May 31, A Commission!

This is Simon!  It's so nice to do a critter once in a while!  And yes, I am always happy to take on your commissions if you have a pet you'd like immortalized! Here's my commission pricelist, and a page on my website of examples... tho I'm needing to update the whole darn thing... it's kinda clunky. It'll be a summer project, I imagine!

12x12 acrylic on wood

SOLD

May 30, Plein Air at Minnehaha Creek

"Summer Creek" is really a study in SEEING.  Wow.  Those colors change so fast, and move, and there's this light everywhere and it keeps winking at me, and then the carp are following around, hugely, moving through the shallows, and the sound keeps changing too... I shoulda taken a little video so you could hear the creek!  I'll do that next time~ it was SO relaxing on Monday morning, to sit by the water for an hour and a half, and push paint around and have conversations and watch people trotting by~  love it!

9x12 acrylic on cradled wood

$215

 and I don't do this often, but for this one, 

FREE SHIPPING to USA!

click here to purchase!

May 28, Nokomis Small Beach

So I took the boys to the lake on Saturday afternoon, and it was crowded and active and I had to get wet too, of course, and then Max lost my phone because he pulled everything out of my basket before I'd found a place to sit down and scattered it somewhere on the sidewalk and a very nice gentleman and his sweetie found it and he approached me as I was frantically picking up garbage looking for it and said, "I recognize the boy you are with but not the man so I think this is your phone!" referring to the home page photo of Max and Duane in England last year~  maybe I should replace that image with a more current one of the three of us...
Anyway, I wanted to paint water but it was infested with people, so I turned a little sideways and painted the lovely shaggy reeds at the end of the beach.
It's always a lovely place to be, especially for this weekend of unusually hot weather here- and we always run into friends too- a couple came by and we talked about how lucky we are to have lakes and beaches like this, so close by, that we can just drop by and paddle about a bit and then head home!
I love city lakes!

5x7 acrylic on wood

$58

click here to purchase ~

May 27, My Sister's Neighbor's House

SO my sister has this house, you know? Over in West St Paul, near Cherokee park, ya know? My old high school stomping grounds so to speak, yeah, and anyway, she was outa town this winter when there was some wicked ice dams on her house and she didn't know and things flooded and crap and the neighbors came over and did some fixing of the mess for her so that the house could continue to function in her absence, ya know? Ain't that the greatest?  So this is a painting of their house to thank them!
Ya know!

Doncha love that waterspout on the left?  Nice touch, yeah?

May 25, Evening Water

This is the second in the series of plein air paintings I did, perched on the rocks near Jill... in this one, I was looking more at the way the water changes color in the depths, and the light on top. It was so fun~  really looking and seeing that constant movement, the breath of a lake~

8x8 acrylic on wood panel

$145

click here to purchase!  One of a kind!

And here's me, contemplating the lake just after painting it... You can't see my set-up because it's on my other side. I'm one of a kind too!

5/24 Superior And Rocks #1

This is one of three plein air pieces I painted in Grand Marais. Both my sister and my best friend were NAGGING me, yes, there's no other word for it, absolutely NAGGING me to get outside and go paint. I was in the middle of "Evening Rush Hour" while they were badgering me, and I have to admit, I DID talk a lot about wanting to get out and paint the water in person. And I had been whining about wanting to go back and paint the tiny creek (is it a CRICK then?) near our BnB, so I guess they were justified in pushing me.
SO I gathered my sta-wet pallet and a water cup with brushes and an 8x8 and two 8x10 panels and trotted off to meet Beaner by the Angry Trout, and painted one piece that really didn't work. Then I went and searched out Jill where she'd been drawing the trees on the rocks near the campground, opposite side of the bay to the lighthouse, where I really don't remember ever being.  Though I HAD to have climbed up on the rocks some of the many times we stayed in the camper on a trip...
Anyway, this was fun.

8x10 acrylic on wood

$160

click here for a unique view!

Sunshine on Minnehaha Creek

This is the biggest one I've painted in a while, 30x40~  makes me want to paint more big ones~  I could fall into this one. It's from a photo I took with Maxie last spring along the creek, near Nokomis Ave and Minnehaha Parkway... there's a lovely bridge there, and I was drawn in by the reflections, of course. There's that trick of trying to paint something in front of you, looking closely but not too closely... looking and keeping your brain from taking over, letting your eyes see and translate what they are seeing into paint, without your brain jumping in and saying things like, " YOU CAN'T DO THAT! WaTER ISN'T PINK!" and such helpful notes such as that. A lot of painting is learning to let go and follow the flow. Making the time for that to happen is really important too. And it takes YEARs to learn how to do that! Which is why it is still annoying to sit and paint in public and get an awesome painting done within an hour, and have someone ask how much that would be, and when it is a price that is more than they expect, they don't understand that it is the experience of painting every day that makes such output possible.
Believe me... every painting doesn't work out!

30x40 acrylic on canvas

$2400

click here to purchase or put on HOLD for you!

again, I am always delighted to accept payments!

Wahoo!

Rushing the Reeds: Marsh Reflection Series

This is the mate to the one I posted yesterday~ and I am SO wanting to go over to Minnehaha Creek and just sit there and PAINT.  Maybe I can do that tomorrow evening... I mean, it isn't a pond or a marsh, really, but I can sure see some lovely water and reflections there...
And it's supposed to be in the 90's this weekend, and we are not going anywhere, so perhaps biking over to Lake Nokomis and painting while the kids swim could be a possibility...
And thank you all for your wonderful comments about this series!  I am really moving into this water thing- not that it's entirely new to me or anything, but it sure feels good!
Wahoo!

