Workshop coming up!

I will be leaving tomorrow for the workshop Friday and Saturday in San Mateo. I am looking forward to that. It will be fun to see everyone!

Today I have alot of running around, getting my supplies ready and packing.So, not painting today. Meeting today with Gayle, mom and sister at the "Tea Cozy" here.I think that is what inspired me to paint the cup of tea and jar of honey! Wonderful little tea shop here in Cambria.

Large Koi painting almost finished so will put that on next week.I will be back painting Monday morning. See you then!

XO Susan

Tea and Cookies

6x6" o/b A cup of hot tea is so wonderful on a cool fall day. A teaspoon of the bee keeper's honey and a couple of cookies and you have heaven!

JAR of HONEY

6x6 o/b This is a jar of honey from a local bee keeper here. Such warm color. SOLD

Thankyou for all of the wonderful reaction to my "Jar of Honey" painting! I am having Geclee's reproduced of it and a few of the others that I am thinking might be fun. They will be matted and of course for sale. Price will be $36.00 including shipping. If you would be interested in a geclee of this painting please write to me at susanjenkinsart@charter.net I will be listing the others for sale in geclee soon! XO Susan

KOI

6x6 o/b

1954 CHEVY PICKUP

6x6 o/b 125.

Lay in for Koi Painting

20x24 o/c lay in for large Koi painting.

I thought it might be fun to share my turpentine technique with you on a lay in. I have made my drawing with a #4 bristle brush and ultra marine blue with turp and then washed in color on lily pond leaves, Koi and water also with turp. Left click on the photo and you will see a close up of the brush strokes and scrub in.

I will add a lily too somewhere just have to pick out a place. I want the painting to be about the Koi but having the color and pond subjects set them off. Anyway, I will go in tomorrow and start shaping it up more. May finish it tomorrow, see how it goes.

I will do a warm up "morning" painting tomorrow too. Not Koi and not pie....something new!!

XO Susan

workshop San Mateo

Just wanted to mention a workshop I am giving on small paintings in San Mateo November 2nd and 3rd. I am looking forward to seeing so many friends there and new friends too!

I also want to say hi to my friends and family in SanDiego. All areas and people affected by the fires. It is harrowing ,what you have all been thru. My thoughts and prayers are with you!

XO Susan

CHERRY PIE

6x6 o/b 125. Grab your cup of coffee and let's have a piece of cherry pie!!

KOI

6x6 o/b 125. Yes, I am having fun painting Koi! I am facinated by the color and movement. I will probably paint a few more as I work on my larger piece. When the large painting is finished I will put it on the web www.susanjenkins.artspan.com and also take it to the Chambers gallery here.

KOI

6x6 o/b 125.

KOI

6x6 o/b 125. SOLD!This small painting is one of many I will be doing as sketches for a larger painting with Koi. I was very inspired by Bev's gorgeous Koi pond in Washington when I was teaching at Arts Desire. The Koi are enormous! Beautiful.

2 PEARS

6x6 o/b 125.

Going on Holiday

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for a trip south to San Diego. A baby shower for Natalie Susan my first great grandchild. I am ecstatic!
Yes, I know, I am way too young to be a great grandmother but my beautiful Elizabeth has chosen to change all that!
I will be returning home in a week. My daughter Heather is an artist also ( please see her website ) and we will have fun comparing notes and filling each other with inspiration. Always great fun!
So Monday the 22nd of this month I will be back at my easel eagerly ready to paint!

Until then XO Susan

Key Lime Pie

6x6 o/b 125. Yes, another pie! I love painting deserts! I also love Key Lime pie. The color of this pie is so pretty too .

Rose in Green Vase

6x6 o/b 125. I love red and green together. They are compliments on the color wheel. This is the last rose bud on my bushes! Had to paint it!

Fruit of the Vine

5x7 o/c 125. SOLD!

Carton of Eggs

8x10 0/b I really love painting brown eggs. Not by themselves but in the cardboard carton. The cartons are still the same as I remember as a child. My mother used to get her eggs this way, even my gramma. Brown eggs are wonderful to paint as well as to eat and bake with! The yolks are beautiful too, a rich yellow.

Yellow Pepper

5x7 o/c SOLD! I love the color of peppers. The yellow pepper is bright yellow when you first look at it but then you see lovely subtle changes to deeper yellows and oranges. Beautiful.

Cranberry Raisin Pie

6x6 o/b 125. SOLD This pie is so festive for the holidays. Cranberries have just a bit of tartness and the sweetness of the raisins make it wonderful! Ice cream on this pie would be sooooo good!!

Lake Trout

5"x9" o/b

Home!

So wonderful to be home again. A long trip for sure. Beautiful up there in Washington and Oregon, it rained and was lovely. Great to see old friends and new. Sue gave me a new jar of her home made strawberry jam and I can't wait to open it!
Bev has darling little canvases 2x2 and 2x3, that's inches!! I am excited to paint on those! Don't know what yet, I am ruminating over that! I do know that I want to call them "Bits & Pieces". Sweet?
Barbara is now the proud owner of "Peach Pie", Thankyou Barbara!
Anyway, I do want to get some painting in this morning but my morning is rapidly dissapearing!So much to do after a week away.
I promice to get a new work on by tomorrow.
Thankyou for all of your wonderful comments about my blog!
See you tomorrow, XO Susan

By The Sea

5x7 o/b This is a little palette knife painting. Very fun ! I am off to Washington tomorrow morning. Have a wonderful week! See you Wednesday morning, Oct, 3rd!!

