BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE

Venice is one of my favorite vacation spots. The city is romantic and full of energy and life. I took a photo of the very famous “Bridge of Sighs” catching the wonderful light at dusk. When I got home I tried to capture all of the feelings that attracted me to the scene. The cool colors of the building are a direct contrast to the warm light.

“Bridge of Signs was done in soft pastels on Wallis Sand paper. The original painting has been sold, but it is available in print.

GARDEN BEAUTY

Flowers are one of my favorite things to paint. I often have my camera in hand as I’m walking through different neighborhoods. While on a “garden stroll” I found these flowers growing along a fence. I loved the color and shapes and knew I needed to paint them. In arranging the composition I wanted to create a simple floral design where the flower forms filled up the page. Using a complementary color scheme in transparent watercolor, I made the shapes stand out from the background. This was done to create drama for the viewer. I hope you enjoy looking at this image as much as I enjoyed painting it.

This painting was done in transparent watercolor on Arches paper.
It is 19" x 27" with a 3 inch mat. The original watercolor is $600.

AMERICAN DREAM

There is a beautiful garden in my neighborhood that I love to visit. It is always changing and is such a treat to walk by. The flowers seem to have a way of rearranging themselves each year in the most beautiful way. I love the way the colorful flowers stand out in front of the picket fence. The dark green in the background really make the fence and flowers pop. I took artistic license to reorganize some of the blooms to create a pleasing composition and repeat color patterns.

I took many photographs of the garden and wanted to paint it in all its glory. Living in that home and enjoying the beautiful garden is the “American Dream”. 

This painting was done on Wallis sanded paper. There is a watercolor under painting which shows through. The highlights were all done with soft pastels. The original painting is 17" x 19 1/2" and is $450.00

AN APPLE A DAY

I was going apple picking with my grandchildren in the fall, and enjoyed seeing so many different varieties of apples. With camera in hand I took many photographs. In my studio, I selected a photo that offered the most possibility to explore light and shadows. The challenge for me was to create and interesting composition using reds and greens. Watercolors have the wonderful quality of being transparent and it’s difficult to use complementary colors and not get “mud”. My final painting has the intensity of color I had hoped for. Those apples do look good enough to eat.

The painting was done in transparent watercolor on Arches paper.
It is 19" x 25" with a 3 inch mat. The original watercolor is $600.00

GARDEN POTS

One of my favorite activities is to go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. The garden pots are always changing so it’s such nice surprise to see what is there. I loved this arrangement using predominately primary colors for the bouquet. The rich green foliage was a wonderful contrast. The shadow pattern and color really intrigued me and I want to capture it in my painting. The warm summer glow in this painting makes me feel good.

Garden Pots was done in soft pastels on Wallis Sand paper. The image size is

13 X 16. With a 3” mat it measures 19 x 22. The original pastel is $450.00

SUMMER HYDRANGEAS

Garden walks are a favorite activity for me. I was in awe of the beautiful hydrangeas and the variety of color in the blooms. They ranged from light pinks to deep violets. The individual petals made up this wonderful round shape that I wanted to capture. I accentuated the yellow buds as they made a wonderful contrast to the violets.

The painting is 18” x 12” and was done on Wallis sanded pastel paper using soft pastels. To get the richness of color I used many layers going from hard to soft pastels and dark to light.

It measures 24" x 18" with a 3 inch mat. The original pastel is $500.00
Click here to bid on this.