Wine Art, wine bottles, Wine glasses......Oil Paintings

A new take on a typical wine bottle painting.

A typical wine bottle painting with wine terms in the background.

Cheers!  8x8

New work for the Red River Revel (Wine)....oil paintings

8x16....Mosaic Wine

12x12....Retro Martini

12x12 Retro White Wine

12x12...Retro Rita

12x12...Retro Red Wine

30x40.....Wine Still Life (revision)

30x30.....Wine Selection(revision)

 

8x16....Wine with Crystal

10x20.....Take Your Best Shot

 



These are some wine (and one Tequila) related paintings that will be unveiled at the Red River Revel.

As I said in a previous post I plan to show new paintings each day and mention something that I particularly like about the Revel. 

Today I am mentioning the staff and volunteers that take care of us there.  They are some of the nicest people you could ever want to know.  They run an organized show as far as set-up and administration goes.  And they take good care of us by having an awesome crew of volunteers feed us and bring us water and just generally check on us from time to time.  They really appreciate the artists and it is definitely not that way at every show.  So my thanks to them...I look forward to seeing them Friday!

Wine and Pears................Oil Paintings

12x24......Afternoon Snack

10x20......One Tired Pear

12x12......Cheers to You

12x24.....Pear "Shelfie"

8x24....."Group Shelfie"

Wine and pears go well together.  But they need cheese.  I guess I should start painting cheese. 

Wine, wine and more wine....oil paintings

These are more of the wine paintings that I did this spring.  I did a lot.... one, because I am in five shows or festivals and they always sell, and two, because I am a wino.

Wine me dine me.....wine oil paintings

NFS

I previously did a smaller "study" version of the wine bottle with oranges.  I really liked it so I did a larger version and love it as well.

But the second painting, the one marked "Not for Sale" has been added to my private collection.  I decided I cannot part with it for now.  My husband and I just love the way my artist friend Martin Welch has his home decorated.  He has lots of his own art as well as that of others featured throughout his home, high and low, covering most all available space and it is stunning!  My husband suggested that I start collecting a little more of my own art along the way.  This is going to be one of three anchor pieces on my dining room "wine wall".  You should see it in person....it is just so happy.

Romantic Dinner for Two....

I saw this photo and got drawn in immediately.  I want to be there.  I can feel the warm air, smell the plants, taste the wine.  I REALLY want to be there.

Wine Art...Oil Paintings...

Sold

 

Recently I was featured artist at the Cork Wine Festival in Shreveport, LA.  I was invited to come and display my artwork during the amazing wine tasting event that they sponsor every spring.  Believe me this is a first class event and I was proud and happy to be included.  I painted a lot of wine art for the event.  Above are some of the wine themed creations.

Birth of an Oil Painting.....Happy Birth Day.

This is a photo of my finished commission for my client in Missouri....still wet on the easle. 

Yes, I am happy happy happy and I hope the owners will be as well. 

That glass looks like you can pick it up and drink out of it (if it wasn't empty!)  I added the little marks that make the glass on the wine glass and the salt & pepper shakers come to life.  Mostly the less you can add and the more you can imply the better off you are where glass is concerned. 

The lable on the wine bottle is another favorite spot for me.  My client sent me a bottle from one of his favorite local wineries in Missouri.  At the bottom of the lable in tiny letters you can read Hermann MO.  How personal!  My goal with lables is to have them just realistic enough that they are not just generic, anonymous spaces....but not so bogged down in detail that you can read everything word for word.  I want them to evoke the image, but not photocopy it. 

What I try to create is what I told my client in an email...A blend of a very representational piece that is very literal at first glance but then if you look you see the basic "loose-ness" and "expressiveness"  that is the root of impressionistic painting. That is why I love the little imperfect parts...messy edges and the sides of the bottles and the s & p shakers that are not totally matchy-matchy. This is what keeps you looking at a painting long after your eyes have told your brain that this is a painting of some bottles and stuff on a table.

That is why I paint.

Birth of an Oil Painting....WIP 3

Here is the next installment in the process painting series of my Missouri commission.  I emailed the owner of this painting and told him that sometimes I stand in my studio and hold some palette knives and God paints a painting. 

That what is happening here. It seems to be flying onto the canvas.

 When you first approach a blank drawing on a canvas, you need to block in colors in the correct values with the idea of getting the entire canvas covered before you start making drastic changes.  Everything is relative to what is next to it and you can't really judge till you have all the black covered up.  If you are lucky, though, some of those rough little patches that you just spontaneously blocked in will stand the test of time and become permanent parts of your painting. 

A successful painting to me is one that I have the fewest places that I have to come back and re-work what I did on the block-in.  I can already see some little permanent parts starting to show up at this stage...Like that lid on the olive oil!  Can't you just reach right up there and unscrew it?

Here I just about covered up the black...just the salt & pepper lids and parts of the sides remain uncovered.  The glass doesn't have a top rim yet, but already I am LOVING it!  (My daughter viewed this after I had stopped for the day and called it to my attention that the glass that I was loving so much did not have a base on it!  Lol... sure enough it was levitating.)

I will fix that and add all those little cool things that make a painting come to life tomorrow when I will show you the last photo of the finished product!

