Acrylic/Nature

"Kansas", 16x20 original acrylic painting on canvas board, 2003, $275
This painting was modeled after a photo I took of a sunflower in Washington D.C. I felt I needed to prove I could paint "realistically". The majority of the painting is smooth but I felt it was kind of boring, so I made the center of the sunflower a highly-textured bumpy thing which is everyone's favorite part of the painting!! 

 
"Turbulence", 9x13 original acrylic painting on paper, 2003, Private Collection (prints only)
This painting was based on the same sunflower photographed in Washington D.C. as "Kansas". There's definitely a very different feel to it! I love the swirly colors that to me really evoke the feeling of "turbulence" that many of us often feel.


"Spring Fling", 8x10 original acrylic painting on canvas board, 2008, $150
For sale at the Mansfield Art Center Gift Shop
I wanted to create a bright and colorful painting celebrating one of the greatest joys of spring - flowers. The black swirls and other designs added some fun to the piece and made it seem like the flowers were as happy to see spring as the rest of us!


"Freedom", 14x18 original acrylic painting on canvas board, 2003, $225
This began as a butterfly on a green background. It seemed pretty boring. Then I kind of let myself go with different shapes and colors in the background, which to me looked kind of like abstract plants and flowers. I named it "Freedom" because to me, a butterfly, once it emerges from the chrysalis, is free to begin a new life as this almost completely different creature.

 
"Scenes from a French Countryside", 8x10 original acrylic painting on canvas board, 2003, $150
This piece was based on a photo I had taken in the summer of 2000. I remember thinking at the time, as my husband and I bicycled through the picture-perfect scenery, that I now understood why Van Gogh and Monet had painted haystacks so often – they were spectacular. So this painting was my homage to these great artists and their inspiration.

"Tropical Dreams", 16x20 original acrylic painting on canvas board, 2002, Private Collection (prints only)
This piece was commissioned by someone who liked "Night and Day" and wanted something similar. The person was an avid golfer so this painting was first the silhouette of a golfer with the setting sun behind him. I didn't like it at all, so I changed it into a palm tree. This is another "paint dot" piece, and. I feel like when you look at it you can get lost in the scene.

"Flower Frenzy", 11x14 original acrylic painting on canvas board, 2009, $150
This piece started its life as a bottle of wine and a wine glass. Boy how things change! I turned it into two kind of ordinary flowers that sat around for a long time. Then one night, tired of looking at it and in kind of a frenzied state myself, I went a bit nuts with it. Once I realized I couldn't turn back, I spent the next several weeks adding to its craziness.