"Texas Blue"

"Texas Blue"  will be  on display beginning this coming Saturday - November 3rd for the  Gallery Off The Square contest for works representing "Texas Traditions"   Visitors will be voting on the works submitted by some of our 32 Texas artist.

The inaugural event "Gallery Georgetown" is a free event promoting art in Georgetown,  7 galleries will be  participating in the event.   Participants who visit all galleries will be eligible to participate in a drawing to win several wonderful prizes.  I'll be at Gallery Off The Square (in Framers Gallery)  and Casa 'Ole will be catering fajita nachos and Pilot Knob Vineyards will be providing a wine tasting for our visitors   Food samplings and refreshments will be offered at all locations... an opportunity to try out some of Georgetown's best.  

Please come by.  Would love to see you!

Oil  on Linen

20x24

Rhode Island Fresh

Second of the  egg paintings - this one in a white enamel bowl with red trim and featuring the Rhode Island Red hen eggs - front and center....   This painting can be seen in person at Gallery off the Square in Georgetown after October 31st.  Purchase details are listed below.

Framed in a custom frame - 18 x 18 in.

12 x 12 Gallery Wrapped

May be hung with or without frame

contact artist at:   shirley@gipson-artist.com

Farm Fresh

I finished two egg paintings this past week.   This one is titled Farm Fresh because of the two white eggs  with one brown one perched behind them in an antique deep blue speckled enamel bowl.  It is now hanging at Cactus Jack's Fine Art Gallery in Gruene, Texas.  If you've never visited Gruene, it's a treat!  Many gift shops, antique stores and galleries.    Kaye (owner of Cactus Jack's) has  one of the finest... and I'm not saying that because I'm partial...well, maybe.  :)

If you have a chance to stop by before Christmas... check out  the two pastel artist displayed as you enter the gallery (Rita Kirkman and Jeannette Cuevas) and visit the back of the store by the tree.  There are twelve  pieces of my work hanging  there and don't forget to check out the art by my friend Virginia Vaughn - in my opinion, one of Texas' best landscape artists.

Farm Fresh is painted on a gallery

 wrapped stretched linen - sides painted.  Shown framed but 

may be hung with or without the frame

Size:  12x12 (18x18 framed)

Oil on Linen - Gallery Wrapped

Contact Cactus Jack's for purchase

"All Aboard!"

I don't think it's a secret that I love antiques.  This train came to me  loaded with  character (cob webs and bird stuff.:))  and must have been stored in the loft of someones barn for many years...  I immediately fell in love with it and had to capture it on canvas!..  a replica of an old steam coal engine... someones favorite toy in years past.

16x20 Oil on Linen

The Landing and the Plane

It's been a busy Summer.  Now that I'm able to spend more time in the studio, I hope to post more regularly and share what I've been doing.  I recently purchased this amazing antique toy airplane in an antique shop in Colorado Springs, Co.   I decided to paint it two ways -  as a display and in flight "coming in for  a landing".  the pieces used for the assembly of the plane fascinate me and broken down, you can see tin metal from old signs  used for the body of the plane and the propellers (crimped so the young recipient of this amazing toy wouldn't get cut);  hand carved wood pieces (wing, fuselage  and wheels); and crown bottle caps (which surprisingly date back to the 1800's)  for the hubs.  I just fell in love with it!

20x20 on oil primed linen

16x20 on oil primed linen

  

Milk and Grapes

Another great find!  i recently bid on a box of vintage milk glass at a local auction and won!  This compote caught my eye immediately and I just had to paint it.  The globe grapes were plucked off the vine before all were ripe (notice the variation of colors) and the leaf was a vibrant spring green.  I just love the color combination.   The contrast of the milk glass under low lighting was the finishing touch!  Hope you like it too.

Milk and Grapes

Oil on Linen Panel

11 x 14

Flow Blue

I found this little Flow blue trinket box at a local antique dealer and  it beckoned me... :)   It's simple but yet very elegant.  This was a fun painting to do - the  variation of blues in the design and the various  shades of "white" made it a fun challenge.   Hope you like it too.  Painted on a linen panel.

