Local Treasures

I titled this painting "Local Treasures"...wine and cheese of Humboldt County! Did you know Humboldt County has about 23 wineries??? The cheese is the wonderful Cypress Grove "Humboldt Fog"...a semi-soft aged goat cheese of the cleanest, purest goats milk in the area...yielding goat cheese from heaven in my opinion! I'm ramping up to paint a handful of paintings that are all about wine. It'll be fun. 8" x 10" oil on linen panel.

Blue Vase and Carnations by Frances Kuta

I like to set up these little still lifes very close to me and really study the light and color. I stare at the color then look at my color charts on my wall if I need help. I have these color charts I created on the advice of Richard Schmid's book "Alla Prima - Everything I Know About Painting". The charts were created with only 9 tubes of paint....but the colors created are 200 +....this has helped me to re-create colors I mix and avoid mixing piles of paint i can't use....something that really frustrated me early on. Thanks for looking & reading :)
8" x 10" oil on linen panel. Minimum bid $200. Click here to bid.

Little Model by Frances Kuta

I needed a model to paint and set up my little doll that sits on my shelves with all the other objects I use for still life paintings (vases, teapots, cups, etc). I think dolls are tough to paint. This is 8" x 10" oil on linen.

Hydrangeas and Red

Well...I was thinking of painting red with the coming of Valentines Day and I love the contrast between bright blue and reddish-orange so I set up this still life and painted it. 8" x 8" oil on canvas. Minimum bid $200. Click here if you would like to bid.

Just Apples

Lately I've been exploring the art of Quang Ho where he discusses "local tone" vs. "light and shadow"....i love the light and shadow...but I know what he means when he says many artists confuse the two...and a painting ends up being neither 'light and shadow' nor local tone...resulting in a lost painting. Today I made the effort to paint local tone. It was really difficult...but I think I did it. I set up these apples in a beautiful hand thrown ceramic bowl...and let just the natural light hit them...no additional light source. It's a real challenge to paint like that...every value and temperature has to be correct. I realized how really dark my studio is..if I don't provide additional lighting.