Birth of an Oi Painting....WIP 2

This is the second of the series of my process paintings for my Missouri commission.  I prime my canvases in black acrylic and the my rough drawing is done in chalk.  It is easy to change huge mistakes with the chalk and it shows well on black.  I even sometimes use several colors of chalk on a very complex painting to help me keep different buildings or groups of trees sorted out for the painting part.

I strive for a loose style, so I keep my drawing very basic.  I want the spontaneity of the painting to come through.  I admire the talent it takes to produce very realistic, almost photographic, paintings.  I have even done some in the past that people have mistaken for photographs.  But that is not the style that I am drawn to.  I like bold, loose, chunky and funky.  I am still working in that direction.

At the beginning of this painting I blocked in my lightest lights...the salt, garlic and wine lable.  And then I sort of just keep moving...painting on what strikes my fancy.  There is no one process that I use.  My goal is to not get too bogged down in one spot and work an area to death.  I sort of flirted with that issue here on the wine bottle...working a little too close to finished on the bottle itself.  But I do like to get those highlights incorporated into the paint around them before the paint dries too much. 

At this point I was happy with my start and looking forward to continuing!  More tomorrow.

Tipsy Wine and Wine Straight Up..Oil Paintings...

Painting 1 Painting 2

#1........Tipsy Wine................8x16............$130

#2.....Wine Straight Up........8x16............$130

These are two more wine bottle paintings that I have done to get ready for my two upcoming shows. They are fun and evoke thoughts of having a good time, I think.

Speaking of having a good time.....I have some more paintings waiting in the the wings to unveil. I just love them, the style, the subject, the mood of them. I am finally getting a more consistent "look" for my work. I have all my new stuff hanging in the foyer to dry and when I look around I see that I am heading in the direction that I want to be. I knew that my little "painter's block" that I experienced last week was probably a harbinger of change and I was right. I am so much closer to where I want to be.

This is not to say that everyone is going to like my paintings better, or that they will sell better (but I hope both of these things do happen). I used to paint a painting every now and then and be able to say..."this is how I want to paint!" But then I would fall back into the inconsistent mode and paint something totally different in style and mood. Now I am finding that I am turning out one of those "this is how I want it to be" paintings much more often now.

I don't ever want to be one of those painters that finds a "niche" and then paints nothing but trees or nothing but houses. I want my unifying factor to be my signature style and my consistent choice of colors. I think in this past week I have taken a step closer to achieving that goal.

Painting 1 Painting 2

#1"Middleman"..10x20...oil on canvas...$200

#2"Hotty"....12x24...oil on canvas...$290(sold)

This first painting is a composition that my son and daughter-in-law have been wanting me to paint for a while. They saw something similar in a restaurant in Lexington. I love the negative space. I want to revisit this one another time and try it again. But I love the idea of it. Thanks Michael and Heather.

Painting 2 is another Tabasco for my upcoming art festivals. I like it...see, I told you not all my paintings were going to be "twisty" like yesterdays's.

Have You Seen my Glasses? II, Wine Art Oil Painting

Have You Seen My Glasses? II...24x24....Oil on 1.5 gallery wrap....$575(sold)

This is one of my faviorite paintings to come off my brush in a while. I am loving this look of the "Party behind the subject" where the light is just a glow in the background. It makes you wonder what is going on back there.

"Bottlenecks"....

24x30......Oil on gallery wrap....."Bottlenecks".......$725($825 framed)

I really am happy with this painting. Not only is it a subject matter near and dear to my heart, but I like the different composition of this one as compared to some of my others.

This is from a photo I took in a restaurant in Las Vegas this past spring. I had a blast one afternoon wandering through some of the restaurants when the wait staff was setting up for dinner. I just wandered in and asked it they minded if I took pictures of the bottles or tablescapes or whatever interested me. Not one person said no.

We are just returning from my niece's wedding in Tampa. It was this past weekend and it was beautiful! My brother and sister-in-law did an awesome job putting the entire thing together. They did everything themselves...decorations, food, flowers...everything. They had some good helpers in the family and it could not have been any nicer if they had had highly paid professionals to do it all. (I still hate that I missed getting a stuffed tomato, though. Everyone was raving about them the next day. Where was I?)

Wine Bottle Oil Paintings....

24x36.....oil on 1.5 gallery wrap.......Three's Company......$875 SOLD

I took this photo at the Cork Wine Festival, also. The light was coming in from the back and you could see it through the bottles.

Well, I have been busy busy busy this week and have gotten several paintings done. They will be posted next week after I have them all photographed.

Thanks to all who have commented and welcomed me back after my long absence.

And now to end the week with a smile. Check out these two party animals. Am I lucky to have a daughter-in-law who realizes how much I love getting these photos or what? The girls will be seven months old on Sunday. I feel like I fell asleep in January and woke up and it's September!

Another Vantage Point Oil Painting of wine bottle...

24x30.....Oil on 1.5 gallery wrap....View from Above....$700 (sold)

I just loved the idea of looking down on this bottle from above instead of the usual vantage point from the side. Maybe next I will do one looking from below......hmmmmmm.

Rework of old work that didn't work.....

I did this painting a while back and just never did LOVE it. There was something off about it. (plus this photo is bad, so it really looks off) I liked it enough not to frisbee it into the yard, though. So the other day I decided to make a few changes and now I do love it. So there.

24x30.....oil on canvas.....Savignon and Shadow....$450(sold)