Cast Iron Dutch Oven

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
SOLD

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season --
we Malones sure did.

The painting I'm posting today is one I completed over the weekend.  It was a commission for a gal who wanted a companion piece for a painting she purchased from me in 2011 -- perhaps you remember it... Cast Iron Skillet? 

Best wishes for 2012!

Murphy

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
NFS

This is Murphy — a Wheaten Terrier who lives in Fair Oaks, California.  He's one of three much-loved dogs who are part of my husband's brother's family out that way.  He's an oldie and a cutie.  I'm not sure that this painting does justice to his sweet face, but I do know one thing:  it sure was a pleasure to look at his photo for a couple of hours while trying to capture it!

Cheese and Crackers

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Carb Series #3!  Cheese and crackers — can't beat 'em.  I originally had like 12 round crackers, eight square... six slices of cheese... I spent ten minutes or so arranging them, trying to get just the right composition... I finally realized that there were way too many... I don't have to tell you what happened to the extras...  ;^)

Three Potatoes

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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#2 in my "Carb Series" — potatoes!  These were fun to paint... and will be fun to eat as well -- ha ha!  I'm starting to think that this series might not be so good for my waistline...  ;^)

Blueberry Bread

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Mmmm... bread... this is painting #1 of... the "Carb Series"!!

Two Paintbrushes

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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#3 in my "Challenge" series — this one is for the Daily Paintworks "Paint What You Paint With Challenge"...

Stack of Books

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
SOLD

This was a fun one!  Continuing with my "Challenge" series, I decided to do a painting for the Daily Paintworks "Balance Challenge" — I just grabbed a few of the books from the "to read" pile on my nightstand and brought them into the studio.  It wasn't until I actually started painting did I realize that most of them are about cooking and food!  Hmmm... The only actual cookbook in the bunch is The James Beard Cookbook, most are cooking-themed memoirs and novels... How to Cook a Tart (novel), The Sharper Your Knife, the Less you Cry (memoir), Cooking for Harry (novel)... just so you don't think food is all I think about, I also have in this pile Elizabeth's Strout's Olive Kitteridge, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.  Two that got cut off from the top of the stack when I was composing the painting are Charlaine Harris' Grave Sight (I love her Sookie Stackhouse books!!!  Can't wait to start this series...) and Pride and Predjudice and Zombies... hee hee — love the cover art on that one.   :^)

Autumn Apples

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
SOLD

Time for a new series!  My next series of paintings will be called "The Challenge Series" — basically, I'll do a painting in order to enter it into various online challenges.  A site I belong to — Daily Paintworks — has quite a variety of challenges posted, so that where I'll get started.  The painting I did today I'm contributing to the Help the Children of Africa Challenge — 100% of the proceeds raised through the auction of this painting will go to help feed the children of Africa who are suffering right now.  The organization I have chosen to distribute the funds is The American Red Cross — specifically their Horn of Africa Drought campaign.  If you want to read more about this challenge and see what paintings other artists have contributed, just click here.

Italian Plums

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Hey, what do you think of this one?  This is my second attempt at painting these babies... the first attempt was on Saturday and result was this:

In my defense, I was distracted!  In a good way though.  Two of my pals came over for a painting session/lesson day — it had been a long time since either of these gals had picked up a paint brush (15-20 years!), they both were excited to get back into it.  We had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs... and they had masterpieces to take home!  (Which is better than I can say for myself... uh, did you see that photo I posted?  Yeah, that mess right there, above this paragraph...)   :^)

Anyway, it's all good.  I got back to business this morning and showed those plums who's boss.  I'm pretty happy with the result.

Here is a photo I took on Saturday of my two friends Sue and Ali with their artwork... what a fun day!

