Saturday, May 27, 2017

Tea Time

I love teapots.  I have no idea why but I just do.  I have a teapot collection and when my grandchildren were younger we would have tea parties.  They would dress in slips, scarfs, hats, high heels and beads from the play trunk and we would have a proper afternoon tea complete with little sandwiches, cookies or cupcakes.
This 11x14 collage is of one of my favorite teapots.  I used so many different colorful, textured papers to make the pot standout. There are even pieces of a cookbook page hidden in the pieces.

 
Tea Time
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Mountain View

It is getting to be that time of year again.  No matter where you live you try to get away for a week or so in the summer.  If you live in the mountains you may think of the seashore.  If you live near the ocean like I do, you dream of the mountains.
This little 5x7 oil is a vista in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, one of the most beautiful and magical places I have ever been to.

 
Mountain View
 
 
 
 




Monday, May 15, 2017

Animal Farm

I don't paint many animals and most of the ones I have painted are ones I know, I don't know why this is, animals are very interesting to paint and beautiful to look at. It maybe that I spend lot of time trying to capture the human form or that I love landscapes so much I just want to do those. When I look at my listings I see so many landscapes, still lives, abstracts, collages but not many living creatures.
Here are a few I have done.


Argilla Road Rooster
The chickens and roosters I knew from a small farm on Argilla Road in Ipswich were really free range chickens.  They had the use of the yard, the fields and the road.  They spent a lot of time crossing that road and that is where I became acquainted with them.
 

Rocky
I did portraits of my brother in law Michael's cats Rocky and Rambo they were very different cats.  Rocky was the more friendly.  He would inch his way over to  you if you stayed long enough.
 

Rambo
Rambo was the more standoffish.  He was always very busy guarding Michael's shoes.  He was really good at it, Michael never had a show stolen while Rambo was there.

www.piecesofeightart.com

 

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Got a minute or ten or thirty?

I have been doing a lot of ten and thirty minute paintings lately.  I really like doing them because it helps me really look at something before I start painting, plan what I would like to paint and to focus.  Ten minutes is such a short amount of time to get anything down on canvas or anything that resembles what you are trying to paint that when you switch to thirty minutes it feels like you have all the time in the world.
These exercises are not only fun but so helpful.  Find something to paint such as a lemon, mug or shoe, set it up, get out your kitchen timer and start.  Have fun with it.  Paint the same thing each time or switch it around.


Pears
 




 
Cup





Donnavinesart@etsy.com