"Ethereal Pear" - SOLD

This was fun. I played with abstracting a typical still life for a totally different look. I have had so many people say encouraging things to me about my abstracts that I will pursue them more often. I generally have much more fun painting them anyway! Thank you Tom. I'm sure this painting has found a great new home.

Greeting Cards - Time to Order

I've been selling packages of greeting cards - 8 cards with envelopes - for $10.00. The first ones were a variety pack of 8 different paintings from my blog. I am now taking orders for ANY painting(s) you want to select off my blog. Each order must be at least 4 of the same image; i.e., you can select 2 different images for a package of 8, or 1 image and have all 8 of the same image. Just select the title of the painting(s) and email me at: vicki@bnoconstruction.com. Please get your orders in asap as this time of the year seems to go haywire for me!! If you are out of town, I will have to add minimum postage (cheapest way possible) to mail them to you. Thanks!!

"Blue Vase" Still Life

A new "bigger" still life (11 x 14) created from the influence of Qiang Hiang's workshop. I had never painted this type of painting before and it was fun to do. It's certainly easier to round up some items in the house than traipsing all over outside looking for the right scene to paint! I was especially happy with the apple. The original looks like you could grab it and take a bite. Enjoy.

"Orange Vase Still Life"

Please excuse the glare on this photo. I promise this painting doesn't glow in the dark! I just took a weekend workshop with an exceptional artist and instructor, Qiang Huang. He's a member of our plein air group, but doesn't have much time to join us lately. He specializes in still life work and I thought I'd give it a shot. I really enjoyed his class and would highly recommend it to any of my art buddies.

"First Morning" SOLD

Thank you East Texas Paws!! I painted this little guy this afternoon. He was born this past spring and found in my next door neighbor's yard. We snuck up on him and took his picture. He was perfectly happy and not at all frightened. Somehow, when you see him at this stage he's cute, but you forget that next year he will devour all my yard plants!

"Wildflower Center"

This is a plein air study done at the Lady Bird Wildlife Center. Our group went there to paint a couple weeks ago and I thought I'd share my little work. If you haven't been there, they have a great gift shop and many great trails. I also learned that this is the month to plant your bluebonnet seeds. It may seem early, but it's time to prepare for next spring.

"Autumn Leaves"

Autumn is almost here - yea! This work is a watercolor and gouache mix. One of these days I'm going to visit Colorado at the right time of year to see the Aspens turn golden. Until then, this is my made up version of the fall I've never seen.

"Walled City Residence"

The little town of Monteriggioni is a walled city perched on a high hill with towers all around. The town was definitely built for war and seeing the enemy coming. It's very small and pretty treacherous getting a car up the hill and into the city, however, there are many residences there. I don't know if some or all of them are the shop owners. The public is not allowed to drive in - they must WALK up the hill, but somehow the residents get their little cars up the giant hill and down the very narrow streets. It's so small that it was hard to find a vantage point to paint. This painting was done from a park no larger than a back yard.

"Castillina Church Tower"

Castillina in Chianti has their famous church tower. This was the last on site painting I did before leaving this wonderful land behind. We set up our easels off the side of the road and painted this scene. In between brush strokes and many ankle bites we met people from Austria, Germany and Canada who stopped by to visit and take a peek. Most were serious bike riders and all were enamoured with the whole "en plein air" painting technique. We met so many friendly people and they all just loved painters!!!

"Chianti Italy"

This is a piece of one of our views from the Villa. This was done from the vantage point of our back patio, looking down and then the terrain went up in the distance. Nice trick trying to capture it on canvas. Wonder who lives and farms here.