especially magenta!   As little girls,  my sister and I couldn’t pronounce magenta so we decided to rename it “pretty color.”    From that day on whenever we wanted to use that gorgeous hue,  we referred to it as “pretty color” –  the best of all colors in the box to us.   That was a significant elevation in status among 47 other colors in the very large package.   The phrase sticks even now.   More about this soon…… posting this just under the wire for March 🙂

Me again,  it’s now May 14th.    Fun new magenta images of a rose card, tubes of my favorite color in oil paint,  and Elizabeth Gilbert’s wonderful book cover.    (Go out and buy her book asap,  no  –  run out,  and buy it – it’s fabulous!)

Back to magenta,  my childhood “pretty color.”    Other names for magenta –  shocking pink,  hot pink,  fuchsia.    All wonderful.   Wish I could wear it,  it’s not so good with my skin color.   I’ll just have to use it in my paintings!

small abstraction,  8 inches square,  oil on canvas

surging koi,  30 inches square,  oil on canvas

Same color palette,   different outcomes.

Three Koi 16,  oil on panel,  12×12 inches

Small abstraction #73,  oil on canvas,  8×8 inches

And,  drum roll,  here they are!

The words are here,  but,  alas,  we have to await the download of any images.    Please hang in there!    The website decided to become a bit snarky for no apparent reason.   In the meantime,  my incredibly capable web-hosting team is trying to figure out what’s going on.     To add to the mix,   the  camera battery in my Canon EOS Rebel (well worth the ad plug) decided to die on me before I was able to shoot the final three pieces for this posting.    And so it goes…..

Meanwhile,   this is my final posting of the year.   A lot of my concentration this year has been focused on developing this series of small (8×8 inch) abstractions with the goal of completing 100 of them.   I’m getting pretty darn close to achieving that number –  I’d say just shy of 20 or so at this point.   Not bad.    Most of them can be viewed at the Beth Urdang Gallery in her new location in SoWa,  Boston.     I was there last weekend.   It’s quite the happening location,  particularly for art.

I just finished the companion panel to the top one completed earlier this year.

One of my clients commissioned me to make a second one.    He just loved the first one.   The two panels were chosen to be given as a surprise wedding anniversary gift intended for his in-laws who live in California,  and vacation twice a year in Kauai, Hawaii ( shhhhh  –  they don’t know it yet,  it’s a year away 🙂  )

I tried to have as much fun making the second one as I did with the first,  keeping that freshness,  and allowing each painting to work off one another as a pair.   I like the view from above,  looking down on the active koi.

He was thrilled with the outcome  –  his comments were:   ” they look GREAT together.   You did a beautiful job of putting the two of them together. ” 

12×12 inches each,  oil on panel

oil on canvas,  30×40 inches

I slowed down a bit on this one.   Took my time.   Two weeks start to finish.   Completed just in time to make this month’s post deadline.  Now onto a bunch of other in-the-works projects.    And, on-going organizing and simplifying my work space and life 🙂

Just back from a week’s journey to Steamboat Springs,  Colorado to visit with my niece,  her husband,   two year old son,  and new baby sister.   Delightful visit.   While there,  I arranged to have an extensive photo shoot of aspen trees for one of my next series of paintings.    Love ’em.   Can’t get enough of ’em.    It’s a series I’ve longed to revisit after a number of years’ hiatus.

In keeping with a scavenger hunt for some of my work,   I re-discovered these four paintings.   The waterlily is tiny.   A gift for my niece’s sixteenth birthday or was it her high school graduation?  Forgot to ask her.     It made a sweet addition to the laundry room.

The double koi pieces adorn one of the guest bathroom walls.   These are early pieces circa 1990’s.

Lastly,  the largest one,  a 40×50 inch sunset, was inspired by a trip to the Caribbean (Aruba).  It found its way to a wall opposite my bed in the guest room.    Awaking with its warmth each day held me under the covers a bit longer before I ventured out into a crisp Fall morning.

Bongos,  30×30 inches,  oil on canvas                                 Bongos,  8×8 inches,  oil on canvas

Dual variations on a theme.   I like the tropical feeling and blazing hot colors of these two abstractions.

When I began painting this series of abstractions,  the images were often inspired & drawn from the intuitive,  joyful happenings on my palette during the painting process.   I then decided to translate that juicy painting process directly onto the canvas instead of leaving it on my glass palette.  Unusual color combinations,  strokes and playful ‘accidents’ happened,  adding great flavor and spice to the mix.

Some lucky collector purchased 5  of the abstractions series today from the Beth Urdang Gallery in Wellesley.     This happened,  mere days away from my September (2nd-26th) show of koi and abstractions paintings at her gallery. The Bongos painting/s above will be included in the show.    For more info’ & images,  click on this link  http://www.bethurdanggallery.com/exhibitions/current/

4 Koi,   30×40 inches,  oil on canvas

I had such a good time painting this image.    Can you tell?

Someone once told me that my work was all about the diagonals.     Bright color too.  But that’s a more obvious quality.     The diagonals are instinctive.    I never even thought about them until my friend Jim Mingo pointed them out.   Sadly,  he died.  He last name wasn’t really Mingo.    That was the name of his gallery.    But I often used it to hear his thunderous  laugh.    It never failed.

On occasion,  now,   I do think about those diagonals …  along with all the other compositional elements :  active versus passive passages,  my strokes,  and more.   I’m really not conscious of the dance my diagonal placement of the koi often creates as I paint these  japanese carp.     This 4 Koi painting reminds me of Matisse’s dance figures above.     Dance away.

Ten Koi,  30×40 inches,  oil on panel

My interior-designer dear friend recently moved to Utah and took this koi painting with her.    It’s conveniently installed in a prominent space on the wall in her guest room.    How can I possibly resist visiting and staying there now?!