P.S.  I talked Sue into parting with the painting she did of my little dog Martha (who so graciously posed for her on her bed here in the studio.)  She really captured her!  Here's a photo I just took of Martha a minute ago so you can compare... she's flipped on her other side, but it's pretty much the same pose.  Nice job Sue!  And thanks again for the painting — I'll cherish it.  :^)

Reading Glasses

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Kitchen Essentials #6 — Reading Glasses!  I can't see my recipes without them.  It wasn't always this way... just a few short years ago I didn't need reading glasses at all... but now, alas, I have many pairs tucked away here and there ready to assist my aging eyes...

FYI:  this is the first painting I've done on my new RayMar panels — so far so good!  I bought a whole pile of this size (6x6 inches) and also a bunch of smaller ones (6x4 inches)... should keep me busy for a few months!

Cast Iron Skillet

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
SOLD

Kitchen Essentials #5... I loved painting this one!  I love the subject (my trusty Griswold No. 10 iron skillet) and especially loved how quickly it came together (not one bit of agonizing which let me tell you was a treat.)

Speaking of Griswolds... when I looked at the bottom of this pan to see what the brand was (I have another this size... a Wagner Ware) and saw the name Griswold it got me thinking about another Griswold that was in my life... who is sadly not with us anymore. 

For over ten years, we shared our lives with a big handsome chocolate lab named Griswold — he was a high-energy stick-loving tail-waggin' love.  We got him indirectly through an animal shelter here in Massachusetts — a friend of a friend worked at the shelter and was (thankfully) able to talk Grizz's owner at the time out of having him put to sleep.  He wanted to put him to sleep not due to any behavioral issue on Grizz's part or anything... he just didin't like the idea of him going to a home where he might not be treated well (huh?  so let's kill him instead!?).  Anyway, the guy who worked at the shelter had two labs at home and convinced the man that he himself would take him home — the man agreed (after 45 minutes of discussion!)  Well, when this good samaritan got home with lab #3, his roommate said... uh, no... three is too many, so they called around and long story short (well, not much shorter!), we met him, I fell in love at first sight and that was that.

Here's a picture of our good ole Grizzlybelle taken in June of 2009 just before he passed on:

Waaah!  What a good boy.  He was 13 years old and had a great life.

Salt and Pepper

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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#4!  Salt and pepper — can't get much more essential than that...!
(note:  I was unhappy with the original painting, so I reworked this one on September 22, 2011 — I like it much much better — hope you all do too!)

Chinese Cleaver

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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#3 in the Kitchen Essentials series!  I have had this Chinese cleaver for over 20 years — maybe even 25 or more — I use it ALL THE TIME.  It's great for smashing garlic... and chopping just about anything.  The only thing I don't use it for is slicing tomatoes... because I must confess, in the whole time I've owned it I've never once had it sharpened!  I know, I know, I should... but honestly it's just not going to happen.  ;^)

There are actually TWO essentials in this painting... the little white cutting board is something that we couldn't live without.  It gets used multiple times a day.

Teapot

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
NFS

Painting #2 in my Kitchen Essentials series!  My trusty teapot... with two bags of Lipton tea steeping inside... that's how I start every morning.  The only negative:  it's a pain to clean!  But it makes a nice strong brew and keeps it hot so I'll deal.

Measuring Cups

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Oh boy am I rusty.  It's been awhile since I posted (and painted unfortunately) — we Malones were traveling again and I've had other work obligations to attend to... blah blah blah... bottom line:  I've missed my studio time!   This has been a very busy and fun summer, but I'm glad to be back to the 'ole routine.

One thing I've been thinking about during my downtime is how I would like to start creating series of paintings as opposed to the one-by-one method I have done up to now.  My plan is to do 4-6 paintings in a row pertaining to the same theme.  It will be fun for me to come up with subject matter that fits within the confines of the theme (and not very difficult if I pick a broad theme like "Flowers" or "Landscapes" — ha ha), and hopefully it will be fun for everyone who follows my blog!

The first theme is "Kitchen Essentials"— items in my kitchen I would not want to be without.  Measuring cups are right up there on that list of items — I love to bake and couldn't survive without my handy stainless steel dry measuring cups!  ;^)

I'm already excited thinking about my next painting subject... and I bet none of you will sleep tonight!  You'll be tossing and turning wondering, "what will she choose...?  wooden spoons...?  graham crackers?  an espresso machine...??"  Well my friends, you will just have to wait and see!

