Mountain Dreams

I'm back to my Van Gogh starry night games again! Today my swirly, glowing stars are over South Sister, a mountain in central Oregon. I LOVE the yellow and orange in the sky, as well as the bright moonlight on the face of the mountain. Looking at this painting I almost get a little shiver. Doesn't it look like a cold night to you?

 

Mountain Dreams © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch acrylic on wrapped canvas

Treetop Melody

​It's full on spring over here in the northwest where I live, with daffodils blooming along with the pink blossoming trees. These are the tall maples behind my house, and even though the rest of my neighborhood may look spring-like, these trees won't leaf out until almost May. I absolutely love watching the sky show through the leafless trees. Every day it is different. Here's one straight out of my imagination, but it probably did look almost like this one time!

 

Treetop Melody © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch acrylic on wrapped canvas

Spring Party

While I realize that it is so very cold in the eastern part of the US, we here in the Northwest are experiencing an early spring. It's the "pink" season here already, where the redbud trees and other pink blossoming trees that I don't know the names of are making my hometown look as though it is decorated with pink cotton candy trees. It is gorgeous! The child's song, "Popcorn Popping" comes to mind, as well as party confetti. I went with the party theme and painted four 6x6 inch panels with one lovely, somewhat abstract pink blossoming tree. I can't think of anything else to call it except "Spring Party". Here's a photo of the four panels together. I'll be selling them as singles for $40 each, or the whole set of four for $120.  Happy Springtime!

Spring Party, © Dorothy Jenson 2015

acrylic on four 6x6 inch wood panels

Meadow Dreams

Well, who knows what is going to happen when I sit down in my studio? I'm not always sure I do. Today I was thinking about abstract...just designing with color to see what comes up. Part way through I realized it was a meadow-like abstract. Since I love meadows, it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise. Then it became almost fantasy, or dream like. With lots and lots of color. I like color, too, so there you go. I wonder who else likes meadows and color?

Meadow Dreams © Dorothy Jenson 2015

acrylic on 3/4" wrapped canvas

Sparks Lake Wildflowers

I've always wanted a painting of Sparks Lake, Oregon, as a reminder of all the wonderful days we have spent canoe camping there, year after year. So much fun canoeing, swimming, painting, hiking, being with dear friends and family. There's no place like it anywhere. I finally made the attempt to paint one of the many beautiful viewpoints, and this painting includes South Sister reflecting in the lake, along with wildflowers growing in the lava rock islands. It's like this every year! I tried to keep it "loose" but definitely representative, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

 

Sparks Lake Wildflowers © Dorothy Jenson 2015

16x20 inches on wrapped canvas

Wolf Duo

Another week, another challenge! This time we are encouraged to paint "animals that mate for life". When I looked online for a list of animals that fit the category, I found that the statement itself is challenged, but no matter. Some animals are come pretty close to the standard! I decided to paint wolves and found a great reference photo by ESP on the Paint My Photo website. It has an unusual vantage point of looking slightly down upon the wolves and I found it interesting. Don't know if this is really a "couple", but we can just pretend, right?

Wolf Duo  © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch oil on gessobord

Lavender Farm with Tractor

Probably most artists want to paint a lavender field at some time, and I'm no different in that respect. Last night I was looking through the Paint My Photo website, looking for something fun to paint, when my imagination was caught by a lovely photo offered by Sandi Lear. She called it "Shades of Purple", but my painting is called "Lavender Farm with Tractor". Not very original, I know, but in case I do lavenders again, I want to remember that this particular painting has a tractor in it! I really, really enjoyed painting this, especially that cute little tractor. :)

Lavender Farm with Tractor © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6 x6 inch oil on Gessobord panel

Winter Trees

Still thinking about tree gestures, which is the Daily Paintworks weekly challenge, and was prowling through photos in the morgue file online, when this sweet image came to view. Simple, yet breathtakingly beautiful. I knew I would have to paint it. I thought about calling it "Pink Sky", but the subject is really the trees, so there you have it. I love it, especially the delicate branches in the bare tree tops. Plus that lavender, bluish field of snow.

Winter Trees © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6 x 6 inch oil on Gessobord panel

Fancy Brights

I love the colors in this little painting. The oranges, purples, blues and dark green. So bright and beautiful! Today didn't seem like it would be a painting day, but this afternoon I was drawn to the studio to try my hand painting a butterfly and flower, and I'm glad I did.

Fancy Brights © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch oil on Gessobord

Pine Tree in Lava Land

In Central Oregon we often visit the Lava Lands Visitor Center and walk the "Trail of the Molten Land". The last time we were there I allowed my grandchildren (ages 6-8) to use my pocket camera and practice taking pictures of anything they wanted. One of the images they took was of this very tenacious young pine tree growing all by itself in the lava rock, with Rabbit brush blooming all around. The Daily Paintworks Challenge this week is to give a tree it's "gesture", and I thought this tree would be a perfect subject. The tree bends with the adversity of living among heat, bitter cold and rock, but it survives year after year. Another part of the challenge (for me!) was to paint the lava rock!

 

Pine Tree in Lava Land © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6 x 6 inch oil on gessobord

Watching the Big One

When I'm visiting the coast, I always have a small camera tucked into my pocket. It comes out constantly to take photos of anyone or anything that looks interesting to me. Most of the photos are never used for anything, but every once in a while one of them is a gem. I loved the reference for this painting. Just a guy, standing there in the breeze, watching the waves crash. It looks as though that wave is going to come in and knock him down, but the camera compressed the scene, because he really wasn't as close as all that.

 

Watching the Big One © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch acrylic on wrapped canvas, varnished

Teacup Zinnias

Last summer I did a photo shoot on the back porch of little flowers and teacups. Here is one of them. Three cute little zinnia blossoms in an intricate teacup. Check out that fancy handle! We've got some surprising and head-spinning things going on in our life right now, so it's a wonder I can even concentrate to do a little painting....and it was a bit of a struggle today, but I'm finally pleased with the result. My favorite parts are the light turquoise color in the petals and the little sparkles of gold on the cup.

Teacup Zinnias © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch acrylic on wrapped canvas

Tulips Today

The challenge this week was a floral still life! Our host provided a still life photo of tulips and asked us to improve upon what we saw. I decided to change the colors up a bit and create a much warmer portrait of fruit and tulips. I'll post the original image and then my interpretation.

 

It's a lovely set-up, but here's how I changed it to make it "mine":

What do you think? I love it!

 

 

Tulips Today © Dorothy Jenson 2015

6x6 inch acrylic on canvas