New Haircut

New Haircut 8" x 8" mixed media

   

I thought I'd paint my daughter and her new color and haircut.  I love the edginess of the style and wanted to show that in her portrait.  After a struggle with paint, I decided to scrub off as much paint as I could and then used oil pastels  to finish it.  I love her eye.  It really looks like her.  The background is a map.

Whiting Bike Path

8" x 8", acrylic mixed media

My stepdaughter commented on how surprising it was for her to see the natural hillsides all green and full of wildflowers in the spring.  Coming from New Jersey to visit California only during the summers had been her only barometer, and by then the hillsides are always brown, at least where we live.

This tree caught my eye on a bike ride one day, because I could see the fluffy white clouds beyond through the tree.  I was down low in the valley looking up at the hillsides and flowers around me...such a nice memory to capture.  I think I'll keep this one.

Birds Take Flight

"Birds in Flight", 8" x 10" acrylic

Here's another experiment of using the Annie Sloan's chalk paint "french linen" as a background color.   This time I smudged a blue color over top.
 

I used a lot of charcoal pencil and scratched into the background with my palette knife to create more texture.  Wouldn't this be a great Christmas card?