New Pear Painting! The Golden Pear

The Golden Pear

8" x 10"

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Available for Purchase

***Sold***

Painting, painting, painting! It is a beautiful Monday, the sun is shinning and it is very warm outside. I should be cleaning up the yard~but, painting is more fun. This is the newest pear painting. I wanted an elegant vintage-type appearance with a muted background. I am very pleased how it turned out. This painting is available for purchase directly from the artist at my gallery at EBSQart.com and in my Etsy.com store.

Up next, pink Flamingos! Check back again soon to see how they are coming along.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Torrie

The Avocado ~~ New painting today!

The Avocado

6" x 8" Oil on Canvas Panel

Available for purchase

$25.00, plus shipping

I was able between fog and rain to get a good picture of my newest painting The Avocado. The Avocado is available for purchase directly from the artist at my EBSQart.com gallery or my Etsy.com store.

It has been nice to get back to painting after the Christmas holiday. I have a new pear painting almost complete and I will be finishing up two flamingo paintings as requested. I will be painting a smaller version of "Big Bird" and finishing up the portrait for the "Different Strokes from Different Folks" portrait challenge. It is so nice to be busy painting!

Check back tomorrow to see the finished gold pear painting!

Torrie

Art of the Day!

Sunday Pears

6" x 8"

Oil on Canvas Panel

~Sold~

How exciting! My Sunday Pears was selected as "Art of the Day" at EBSQart.com It is such an honor for one of my paintings to be on the front page. Sunday Pears has found a new home in Massachusetts.

We had a wonderful Christmas! My collectors were very good to me and my family, now I have to get busy replacing the paintings in my online stores. I have finished a new avocado painting that will be listed today~~ as soon as the weather clears and I can get a good digital photo. I am almost finished with a new gold pear painting that is very muted and coming along nicely. Check back later today to see if the weather cooperated and the avocado painting can make it to the blog.

I am still working on the pastel portrait for the "Different Strokes from Different Folks " portrait challenge. I am very excited about the opportunity to participate. I do not paint many portraits, so this is a stretch for me. I love the reference photo Karin Jurick sent to me. I can't wait to find out who the artist is and check out her portfolio, she seems very interesting! Miranda told me I was "doing really great with the use of the negative space" Huh? It is times like these when the difference between a college-educated artist (Miranda) and a self-taught, checked-out-every-art-book in the library artist (me) starts to show.

Well, back to the studio!

Thanks for stopping by~

Torrie

Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours~

Merry Christmas!

Miranda, Torrie, Courtney,

Sadie and Stella

Two New Pear Paintings

Two Christmas Pears

5"x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel

~SOLD~

The Christmas Pear

8" x 10"

~SOLD~

I love painting pears. Two new pear paintings available for purchase. These are just listed in my eBay and Etsy.com stores. You can also purchase directly from the artist.

Today, I will be making Christmas candy and finishing up last minute Christmas shopping. It is hard to believe Christmas is almost here and then 2009! Where did the year go.

Check back again soon... I am hoping to sneak back into the studio before the day is over and paint!

Torrie

Getting Back to Work!

Back in my Studio

I am so excited! The shelves are back up and fully stocked. This time they will not be going anywhere. The shelves are fully anchored into studs~~if the shelves fall now, they will take the wall down with them. I did move the magazine collection off the shelves because of the weight and replaced it with supplies. The top shelf is large canvas and the second shelf is small canvas, watercolor paint, pastels, and watercolor and pastel papers. I had forgotten what a wonderful collection of pastels I have. I am going to have to start using them.

My first painting in my newly re-designed studio was a pear. I wanted to paint something familiar to get back into the swing of things!

The Christmas Pear

This is the first painting from the new and improved studio. I will be posting the painting for sale some time tomorrow. I could not get a very good picture of the painting today~~it was too cloudy and rainy. Hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine long enough to get a good quality picture of the painting.

I spent the rest of the rainy day finishing up last minute Christmas shopping with Miranda. We had a wonderful time and ended the shopping adventure at Krispy Kreme!

Thanks for stopping by!

Torrie

When bad things happen~~

OOPS!

The shelf in the picture is 7 feet long

All the holes in the wall is where the anchors came out.

