Bernie and Booger's Hurricane Advenuture

Bernie and Booger's Hurricane Adventure
Page 2- 9x12 watercolor on panel board
This page depicts the colorful New Orleans streets lined with buses as the evacuation of people begins before Hurricane Katrina. With my background in architectural illustration I loved working on this page, brings back many memories of hours at the drafting table. However, I was very comfortable working on this page, the animal pics are much more of a challenge since I have not done much wildlife or animal art. I hope to be doing a lot more. I am presently putting the color on this page and intend to post it tomorrow with color. Thanks for viewing my blog!

The Katrina Dogs- Bernie and Beau's Hurricane Adventure

The Katrina Dogs- Bernie and Beau's Hurricane Adventure

20x24- Acrylic

I have just finished roughing in all the pages for my upcoming children's book so I thought I would start by reposting the cover. I have spent many hours on all the pages and the story that I wrote. I am working very hard to have the book complete and published for the fall. I will be posting some pages to share in their rough stages. I am very excited to continue this process and look forward to sharing the progress. Thanks for viewing my blog!

Purple Cabbage II

Purple Cabbage II

18x24 Oil Painting

The purple cabbage contains beautiful nuances in luminosity that prove to be a real challenge to capture. The cabbage is an everyday object that is always viewed below eyelevel never presented at eyelevel and seen for their amazing colors and depth. As I worked on my thesis I was fascinated to read Looking at the Overlooked- Four Essays on Still Life Painting by Norman Bryson. I learned that there actually is a study on the type of still life painting I do -rhopography. Rhopography is the study of still life painting of insignificant or unimportant objects presented as important. I had been doing this all my life and didn't know there was a name for it! Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me. Prints are available at fineartamerica.com  http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all

Marlboro Madness

Marlboro Madness

3-12x12 triptych Mixed Media

This triptych, another in the blacktop series focuses on the debris left along the road by the people who pass by. When I think of a blacktop road I think about all that travel along its path, most never actually experiencing the road. Most are flying by on the way to someplace else.

I liked the parallels between the marlboro cigarette package I found along the road and the notion of what cigarette's do to one's body. The blacktop seems like the tar that is made by the lungs when one smokes and the package is flung so carelessly aside the way life is also flung aside when one chooses to smoke. No I did not wish to make an ad against smoking, just thought the parallels were kinda a fun play. Thanks for viewing my blog!

Empathy

Empathy

3-12x12 triptychs Mixed Media

This collection is another in my series about the microcosms of existence and life from the blacktop road. In these paintings I thought about this tiny, beautiful frog not understanding that its life is inconsequential in the big picture. The frog loses his life on the road and its little spirit or light of energy passes into another realm. It makes me think about how our own lives are so small in the scheme of things. Or maybe it's just about how we touch the people around us and that's all that really makes us special! Thanks for viewing my blog!

Storms a Brewin'

Storms a Brewin'

18x24 Oil Painting

In my continuing study of gestural landscape I was playing with the ideas of large simple shapes and simple brushstrokes to define direction and motion. Also, the sharp contrasts of the deep browns to the white billowy clouds add to the drama of the painting.  I had been studying the landscapes of modernist painter Maynard Dixon and I am sure you can certainly see the influences. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me.

Treescape Gesture

Treescape Gesture

18x36 Oil Painting

This painting is intended to convey the gesture and motion one feels when viewing a landscape. The sway of the trees, the movement of the clouds, the reflection of the water all present a direction and create a painting of pure gestural design.This abstraction of reality hopefully conveys to the viewer a parallel of some similar experience they my have once felt. So through the painting I hope that I have connected with a fellow lover of the essence of the landscape. This painting is a quick study, unlike many of my very detailed works, something very different for me and very freeing. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me.

Whimsical Creature

Whimsical Creature

8x10 Mixed Media

I enjoy isolating certain areas of my photographs for my painting compositions. In this painting there were tiny spirals within the cabbage that reminded me of some sort of futuristic snail type creature.  I sometimes enjoy making a painting that is purely for fun. This image looked like a little creature emerging from his organic "cave" and just now emerging into the light. It makes me smile everytime I look at it. What do you see in the shapes? Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me.

Curly Kale Hidden Leaf

Curly Kale Hidden Leaf

8x10 Mixed Media 

This study of kale leaves focuses on the tender hidden leaves shaded away from the everyday passerby. I especially liked this choice as it reminded me of the storybook illustrators of the golden age of storybook illustrations. Kay Neilsen, Maxfield Parrish are two of my favorites. One could almost picture a gnome stepping out from the shadows with some special treasure he found on the  forest floor. 

 I composed this painting so the direction of the leaves would control the viewer's eye and draw the viewer  into the vortex of the painting. The light and dark contrasts are also intended to achieve this. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me.

Cabbage and a Sunny Day

Cabbage and a Sunny Day

36x36 Mixed Media

I have always loved the concept used in the still life genre of rhopography meaning still life's of unimportant objects presented at a level of importance or at eye level. With this still life of the cabbage the viewer is invited to view the lowly cabbage larger than life and exhibited at a height which appreciates all the lush detail, color and shape that rarely magnified upon. Georgia O'Keefe often talked about expressing the spiritual essence of the animals or plants she portrayed. I enjoy presenting that same idea in my work. Thanks for viewing my blog! If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me. Prints of this painting are available at Fineartamerica.com , http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all,

Curly Kale

Curly Kale

20x36 Mixed Media

The undulating leaves of  purple kale make me think of a dancer's swirling skirt swaying with her movements. I intended for the composition to control the viewer's eye in and out of the swirling forms. This painting was one in a series completed for my thesis show. I played with various design systems within the book by Jay Hambidge and the concepts of dynamic symmetry. I taught myself a lot about composition while working on my thesis. There is not enough emphasis put on composition in the schools, it is much more about expression.  Thanks for viewing my blog! If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me. Prints of this painting are available at Fineartamerica.com , http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all

Habitat

Habitat

12x36 Mixed Media

 I took a section of a photograph  I took and created a painting that reminded me of a habitat for some tiny creature on the forest floor. If you notice the small dark opening on the upper left third of the painting, surely something resides there.

