Do you want to attract butterflies?

Fay Terry, ZINNIAS AND QUEEN BUTTERFLY, 5 x 7 " oil on museum quality panel, ©2012

This painting is available at ONE ELEVEN MAIN in Aberdeen, NC

One of my favorite flowers, which is easy to grow from seed, attracts large numbers of butterflies and blooms all summer long.  Zinnias come in many bright colors and tolerate heat well. 

Butterflies need places to lay eggs, food plants for their larvae(caterpillars), places to form chrysalides, and nectar sources for adult butterflies. Zinnias are one of the best butterfly nectar flowers and are a real taste treat for the butterflies.

I want to thank my friend, Goran Wibran, for giving me a copy of his photo to paint this from!

Considering The Orange

Fay Terry, CITRUS, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord panel, ©2012

Have you ever been in a room when someone peels an orange for their snack?  Suddenly the whole 

room smells great.  There are other good things about oranges that you may find interesting.

Studies show that pectin in oranges helps suppress appetite for four hours after eating.

Oranges activate the body's own detoxification process and anti-oxidants in this fruit protect the skin from free radicals and help us avoid wrinkles.

Oranges also contain a natural skin cancer fighting chemical which, along with sunscreens, really does help. Florida, where many oranges are grown, actually has a lower skin cancer rate than any other state on the east coast.  Interesting, isn't it? 

Sunday Breakfast

Fay Terry, BREAKFAST AFTER CHURCH, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord, ©2012

I spotted this lovely woman sitting near us at breakfast a few weeks ago and I knew that I wanted to paint her. She was reading the menu, looking especially nice in her hat and matching suit.  It is always fun to see the variety of ways that people are dressed in restaurants. 

 Faces are such an enjoyable subject and even though she was much prettier than I portrayed her, I am happy that I had a chance to capture her look in paint.

Out Of Hibernation

Fay Terry, BULLFROG BUDDY, 6 x 6" oil on gessobord panel, ©2012

This is your Saturday painting for the day which I forgot to post yesterday!

 I remember sitting down at my computer to write and it was not until I was falling asleep in another city last night that I realized I had been called away to do something else. Alas, my computer was at home.

The bullfrogs in our little koi pond came out of their winter sleep a little early this spring. They love sunning themselves on the rock ledge above the water. I am fascinated by them and love their deep throaty calls.  Here are a few facts about these beautiful creatures.

Bullfrogs lay up to 20,000 eggs in huge sheets attached to underwater plants.

They are most active at night and their loud call can be heard up to a quarter of a mile.

Bullfrogs are the largest frogs in North America.

Beach Day

Fay Terry, BEACH STRIPES, 6 x 12" oil on canvas, ©2012

I just love the way this woman looked with her black straw hat and all her necessities for a day at the beach.  I can just feel the sun beating down and smell the salt water.  I am so happy that warm beach weather is here.  I love the beach any time of year but especially when the temperatures are 75 degrees or above. In North Carolina we are usually talking about far above that number. 

Sometimes when I take my finished painting outside to photograph it, I notice something I would like to change.  In this case, I noticed that I want the water a little darker so that is the one slight change I will make to this painting.

Time To Head To The Beach

Fay Terry, PLAYING AT THE BEACH, 6 x 6 " oil on panel ©2012

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With a commitment to building a more vibrant blog, I signed up for the 4-week Blog Triage class with Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield.  Today's assignment is to describe the people I want to visit and read my blog.

My intent when I started this blog more than a year ago was to present a small, colorful gift to the blogosphere each day and hone my painting skills by maintaining a high level of artistic discipline. 

Since that time, I have posted a painting nearly every single day.

When I think of the future of my blog, I realize that I want even more art collectors among my audience.  These are enthusiastic followers who tend to buy paintings that strike their fancy. With these collectors and with my fellow artists, I am looking for ways to create a conversation on my blog.

It is natural to enjoy pleasant comments from viewers, but I want to evoke more detailed comments, critical reactions, and more of an artistic give and take. I have no idea how to do this, but I would love to see an interchange that goes beyond "nice painting".

Finally, I want to inspire gallery owners and people who write about art to visit my blog on a regular basis.  I realize this is going to require additional work on my part.

It is easy to "connect" on the internet, but how do you converse? How do you generate a meaningful conversation about art, or about anything else for that matter?

I feel certain that I am going to discover many answers during the next month. I invite you to send me your feelings, ideas, and reactions.  It is fine to disagree with me about anything I write.

