Christmas in Tampa

Christmas in Tampa

18x24 - Acrylic on Canvas

Christmas in Tampa - Sold Collection of Poole & Poole Architecture

Here is this year's Christmas Card for our favorite Architects in VA. The building is an award winner from this year located in Tampa.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle
24x30 Acrylic on Canvas

Neuschwanstein Castle - Acrylic on Canvas

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most visited castles in Germany. It rests in Bavaria, with the Alps at it's back. The castle was built by King Lidwig II, who was known as the "Fairytale King". During our visit on our honeymoon, the tour guide mentioned that this castle was the inspiration for the Magic Kingdom castle in Disney World. The whimsical nature is apparent on the outside, but the inside has even more character. My favorite part was the "cave room" in which King Ludvig II had a fake cave constructed that you walk through to get from one room to the next. It was quite amazing. My husband has been nudging me to paint this since we returned from our trip. The day that we were there it was snowing and overcast, and the trees were bare. I chose to paint it with vibrant colors, which is what King Ludwig would have wanted.

Owen's Painting

Owen's Painting - 2010
30x40

Mixed Media on Canvas

Owen's Painting - Mixed Media on Canvas

I was looking for a way to keep all the beautiful cards and notes that people gave us when I was pregnant with Owen. I was rocking him in his nursery one night trying to figure out what would be a good painting for over his crib when the idea came to collage the cards, notes and gift wrap together onto a canvas with his name. For those of you that know my husband and how much of a sports fan he is, that is how I came up with the idea to create his name with a sports theme over top of the collage. Here is the final result. We love it. I included a detail shot so you can see some of the textures and layers that exist within the painting. The polka dots came from white and blue tissue paper that came with a gift. The big bird was on some wrapping paper that I cut out as well as the elephant and footprint. I used oil pastels, marker, acrylic, charcoal, graphite, varnish, a spray bottle and other tools for spreading paint. If anyone is interested in something like this for your kids or to give as a gift let me know!

Powell Street, San Fran

detail

detail

Powell Street, San Francisco
24x30
Mixed Media

Powell Street, San Francisco

Early on in 2009 I went on a trip to San Fran for business. I was able to get out one evening and walk around downtown and came across Powell Street and the cable cars. I took lots of photographs and did a quick sketch while I was standing at the bottom of the hill. I started this painting in the summer of 2009 and set it aside for months. Here it is, finished. I was looking at the painting early this week and just felt that it needed more work. One night after my son hit the hay, I sat down in my studio and it just flowed out of me. I love the final piece. It has inspired me to explore this medium more. (acrylic, charcoal and clear gesso). For those of you who don't know, I had to switch over to acrylic from oils when I became pregnant last year and when my son was born I've been afraid to switch back over to oil until I get a proper ventillation system set up in my studio since it is right next to his bedroom. I am pleased with the results I am getting with the acrylics, espcially since I started using the Masterson Sta Wet Palette which keeps my paints wet for hours so I can keep going in and working with them. Not exactly like oil, but it is working just fine.

Powell Street, San Francisco

Powell Stree, San Francisco
24x30
Mixed Media

Powell Street, San Francisco

Early on in 2009, I had an opportunity to travel to San Francisco for a few days. I took the train downtown and walked around for the afternoon. I came upon Powell St. and loved all the hustle and bustle going on. It was a great location to sketch with the trademark hill, cable cars, and people all over. I took some photos and did some sketching of the area and came up with this mixed media painting. I layered my canvas in newspaper applied with clear gesso. I then used vine charcoal and graphite to sketch into the canvas. I used lots of transparent layers of acrylic to get the desired effect. You can still see in some small areas some exposed newspaper which adds to the foggy look of the afternoon.

Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge
5x5
watercolor on paper

Chain Bridge

This little watercolor was a gift to my brother and sister in law for Christmas. She is from Budapest orginally. She explained that the Chain Bridge was the very first bridge built over the Danube River. I chose it to paint because of the intricate details and the sweeping supports.

Christmas Present for my Niece

24x30
watercolor

Syndey Land - Watercolor on Cold Pressed Paper

This painting has been in progress for about 6 months. I have been wanting to do something for my amazing 3 year old niece, Sydney, for quite some time. I started out with the landscape, and slowly layered in some of her favorite characters. Right now, Mickey is the favorite which I think is great because he was mine at her age as well. I plan on giving this to her for Christmas this week. I am off for the next few weeks, and will plan on posting quite a bit more in the days to come.