Miniature Painting of Tin Measuring Cup

Measuring Cups
6" x 8", Oil on Panel

During the months of October and November, Gallery 9 in Port Townsend, WA will be featuring a 100 under $100 sale which will include small art works, jewelery and miscellaneous items for sale under $100.  I just whipped this little piece out in anticipation of the event.  Be sure to come by and check out the sale! Lots of great opportunities for Christmas presents and other holiday gifts.  

Wedding Portraits in Oil on Gold Leaf

I recently attended the long awaited wedding of my granddaughter Cassidy to her fiance, Luke. Like any grandma I wanted to give them wonderful presents. And I did. My husband and I bequeathed a monetary gift as well as an item from one of her gift registries. But it just wasn't enough. I mean, when you love someone you want to keep on showering them with stuff.  

Because my granddaughter and her family live three thousand miles from us, it makes showing love in other ways difficult. How many times can you heart someone on Facebook?

I recently became interested in doing miniature portraits and paintings on gold leaf. So I went to Cassidy's FB page and looked over all the wonderful pics she had been posting of her and Luke.  I really liked this one so I copied it and projected it on my computer to work from. This was the result.  I gifted this to her at her wedding shower and she loved it.  Turns out that the photo was a popular one and she had used it on the special wine bottles that were gifted to members of the bridal party and family.  

I love doing these. The total size for the entire piece framed is 8" x 10".  I can work from any photo you supply as long as it is clean and clear.  Old black and white photos lend themselves nicely to a beautiful antique look as I paint them in a warm sepia tone on the gold leaf. These make wonderful anniversary or wedding gifts. Wouldn't you love to gift your parents or a favorite friend with one?

If you're interested or just have questions, you can email me at: susanspar@susanspar.com.  Check out my website for other gift ideas. Thanks for reading.

Oil Painting of Sea Shell

"Sea Gift"
Oil on Linen, 6" x 8"

A class mate at Georgetown Atelier, created a very large beautiful still life of a huge conch shell the year we graduated. Of course, I've never forgotten that shell and the work that Holly put into it.  This can't hold a candle and it's quite small to boot. But I'm still happy with it.  I framed it in a beautiful arched frame that looks spectacular with it and will be hanging it at Gallery 9 this September. I plan to do a series of these small paintings in arched frames. Eventually, I should have enough to do a whole show of them. Fun!

Painting of Asparagus

"The Great Escape"

Oil on Linen Board, 6" x 8"

Painting asparagus proved to be more of a challenge than I thought they would be. I wanted to get detailed enough to get the little devils to look like themselves, but not too detailed. As it was, a painting that I intended to spend only a couple of hours on, turned into a five day fiasco. Now, you ask, "what possibly could have taken her so long to do?" Well, actually, the painting time wasn't all that much. But because of numerous interruptions and emergencies, I ended up having to abandon the piece time after time while the asparagus continued to wither on the stand. One of the drawbacks of painting food from life is that you have to get the little devils done in a day. These actually started to grow and twist. One of them actually grew about eight inches long; right off the corner of the painting! One of the rubber bands broke (still don't know where it went) and they started turning a bit orangey brown. Definitely not the painting I had in mind. I think the title fits. Not only did one of the asparagus escape it's confines, I finally finished and escaped the studio and all the asparagus escaped getting eaten. 

Oil Painting of Green Teapot and Mandarin Oranges

"Tea and Mandarins"Oil on Linen mounted on Board, 8" x 6"

SOLD

I've been doing some small alla prima paintings to post on Daily Paintworks and this little piece is my latest. The crystalline glaze teapot was a gift many years ago and has remained my favorite over the years. I love it's shape and the way it holds light very softly. I've painted it in a dozen different ways in both alla prima and a very polished high realism.

Still Life of vases and Urns, 5" x 7" Oil on Panel

"On the Floor"
$25Click here to e-mail me for purchase.






It's been awhile since I did one of these. When I first started doing daily paintings, I painted a lot of common objects. It was fun and rather challenging. But I've always found working small to be difficult and sort of cramping. With things being as slow as they are on eBay and everyone holding onto their change (me included), small seems to be the order of the day. These jars and jugs sit on the floor in my studio waiting for their next role in a still life or floral. Today I chose to just let them stay where they are and I worked them into one of these small exercises. I enjoyed it and it was a nice change from the usual.
With things in our beloved country so much in upheaval, I've been giving a lot of thought to the natural rhythm of things. It would seem to me that this is perhaps an opportunity (unwanted albeit) to change my pace and stretch a bit. I'll continue to post many of fl orals I enjoy and will also be trying some new things. But I won't be putting them up for auction for the next month or two with, perhaps, a few exceptions. They'll be for sale here on my blog and there will be links for e-mailing me. One of my customers took advantage of this yesterday and purchased the "Two Little Nudes" off the blog. PayPal is still the preferred method of payment, but I take checks as well.