Decorative Tole Painting

Watering Can and Porch Tray

Acrylic on metal decorative tole painting $50 each piece

Occassionally I paint on metal in a decorative way, so these are matching pieces painted especially to decorate someone's outdoor space or for a sunroom. I once did many art shows with decorative pieces, but I really prefer fine art painting, so I don't do many of these anymore. I painted these to resemble vintage fabric patterns. The colors are soft and the background is cream. Not too late for a Christmas gift!

Page from Sketch Book

This is a couple of pages from my sketch book, a drawing with a watercolor wash. I am so busy with Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating and baking that very little painting is getting done right now. I do try to do something every day, either a sketch or work on some things I have started. A friend owns this old car, and it is such fun to ride in it!

I hope you are enjoying this season of the year, too!

" Victorian Bouquet"

"Victorian Bouquet"

3 x 3 acrylic on stretched canvas, with easel $30

This tiny painting would be special on a dresser in Madame's bedroom! It is just a bouquet, painted loosely in nice soft colors, and looks very old-fashioned. The vase sits on some crochet lace, so it is a feminine little painting. It comes with its own little easel, which is natural wood, but could be spray painted white or a pale color of your choice.

"Dracena "

"Dracena"

6 x 6 acrylic on canvas panel $40

There are two beautiful dracenas or Ti Plants in my front garden and I trimmed off some leaves and just thought how beautiful they were with so many different greens and reds. So of course, I brought some leaves into the studio and just had to paint them!

I have talked so much about the beautiful warm Florida weather, but guess what! We are to get some freezing temperatures, so I may be out in the garden covering up some plants tonight!

"My Kentucky Home"

"My Kentucky Home"

18 x 24 acrylic on canvas, collection of the artist

This week, I am working on Christmas decorations and reminiscing about growing up in Loyall, Kentucky. This is a painting I did for my parents a while back and in the Spring when all the dogwood trees and azaleas were in bloom. The town is small, surrounded by mountains as you can see in the painting. This house was remodeled in the late 1950's. We moved in it when I was 2 years old, about 1942 and I believe it was a Sears Roebuck house. If you aren't familiar with that, a Sears Roebuck house was one that was mail ordered, arrived to your town on a train in a box car, and it was like a kit with everything you needed to build a certain model house. It looked like a craftsmen house in the 40's and was not new when we obtained it, so I am not certain when it was built. Anyway, it looked completely different then than it does after the remodel. The little gray building is the coal house, later the garden house. I know it is winter now and some of you are having snow, but you can enjoy a little Spring by looking at my Mom's garden.She took such pride in her plantings and in the Spring many people stopped by to take photos of her azaleas and dogwood trees. Sweet memories!!

"The Duke"

"The Duke"

Pastel Sold

Yes, this is The Duke, and well he knew it, too. A pastel of a very smart little Boston Terrier. Many people want pet portraits for Christmas---but I have finished doing commissions and prefer now, in my older age, to do just what I want to do!It is lots more fun!

"The Corner Store"

"The Corner Store"

8 x 10 print from acrylic painting $30

My brother called me the other day and we began reminiscing about our growing up years in Loyall, Kentucky, which is in the famous or infamous Harlan County Kentucky. The corner shown here is a print I did from an old photo taken about 1958 or maybe even earlier. I added the car, which I think is a'58 Chevy. I graduated from Loyall High School in 1958, and one of my classmate's husband asked me to paint The Corner Store for his wife for Christmas a few years ago. When he met her, he had a car like the one I put in the painting. If you click on this painting you can see two girls standing by the side of the drug store and one of them became his wife.

The Corner Store was the meeting place of all the kids in town and we ate many a chili bun there, sundaes, and cokes! Mrs. Stanaford, the proprietor of the drug store made the best chili I have ever tasted and I tried for years to get her recipe, to no avail! She is still living and looks exactly the same as she did in 1958! ! Next to the Corner Store was the Loyall theater where you could see a double feature plus cartoons and a serial for only 15 cents if you were under 14 and 40 cents if you were over that. What a bargain! Chili buns were 15 cents, cokes a nickle. Is this aging me??? Well, I digress.

I had prints made, with permission from the owner of the painting, and I have a few if you happen to want one. This would make a very inexpensive Christmas gift if you happen to be from the area of Harlan County Kentucky! Or even if you, too, experienced a small town with a drug store meeting place!

Now! DRUM ROLL, PLEASE. It is time to announce the winner of my painting give away!

The names of all followers were put in a hat and one was drawn out by an disinterested party and the winner is KAREN. Thank each of you for being a follower and I wish all could have won, but I will be having another give away in future, so please keep looking. I appreciate all of you.

Karen will receive her painting "The Yearling" soon and also a book by that same name. Thanks again to all who look at my blog.