Happy New Year!!

Shaken, Not Stirred
Oil  8" x 6"
$100.00 + $10. s/h

Here's to you all having a Happy New Year!  May 2014 be a great year!  Thanks to all of my blogger friends for all of your friendship and support!

Up The Creek - SOLD

Up The Creek
Oil 8" x 6"
SOLD

Just went and picked up paintings from the holiday show at G44 Gallery 1785 S. 8th Street Colorado Springs, Colorado 80905.  This one was purchased as a gift for a man who loves fishing here in Colorado!  Love it when I know where a painting goes!  Thanks G44!

As I did last January I'm hoping to participate in Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 paintings.  I don't paint every single day, and I don't paint that many small pieces in a month.  But, once again, I think that I can post the daily steps in my larger paintings.  It's a great way to start the year, and I'm one to adjust things a bit to work for me.  Look for this in January!

Just After Dawn

Just After Dawn

Oil  20" x 20" on stretched canvas ready to hang

$495.00 + $20. s/h

This is another painting done from photos I took on our fall trip to Maine.  We left our motel at about 6:25 and just made the sunrise.  This is just outside of Rockland.  

I love the way this sunrise piece turned out.  I started with a canvas toned in a bold pink.  Then there are several layers of color scumbled on after each layer dried.  I've got to go through my photos and see if I have anymore sunrise shots over water!  I have lots of mountain and plains sunrises, but I love the colors in the water reflections.

Much Needed Rest

Much Needed Rest
Oil  12" x 12"
$295.00 + $10. s/h

This is another studio piece done from our trip this fall to Maine.  I loved the evening light on the water around the lobster boat.

Good Tidings

Good Tidings
Oil  6" x 6"
25 off of 25
$75.00 + $10. s/h

As in the past, for the month of December, my small paintings are 25% off (the 25 off of 25 above).  Those posted in December will have a Paypal button reflecting that sale.  However, if you see a painting from the past, that you'd like, please email me and I'll send you a Paypal invoice reflecting the sale price.  And, I'll gift wrap any paintings that you'd like sent as a gift!

Make The Season Bright

Make The Season Bright
Oil  6" x 6"
25 off of 25
$75.00 + $10. s/h

As in the past, for the month of December, my small paintings are 25% off (the 25 off of 25 above).  Those posted in December will have a Paypal button reflecting that sale.  However, if you see a painting from the past, that you'd like, please email me and I'll send you a Paypal invoice reflecting the sale price.  And, I'll gift wrap any paintings that you'd like sent as a gift!

Poinsettia 2

Poinsettia 2
Oil 6" x 6"
25 off of 25
$75.00 + $10. s/h

As in the past, for the month of December, my small paintings are 25% off (the 25 off of 25 above).  Those posted in December will have a Paypal button reflecting that sale.  However, if you see a painting from the past, that you'd like, please email me and I'll send you a Paypal invoice reflecting the sale price.  And, I'll gift wrap any paintings that you'd like sent as a gift!

Poinsettia

Poinsettia

Oil  6" x 6"

25 off of 25

$75.00 + $10. s/h

As in the past, for the month of December, my small paintings are 25% off (the 25 off of 25 above).  Those posted in December will have a Paypal button reflecting that sale.  However, if you see a painting from the past, that you'd like, please email me and I'll send you a Paypal invoice reflecting the sale price.  And, I'll gift wrap any paintings that you'd like sent as a gift!

Redd Lobster

Redd Lobster
Oil  12" x 12"
$295.00 + $10. s/h

I love this red lobster boat!  This was just after sunrise in the Rockport, Maine harbor.  

Working Boat

Working Boat
Oil  11" x 14"
SOLD

Many of my recent studio pieces have been paintings done from photos of our trip in September/October to Vermont, Maine and Nova Scotia.  I've posted all of the plein air work, so now I'll be posting the studio work.  

I loved seeing all of the lobster boats, row boats and dinghies, buoys, and harbors.  All things that we don't have here in Colorado!  All things that I've been painting!

The harbors were filled with working boats.  To me, being a lobsterman must be a hard, hard job!

Weathered Gray Shingles

Weathered Gray Shingles
plein air oil from Monhegan Island
8" x 10"
25 off of 25
$149.00 + $10. s/h

This is the last of the plein air pieces that I painted last month on Monhegan Island, Maine.  Most of the buildings n the island were weathered gray or white.  For those of you who have gone there and painted, I certainly understand why.  For those of you who've commented that you hope to go there some day, I certainly understand why.  It is truly a wonderful place.  Look for the studio pieces that I've been working on since we've been back.

Besides all of the incredible scenes to paint, there are miles of trails to hike.  Sometimes while I was painting my husband would hike.  Other times I hiked, too.  One of my favorite hikes was out to the "Enchanted Forest."  As you hike along there are dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of little fairy houses built under tree roots, at the base of trees, behind rocks, on branches.  It's amazing.  You turn your head and there's another one!

Here are a few of them!