Summer Squash

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Boy, did this one give me a hard time!  I must have done the background color 6 times... first it was red, then pink, then green, then red again... I finally settled on this lavender blue color and am really happy with the result — phew!

Ripe Tomatoes



oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
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Here are some tomatoes I picked from our garden this morning.  I've completely neglected it this year — I haven't watered, fertilized, weeded... it's amazing we've had anything to eat (or paint) out of there at all.  These tomatoes made it against all odds... survival of the fittest!

Creekside Spot



oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
$65.00
click on this link to purchase

This painting is from a photo I took while in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  We ate lunch at a great little place called Creekside Cafe & Grill.  They have an area for dining outdoors and this little scene was to the left of the seating area.  The food was fantastic — my husband and I split the rancheros and a fantastic bowl of homemade granola w/yogurt and fruit — they serve their breakfast menu all day... everything on the menu looked great, it was hard to decide!

There was only one problem with eating out-of-doors that day... bombs from above.  I don't know what kind of birds were responsible (I didn't dare look up!), but they kept pelting the patrons with... well, let's just say they weren't using their beaks.  It was gross, disgusting and kept us huddled under the umbrellas praying that we'd be spared.  We weren't.  Out of the seven of us, five were hit!  Even the baby... they had no shame.  Thankfully, the food didn't take any casualties — and really was delicious.  You know it had to be exceptional food to keep us in our seats while taking that kind of fire!  It really was good — here's a link so you can try it yourself if you're ever in that great little town: http://www.creekside-cafe.com/ — if you do go, may I suggest a seat inside?  ;^)



Wyoming Pond and Pines

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
SOLD

I should have taken more photos in Wyoming... after looking through what I took, I realize now that I don't have too many that are good enough to paint from.  I didn't want to be a selfish pain and yell out every five minutes, "Stop the car!" so I could get some good shots... it was a family vacation after all, and not a painting resource trip for me... Oh well, I'll just have to go back...!  ;^)

This was taken while driving with our friends on the way to Mt. Rushmore (which is in South Dakota — about 2 1/2 hours from where we were staying in Wyoming) — we went through some beautiful country on that drive.  

Colorado Aspens

oil on artist panel 6x6 inches
NFS

I'm baaack!!!  Did you miss me?  Did you even notice I was away?  ;^)

Well, I was.  My husband, son and I went on a wonderful long vacation!  First, we visited friends in Gillette, Wyoming and then went to Westminster, Colorado to visit family.  It was GREAT.  So good to spend time with some of our favorite people who were so generous to show us around their beautiful states.  We did and saw so much — we really had such an excellent time.

I took a LOT of photos — and plan to do paintings from many of them.  The first of these you can see above — of aspen trees near Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  The ride up to Steamboat from the Denver area was spectacular (as was the ride back — we took a different route, but it was just as gorgeous) — everywhere I looked was a painting waiting to be painted!  And that is no exaggeration — the landscape was just incredible.

Wyoming was amazing as well — it is so vast, and the rock formations, the mesas... all incredible.  I hope I can do them justice in oil paints.

While in Wyoming, I had the pleasure of attending an art show at the AVA Community Art Center in Gillette.  It was a Mini Art Show (all pieces 8"x10" or smaller), a silent auction, with all proceeds to benefit the Art Center.  I donated a piece ("Apricot Roses") and a wonderful gal won the bid — I'm so happy that one of my favorite paintings will be hung in her home!  I was thrilled to be a part of the show, it was a really fun night, wonderful people, (GREAT food too!), and lots of beautiful artwork.

Well, I could go on and on, but I need to save some stories for future blog posts (that, and my son is nagging me to play Legos!)... it was a wonderful trip, but I'm glad to be home.  And glad to be painting again — I missed it!