Hi there friends, a very dear friend brought me a fruit basket for Christmas and there was this one sweet little orange with attached leaves, the kind of thing we look for when we are shopping for props for still life set ups. Anyway I am all caught up for Christmas and I thought I have to paint this. This is oil on a 5" x 7" canvas panel. SOLD
Have a wonderful holiday everyone and I appreciate your support this year, I know I’m in and out but hope to do better next year.
Hello Friends, just finished my last pet commission for Christmas, a bit too late now to take any more new ones with the drying time. I do however have gift certificates available for purchase. Email me at barbarapask@zoomtown.com and I can send you a paypal invoice and I’ll get it right out in the mail to you. Would make a wonderful gift.
No time for decorating yet but hopefully soon , lots of shopping to do and I haven’t wrapped a thing. It will come ready or not, whew. Hope you are doing better than me. Priorities right? My pet commissions are finished.
Hi Friends! Just completed these two pet commissions and the buyer approved them. It’s always a great moment when you open that email and the client is happy. Actually I’ve been pretty fortunate over the years, people seem pretty happy with what I do and I love it. Very rewarding to paint a face, an animal or a person and I love when my reference really shows the eyes well. Both are 8” x 10” oils. I’d love to paint your pet or perhaps your granddog, hurry though as the holidays are fast approaching. Have a great day!
I’ve been busy with pet commissions which I love and doing smaller things for the Showcase of Arts which is the first weekend in December. Making Santa gift tags this year and ornaments. If you live in the Cincinnati area or northern Kentucky you’ll have to stop by. Four rooms of juried art and handcrafted items.
Hi Friends! Sorry I haven’t posted lately, I seem to keep pretty busy. This past weekend I painted in the Ohio Plein Air competition in Hamilton county Ohio. It was Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We could turn in one piece Sunday morning for the competition and then they stamped our canvases for the quick draw. We had two hours to paint, frame it and turn it in, we all put in $10 each and the winner took the pot. I didn’t want to travel far so I chose a cute house near by and the sun was hitting the side. I finished in about an hour and a half, actually I was the first one back. I just assumed I was donating to the cause and had no expectations of winning anything.
When they starting announcing awards they start with product awards and work their way up to the big money. I was stunned when they called my name, I won a box of panels, oil primed linen, I’ve attached a photo. At the end we packed up and as I walked to the car the homeowner of the house I painted happened to be mowing his lawn, I leaned the painting his way and said I painted your house, his wife had just arrived home so he went to get her to show her. She loved it and I made her a bit of a deal and they purchased it so it was a great weekend. Wow that was wordy, lol. See you soon!
Hi there, I’ve been busy painting for an event we have starting in September, called Colors of the Community. This is one of four I am doing, a sweet little colorful ice cream shop in town. This is oil on a 8” x 10” canvas This is available to purchase through paypal. $150, free shipping. sales only within the continental US.
.Hi Friends!
Yesterday I went to Waynesville Ohio to paint in a plein air competition. Waynesville is a very cute historic town north of me. I signed in at 10 and we had to turn our paintings in at 2. I chose this cute shop with striped awnings and loved the American flag flying in front. As I painted I met the owner and they seemed interested in purchasing it perhaps. I told them when I finished I would frame it and bring it back to show them. I cleaned up by 1 framed the painting and they loved it and did want to purchase it. I was very happy when I dropped it off for judging. I’m telling this day just kept getting better when I was awarded first place, woo hoo. I came home tired and hot but very happy. Painting has it’s up and down that for sure but this was just a perfect day. Sorry about the very lousy photo, tried to take a photo with my phone and I didn’t get it. I took this off their website.
Hi there! I took a workshop with Tim Horn recently, three days mostly plein air. I love his work, google him and check out his paintings. We spent two days in the sweet town of Milford Ohio and this is one of the ones I painted, I love small shops with striped awnings. He really likes to push values, darker darks and lighter lights, dramatic lighting. This is oil on a 8” x 10”canvas.
Don’t you just love lilacs? The smell is just yummy. I cut these in my daughters yard and had to paint them. I had some limes in the house and I love the purple and green together. This is oil on a 8” x 10” canvas.
Painted outside Tuesday for the first time in downtown Lebanon Ohio. Painted on a street corner with semi trucks flying by and lots of people to talk to. Always challenging and mostly fun, have to admit I enjoy it more in a peaceful place. I recommend it if you haven’t tried it, so great to paint from life.
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Hi Friends, painted this a few days ago, this is a sweet Historic town just north of me. I will be there in a few weeks painting on location so I was practicing from a reference photo. I was trying to be impressionistic and not get caught up in the details, I may add some people but not sure. This is oil on a 8” x 10” linen panel. Good to see you!