Just A Bowl Of Cherries

Fay Terry, BALANCING ACT, 6 x 6 " oil on panel, ©2012

Available at One Eleven Main, Aberdeen, NC

The old song "Life is just a bowl of cherries" somehow  got stuck in my head today so I looked up the lyrics and saw that it was credited to George Gershwin.  I thought the song was not likely to have been written by the same man who composed "Rhapsody In Blue"and it turns out that Gershwin, who was not a lyricist, did not write the song.  Gershwin died at the young age of 38, from a brain tumor.  It is amazing that he had such a large body of work.

Are you a budding artist?

Fay Terry, BLOOMS AND BUDS, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord, ©2012

When I choose plants, I always look for one with good potential, and to me that means plenty of buds.  It reminds me of the notion that we call someone who is starting out and learning a skill a"budding" musician, artist, writer, or other title. Now, mind you, they may not be blooming yet, but they are filled with the possibility of becoming something wonderful which they have chosen to aim for.

We can all help these folks whether they are six or sixty simply by encouraging them.  I also plan to encourage this orchid that my sweet husband bought me by taking really good care of it so these buds will one day be blooming.

Time Passes Quickly

Fay Terry, SHORTCAKE TONIGHT 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord panel, ©2012

Available framed at One Eleven Main, Aberdeen, NC
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Today is a special day because of a great event in my life twenty-two years ago. Today is my daughter Caitlin's birthday!  She will be graduating from Carolina in a few weeks and it does not seem that long since she was just a little girl. I am very proud of her for all that she has achieved and happy that she's had a great four years in Chapel Hill.  She will always be my sweet baby girl and she has two older brothers, too.  Here is a photo of her with her dog Pixie.

Strawberry Season

Fay Terry, VIEW FROM ABOVE, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord panel, ©2012

The days of local strawberries are here, and in spite of the cold snap we are having, I am excited about going out to pick strawberries at some of the nearby strawberry fields very soon.

As you can see, I am working on a new perspective for my still life paintings.  I love painting things looking down into them like this.  I bought this little pitcher in Charlotte over the week-end along with some other sale items that will be great for painting and kitchen usage.

Collecting Tablecloths

Fay Terry, SUMMER TABLECLOTH, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord panel,©2012

There seems to be a dearth of good-looking tablecloths so I tend to hold onto old ones longer, especially bright colors, stripes, and fun patterns. These are especially useful in the summertime to take to the beach or throw over a picnic table, which is where this one was pressed into service. Speaking of pressing, I usually try to avoid it, and sometimes spray one with wrinkle releaser and smooth it out if it looks too wrinkly.  I'll be on the lookout for more and I know that artist Carol Maguire has a really nice line of table linens that she designed based on some of her own paintings, which I love.  Carol's linens can be seen HERE

A Little Luck

Fay Terry, LUCKY LADY, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord panel ©2012

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Every spring when I begin washing all the windows, I invariably discover lots of ladybugs inside at least one of the window frames. I'm never sure how they get there but they quickly start flying out and I am assured of another spell of good luck.  I was instilled at a young age with the idea that these charming creatures bring good luck whenever you encounter them, and so far I have had a very lucky life so it must be true.  Not only that, but they are beautiful and varied, harmless, and very good for one's garden, because they eat aphids and other soft insects that harm plants.  In the 1800's they are credited with saving the orange and lemon crops in California which were being eaten by Australian scale bugs.  Ladybugs imported from Australia made the citrus crops totally pest free within two years.

Patiently Posing

Fay Terry, PATIENT DAISY, 6 x 6" oil on gesso bord panel, © 2012

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I picked this daisy from the garden, it was the first of my Gerberas to bloom this year, so it earned a place of honor in my studio.  Today I realized it was time to paint it while it was still in its prime.  The leaves on the side are from a Japanese maple and they are very yellow green and lacey.  I am somewhat pleased with the result and I am sure I will have more of these to paint as they bloom all spring and summer.

Plein Air In The Backyard

Fay Terry "STONE DOG", oil on 6x6" gessobord panel, ©2012

I liked Karen Werner's idea in a recent post. I decided to emulate her and paint in my own backyard which was so much more fun than packing everything up and driving to a spot to paint.

I started early this morning and it worked out well because it was in the mid eighties not long after I finished. This dog has been faithfully holding the basket for about fifteen years and is perched on a low brick wall beside some steps. These are some new and tiny little petunias that we found at Lowe's last week-end, said to be very drought resistant.

Fruit As Superfood

Fay Terry, YELLOW MANGOES AND FRIENDS, 6 x 6 " oil on gessobord panel ©2012

I am reading  Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest For Bodily Perfection  by A. J. Jacobs and it is a very funny book.  It is filled with information from various experts on exercise, nutrition, germs, and all the health topics our culture is obsessed with. One of the researchers interviewed about what we should eat points out that certain fruits, including those in my painting above, have been classified as Super Foods because of their antioxidants.  He claims that many people are forgetting that apples, oranges, and bananas are also very good for us but they have taken a back seat to certain other fruits that are more highly touted as healthy foods.

