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Tomatoes-and-Carrots-001

Every year my wife, Norene, plants a vegetable garden. She’s most successful with tomatoes and carrots. The tomatoes are beautiful and round, while the carrots  are gnarled and twisted, not like the beautiful ones in the grocery store produce department. We think her vegetables are very beautiful, though, and enjoy seeing them laid out on our kitchen counter.

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Finch-009

I really love planting wildflowers. It’s interesting to look out the window and see the bees buzzing around the blossoms or hummingbirds getting nectar. My favorite thing, though, is when I see finches in the flowers. They’re so beautiful. They like to eat the petals. I’ve wanted to portray one of them for a long time. They blend in with the background most of the time so they’re hard to see. This painting shows a finch eating blossoms.

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Parked-in-Venice-020

Venice is a beautiful city in Italy that is built on stilts. People travel by boats. Tourists like to ride in gondolas, like the boat shown above. When painting water, do reflections of the solid object above and put the reflections under it. The colors should come from the original item. The waves make reflections wiggle, so the lines of a reflection move back and forth.

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Shadow Flowers 006

These are flowers from my own wildflower garden. They are pink, but shadows give a blue tint. As a result, they looked this way in the shade. The dark shadows against the light background give drama to the painting.

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Manarola-002

Manarola is one of five villages in Cinque Terre on the rugged coast of the Italian Riviera. The villages and the hillside are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The five villages can be reached by a trail above them or by boats or trains. They cannot be reached by automobile.

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Ballet 007

This is another painting of my wildflowers. I’ve been intrigued by the view from the ground looking up. The stems give a rythmn to the picture, and the pink and green are complimentary colors which give interest.

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Shakers 2 006

This still-life was done by concentrating on shapes, values and colors. They were all put together like a jigsaw puzzle. The view close-up to the canvas looks like a bunch of weird shapes, but further back it comes together.