When I bought this house in 2003, I was very excited to have a small room off the living room to use as my studio. This enabled me to be close to the children and the activity in the living room, but still be doing my own thing. (You know how your kids want you to be close enough to answer when they say: "Mom", but not hovering .....) I have enjoyed my little room so much, over 350 paintings have been created here and shipped all over the world.

I have been adding supplies, canvas, and art magazines to my shelves in my studio for five years.....who knew it was getting too heavy! I am grateful I was in bed fast asleep and not sitting painting at my table when the shelves came tumbling down. The falling shelves would have definitely left a mark. The steel rail of the shelves impaled the storage bin next to my table which gave me an idea of the force of the shelves falling. No paintings were lost or damaged in the mess. I generally keep the finished paintings tucked away. I did lose all but one of my orchids. They were crushed and the pots shattered under the art magazine collection that was on the bottom shelf when it fell.

Needless to say...I will not be painting until I can find the floor under all the magazines and supplies. There are paint brushes scattered everywhere. I currently have canvas stacked in the hallway and dining room. I know the shelves will not be going back up.....I will have to think of something else~~maybe one of those elaborate closet systems from Lowes.

Hopefully, I will be back up and painting very soon. I will have to avoid the temptation to sit on the floor and look at all the magazines one more time before finding a new place to keep them!

Thanks for stopping in,

Torrie

Avocado on Red and No Sushi on Tuesday!

Avocado on Red

6" x 8" Oil on Canvas Panel

***SOLD***

Miranda had bought two avocados the other day for her dinner. I "borrowed" one for a few minutes to take some reference photos to paint for later. The children are getting used to me taking pictures of their food and fruit for my artistic adventures. I have been having so much fun playing with red paint. I am going to have to paint something else with all the reds. I think I have about seven tubes of different shades of red!

No Sushi on Tuesday

6" x 8" Oil on Canvas Panel

Available for Purchase
$25.00

There is only one place in Shelby to get sushi. (This is a very small town...) There is a sign on the front door the says: "No Sushi on Tuesday". The only lady that knows how to make sushi is off on Tuesday.

Miranda's computer is currently being repaired, so she has been on my computer all day long getting ready for her finals this week. That gave me an excuse to lay on the sofa all day with the dogs watching movies~ I never do that! I will be paying for it tomorrow as I rush around to get everything done before the work week starts on Tuesday!

Up next~~ Finishing up the flamingo paintings. Then, I had better get my Christmas shopping finished.

Thanks for visiting!

Torrie

Home for the Holidays!

The Family

Mom, Miranda, Courtney,

Sadie, and Stella

Every year I try to get a nice picture of the family to add to the Christmas card so family and friends who live across the United States, that we rarely see, can keep up with us. You would think as the children got older this process would become easier......not really. It is one of my most favorite days.....all of us together laughing, remembering.... Not one good picture out of the group! Well, check back over Christmas and we will see if I can photoshop a decent one of all of us!

Courtney is home from school for the Holidays. She looks thin, but I can fix that! Miranda is still in the middle of finals and she is very crabby!

I plan on painting all day today, there are several new paintings that need to be finished, at least that is the plan for now. Check back tomorrow evening and there should be a new sushi painting, an avocado still life (Miranda's dinner the other night), and another new flamingo painting.

Well, off to clean the kitchen, then to the studio!

Torrie

Sunday Pears ~ New Original Oil Painting

Sunday Pears

6" x 8" Oil on Canvas Panel

~SOLD~

There are times when you go into the studio to paint without a clear idea of what you want to do....then you get lucky and things just come together. This is Sunday Pears, yellow pears with a splash of red. I love this painting! If this disappears, then you know I kept it myself.

It is late, and there is still much to do before bed. ~ I will check back in again soon!

Torrie

Henry ~ The Flamingo

Henry, the Flamingo

6" x 6" Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

~SOLD~

I have learned my lesson, never ask your daughter what to name a painting. Now I am stuck, if I don't name it Henry, she will be offended. So here it is: Henry, the Flamingo. I was requested by a collector on eBay to paint more Flamingos and Ostriches. This is the first of three planned flamingo paintings. The next is an 8" x 10" of two flamingos together. The third will be approximately 9" x 12" and will be the one I have done before of the flamingo walking in the water with reflections. Henry is currently available for purchase in my EBSQart gallery and my Etsy store.

I will also be painting more pears in between the flamingo paintings and I am still participating in the weekly challenges. My next challenge will either be painted using watercolor or pastel....she wanted us to branch out to try other mediums...other than what we are most comfortable using.