I had never seen mangoes like these I found at the market yesterday. The skin is totally yellow and the sticker on each one says "Champagne Mango". I can't wait to see how they taste!

Thinking of Vincent's "Irises"

©2012 Fay Terry

IRISES IN THE WIND

oil on gessobord panel, 6 x 6 inches

After I did this painting today, I thought about Van Gogh, and one of my favorite paintings, "Irises" which he painted in 1889 while undergoing treatment at an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence.  His brother Theo left many of Vincent's paintings with Pere Tanguy, who owned an art gallery. After Vincent died and Theo's death followed soon after, a sale of Vincent's paintings was held for Theo's widow.  

Octave Mirbeau bought "Irises" and one other painting for six hundred francs in 1892.

Auguste Pellerin, a manufacturer of margarine, was the second owner and bought the painting in 1905.

A fashion designer, Jacques Doucet, bought "Irises" in 1925. After his death his widow sold his art collection and the painting was loaned to museums when Van Gogh Exhibitions were held.

It was purchased by Joan Whitney Payson in 1947, who was hesitant about the $80,000. price tag

.

 Payson's son inherited the painting in 1975 and placed it for auction in 1987 at which time it sold for $ 53.9 million to an Australian buyer, Alan Bond.  When Bond defaulted on the sale, the Getty Museum was able to acquire the painting for an undisclosed amount. It was then made part of the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.  (image from Wikipedia)

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Completion Date: 1889

Place of Creation: France

Style: Post-Impressionism

Finding A Place To Walk

Fay Terry, Afternoon Shadows, oil on Gessobord panel 6 x 6", © 2012

This is an unusually nice  place for a walk, in fact, it is a shady lane in a lovely village in France. To the woman in the painting, it is home. We often fail to appreciate what we have right under our nose.

Replacement Needed!

Fay Terry, Vintage Watering Can, 5 x 7" oil on Gessobord panel. © 2012.

My father loved gardening, and as a child I loved being his helper. Ever since those days I have felt that gardening must include a large galvanized watering can similar to the one my dad used.
I painted this today from a photo I took
and remembered that my watering can was destroyed by lightning last summer. I think it's time for me to shop for a new one.

I'm Ignoring You!

 

Fay Terry,  Back To Back. Oil on Gessobord panel, 6 x 6 inches ©2012

The flower in the back seems to have nothing to say to the larger flower. It's interesting how colorless the back side of a bloom can be, these two are almost identical in color when facing front. It reminds me of  watching a person from behind and getting a sudden  glimpse of their face which is not at all what we were expecting.

Daisy Shadows

Daisy Shadows

This is the final painting of my daisy series and I have learned a lot from painting these

Gerbera daisies. I have them blooming already in my garden in several bright colors, but these came from the market and they were much larger and fuller than the ordinary garden variety- fun to paint!

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

Light From Behind

Light From Behind

I am enjoying painting these daisies again with different lighting and featuring all of the flowers this time.

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

Daisies Up Close

Daisies Up Close

These pink Gerber daisies have been so pretty and I decided to paint just a few of them instead of the whole arrangement. I may do more tomorrow.

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

Still Life With Pear

Still Life With Pear

This pear is trying to hide behind the blue cup but it doesn't seem to be working.  I love all these colors, especially the color of the tablecloth.

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

Easter Lily

Easter Lily

This is my response to the Daily Paintworks Challenge this week.

Happy Easter!

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

Afternoon Light

Afternoon Light

There is something about this little painting that I really love! I tried to figure out what exactly gives me such a good feeling when I look at it.  One of my favorite comments I ever received when I won an award in a juried show was from the judge who said "I felt like I was there!"  This painting so recalls the afternoon I was drawn to this scene that I feel as if I am back in that spot again. Paintings are powerful when they tug at our emotions, aren't they?

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

Wisteria 2

Wisteria 2

This is another one of the paintings from my plein air expedition recently to paint the climbing Wisteria vines that are blooming everywhere.  I was watching the Masters earlier and there was a beautiful scene from Augusta with Wisteria in the foreground. I found out when I was doing this painting just how fragrant it is. Soon its flowering will be ending and we'll have to wait a whole year to see it again.

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel

En Regardant

En Regardant

This well fed bunny is ready for anything.  Except the annual egg hunt.

6 x 6 in. oil on museum quality panel