New mermaid painting with a darker palette

“Twilight” is a 24×48″ original that I started two weeks ago and was certainly a challenge. I made her up so there were numerous areas that got corrected as I worked out the scene. I wanted her to be in the shadows with just light hitting some areas of her body.  I start with painting the white gallery wrap canvas with black gesso and then go from dark to light.

Another issue I deal with is covering her breasts. My feeling is that mermaids who dwell under the sea do not wear bras but I have found that covering them slightly is more appealing to collectors.

Ocean paintings with texture

Morning Surf is 36×24″ and has a lot of modeling plaster, heavy paint and layers of thin glazes mixed with acrylic glazing medium. I wanted to keep this rather abstract.

Breaking Onshore is 24×24″ and has a bit less texture. This painting went through many stages and the underpainting was so abstract with some fresh blues and shapes that were pretty simple. I actually loved that stage and told myself to leave it alone. But no! I started messing with it and pretty soon it was more realistic with a lot more details and glazes. Still some simplicity remains.

“From the Shore” Sailing around the islands is a larger piece 48×36″. I was bodysurfing an noticed the colors of the water being an olive green with the top of the water reflecting the sky blues. Originally it was just the waves at a low angle. Then I decided to add some islands in the distance with sailboats. Making up a scene from an original inspiration is challenging.

All of these paintings are affordable so if you know anyone interested, have them contact me. Thanks.

Paintings for friends

Life always seems to have its share of tragedies and joys. After the wonderful trip to England getting to know the new baby, I came home to one of my best girlfriends from high school passed. She and her husband were planning on visiting us in October from San Diego. I knew she was having brain surgery and was scared but I thought she would be fine. Shelly was a true creative soul with an abundant free spirit so I painted the surf with a butterfly to give to her husband and 5 daughters….heartbroken.

The seahorse painting is for a friend whose son has to have serious stomach surgery. Seahorses do not have a stomach evidently and my friend is now collecting seahorse artworks.

The English Countryside

Our kids own a lively kennel business in a little town in Hagley in the West Midlands. They can board 120 dogs and live in the old English manor. They have several acres and a lovely staff that comes daily to take care of all the animals. Emily and Matt work very hard to have this amazing life in the country.

We took several trips to Worcester, Ludlow and a Safari.

They have three dogs of their own besides the kennels. Two 185 lb great danes and one chocolate lab. Bones, Chili and Java. I did a portrait for them of Bones.

Since the 2 month grandson, Cole slept a lot, I had time to paint paintings for his room. The turtle one is 48×24 and the one with the octopus and shark is 40×40″.

Spring in England

My husband Nelson and I spent three weeks with our daughter, her husband and new baby boy. It was an amazing vacation centered around the new grandson but I made time to photograph my surroundings. Since it was Spring, everywhere were beautiful gardens, parks and flowers blooming everywhere. My favorite flowers include peonies which have a short growing season so I was f=so lucky to be there for the first and last blooms.

Limited Edition prints of 25 are available on demand of these photographs. Some as you can see are tinted and manipulated. Let me know if interested. They would be stunning printed large on a wall.

Flamingos on my mind

Since I have a show in a couple weeks at the Grand Bohemian Gallery in St. Augustine called “Destination Paradise”, I decided to work a bit more on the theme of tropical birds and animals. The top painting is inspired by a photo I took while in Key West of two flamingoes in a arboretum. It is called “Rock Pond” and is a thick gallery wrap 24×36″.

This painting is more fanciful with a dragonfly and two flamingoes. By the way, I looked up the proper spelling of the plural of flamingo can be flamingos or flamingoes.

This 40×16″ gallery wrap painting is called “Spring Joy”. It has metallic gold and irridescent touches throughout and looks more captivating with room lights.

Here is the invitation to the upcoming show. Hope to see you!

Mermaid along the Bay

I wasn’t sure what to call my new mermaid but wanted to relate how she was watching over the bay as a guardian. “Lightkeeper” was a contender but I ended up with “Allexis” which is a Greek name meaning protector, guardian. This painting is smaller than most of my mermaids at 36×18″. It took a while since I made up the scene. I did use a canvas from years ago that I had started from a live nude painting session at the local university.

Sometimes while painting a figure, I have to guess where the shadows and light is coming from which is challenging. There is a point where the face changes dramatically with each brushstroke and finally she appears. I say “Oh there you are” when I feel she has emerged.

Flamingo

“Coral Plumes” is a small accent painting 20×10″. It would be great in a bathroom or as accent in any room. I also am offering the image to be printed on demand through my website.

details

“This is a 24x36x1.5 gallery wrap painting called “Flamingo Gossip”. Its more impressionistic in style and was inspired by a photo I took at the San Diego Zoo.

Parrots!!

After working on monkey paintings earlier in the year and recently, I wanted to continue my tropical rain forest theme in include birds and other animals.

“Parrot Choir” is a 40×30″ painting with three parrots

The other two parrot paintings are small 20×10″. I have also shown ideas for having my art printed on various decor and wearable items. This is an option on my website and a great option for collectors who have no wall space; at http://www.linda-olsen.pixels.com

Silk Painting with my ARTISTIC CHICKS© club

There are four artists in a club I started years ago where we meet monthly to try different artistic endeavors, teach each other art techniques and share ideas. Lisa Woodruff is a clay artist, Peg Paschal is an artist who transforms used items into sculptures and art, Deb McKinney is an illustrator, graphic designer and painter and I am a painter.

We have done mosaics, woodcuts, linoleum block prints, paintings, glass sculptures, tie dye clothes and other mediums. Deb was in charge of this meeting which took two days. She generously bought the supplies and did the tutorials. I recommend artists to form their own small groups. It calls for dedication, ability to work together well, and imagination to try different techniques.

First we had to build the frames to stretch the silk before we started to actually paint. Using PVC pipes and fittings, we cut the poles to the size of the scarf silk to be able to suspend. Then we used a resist to paint in areas that we wanted to have no fabric dye. Then…painted away.

I loved how everyone tackled the project differently and the final scarves so unique. We loved this so much that we will do another session in a couple months. Also we will be able to use all the dyes and the racks that we built. SO fun!!!