Hi! Thanks to those of you that took time to give me your opinions on the painting with the orange awning. Here it is once again, maybe finished? I reduced the size of the awning and kept the orange but killed the intensity of it. I brightened the sidewalk and did touch’s of color on my people hoping they would stand out more and put a cleaner color down for their skin tones. Walking away from it for a bit and I’ll come back to it and decide if it’s finished. Gosh they’re never perfect and I’m not sure if they are ever finished, lol.
I do have those rare experiences where a painting seems to paint itself and isn’t that a joy? We live for those don’t we?
Good to see you!
Hi Friends , this is another plein air painting from last summer and I added a couple. I called it Window Shopping, I felt they looked like they had stopped and were looking in the window. This is oil on a 8” x 10” linen panel painted in Madison Indiana. Still working on the last post, thanks so much for your input. I had it critiqued today by the other group I paint with and I’m making changes.
Painted this one Monday and Tuesday. I put this up for critique and here’s the feedback they gave me. They liked my people which is great as that is what I’m working on lately. They thought I should remove that black flowing flag behind the orange awning which I agree with. Some different thoughts on the awning though, brighten the edge and darken the top was one suggestion, another person didn’t like orange at all. The building in my reference was pretty cute, the green building and the orange awning caught my eye but of course as the artist I can make it any color I like. I considered even a black and white striped awning but I want the people to be my focal point and I wasn’t sure about that. So give me your thoughts on this awning please, anything else bother you? This is oil on a 8”x 10” linen panel, I really like the feel of painting on linen and even though I use a lot of stretched canvases I find I like a more rigid surface. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I painted this last summer plein air. A street scene in Milford Ohio, that wonderful turquoise color of the awning drew me to the scene. I pulled this painting out and thought I’ll throw some people in the scene. I think I like it, it adds an excitement to a quiet scene. What fun, I’ll be revisiting some other older paintings to see where I might add people. Thank you
I taped loose canvas to a panel and I’m busy painting people. I’m having fun with this. I am thinking once these are dry I’ll throw them in my painting bag for references when I paint outside, of course if I catch people sitting down I may try to quickly throw them in when I’m out. Off to fill up the whole panel with little people, lol. Good of you to stop by. ❤️
I recently ordered a dvd by Michele Byrnes, she almost always paints people in her landscapes. This is something I would like to get better at doing. I do some plein air competitions and I think if I could comfortably paint people in my street scenes the paintings would be better received. I used some of her tips and did this painting just for practice. I want the people to be very painterly, not too much detail but yet feel like people. I plan to do this a lot and get better, my first plein air competition is in May so I hope to have it down by then. This is oil on a 8”x 10”panel. One of my groups critiqued it and they liked it a lot, that made me feel good. Good of you to stop by,
I just created a new sign for upcoming shows, shows reference photos and finished paintings. The one on the bottom right was sent to my after Christmas, shows the finished painting next to the dog, so cute. I think it looks pretty good. Just finished a new pet portrait of a yellow lab, he has a jar of peanut butter in his mouth, lol. I’ll show you soon. ❤️❤️
I may have mentioned this before but I paint weekly with two different groups. I chair the Monday group and I try to keep things interesting, I bring still life’s from time to time and sometimes we do things like this. I brought in a dvd by Craig Nelson on quick studies, I think that is his claim to fame. He paints three landscapes, a 20 minute one, a 30 minute one and a 40 minute. We watched his dvd and then headed off to try to do the same thing. Here are my efforts, left to right is my 20, 30 and 40 minute painting, all oils on 8” x 10” panels. He explains the reasoning behind it, color mixing, reacting quickly , brushwork and thinking about values. I actually like my 20 minute best, it felt fresher and I liked the brushwork better. It was fun, you should give it a try if you haven’t. Thanks for your visit, I really appreciate it.
Hi there! This is a large painting, for me anyway. It’s oil on a 24” x 30” canvas. I think it is finished, I’m ready for it to be finished, lol. Although it is nice to paint larger occasionally I find I prefer small. This reference was taken in Vermont when I was there last spring on a workshop. I love the large red barn and wanted that to be my focal point. I find with large paintings that the foreground can be challenging especially if I don’t have much going on in the foreground. Whew, moving on.
Hi Friends, my grandson loves to play baseball and he’s good at it, pitching is his first love. This past summer I shot some photos through the fence of him pitching and hitting and I just loved this one. I liked all the elements of the photo, the catchers position, the ump with his hands up and of course Michael’s stance. This is oil on a 11”x 14”canvas and I tried to work fast and loose, hoping to show movement. 
