Still Life with Three Lemons, Red Check Tablecloth

" Lemons & Check Cloth "

12"x12"

Giclee

Open Edition $60

This is an archival giclee reproduction (giclee is French for ink spot. A high quality digital image of the original painting is printed on a large ink jet printer. Archival inks and quality canvas or papers are used.) I have a wonderful publisher here in Idaho that has produced my work for many years. If you visit my main web site you can see many more giclees of still life ( 3 other 12"x12" images that go with the Lemons) and animals. The original painting was an oil and is in a private collection.

Giclee ( soft g gee-clay)

Please email me if you have any questions or want to place an order

A Craving for Crab Cookbook, seafood, shellfish

A Craving for Crab

Cookbook

Author: Christine Quinn

Illustrated by Jennifer Bellinger

This is a cookbook that my sister-in-law and I collaborated on in 2005. It began as a little booklet of recipes to be sold with a hand-crafted Crab Cracker. The Crab Crackers are available here and are created out of beautiful hardwoods by a master boat builder from Port Townsend, Wa.

The booklet quicky grew into a full fleged primer cookbook of all things crab! My grandmother's coleslaw is included, the best! Christine has since formed her own cooking school. Check out Bainbridge Island Cooking School to see what she is currently up to. You may purchase a cookbook through my eBay Store which describes how all inclusive this crab cookbook is. Recipes for crabs from the East coast and West coast are thoroughly represented. Yum! Yum! She even explains how to throw a crab feast and how and where to catch your own crabs!

Thanks for visiting today!

Still Life with Meyer Lemons

" Meyer Lemons on Striped Cloth "

Oil

6"x6

Available

Favorite fabric, favorite lemons! Meyer lemons are so beautiful, so delicate. They make Sunkist lemons look like "tough guys".

Tip of the day: A super brush holder to keep brushes at hand while you paint. Fill a plastic tub 8" wide by 6" deep (dried dates come in these) 2/3 full with dried black beans or other small dried beans maybe even popcorn. Stand your oil painting brushes, end down. Keeps them separate and in view, no brushes rolling around. I don't know if this would be good for acrylics because the water in the brush might damage the ferrule. I have used this "bean pot brush holder for years. It holds many brushes. After cleaning brushes for the day I lay them flat to dry.

Oil Painting tips, Art tips #1

" Summer Annuals "

Oil

6"x8"

Private Collection

I wanted to share a few tips today that I've learned over the many years on my painting journey. So, here goes in a rambling sort of way:

1. First things first: a strong composition is the most important, then value and finally color.

Take the time to do a small or several small thumbnail/value sketches, choose the strongest one. You now have a plan, have worked the basics out in your mind. If you are plein air painting it will become a reference for the shadow patterns which helps you keep to your original idea as the light changes.

For composition a great help is to take acetate and trace the outline shapes of paintings I like (I keep a scrap book of paintings I've clipped from art magazines). Darken in the darks, lightly cross-hatch the mid values. Study the arrangement of the major shapes/patterns to see how the composition is put together.

2. Premixing the major colors you are seeing can create more harmony in your paintings. You have made your plan/choices. Then you are free to apply the premixed colors, covering the canvas quickly. Then make any further additions/corrections. Whistler required his students to premix their palette. He said that if the colors look good together on your palette they'll look good on your painting...or maybe it was more like..If the colors don't look good on your palette putting them on the canvas won't help! I find that I stay more true to my original idea when I premix. Even on my little 6x6 daily paintings I premix. It helps to sharpen your observation skills.

3. Need to make a big color change in a painting but don't know if it will work? Lay acetate over the painting (should be dry to the touch). Paint the new color on the acetate. For small areas I will cut out the shape I'm thinking of changing and paint it the new color then hold it over the painting..tape it on if the painting is dry to the touch so you can step back and look. This works great, too, if you are trying to decide where to put/add a new element that wasn't in your sketch.

Cherries, Buffalo China, Simple Simon

" Simple Simon Met a Pieman "

Oil

6"x6"

SOLD

"Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair". I knew what I would paint when I saw this little vintage Buffalo China bowl. Maybe it's a child's bowl from a set at any rate I love it and I'm sure will use it in many future paintings.

Limes, Buffalo China Bowls, Striped Cloth

" Stack of Vintage Buffalo China Bowls "

Oil

6"x6"

Sold

I liked the simplicity of the striped cloth with the stack of white bowls and two little limes. I found these old restaurante bowls on eBay. If there are any fresh cherries in the market today I will get a few to put in another little bowl I recently found. I imagine at our grocery store which locals have called the most expensive in the USA that the cherries will be $10 a pound. I only need a few, and I don't want to wait til summer to paint what I have in mind. I will also look for some well shaped lemons. Seems I have become the queen of daily paintings of lemons. Paint in a series, paint what you know!

Limes, Buffalo China

" Little Limes in Buffalo China Bowl "

Oil

6"x6"
Sold

Once again, here is my favorite fabric. I found some great vintage Buffalo China bowls on eBay and will be using them in future paintings.

Now that the holidays are over I can focus on painting again. I am not one who can easily have house guests and get my work done in the studio. I want to sit and visit, play games, cook...It's more about focusing on one thing at a time and with my son home and friends around, that's how I like to spend my time. The paintings will get done eventually.