The Keeper's House - On Monhegan Island

The Keeper's House (near the lighthouse)

plein air oil from Monhegan Island

6" x 8"

25 off of 25

$75.00 + $10. s/h

Monhegan Island, Maine is an incredible place.  I've been talking and posting about it the last few weeks.  Because it's so small, you walk everywhere.  And, everywhere you walk is another painting!  I photoed this piece several times and just can't get the shadow side of the building to read as dark as it's painted.  I'll keep trying!

The lighthouse keeper's house is now the Island Lighthouse Museum.  You can go in this building

 and the ice house, but not into the actual lighthouse.  This station was built in 1824.  

The lighthouse was built in 1850 and animated in 1959.

This gate was right by where I was painting!

Gulls and Rocks

Gulls and Rocks
plein air oil from Monhegan Island, Maine
6" x 8"
25 off of 25
$75.00 + $10. s/h

Sea gulls can be seen dropping shell fish and clams from the air to the rocks below.  This allows them to open the shells.  I guess they're smarter than I thought!  So, if a seagull drops a shell while flying 12 feet up, how fast is the shell moving when it hits the rock?!...sorry, I couldn't resist!  I never did get those high school math problems.  You know, the ones that went something like:  If a train departs from Chicago at 10:00 and another departs from New York at 11:00, how fast will they be going when they meet in Ohio?  Why did we have to figure out the speed of 2 trains when they collided?

Anyway, back to Monhegan Island...

This is out on Lobster Cove.  I guess this ship wreck has been there for decades!

I loved all the cairns.  I built one, too!

Turn Of The Century

Turn Of The Century (I think)

plein air from Monhegan Island

oil  8" x 10"

25 off of 25

$149.00 + $10. s/h

I have paintings at two local galleries, Summerland Gardens and G44 Gallery, both which had Holiday Open Houses this weekend. As I was getting paintings ready for these shows I thought that I should also get my blog ready for the holidays.  So, I'm going to offer 25% off of all small paintings, 9" x 12" and smaller, in my next 25 posts.  I'm going to make an effort to post every other day and have that many posts before the holidays!

Back to our trip to Maine...

Monhegan Island is located 10 miles off the coast of Maine.  In the summer there are ferries from three locations.  However, when we went in October, there was only one ferry daily from Port Clyde.  I can only imagine the number of people on the island in the height of the tourist season!  But, I understand why so many people head out there...it's beautiful!

The architecture on Monhegan Island represents what I think of as classic, coastal Maine.  It seems to be something that many people are looking for...a slower, simpler way of life.  

Monhegan Island is a center for fishing, lobstering, a haven for artists, and a summer retreat for people attracted to its' scenery, rugged shore line, hikes, nature, and history.

Buoy Shacks On Monhegan Island

Buoy Shacks On Monhegan Island
plein air oil  8" x 10"
$149.00 + $10. s/h
that's 25 off of 25!

Here's another plein air painting from our trip last month to Monhegan Island, Maine.  Every where that you turned there was another painting just waiting for you!

And below are some more photos from our trip!

This shows many lobster traps being dropped off at the dock.

Usually these chairs on the front porch of the hotel had lots of people in them! 

I could imagine the hundreds (at least) of times this dingy has been used!

Veteran's Day #2

Veteran's Day #2

Oil 8" x 8"

25 off of 25

$149.00 + $10. s/h

SOLD 

(I'm offering 25% off of the next 25 small paintings!)

I posted a similar flag painting last Veteran's Day and decided to post another one this year...and maybe every Veteran's Day, who knows!  Below is the same information from that post also.

This is the flag that my dad received for his dad's service to our country.  My dad passed it down to my son.  I have painted and posted it before.

Saturday was the big Veterans Day Parade in downtown Colorado Springs.  We have a lot of Vets here as the military is a strong presence in the town with Fort Carson, NORAD, Peterson Field, Schriever Air Force Base, and the Air Force Academy.  Many Vets stay and make Colorado Springs their home and many Vets return to live here when they retire.  Monday is Veteran's Day with closures in all of the government buildings as well as our local schools.

I come from a family of Veterans.  I'll introduce you to some of them again this year:

This is my mom, Rosalie Phillips Johnson (1921-1971).  She became a pilot after college.  She served in WWII as a WASP, Women's Air Force Service Pilot.   The WASPs flew new planes from factories to embarcation air fields where they were either flown or shipped overseas.

My dad, Oliver Sidney Johnson (1920-2004), is on the far left in the back row.  He served in WWII as a radio operator and machine gunner on B-24s and B-17s in the 490th Bomb Group flying out of England.

My grandfather, Charles Thomas Johnson, (1890-1964) is the one circled.  He served in WWI and also was a Colonel in WWII.  This is General Patton's staff (you may recognize him in the front row.)  I can't imagine how it must have been for my grandma to have her husband and only child both in Europe during the war.  She also served our country as an ambulance driver taking soldiers from Midway airport to the hospital.

My husband Peter's parents were also Veterans.  They both served in the Navy.  This is their engagement photo.  My father-in-law, Peter Carl Holnback, was a fighter pilot in the Pacific.  My mother-in-law, Olive Hird Holnback, was a WAVE:  Women Accepted for Voluntary 

Emergency Service.