Contemparay Landscape

"Staking My Claim"

18 x 22 inches, Oil on Canvas

I think my painting subject matter is a little eclectic. Eclectic? OMG - I've been doing pet portraits (btw three of my pet portraits were accepted into the Irving Art Association's Unconditional Love, Juried Pet Portrait exhibit - YAY!!), nudes, flowers, cubes - boxes??, and now these very abstract landscapes - yes, I am a little eclectic. OK so I painted a very abstract landscape the other day which depicted my mood.

I started this painting the other day, scraped it off, repainted it, scraped it off and then re-painted again today. Again - my mood was a little down...but now that the painting is finished I find that painting is therapy for me. "Staking My Claim" is from a snippet of a conversation with a friend.

I'm not into other mediums; I don't do acrylics, watercolors or mixed media so having so many different subjects, inspirations seems to suit my style. I attended Tony Saladino's Art Critique class yesterday and we were talking about how his art, although he is painting abstract now instead of more representational art is still recognizable as "his". I told him I really liked his paintings but could never copy his colors because the although we can squeeze out the same colors from the same tube we all tend to have our own colors. He said he's starting to recognize my colors. It's the highest compliment.

A photo from my studio - I've toned another canvas with the Chinese character for "love" painted - my paintings are with love.