Flow Blue

 6x8

Oil on Linen Panel 

Custom Float framed 

Please contact me if interested in purchasing this  work of art:

shirley@gipson-artist.com

The Bridge

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a couple small studies I did on a recent trip to North Carolina using my EasyL Pochade Box from Art Work Essentials.  Here is a studio version of one of them, I'm naming it "The Bridge"  It will be on display at  the next exhibit "Visual Rhapsody" at  my church gallery beginning mid September along with a couple other paintings I'll be displaying here through December.

The old iron bridge was  down a country road just outside of Cashiers, NC (and still in use).  We parked, gathered our Plein Air equipment and headed down the path to  set up under the bridge by the water.  Every where you looked - another painting.  Extremely picturesque.  Just to the base of this scene were the beginnings of white water which I may capture on a future  landscape painting.  

Tea Berry

This is a commission for a private collector.    Painted under low lighting in my studio...  Now, we'll wait until it's dry and send it off.

I'll be working on a rather large floral during the next few days (at least large for me. :) ) ... I hope to post it by  early next week.

Water to Wine

One of my granddaughters friends has a farm and recently invited us to come over and see his wonderful garden.  In the back there were some grapes growing on a vine and he picked a bunch for me to bring home so I could use them in a painting.  The leaf had been ripped and some of the edges had turned brown - more character as a subject.   The pottery is  a piece I picked up a while back.  It seemed the perfect choice for  the grapes to "pose" against.   The base is the antique oak library file cabinet I picked up in Round Top this year - proving to be one of my favorite wood bases to "pose" my subjects on.

    Water to Wine is painted on a 9x12 oil primed linen covered baltic birch 

     panel and I plan to float frame it to add still another touch of drama.  

Plein Air - North Carolina

Just returned from a four day Plein Air  outing in North Carolina with several artist friends (Garry Kravit and Althea Heaton).  It was an amazing experience to see the plush greenery, waterfalls, lakes, mountain streams and mountain scenes.  Every where we turned another painting opportunity - very hard to narrow down what to capture on canvas.  I completed several studies and am sharing a couple of them here.  Both are painted on  a linen covered baltic birch panel -  8x10.    I plan to turn these two studies into larger pieces this summer along with a few other scenes of the area.

One of the studies shown here is a woodlands scene and the other is of an iron bridge.  We set up on a wood bridge to capture the woodlands scene and on the rocks at creekside to view the bridge, stream and incredible rock formations.  Each of us gravitated to a different scene and all of them captured the moment.  (I LOVE my EASyL lite Plein air prochade  and easel I purchased at Artworkessentials !  It made the adventure  so enjoyable!)

Thanks to my friend Garry Kravit and his wife Karen who made this event possible and to both Garry and Althea who made the experience unforgettable!  Check out Garry's blog site for additional pics.

The Woodlands Scene

The Iron Bridge

Breakfast Memories

Another enamel cup... this time a white one.  i really liked the cracked egg shells that were laying next to the blue cup - very dramatic.  I decided to do a similar set of for this one.  I think I'm ready for brown eggs now ... :)

5x5

Oil on Panel

Custom Framed - Float Style

Contact the artist for purchasing information

"Pitcher This..."

I decided to go light!  This is a painting of a very nicely aged  (love the patina) pitcher staged with a piece of clothe I got at the fabric store and fruit from the market...  I love the texture of the clothe and plan to stage it in  future settings... the ivy is from a clipping of one of my mothers ivy potted plants.

16x20

Oil on Linen

Strawberries in Cordial glass

Hi friends... This post is a bit delayed - I've been a bit distracted lately with a lot activity.  I went to the Greenhouse Gallery last week to pick up the painting "The Delicious Subject".  Before going I did complete another small work - just hadn't posted it yet.  I've also been working on a larger painting - a still life which I will be posting later this week.  Back to topic -

This beautiful Cordial glass is slightly tinted blue - you'll notice the strawberries in the glass have a bit of a frosted blueish purple look to them as a result.   I purchased the cordials at an auction - there are six total and  four various colors.  You'll be seeing the others in the future.  I love the lines of this glass... hope you enjoy what I've done with it...  The painting will be framed floater style in a custom frame.

