"Summertime"

Hi everybody, pleaes excuse my absence. All I can say is I am glad August is over. Iv'e been busy with some larger paintings and I get so single mindedly focused I can't seem to change gears. School has started, yeah! I have also been working on a newsletter that I got in the mail today. I am working hard on self promotion and that takes extra time.

"Sunflower"

"Over Achiever"

I found some time on Sunday to do a couple of paintings.

"Two Fish Blue Fish"

I always wanted a bowl with a fish design, and recently Gail, my painter friend gave me a real one. This one I made myself, artists are always thinking of ways to find what we need for our paintings. Carol Marine another daily painter has started to stamp her own fabric for backgrounds, as well as sew pieces together for striped fabric. The bowl Gail gave me is on the home page of my website, www.annespoon.com.

"Cherries on Blue"

"Cherries on Yellow"

I've been busy preparing larger paintings for the Dodson Gallery opening this Friday night. The show is the same night as the opening of The Prix De West at the Cowboy hall of fame. It is an exciting night in Oklahoma City.

"Study in White"

White on white is so difficult and great practice in learning how to see as an artist.

"Poison?"

I went outside to look for a flower to put in this cute red globe shape thing and I saw these mushrooms. They weren't there yesterday and I figured they probably wouldn't be there tomorrow, so poison or not, they have a great shape and I will paint them. I was a little leary about handling them but I'm still here, yeah!

"Lemon Dish"

The smell of cut lemons is so fresh and clean . I enjoy painting them. Yellow and black are becoming a favorite color combo recently. Hey it looks good on bumblebees, right?

"Mr. Honey Bear"

I had to stop the kids from finishing the honey so I could paint him. The sacrifices of having a painter mom. They can have it now. Last week a friend of the family stayed with us for a couple of days and ate my still life pears, he was confused when I said they weren't to eat. I picked just the perfect ones, the stems were just so, they stood up and didn't fall over. Oh well

"Inside Out"

This is been a busy week, the kids are home and lots of running around to do. Being a painter, mom and wife is a juggling act.

"Sunny"

I love painting still life outdoors, these yellow flowers were growing everywhere around the campground. Again the sun kept coming and gong so I had to wait on it. We can't control everything when plein air painting but that makes me work looser and faster.

"Fast Sunset"

I literally painted this in 5 minutes. That's how fast the sun dissapeared behind a cloud. It's not pretty but it captures a moment.

"Flip Flops"

The sun kept going behind the clouds today so I did a quick study of my flip flops. Simple subject, interesting shapes.

"Tipsy"

Inspiration isn't hard to find this time of year.

I kept putting the flower in the glass and it kept falling out so I went with it. It makes a better composition.

"It Looks Like Rain"

So many possible compositions to play with, I'll probablly do more paintings with these. I did buy some cool bowls today, they are just clear colored plastic, but when the light shines through it casts pretty color. I won't tell you the mega chain store I bought them from, wouldn't want to give them free advertising.

"Flow blue and Oranges"

I tried to use complimentary colors in this piece. The light was really pretty as it shined through the orange slice. Sorry about the glare, it was hard to avoid it.

"Peek-a-Boo Peas"

These peas peeking out at me reminded me of a babies Halloween costume I had seen a few years ago. The stem was a hat, too cute, anyway these peas looked like they were peeking at me from inside their protective cover.