Monday, July 25, 2016

"If I Fell" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas - SOLD

"If I Fell" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas
You might not believe that I try to limit (unsuccessfully) sugar in my diet which is probably why I'm always wanting to paint sweet stuff!  If I can't eat it, I might as well paint it.  And then eat it.  Sigh.

If you follow my posts, you may remember that I use Beatles songs if I'm having trouble coming up with a title for a painting.  So, I thought "If I Fell" was a good name for this petite painting.

"If I Fell" is a 4x4 inches oil on canvas painting presented in a wood floater frame (see additional photos below).  




Monday, July 18, 2016

"Oreos" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas

"Oreos" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas
Oreo cookies and a glass of milk.  I've certainly eaten my share over the course of my lifetime.  I had some recently and they did not disappoint!

The small sliver of white creme between the two dark wafers - that was my entire motivation for painting this little vignette.  I painted the chocolate wafers first and left a small gap on the canvas and then filled in the white creme with the final brush strokes.    

Oreos is a 6x6 inches oil on canvas painting presented in a wood floater frame (see additional photos below).  It is available at www.LaurieGMiller.com.






Sunday, July 10, 2016

"The Dark Side" - 4 x 4 inches - oil on canvas

"The Dark Side" - 4 x 4 inches - oil on canvas
My "Hershey Kiss" phase continues with a dark chocolate kiss.  I wanted the challenge of a colored wrapper (even though you only see an occasional peek of the outside of the purple wrapper).  When working with my sweet subject, I open the wrapper and crinkle it around until I'm happy with the resulting shape for my composition.  I will sometimes spend more time designing my composition than actually executing the painting.  From experience I know that a bad composition can never be overcome by technically well executed brush strokes.  More photos of "The Dark Side" and purchase info is below.

In other news, I taught a painting class to 4 girls from ages 8 to 14.  Since I recently painted an ice cream cone, I thought they might enjoy doing one as well.  We talked a lot about form, shadows, highlights and textures.  They each decided which flavor ice cream to paint and I think they turned out super cute. 



"The Dark Side" is framed in a wood floater frame (see photos below) and can either be purchased at The Whiffle Tree in Billerica, MA, or, directly from me by clicking here.




Tuesday, July 5, 2016

"Stolen Peonies" - 16 x 16 inches - oil on canvas - SOLD

"Stolen Peonies" - 16 x 16 inches - oil on canvas - SOLD
Today's painting has a story behind it.  I stopped by my friend's house for an afternoon visit.  As we were chatting, I noticed a vase filled with peonies.  They caught my attention and my eyes kept wandering back to them.  We said our goodbyes and I went on with my day.  That evening, I just kept thinking about those flowers and knew I had to paint them.

The next day, I went back to her house with the intention of taking the peonies.  We chatted for a bit and then her phone rang.  It sounded like it wasn't going to be a quick conversation so I got up, picked up the peony vase and motioned that I was taking them.  She gave me a look that said, "What are you doing?!?!?"  I chose to interpret that look to mean, "Please, take my peonies."  So, off I went with my stolen prize in hand.  

In my mind, this was an impressionistic painting and I didn't want to get bogged down in the details - I just wanted it to be loose and fresh.  I kept the background fairly abstract as I pulled complementary colors into the tabletop to give a nice pop of color.  I was really pleased with the final result.

I've been working on a new website, www.LaurieGMiller.com  Please check it out by clicking here.  Let me know what you think and I'd appreciate if you'd share it with your art-loving friends!