Two for One

"Sargent Gallery"

16 x 16

Oil on Canvas
Available at Huff Harrington Fine Art, Atlanta

I have worked recently on a series of paintings depicting museum-goers. I suppose that's not surprising, since visiting art museums is always at the top of my list when traveling. When the galleries are not too crowded, I enjoy watching the visitors interacting with the art. This sort of scene makes for an interesting painting. I can't decide which is the more challenging aspect--painting the figures of the people in the museum, or painting the paintings they are looking at!

"Red Sneakers"

14 x 11

Oil on Linen
Available at Providence Gallery, Charlotte

Tools of the Trade

I thought that some of you might be interested in the nifty "still life stage" that I use in my studio. When I paint a still life, one of the first things I try to do is nail down the relationship of the background to the foreground. So I wanted a stage that included a back wall, so to speak. Here it is:

My husband built this for me. I thought he was very clever to create a hinged back, so that I could put it up, or drop it down, as the situation might require. 

My whole contraption is on wheels, so I can easily move it around the studio. Sometimes I roll it right up to the window, and paint using natural light. Other times I put my back to the natural light (so that it falls on my canvas), and roll the props to the other side of the studio. I hate to give away the subject of my next painting, but in the interest of showing the stage in use, here it is:

The stage sits on an auto mechanic's tool stand, which I bought on Amazon. A great feature of the stand is that the height is adjustable. I can put the still life almost at eye level, or can drop it down to normal table top level, depending on the angle I want to capture.  I got the heavy duty model, which holds up to 50 lbs., so if my composition includes heavy objects, I can feel safe about using them. I am enjoying this new toy so much that I don't know how I ever got along without it!

Fellow painters interested in a more enclosed stage might want to check out this one, pioneered and endorsed by Carol Marine. 

Right in my Own Backyard

"Patio Table, Yellow Pillows"
SOLD

Don't we all love the stories in which the heroine searches the whole  world for her dream, and ends by discovering it right in her own backyard?

I had a similar experience last year in my search for a charming cafe or patio scene to paint. After trooping all over the place in quest for just the right scene, I came home and realized that I could set up something quite appealing on my own patio. With a few changes of props, I worked on several plein air paintings over a week's time that turned out to be some of my favorites of the spring. Sometimes what we seek is closer to home than we might think.

"Waiting for a Friend"

8 x 10

Oil on Linen