Bear Creek Estate

This is a plein air attempt at Bear Creek, Austin. I sat in the shade of some lovely oak trees, phew it was hot that day! I was not thrilled with the gloomy tones in this, so I placed some orange into the foreground, and some purples and blues in the middle distance and background, it helped I think. Green is always a color I can't deal with, and let's face it, Texas landscapes are various shades of green, green, green! I did like the filtered light though, that's why I chose this vantage point.

Apple and Pears

This is a pastel I did yesterday, experimenting with a new technique (for me) and I loved the process. I won't go into the latter as I want to do a workshop very soon on this technique, but it was a lot of fun and pretty quick.

Australian Vista

It's always difficult for me to stay in the high key areas of color, I tend to get very dramatic (see past posts) and lower the tonal value a lot, working in the mid to darker values. This little one (though) I did manage to keep to the higher values, and I am quite chuffed that I could. It's a small pastel, done on Art Spectrum Paper.

A Time Forgotten

This one was done a few years . It is of Australian trees after some bushfires. When I lived in Oz, my home for the last 18 years I was there,was made of western red cedar (very combustible) . It was situated on a huge national park border, pleanty of trees, and animals, it was a gorgeous spot to live. However.....
I was evacuated 3 times during that 18 years because of fires.
Australia is at times, very hot and dry (a lot like some Texas areas) and is prone to fires as a result. I lived in the northern beach area of Sydney, close to the beaches and also the forests of these eucalyptus trees.Very beautiful, and I still miss it after 20 years of being here in the States.
Anyway, after the fires, the parkland looked scorched , sad and absolutely beautiful just the same.
I did a few paintings of these trees.

Sea Urchin, Maui

This is an oldie and sold years ago, but I loved it. I did it all in pastel pencils while I lived on the island of Maui, and I found the actual shell at my favorite beach spot, the rocks I made up though, and you all know me and water, can't resist that element.

Ajijic Peddler

This wonderful old man was pushing his bicycle down the street in Ajijic Mexico and I took a photo of him. I did this while in the Desmond O'Hagan workshop recently, and (luckily) it was not touched by Desmond's hands, which was hard to police in that workshop, much as I enjoyed it.

Miniature Pastel 3

Vineyards in CA make a lovely study for me, I like the shadows and the way the light hits the vines. This will also be in the Pastel Show coming up and was done yesterday while I sat the gallery.

Miniature Pastel 2

Another little one done yesterday while sitting the gallery at Art Space. This will also likely be in the Pastel Society Show at the Scarborough building downtown, Austin.

Pastel Miniature 1

We have a miniature pastel show (Austin Pastel Society) coming up and I had to bite the bullet and do a few small ones for that purpose. As I usually paint very large formats, these little pastels (5" x 7" ) are a bit of a trial for me. However having said that, I quite like doing a quick pastel for a change. This one took me a very short time, in fact I did it at the Austin Art Space gallery while sitting our current show there.

Maui Shoreline

This is a pastel I did while I was a guest artist at the Four Seasons hotel on Maui . (in 1999) With a group of artists I used to paint in the main lobby of the hotel every week, it was fun at first, but did get old after a few months of it. We were not allowed to accost the 'STARS' who were staying at the hotel, and we did see quite a few. Anyway, this pastel was out of my head, I have done so many seascapes/rocks and shorelines over the years, my brain must be filled with water.
I do like this one though, it has that 'ocean pull' I have been experiencing since moving to Texas.

Sue chats with her clients

Sue chats with her clients who bought the painting they are looking at. way to go Sue!! Congratulations!

Vicki and David

Well here is the real star of our show, congrats go to Vicki for all her sales, we are all in awe and just a tad jealous.. Not really, we are very proud of you Vic.

My guests Kathy and Art

Kathy and Art ponder my paintings. Thank you both for coming to the show, and especially for your purchase. I have great friends & I treasure you very much.

Yippee! We are a success!!

Well as I was the photographer last night, I realized there were none of your's truly, so I asked my pal (Kathy) to take this . Shirley is my cuddly friend who came to the show. We look like we are dancing don't we, but we are just cuddling. tee hee.

The show was a resounding success, not a lot of people, but the quality of people was wonderful! Thanks everyone for helping to make this show such fun.

Our show is hanging!

Well we finally have our show hanging at Austin Artspace, the oeping night is tonight, May 15th 6-9pm. Please try and come along. Vino and goodies are available and some very nice art even if I do say so myself.
Other artists are Vicki Brevell, Janine Martens and Sue Wiley.

Address is 7739 Northcross Drive (suite Q) Austin.

Vista 8

Another small acrylic, I tweaked colors in Photoshop before I did this one, from my photo, I often do this, I like the color enhancement, it suits my nature, bold and FLASHY.. (tee hee)

Vista 7

I did this at the gallery showing our work at ArtSpace . It's another small acrylic. Fun..

Vista 6

I truly don't know when I will stop these little paintings, they are addictive.

Hazel's Book

My wonderful old aunt (87 this year) is also an artist, and as a surprise I published her art as well. This book is a great tribute to her artistic journey. Please view both my books on line at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/461981/47f26d11181207655b51946c659e9792

Hazel's book.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/468328/afc3d2496fcbc0b11869dd96c627ed81

Or
Rae's book....

Just click on the cover and then on each page, it shows you 15 of 40 pages..

Both books are for sale and available in both soft cover ($31) and hard cover ($40) including S/H.

My New Book

Some of you already know that I have now published a book of my images . I had a great time doing this, self publishing is a little tedious but very rewarding. I can recommend it. My book is available in soft or hard cover and is 8" x 10" large with 40 pages of images from my archives. Some text about my journey is also a feature.
If any of you are interested in a copy, please let me know. It will be sold for $35.

Vista 5

Yep, it's yet another of these little ones, I told you, I am on a roll.

I am enjoying the heck out of doing them too, so why stop?

If you wish to bid on this painting please go to:

Daily Paintworks

Vista 4

Well I am on a roll right now with these little guys, I love them. Could be anywhere, but it's out of my head again, I have all sorts of things growing in there!

Vista 3 SOLD

Another small one, I like the immediacy of these little guys, they are a lot of fun . It's another acrylic.
Thanks to Donna again, this one is sold.

Vista 2... SOLD

Another small one in acrylic for the show. I love doing these, there is no pressure to get them finished, I may or may not get a few done for the show, it's okay if I don't.
Thankyou Donna for buying this little one.

Vista 1

This is a small acrylic I did the other day, it will very likely be in my upcoming show, as a balance to the bigger ones I plan to place on the walls.

Melaleuca Trees, Maui

These trees are the gorgeous paperbark trees we have all over Australia. However, while on a regular hike to Twin Falls few years back (and when I lived on the island), I was in a whole forest of them.
This painting is from a sketch I did .
It is another pastel demo, done in an hour at Jerry's Artarama last week, and it really is not finished, not sure if it ever will be.

I love the Colorfix Art Spectrum paper, however after doing this painting on Sennelier, this paper is my new love for pastels, it is great!

Quiet Place by the Creek

To prepare for my demos, I like to practice a little, would not want to make a fool of myself huh. So this is a pastel practice piece I did in preparation for the Jerry's demos last week. I have to say, I LOVE this paper (Art Spectrum) an Aussie brand.
By the way, I will be doing an acrylic demo at Jerry's on June 20th in case any of you want to mark your calendars.

River Bend

Another recent one hour demo for Jerry's Artarama. This too is from the archives of my head. Pastel on sanded Sennelier paper.

Seascape

This is a one hour demo I did recently for Jerry's Artarama here in Austin. It is totally from my head and is in pastel.