Strawberry Sundae

5x5 - Oil on Linen panel

Custom Frame -Float style (approx 11 x 11) 

Berries and Cream

I picked up this little creamer at a local antique dealer (although I don't think it's really an antique... I thought it was cute) and decided to stage it with some berries.  Used low lighting for the light effects.

5x5 

Oil on Linen panel

Custom floating frame

"Cracked up"

These are the egg shells from our breakfast a few days ago.   I wanted to paint them on a board that would draw attention to the "line up" so these are on 3x6.  I'll be trying out a floating frame on it.  The light was low and from the left side so it cast a cool shade on the right and warm on the left.  The shells also picked up some reflection from the wood cabinet they were posed on...

3x6

oil on linen panel

Ivory Fiesta and Green Grapes

a vintage Fiesta Egg cup from my personal collection.  This time, I've draped some green grapes in the cup and over the side - set up under low light  so the varied values of the grapes will add additional drama to the end result...    I painted this set up on my not so new wood filing cabinet I picked up at the antique show in Round Top earlier this month.

5x5

Oil on Linen

Blue Enamel Coffee Cup

This is a coffee cup my daughter got for her Granddad many years ago.  Mom passed away a few months back and we found it on her desk with the original note in child's print still inside.

We had eggs for breakfast and I noticed a tiny bit of egg yolk attached to the membrane of one of the shells so it got front and center treatment... :)

5x5

Oil on linen panel

2012 Salon International

WOW!  What an AMAZING weekend!  I'm still awe struck for having the opportunity to be a part of such a magnificent exhibit.  Out of the 430 pieces that were selected for the exhibit, approximately 1/5 of them received a ribbon or major award.  (My award was just being selected to participate!)   I had the opportunity to meet some of the top artist from around the country... very humbling experience.   Art was selected from artists residing in seventeen counties and forty-three states.  Lots of eye candy!  Here is one of the walls at the exhibit...

My piece "A Delicious Subject" is centered. 

I'd like to encourage you (if you live in the Central Texas area) to visit the exhibit.  I promise - if you like traditional art, whether it be still life, western, figurative - you won't be disappointed.   The exhibit runs until May 5th at 

Greenhouse Gallery

San Antonio, Texas

Pottery w/Orange

This is a small piece of pottery I picked up at an auction.  I really liked the speckled finish and the shape of it.  I staged it the same time I did the Turquoise Fiesta piece with the orange except this time I dangled it off the edge of the slab...  I used a low light setting with the light set up just above the piece and to the left of center (to create the shadows).  The low light helped to create a bit more of a dramatic effect.

5x5 

Oil on linen panel

Cracked

I have painted several enamelware  objects recently and love the way the enamel plays on steel - especially when there are use marks that add character.  In this case, I wanted to paint the cup with another light object and the mornings egg shells just seemed appropriate..  :)
 

5x5

Oil on Linen Panel

Please contact artist for purchasing information:

shirley@gipson-artist.com

Braeburn Apple

Here's a Braeburn Apple.  I painted this one whole and will paint it with a slice removed...  before I devour it!  :)   I love that we have so many different types of apples and each one has it's own taste and color characteristics...   You'll probably see more as my daily subjects because I tend to keep them around (a favorite fruit...)

5x5

Linen on Panel

Please contact artist for purchasing information:

shirley@gipson-artist.com

Fiesta w/Orange

Hello Friends!  I love Fiesta (as if you haven't figured it out!)  The vibrant colors make me smile.  We use it for everyday but I also  have a collection of vintage (still growing),  and enjoy using pieces in my still life compostions.  This one is a turquoise egg cup.  I'm not sure why they call these pieces egg cups because they are too large for one egg and it would take too many to fill it up..  :)

5x5

Oil on Linen
SOLD

Please contact artist for purchase information: 

shirley@gipson-artist.com

Reflection of a Berry

This is another daily.  I went to Round Top (bi-annual antique Fair)  yesterday and found just the thing to use for the wood "table" for my still life set ups.  I'll be using it to paint some of my dailies and for some of the larger paintings in the future...