16x20 acrylic on cradled wood panel

$640

click here to PURCHASE this one!

And just as an aside, in case you didn't know this, I am always willing to accept payments for artwork, with NO INTEREST. So if you really want a piece but you don't have a spare $500 lying around, let me know, send me a down payment, and send me some money every month until it's paid for and then it's YOURS!

Water Music

I think this may be my favorite... and there's a couple from Denver who will be measuring their wall and possibly having me ship this to them this week, which would be awesome!  Though of course, if it interests YOU, you can always nab it now.
What I really love is the sense of flow, the feel of the water on different levels, and that stark contrast of the shadows of the bent reed at the bottom of the piece,  And I used those three new colors, did I mention them before?  I brought up a teal blue, a dailyride yellow, and a very pink magenta, which I can see in this but I'm not sure if you can....

12x24 acrylic on canvas

$576

click here to nab it first!

Sky Reflections

From the Marsh Reflections Series~  this one was SO fun and such a struggle to paint. The sky is the lightest part, yet there's that intense pink pushed into the depths of the reeds there... and there's slight definition amongst the trees, and the water has a dark shine to in right at our feet...

And those FUN SPIKY BENDY grasses- this may be turning me to loving abstraction!  How do you do that?
Hmmmm~
This will be at Art-A-Whirl too!
And come nab your FREE Kat Corrigan Coloring Book!  Limited Ed of 100!

16x40 acrylic on canvas

$1280

Click here to own this incredible piece~

Darker Depths

Here's another from the Marsh Series- in this one, I was really interested in figuring out how to paint that dark color of the water nearest the bottom, right in front of you, and how to make it feel like you could see through it, into the dark to those murky shapes just below the surface.  These are different from my otters, in that with those paintings, the viewer is under the water with the otter and the surface is all reflection and light.  In these works, I'm exploring the surface and below.
DANG this is so FUN!!! It makes me want to paint, just posting this!  Wahoo!

16x40 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

$1280

for purchase info, click here

Evening Rush Hour

Dang!  This has got to be the busiest week of my spring so far, and it shows no signs of slowing down...
I painted up a storm in Grand Marais this past weekend, falling deeper in love with water and reflections, especially on still water... so we'll see where that goes. I expect you'll be able to find me along the shores of Lake Hiawatha this summer, and along the banks of Minnehaha creek as well~  this painting is from a photo I took last summer of an inconsequential little marshy area behind the Superior Shores hotel in Two Harbors.  I LOVE this one!
It will be with me at the Grain Belt Bottling house this weekend, Friday and Saturday for Art-A-Whirl!  Come on by and see it in person!  They always look better that way!

12x24 acrylic on black gessoed gallery wrapped canvas

$576

click HERE to nab this beauty before someone else does!

May 12, Superior Marsh #3

This is one of my newest paintings~ every year when I come up to the Art Colony I never know what's going to happen-  I thought I was going to paint bears or otters... I knew I'd paint a peregrine
falcon or two but this was new!
The photos I painted from are from Superior Shores in Two Harbors, last fall when mom and I went up for Dave Gilsvik's plein air class~ there was a wonderful marshy bit around back behind the hotel by the shore, where some water was wandering back to the lake, and it was sundown when I took these pics, and that's about all I painted!

Marsh Wandering Second Class

Acrylic on cradled panel, 16x16

$512

click here for purchase info!  or come to Art-A-Whirl this weekend and pick it up in person!

May 10th, An Apple...

...a Day...  and I'm realizing I haven't posted in WAY too long!  SO I am back-posting!  Here is an apple from a demo!

Whew!

6x6 acrylic on wood

AUCTiOn!!!

$25 starting bid~  WHOOHOO!

May 11, Sunshine Doxie

This is my first little painting on aluminum~ it's a bit strange.  You might not really be able to tell any difference, because the bits that are shining through are those light bits...

6x6 acrylic on ALUMINIUM

$78

click here to have this possibly ONE-OF-A-KIND painting on metal!

Not sure how many more I'll do...

It's a new experiment...

May 4th- The Demo Mug, an Auction!

I don't know- is this a mug, or a cup? What is the actual definition of a cup, vs a mug?
Did you get as many "May the Fourth Be With You" jokes today as I did? I showed this Jeremy Messersmith video of his song Tatooine to my 3rd graders~  and now I'm off on a jag of listening to the Current's Live Concerts on Youtube... great stuff!  Have you heard this one?  Or this one? I am loving his humor!
Anyway, here is my demo, caucasian skin colored mup/cug from our demo at class last night~
I'll make this one an auction too!
Because auctions are FUN!

6x6 acrylic on wood

$40 starting bid!

ACTION AUCTION!!!

Click here to BID!  and you never know- chances are good!  You could WIN!

May 3, Benny!

SO I just had to repaint Benny-   think the first version is just not what I want to be giving to his owner...
So I redid it just now-  which do you like better?

Benny TOO

Benny the First

May 2, A Commission...

Man!  Working on a couple larger commissions, and planning for painting classes, and upcoming events, and where does the time go?!?
So this is Zara!

8x8 acrylic on wood SOLD