That is about all the big plans so far for the upcoming week, unless you count cleaning house, doing laundry, and getting everything in order before Courtney gets home with her laundry and clutter~~ and of course there is the real job. So, that means at any given time there will be four computers up and running~~ the local power company just loves me.....

Thanks for checking in!

Torrie

Egg Reflections ~ New Painting today!

Egg Reflections

5" x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel

Available for Purchase

$25.00, plus shipping

This is the newest in my series of small oil paintings. Egg Reflections is a simple composition of something you see everyday. I am hoping I caught it in a new light and made it a bit interesting.

It was so much fun being selected as "Art of the Day" yesterday. Thank you everyone for your nice notes and comments of congratulations. It was so much better than a birthday!

I had planned to get up really early this morning and get so much accomplished with my day....that was a really good plan, but instead I spent a lazy morning snuggling with my Stella and doing nothing. I have followed that up with hanging out with Miranda watching old movies--basically doing nothing.....it is cloudy, cold, and gloomy and that has probably helped me along with my lazy day.

I will be starting my flamingo painting today. I had a request yesterday to paint more flamingos. Right now I am working on a small flamingo portrait 6" x 6" acrylic on canvas. Check back tomorrow to see if I finished it or continued with my laziness.

Thanks to much for stopping by!

Torrie

Art of the Day at EBSQart.com!

The White Pumpkins

8" x 10" Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

~~Sold~~

I am honored, excited, and thrilled "The White Pumpkins" was selected by EBSQart.com as "Art of the Day". It came at such a wonderful time....I had just finished throwing away the painting I had been working on all night....feeling a little down, then I saw my painting had been chosen. I will be walking on air all day~~ Thank you EBSQart! This painting was my first Weekly Challenge painting and was then one that got me hooked on participating in the challenges.

Well, I guess I better get to bed. I may be on the front page of a fabulous self-representing artist gallery website, but I still have to get up at 6:00 am for the real job. Have a wonderful weekend!

Torrie

Hydrangeas in the Morning ~ Weekly Challenge Painting

Hydrangeas in the Morning

5" x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel

Available for Purchase

$25.00, plus Shipping

Different Stroke from Different Folks weekly painting challenge.

This week was called our "Zen" project when we were asked to paint this sunlit still life arrangement of Hydrangeas and a Buddha. I loved painting this one. I am of fan of still life painting and I love hydrangeas. I have several hydrangea bushes of pink and blue versions in my backyard. I am thinking of painting a larger version of the painting for my own!

There are so many things I want to paint! Coming up next~~I am going to paint a small Christmas painting on a canvas panel. I bought lemons for a lemon pie for Thanksgiving. Miranda helped me set up still life compositions using the fresh lemons before I made the pie. I will be working with those reference photos to paint new lemon still life paintings.

I have also been asked to paint nekked ladies....well, maybe....we'll see....

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the newest painting. Check back again soon. There is definitely more to come!

Torrie

Cherries and Shadows ~~Sold~

Cherries and Shadows

5" x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel

~~SOLD~~

This is the newest painting. The weather has been quite rainy and I take my photographs outside in natural light, so I had to wait for a clear day. This painting is currently available for purchase in my EBSQart Gallery and in my Etsy.com store. It will soon be listed in my eBay store.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday, I know we did as evidenced by my five pound weight gain. Now, back to the diet with no lemon or pecan pie! It was nice to have the girls home laughing, playing on the computer, and shopping. I will need to get the electrical outlet fixed in the living room. It seems when you overload it with guitar hero, two laptops, the ceiling fan, every light in the living room on, and a space heater all plugged into the same outlet using an adapter and an extension cord, the smell of melting plastic brings all fun to an end.

~~Not to mention a screaming women with paint brushes in her hand exclaiming, "can't you smell that"......Miranda's allergies were acting up and Courtney had a cold, they could smell nothing and the dogs evidently haven't learn to bark FIRE yet.

I will be finishing the weekly painting challenge for this week today. Hopefully, the weather will stay good and I will be able to get a picture of it tomorrow and turned in on time! After that, there is so much I want to do~~more lemon paintings are on the way along with more small oil paintings. I did miss the political art show at EBSQart.com, but I am still going to finish the President-elect Obama painting and enter it in the Better Late than Never show this month.

Thanks for stopping by!

Torrie