5x7
linen on Panel
for pricing information-please email artist:
shirley@gipson-artist.com

A few Dailies - "Juicy"

It's been a while since I've posted.  I've decided to do some daily art.  I planned on five days a week but the flu slowed me down so I've only been able to get about ten done in three weeks.  My plan is to alternate these with the larger projects which I will continue to pursue.  Thought I'd start sharing some of the dailies with you...     This one is "Juicy"  Hope you enjoy.

5x5 

Linen on panel

For pricing information - please email artist:

 shirley@gipson-artist.com

"Knowledge - The Beginning of Great Things"

I decided on a title for the shelf sitters... "Knowledge - The Beginning of Great Things".  I have this one in the church exhibit and they request an artist interpretation of each work submitted.  I really enjoy this part of the process because it really makes me think about why I'm painting something.  I thought I'd share it with you... "when I was a child , I quickly realized that reading opened up a new world of places I'd never been,  people who led interesting lives and knowledge of those who accomplished great things.  These new adventures set into place the beginning of my lifetime goals."

I finally got a better photo of the painting and have posted it below.

I'll be starting another large work this next week and will work on it along side the dailies I've been doing.

Shelf Sitters

One in the Toy Stories Series... but this one is different.  I ran across these little guys on Ebay.  Hand carved and hand painted.  Out side of that,  the sellers didn't know anything specific (where they were from, etc.).  Sold as primitive (or antique) and they look it!    A little worse for wear (for this painting I corrected some paint loss)  they have a character of their own.  They sat and patiently waited in my still life box for days while I completed another project.  I have a few tweaks I needed to do and will post an updated and signed painting once I get it ready.  I hope you find them as much fun as I do...

Size 14x18 - Oil on Linen Canvas

I haven't been able to find the origin of these little guys so if any of you out there have any ideas... I'd love to know.

Watermelon and Plums

I was recently introduced to an online art instructor who has a very painterly style.  His command of color and composition drew me to look into his lessons.  Dan has a straight forward approach to his technique.   The following painting "Watermelon and Plums" is one of his  workshop paintings I completed last week.  Dan Edmondson Oil Painting.

Salon International 2012

I'm excited to announce that the oil painting  "A Delicious Subject" has been selected for Salon International 2012, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio Texas.  (Opens April 14th).  I'm thrilled and humbled to be among dozens of highly regarded artist selected for this years competition.

"A Delicious Subject "

"Sweet Thangs"

Another small painting for the February Romantics.  Next in the Chocolate food group is "Sweet Thangs".  This is a group of Lindt, Lindor chocolates from my chocolate canister...  Pretty fun.

(6x6 oil on linen; custom framed 12 x 12) 

Dressed For The Occasion

I was challenged to do a couple small works for the upcoming month of February (as everyone knows - the Romance Month); so, I choose two things near and dear to my heart but both in my favorite food group - chocolate.  (Chocolate is not a food group?  We'll it should be!)

The first painting is of a favorite sweet treat... Hope you like it.

(6x6 oil on linen; custom framed 12 x 12) 

Sweet As Sugar

I love fresh strawberries.  Especially when they are ripened just right and sweet as sugar.  This is the latest in the Homer Laughlin Fiesta series.  This Vintage Fiesta sugar bowl was made between the years of 1936 and 1972.  The Roman style handles on the sugar bowl and finial knob on the lid are very strong identifiers for this piece.  I love the bright yellow contrast to the ripe Driscoll strawberries.

Strawberries and Lace

This is a recent painting.  I just realized it's been a while since I posted.. am planning to be better this year and want to thank those of you who have been faithful to check in.

I LOVE strawberries... they are one of my favorite fruits - especially when they are picked ripe.   Because they ripen so quickly, I took pictures of them (in this case, in my vintage Fiesta Cobalt blue comport dish) to make sure I could capture them at their peak.  I used a dummy set up in my still life box and relied on both the set up and the digital picture to get a "real" representation of color.   Hope you like it.