Curvaceous & Sensuous Beauties - Pastel Paintings

I find that there is a sensuousness in the act of painting flowers, especially when using pastels. Using bare fingers to mold and manipulate each delicate petal, the soft velvety feel of the pastel as it glides across the paper, the manipulation of the curves and valley's as the beauty within emerges.

Curvaceous Beauty

12" x 16" pastel on paper

Sensuous Beauty

12" x 16" pastel on paper

Spring Treasures - Acrylic Painting

Spring Treasures is a small acrylic study piece I did using a limited palette of  burnt umber, burnt seinna, quinacridone red, cadmium red medium, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium yellow light, pthalo blue, ultra marine blue, plus white and black.

For someone like me who grabs at colors willy nilly a limited palette is great, I wasted no time wondering what particular shade of blue I had been using as I only had the two blues to choose from.

Spring Treasures

10" x 8" on hardboard

$98

Rushing Waters - Acrylic Painting

Growing up in the beautiful West Coast of British Columbia has allowed me to see numerous rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds, and ocean.  This painting is not based on any particular body of water but from the memories that have accumulated in my mind over the years.

90 % of this painting was done as finger painting. I added some small details with a brush in the areas where my fingers were just to big.

With no photo references to work from it was interesting to see what emerged from my imagination.  Lately I am drawn to paintings with lots of texture and less detail, and am currently enamored by the works of  The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson

Rushing Waters

11" x 14" Acrylic on canvas

A Splash of Color Series

I am so drawn to this black and white hounds-tooth fabric that it has starred in four of my paintings. Maybe it's the splashes of color against the pattern or perhaps it is just the challenge of painting the different values. The process of painting the pattern is slow and tedious but as I look at these paintings so many ideas of other painting pop into my mind, right now I am seeing long red peppers against the black and white.....ideas are swirling around in my mind and another painting is beginning to brew.

    Tea of Life 18" x 24" Acrylic                                               Open A'Peel 16" x 16" Acrylic

         


Chaos Surrounds 16" x 20" Acrylic

                                                                                             
                                                                                                         Black and Blue 11" x 14" Acrylic

I've Got The Blues - Photography

 I've Got The Blues.... well not me personally but this image sure does.  It's just loaded with gorgeous blues, mauve's, and lilac's.

The flower is from the delphinium family, which I have no luck with when it comes to growing them.  It seems my grandmother's green thumb was not passed onto me.

My artistic side sees it as pure inspiration, urging me to pull out the paints and start mixing colors or perhaps the pastels with their pure pigment.

This one will have to go on the back burner as other paintings are queued up waiting to be finished.

But first the sun is calling and I'm itching to sneak off with my camera and see what treasures nature has in store for me.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Prints available click here

Shades of Green - Pastel Painting

As a still life artist I have quite a collection of odds and ends cluttering up my home expressly for the purpose of being a prop for one of my still life paintings.  For this painting I pulled out the greens, old greenish tinted bottles, a large green fabric ornament, and a small heavy green ornament.  I arranged them in a little alcove in my kitchen, where for a very short period of time I get some wonderful strong afternoon sun which is great for making some nice shadow action as well as excellent contrasts.

Shades of Green

12" x 16" Soft pastel on La Carte Sanded paper

Private Collection 

Sold - Water Falls Print

Today on Fine Art America a 16" x 24" print of  Water Falls sold  to a buyer in Seward, NE, USA

Prints available.
Click here Water Falls

Rhododendron Bud #1

Today I look out into my yard and see a profusion of  rhododendron blooms and buds, after two years of nary a bloom I am pleased to see them return.

Rhododendron Bud #1

This painting was done a number of years ago. It was the first one of a group of three paintings showing the progression of the rhododendron bud opening up to it's full splendor and one of my favorites.  The group of three paintings sold shortly after I finished them to a collector in White Rock, BC

Blossoms

It's a slow start, first the hint of little buds sprout, then like the explosion of popcorn kernels delicate blossoms burst forth covering the trees with a profusion of color.  Beautiful but fleeting as the wind comes with a mighty gust and the petals flutter and fall to the ground.

Blossoms

16" x 20" Acrylic on canvas

Prints available click here Melodie Douglas Fine Art

When a painting takes over things can change in a hurry.
The first image is of the under-painting which I had done with the intention of it being a underwater painting of a koi think seaweed, deep blues, and greens the background fits perfectly.

But as the painting progressed I kept seeing trees filled with cherry blossoms, big, round, fluffy blossoms.

Trying to capture a good image of this painting was harder then the actual painting process.  With so many variations of color the camera doesn't seem to pick them all up very well

.

Snail Mail - The Personal Touch

Today I received snail mail! Not a bill snail mail or junk snail mail, but a real letter personally addressed to me!  This gift of a handwritten note on this dreary wet day brought golden rays of sunshine into my life and joy into my heart.

Artist and friend Christine Cantow Smith of Aunt Bean Artworks sent me snail mail, a set of her wonderful cards and a beautiful handwritten note.  What a blessing and joy it was to receive this gift.


Yes Christine I love surprises! Thank you so very much!


The cards are beautiful, wonderfully crafted with a very professional feel to them. I will be putting in a order for your Frolicking Series!


In her note to me Christine gave me pause to wonder about what has happened to the hand written note?

In our fast paced world of modern technology where we jot off emails or send a quick text message how much are we giving up.  Growing up in the age before computers I remember having pen pals gleaned from the Vancouver Sun Newspaper, these pen pals were from within 1 - 3 hours driving distance from my home, not far at all as we see it today but back then they were major distances.  I remember the excitement of receiving a piece of snail mail, seeing that handwritten envelope with MY name on it, inspecting the stamp, anticipating the words inside.  Reading the letters over and over and then so carefully, using my best handwriting, nicest pen, and unlined paper crafting a reply.

Today in this age of modern technology I have exchanged those pen pals with online friends, we communicate via online, receive instant responses, share our life experiences as they happen, it has it's place and I love it but sometimes it's nice to receive a personal letter, to go through the ritual of making a cup of tea and settling down in a favorite chair to read the news of a cherished friend.

What about you, do you still use the personal touch and send mail, what are your thoughts re: email vs snail mail?

"Let us then leave behind letters 

of love and friendship, family

and devotion, hope and consolation, 

so that future generations 

will know what we valued and 

believed and achieved."

-Marian Wright Edelman,

From the foreword of Letters of a Nation