2 paintings, same dog) were commissioned by a sweet lady from Camden, SC for her daughter as surprise gifts. It's clear from a brief conversation how much this puppy means to them!

 This is the photo:

 This is the painting:

 Photo and painting:

This is the photo:

This is the painting:

 Together, but I forgot to rotate it- please forgive.

 The pair of paintings. Both 11x14" acrylic on canvas. June 2012.

Unfortunately (I could kick myself for this) I didn't get a final picture of these 5 dachshunds. What was I thinking?!?! You can see the what it looked like in progress. 16x20" acrylic on canvas. April 2012.

More dogs! I know it's crazy- I don't know how this happened! Below is a picture my sister-in-law gave as a gift. 8x10" or 11x14" (can't remember) acrylic on canvas. March 2012.

This is the photograph (I've gridded it to draw):

This is the finished painting:

Sweet Caroline! She loved the painting of the Provision Company, and wanted something similar in style, but characteristically Charleston. Here is a painting of Shem Creek, from sketch to finish. 18x24" Acrylic on wooden panel. SO MUCH FUN! This one's headed to Augusta, GA in a great-looking rustic wooden frame! May 2012.

The blue heron: 36x48" acrylic on canvas. This is a big one! Felt so honored that a sweet classmate of mine and her husband commissioned me for a piece for their new home! With some color-planning, they cut me loose. You can see the course the painting took in the series of photos below. I think everyone was happy! I loved painting the feathers! April 2012.

Thanks for following. More to come. If you've been thinking about having something painted, please let me know- now is a great time! I have plenty of time and a new studio, in which I LOVE spending time.

Main Street Methodist, and a late post on a mural project...

Recently completed painting of Main Street United Methodist Church in Dillon, SC. This is the church I was raised in, and in which Brian and I were married in 2008! This took FOREVER to sketch, but was pretty quickly painted. Similar in style to the painting of the provision company, I experimented with the paint running. Acrylic on wooden panel, 20x30.

In the summer of 2009, I did a mural of Noah's Ark in a children's hall of First Baptist Church, Statesville, NC.  I don't have any digital images of this, but the church printed a booklet for me with photos as a gift, so forgive the twice-removed quality of the photos. All of these were painted in acrylic paint, then coated with a clear acrylic sealer. Excerpts from the story of Noah in Genesis are woven throughout the mural, tying the pairs of animals together. Wish I had a better picture of the peacocks! Looking back on the hen and the rooster makes me want to paint them again! This fun project took about 5 full days.

 Thanks for reading current posts about old work!!!

Up next, some commissions: more dogs, and a larger-than-life blue heron... And maybe some fun spontaneous pieces in the middle just because.

The music farm and a finished commission....

Monochromatic painting of the Music Farm in downtown Charleston, where Saint Andrews City Church meets. We have come to LOVE this body of believers, and the building in which it meets has so many architectural details that I've been dying to paint.  You can probably tell that the lines aren't perfect- I just "freehanded" with the brush without drawing it first....so freeing. Also, I love Raw umber (paint color)... It will ALWAYS be in my color palette. 16x20" acrylic on stretched canvas.

This is the finished painting I've been referring to as "The Pepper Piece". Commission for some friends that's taken me an unusually long time to complete. The pictures I worked from and earlier stages can be seen in the previous post. This is 18x24" Acrylic on stretched canvas.

Thanks for following!

Sweet Sadie dog....

For Brian's birthday, I decided to paint our own sweet girl: meet Sadie, the goofy, cuddly, playful load of trouble pictured here. I really wanted to capture this face... her right ear is always higher than her left. While I was painting, she was laying right beside me, which helped a ton! The painting is 11x14 acrylic on wooden panel. Loving the way the water is absorbed. I've toyed with going back and adding a more complex background into the painting... I'll probably leave it as it is.

Project in progress: A marketplace full of peppers! I've been working on this commission  for about a week and a half. It was hard to decide where to start, so i knocked out the composition first, filled in what i guess would be behind the foreground i can see, and started building outward.

See pictures at the bottom of the post that I'm working from. Acrylic on 18x24 canvas. I'll continue to post progress, and am expecting to finish this next week!

Combining these three pictures, focusing on the first- I'm planning fruit on the left side in the low boxes, and some flowers in the right lower boxes I haven't started yet.

Thanks for reading!

My new love: the palette knife.

For those of you who don't know me, I rarely get stressed, even about school. This week I've been uncharacteristically nervous preparing for the first part of the dental licensing board exam. Running and art are two avenues the Lord has provided for me to turn off my brain and my "to do" list to meet with Him. As a result, I dropped my "to do" list and escaped to the easel. My next commission has tons of detail, and I thought out of fairness to the couple who commissioned me, I should delay it until my mindset was better and work on some mindless pieces.

LOVING THESE PALETTE KNIVES (thanks to my sweet brother). I love working while the paint is still wet. I love the texture. I love the expressive nature of the paintings it produces.  One downside: I'm burning through paint. 

Below are the three pieces created Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

 This is 11x14 acrylic on wooden panel.  

 12x12 acrylic on canvas....  Wooden panels really do work better for palette knife.

 11x14 winter scene in acrylic.  This isn't from a photograph... and I think you can tell. I got inspired by the colors of a January sky in a fishing magazine. I think the photo above shows the color more clearly, but the photo below is a better view of the texture.

 Up next: some commissions I've been delaying until my brain was fresh. Thanks for following my art!