Christmas e-card i made with NM photos

Some selfie photos make up this Christmas e-card I whipped up on Christmas morning.

Woman Card

Seascape and Vegetable still life paintings I put in the fair last month

Yay, I won 2 ribbons in the Erie County Fair in NY last month.

The Seascape is a painting I did for a friend, and it won a 2nd place ribbon.
And the vegetable Still Life painting, now hanging in my kitchen, got an Honorable Mention ribbon.

Here are some of the steps they went through:

and

Redid background on "Red Onion, Carrot, and Chili Pepper"

I decided I didn't like the greys so I fixed it today. Raised the horizon line, darkened the top, lightened the surface and shadows, and did some more details on the vegetables.

BEFORE

AFTER!

Other people's art in the fair

Nice paintings I saw yesterday at the fair.

These are a few from the kids section:

And these are from the adult "amateur" section--but look at them--they are great!!!

Chili Pepper, Garlic, and Tomatoes painting

Another vegetable still life 12 x 16, acrylic on stretched canvas. Based on my original photo. I think I like this background more than the last one.

Red Onion, Chili Pepper, and Carrot painting

Second of 4 vegetable still lifes I'm working on. Acrylic paint on a 12 x 16" stretched canvas.

Eggplant, Mushrooms, and Chives Painting

First one of 4 vegetable still lifes I'm working on. Going to enter it in the Erie County Fair.

12x16" on stretched canvas, acrylic paint with gloss.

"Goin' West" Landscape and "Seaside" Coasters

**(Update on Seaside Coasters--they DID stick together using just the artist's Liquitex gloss varnish. So after that disappointment, I got out my small can of Varathane that I'm using on the chalk-painted chairs and brushed a coat of that on them. Worked great! No stickiness. I painted the sides like sand and they kind of also look like cork, even tho the coasters are hard inflexible material ( don't know what exactly..) Here's the final photo.

In the process of practicing clouds from a reference photo, I added land to the bottom. I heard that without a back, middle, and foreground, it is just a "study." Goin' West"---something I will be doing in the not so far off future.

And I was going thru stuff, trying to get rid of lots of things so our cross country move will be lighter and cheaper. I came across a cheap coaster st from Dollar General. I thought I could paint on those, so I gessoed them and today finished painting little seascapes on them. They are "reversible" because I painted a scene on both sides. I still have to do the edges and gloss them. And then make sure they don't stick together. I will probably make them available to purchase, but I don't mind keeping them!

Cherry Tomatoes painting

Cherry tomatoes. So much more delicious than grape tomatoes! Lol. I just finished this 11 x 14" acrylic paint on stretched canvas. Very happy with it! Mixing white is coming in handy.

7-4-16 Latest version: (It looked like it was missing something so I added a tomato top!)

(First version)

 (From this morguefile.com reference photo which I obviously cropped.)

Gay Pride Cake painting

I did this original 12" x 12" x 1" painting in reaction to the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It will be going on ebay for auction and part of it goes to charity in support of the LGBT community. I kept the theme of this a happy one even tho I did it with the victims in mind.

The sides have the words "Love is Love" and "GAY PRIDE" on them.
(I think I may include words more often on my paintings in the future).

First practice of painting Clouds!

After years of avoiding them, I finally tried to learn how to paint clouds. There IS a method to the madness......