XO Susan

Sunday Morning

Good morning! I won't be painting today. I will be in the Chambers gallery.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get some painting in. I am leaving Tuesday for Vancouver Washington to teach a work shop at Art's Desire www.bevelar.com I will be away from my easel for a week!! I am looking forward to seeing old friends but it is always good to come back home.

So, one more posting tomorrow and then back in a week with lots of new ideas!

See you then.

XO Susan

Fall Pumpkin Patch

6x6 o/b The air is crisp, the colors of foliage changing, and the pumpkins are soon to be picked!

Blackberry Cream Pie

6x6 o/b Blackberry Cream Pie

Ingredients: pastry for 9" one crust pie. 4cups blackberries fresh if you can. 2 eggs lightly beaten. 1/3 cup sugar. 4 T all purpose flour. 1/4 tsp salt. 1 tsp vanilla. 1 cup heavy cream.

Directions: preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare piecrust pastry and line pie plate.Place blackberries in unbaked pastry shell. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and pour over the blackberries. Bake for approxmimately 30 to 40 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and filling is set. Cool and serve with whip cream! mmmmmmmmm!!

Lemon Meringue Pie

6x6 o/b Ingredients : 1 cup white sugar, 2T all purpose flour, 3 T cornstarch, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2cups water.
2 lemons, juiced and zested, 2T butter, 4 egg yolks, beaten.
1 9" pie crust, baked, 4 egg whites 6 T sugar. 350 oven preheated.
Lemon Filling: in a med sauce pan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest.Cook over med high heat stirring frequently until mixture comes to a boil.Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2cup hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour filling into baked pastry shell.
Meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, continue to whip until until stiff peaks for. Spread over oie and and gook for 10n minutes till golden. Delicious!!

Colorful Rooster

9x12 O/B SOLD

Just felt like getting into the paint and "mixing it up" this morning after the egg and plum paintings! Roosters are fun and they have a personality that seems to unfold as I paint them.
See you tomorrow!! XO Susan

Eggs in a White Bowl

6x6 oil on board

Plums

15x16 oil on board SOLD

Monday Morning

I am working in the Chambers gallery tomorrow ( Sunday) so there won't be a painting to put up for you to view.
Returning to my easel Monday morning excited and ready to paint. There are several ideas I have, a couple things new to experiment. Have a lovely Sunday. Until Monday then!!!

XO Susan

Patio Still Life

9x12 oil on board

Beautiful day to be out side painting, everything just right!

Peach Pie

5x5 oil on board Peach Pie SOLD!

Pastry for a double crust 9" pie. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 5 cups of peaches sliced. 1/3 to 1/2 cup all purpose flour. 1/4 to 1tsp cinnamon.2 Tbutter. 2Tsugar.
Mix peaches with dry ingredients,turn into unbaked pie shell and dot with butter. Cover with top crust, cut slits, seal edges and brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake 35 to 45 minutes until brown and juice begins to bubble thru the slits. Sooooo good!!!

Garden Path

5x7 oil painting on board

Crow Painting on Copper

5x7 crow oil painting on copper SOLD!!

Yesterday I put peanuts out for the Blue Jays as I do every day. We have wonderful birds and deer and all manner of wildlife here in this lovely corner of the earth where I am so fortunate to live. There were many crows wandering , some would say skulking about the area. The little Jays swooped down to weigh and take a peanut and all of a sudden a huge swish and down flew the crows!! It was an exciting moment, my back door being open I edged my way back in the house. Of course the Jays vanished and the crows just took over the pile of peanuts! Big flapping sounds of wings and caw sounds and amazingly I was so close. Some were timid to my presence but most cared less!! They had their sights on those peanuts!
They were huge and they were beautiful, with their shiny black feathers, just beautiful!
My sister Julie and Iwere talking about my incredible experience and she said "paint a crow on copper!! " So here it is, Crow on Copper!

Art Workshops

I will be giving a painting seminar for four days September 27thru the 30th. In Vancouver, Washington at Arts Desire. I will be giving instruction on painting small paintings. I hope to see many of you there!
In San Mateo , California I will be giving a seminar on the small paintings in November the 2nd and 3rd.
I am so enthusiastic about these small works and it is fun to see that you are too!
If you would like info on the classes as they come up or any other information or questions you might have please email me at susanjenkinsart@charter.net

Thankyou, XO

Pomegranate still life on copper

8x10 oil painting on copper SOLD

I have a couple pieces of copper left and I am really having fun painting on it. Obiously I am also loving painting pomegranates !!

Lily Pond

5x7 oil painting on copper

Morning Thoughts

Thinking about painting this morning and what I would like to paint, it occured to me that I have done quite a few paintings of food! I was going to paint another food painting this morning! I think not. I did enjoy painting the burger and cherry pie tho!