 I like the way this painting is organic abstraction in that the subject is unrecognizable from what the original photograph is that of some decaying cabbage leaves. I experimented with creating luminosity through the use of the white of the paper in this mixed media abstract. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me. Prints are available at fineartamerica.com ,

Greenscape

Greenscape

24x36-Mixed Media

This painting also 

  This painting also explores areas within photographs taken of the various cabbages I was using for my still life series. I sought to present areas as studies in light and shadow which create dynamic compositions and become a dynamic design and not readily recognizable as anything but organic form.

  In this painting I isolated the areas which seemed to make a sensuous sort of landscape complete with archways and figurative shape. I liked the way the leaves created a sort of otherworldliness inviting it's viewer to another world beyond. Its surrealist landscape makes me think that a being not of this world  might step out of the shadows at any moment in this organic, yet futuristic landscape. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me. Prints of this painting are available at fineartamerica.com ,    http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all

Soaring

Soaring

36x52-Mixed Media

In this painting I was exploring areas within photographs taken of the various cabbages I was using for my still life series. I sought to present areas as studies in light and shadow which create dynamic compositions and become a dynamic design and not readily recognizable as anything but organic form.

I really liked the way the spines of the cabbage gave the impression of aerial landscapes. The undulating edges of the leaves on the right created an opening which when casting its shadow reminded me of two birds joining their beaks together in unison and creating and endless oval below. I thought this a very powerful image so it was worthy of a painting. The dark blue green which recedes against the leaves edges reminds me of a far away vanishing field. I really liked the way this composition gives one a sense or height and flying. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact me.

Ephemeral Life

Ephemeral Life

36x36 Mixed Media

This painting is another in my  master's' thesis work which explored the still life genre of rhopography which is considered still life's that explore insignificant or still life's whose subjects present items considered not of historical importance. My work focused on the lowly cabbage as historically important yet not readily recognized as thus. Or to put another way, the significance or things insignificant. I chose this because I felt it related to events in my own life.
 In this painting Ephemeral Life, I found that the dead parched cabbage though cast off and overlooked, is actually quite beautiful and metaphorical in it's representation of a life gone by. The subtle colors within the earthtone palette were very intriguing to me. All the soft pinks, purples and greens within the parched leaves I felt were colors not realized by a casual passerby. I wanted to call notice to beauty within what might otherwise be considered an uninteresting parched pile of foliage. Thanks for viewing my blog. If you are interested in purchasing this painting please contact the artist. Prints are available at fineartamerica.com

Landscape In Blue

Landscape In Blue

36x48 Oil

This is another in my landscape series that seeks to convey the expression of the landscape rather than a realistic depiction. George Inness the great luminist and forerunners of abstract expression sought to do this in his fabulously expressive work.  One of my favorite painting of Inness is  Home of the Heron, 1893  the painting is a great example of this. One can practically hear the wings of the heron flapping as it takes off at the end of the day as the sunsets. Thanks for viewing my blog. Prints of this painting are available at Fineartamerica.com , http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all

Composition In Purple and Green

Composition In Purple and Green

36x48 Oil on Linen

I have experimented extensively with abstract landscapes. The inspiration for this particular painting comes from the water reflections and tree line beyond the water that I look at everyday. Especially in the evening the colors are mesmerizing.  This image was a bit life changing for me so it will always be a part of me as an artist.

When I first tried to capture the image of the water, reflections and the incredible colors created at sunset, I realized that unless it was conveyed in abstract form it would not convey the expression felt when experiencing it. I hope you visit my blog often this image will appear in a myriad of colors and shapes. Thanks for viewing my blog. Prints of this image are available at Fineartamerica.com ,http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all

Road to Santa Fe

Road to Santa Fe

30x30 Oil

This is my first palette knife painting but it certainly won't be my last. The reference I was using contained some adobes in Santa Fe. The colors and textures of the southwest lent itself so well to the use of the palette knife. In this painting I wanted to convey the festive shapes and colors of the architecture not a tight rendition of adobes which my background in architectural illustration makes me want to do. 

I am traditionally a thin painter when it comes to paint application. So this was a very freeing experience for me. This canvas has tons of paint on it! Palette knife painter Laurie Justus Pace presented a workshop over the weekend which I attended and had a wonderful day. Stay tuned I am a palette knife convert.Thanks for viewing my blog. For purchasing information please contact me. Prints will be available at fineartamerica.com , http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

30x46

I wanted to express the passion one feels when experiencing the intense colors of the tropics. The undulating petals of the red hibiscus create a very sensuous rhythm of values inviting the viewer to imagine themselves somewhere tropical with a warm breeze and the taste of the sea coming to mind. Large fields of red are always such a pleasure to render. In this painting the red pastels are almost like paintings with fire they are so intense and expressive, one of my favorite mediums. Thanks for viewing my blog. Prints are available at fineartamerica.com, http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/donna+page/all,

Poppies

Poppies

2"x3"- Acrylic

This abstract was inspired by the intense colors and horizons in beautiful Canada. The poppies around Chateau Lake Louise in contrast with the bright yellow flowers were dazzling. This little painting expresses that beauty in through shapes color and composition. I like this study so much it just might become a large painting! For purchasing information please contact me.