Pastel cityscape painting of a small street in Umbria, Italy. SOLD

Pastel painting of an extreme close up view of ripe apples on a tree.

Early Christmas Present!

I was notified last week that I had TWO pastel paintings juried into the International Association of Pastel Societies Exhibit. A real thrill and a great end to the year!

It’s an amazing exhibit filled with gorgeous artworks. You can see the full show here.

Pastel cityscape painting of sunlight cascading across the entrance to a home in Umbria, Italy.

Pastel painting 11  inches x 17 inches   $800

I’m always saying that my art is all about light and shadow. It’s what draws me to almost every subject I paint and  what I’m constantly exploring. This pastel painting of Italy is a perfect example. I came upon this little alleyway while I was wandering through an Umbrian hill town. Although the scene itself was interesting, it was the way the sunlight cascaded across the wall and steps that really drew me in.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Terra Cotta Art Spectrum Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel landscape painting of the river that runs through the city Prato in Italy.

Pastel painting 11  inches x 17 inches    SOLD

A couple of years a go I visited Amsterdam and Prato, Italy with my friend Susan. We stayed in Prato’s ancient central Piazza. On days when we weren’t exploring Florence or the Tuscan countryside, we would wander the old streets and riverbanks of the city. This scene really captured my imagination. I painted an Italian watercolor painting of it on site and enlarged it into a pastel painting later in my studio. This view probably looks exactly the same as it looked hundreds of years ago. That’s part of what I find fascinating about Italy. So much of the city and countryside has been untouched by our modern architecture. I am sure that is both a blessing and a curse to current Italians, but it is a joy to the traveler!

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This artwork was created with:
Paper: Terra Cotta Art Spectrum Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air watercolor landscape of a fountain in the main square of a small Italian hill town.

Plein air watercolor painting   6.5  inches x 10.5 inches   $150

Every little town in Italy has a main square with a fountain where the locals gather to relax, play with their children and chat with their neighbors. In the evening, everyone strolls with their family and friends, usually ending up in this central spot. It is such a wonderful, uniting experience which seems to have been lost in our frantic American lives. One day when the rest of our group was enjoying lunch in a nearby trattoria, I sat in the piazza and did a watercolor painting of a fairly simple (by Italian standards) fountain. What’s missing from this painting of Italy is the hundreds of school children I saw, running though the square, excited to get home and relish their big plate of pasta!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Watercolor painting of an old store front.

Plein air watercolor painting    8 inches x 13 inches

I’ve always liked doing architecture paintings, whether in pastel or watercolor. And I especially love extreme close-ups, where I can play with the idea of realism breaking down into an almost abstract composition. I’m not positive, but I think this storefront was on the main street of Charlevoix, Michigan where we spend time in the spring. But it really doesn’t matter exactly where it was. It could be a scene from any town or city in America.

Watercolor painting of a street in southern Spain lined with stucco houses

Watercolor painting 8.5 inches x 6.5 inches
$80

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

This small watercolor was painted plein aire in southern Spain a while ago. The little villages there are filled with white stucco houses topped with red tiled roofs, and the surrounding hills are beautiful. I sat in a bar and sipped the local wine while I painted this watercolor landscape. Hmmm…this drinking and painting seems to be a trend. Well, when in Rome…

Watercolor painting 9 inches x 13 inches  $400

Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

I just finished this watercolor painting of a small side street in one of the little towns we visited when I traveled to Italy a few years ago. I went with 2 artist friends and experienced my lifetime dream of living and painting in a small Tuscan village for 3 weeks. Every morning we would wander til we found a place that interested us. We’d paint Tuscan landscapes til noon, stop for a fantastic lunch, nap for awhile and then go back out and paint til dinner. My idea of pure heaven.

I’m looking back with new eyes at some of my original photos from that time. I have been playing with composition and color in an attempt to capture the “feeling” of the place, not an exact replica of it.

Pastel painting 5 inches x 7 inches $100  plus shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

Finally got over the creeping crud that our family had been dealing with for the last 2 weeks and have gotten back to painting! The beautiful fall colors have now faded and it is a little too chilly for plein air work, but I was able to shoot a lot of reference photos for studio work. This pastel painting is based on some shots I took on our town’s main street. It was early morning on a beautiful, clear day and the sun shining through the trees created some dramatic shadows.

Watercolor painting 8.5 inches x 5 inches $100

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

Last weekend I took a break from farm painting. I sat on one of the main streets in Saline and painted a few of the old Victorian houses. It was after the fourth of July but they still were flying their flags and shining in the sunlight…