I have a couple of pieces of copper and one is a 5x7. I painted on copper years ago. Just for something different. A different "support". I am going to paint on that this morning and I have an idea of what I would like to paint. It will be fun!

To paint on copper you need to first rough it up a bit with steel wool, give it some tooth.Clean it then with alchohol. Paint the piece with a thin coating of oil paint. I used fast drying white.Once it is dry proceed as usual as you would with board or canvas.

It gives a luminous look to the work I think. Don't use alot of paint for this, keep it sort of thin.

Ok, I am off to my studio! XO Susan

Cherry Pie

6x6 oil painting on board SOLD

4 cups cherries pitted. 1 cup of sugar.1/4 cup of flour.1/2tsp cinnamon.Pastry for a double crust 9" pie.Mix ingredients for filling and turn into pastry lined pie pan. Top with crust & cut slits, flute edges, brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake 25 to 30 minutes more. Yummy!!

Pomegranate still life

16x20 oil painting on canvas (detail) 3 of 4 Having a bit of trouble with my camera. Working to get the color right . Spending way too much time on this!! Back to painting!

Eggs 6 pack

8x10 oil painting on board 275. SOLD

Pepper's

5x7 oil on board 125.

Burger

6x6 oil painting on board 125.

Oh boy! Painting this made me very hungry for a burger!!

Cow

5x7 oil painting on board 125.

I love to paint animals and I have a few on my web site too, www.susanjenkins.artspan.com Cows are especially fun. This one is tiny and I used a smaller brush for her. I wanted a bit more detail.

White Rooster

5x7 oil on board 125.

It is a beautiful day and I started painting as soon as it was light! Roosters are fun to paint and being up so early it seemed appropriate!!

Pear Still life

8x10 oil on board SOLD

I love the grey in the background of this painting.It works nicely with the soft yellows. Soft shadows. I painted this with a lower light because I didn't want the shadows to be as intense. Sort of a Chardin look, Ha, I wish!!

Running Free

8x10 detail oil on canvas

Vegetable Stil life

16x20 oil on canvas 1st of 4 to be painted for Tancredi & Morgen in Carmel.

Tomato Still life

16x20 oil on canvas 2nd still life of 4 that I am painting for Tancredi & Morgen.

Sun Flower

5x7 oil on board 125.

Pizza

5x6 oil on board 125.

This was fun. Was warming up to paint this morning and thought it would be fun to paint a piece of pizza, so I did! A morning painting after all!!

Vegetable Paintings

Have I said how much I LOVE to paint vedgetables?? Well, I do. I think they are lovely. Something so wonderful from the earth. I love the way they look, the smell and taste but mostly the gorgeous array of colors they come in.
To paint vedgetables and see the true color of a beet for example I spray them lightly with water. It brings out the color and also gives highlights more clearly.
When they are under the lamp they can change color so you must paint a bit more quickly. Under a spot they can cook at some point!! Stewed tomattoes!
Speaking of tomatoes, that is my still life subject for tomorrow. I will sketch that in this after noon.

See you then! XO

Pomegranate

8x10 oil on board SOLD

After the cupcake painting I felt I had to regain my credibility! Smaller brushes here. #2 and #4 bristle filberts.

Chocolate Cupcake

5x7 oil on board

Red Grapes

5x7 oil on board 125.

I did paint this with a size 4 bristle this morning. Wanted a bit more contol. Still loose tho. They got very hot under the spot light and started to change color so I had to work fast!!

1950 Chevy Truck

5x7 oil on board SOLD

Andrea called this morning and said " why don't you paint a truck?" A truck?? Ok, sounds fun! It was! Thanks Andrea!! XO

Small Still life Floral

5x7 oil painting on board

New light yay!!!

New Still Life Oil Painting on later today, hopefully.

This morning my light stand fell over when I was arranging a new still life! Kablooy! It is just as well really, I have had it for ever and it had a short in the plug and would go on and off on a whim. Not good when you are concentrating on a paticular area or any area for that matter!

The lighting is so important and in recent weeks it would no longer take a 100 watt "spot" which is what I have always used. So I have been painting in what I consider low light. Those of you who have been to my studio know that sometimes I refer to it as "the cave", hahaha. Not much light in there.I really like strong darks and lights. You get a sort of moody look to your work in low light which is nice that also comes with the gray backgrounds I have been using which I really love! Who knows, maybe Iwill go back to the lower wattage or maybe get my glasses strenghtened!

I t was actually an accident waiting to happen and not the safest of lights. So as I said it is a good thing. Living where I do, out in the hinterlands I must take a trip to the city to get a new stand and a couple of spot lights. I will try to get a new painting up this after noon so I can get in some painting time in today.

Until then!! XO Susan

Red Onion Still life Painting

5x7 oil on board 125.

Tiny Vase in blue and white

5x7 oil on board SOLD

If you look closely you will see a tiny little gnat on the little bud! The photo was taken out side,how appropiate!! The tiny vase belonged to Gayle at Chambers gallery. Perfect for little bouquets!!