Getting close!

"Study of white flowers in a vase" by Hilary J. England, 2012,
Oil on canvas, 8" x 11"

I leave for Nice next week.  I am looking forward to my time there, and especially the days in Rome and Milan.  I have been very busy, but I still need to relax my mind and so, I painted the little study of cockleshells, or at least these little round, white, bunches of dangling flowers reminded of cockleshells...they probably have some fancy scientific name, but of that, I am not aware.  I only know they were pretty and interesting looking to me.

So, I am getting ready to get going to Europe, and  have a very productive time working with Gallerie Monteoliveto while I am there. 



"Summer picnic in Pennsylvania" by Hilary J England, 2011, 36" x 48" oil on canvas

Well, I finally finished this piece.  I hit the wall and forced myself through...I get bored easily, and like all people I have to force myself to finish what I start.  In the end, I'm happy with the painting, but this one was not any easy or pleasant one by a far cry.

First, the nature of it (so many people) took maximum effort.  Multiple figure groupings are a challenge from a design standpoint, but I was very happy with the design I finally ended with--it was just hte painting itself.  Through the end of the summer, it was a miserable experience, to be blunt.  But, I perservered through sweat, fly, gnats, sweltering heat, and general frustration, and I finished it.  That in itself is a victory.  Near the end, I was ready to just throw it aside...but I knew how much that would bother me.  I would not be able to move on until I gave it my very best once more, and in the end, I really think it came together wonderfully.

So, now I can breath a sigh of relief, sit back and really enjoy this painting, and move on to the other large scale paintings I'm looking to begin...Hooray!  Out with summer and in with the cool weather!

Sunday...and the countdown begins!

"Poppy field" by Hilary J England, Oil on canvas, 2011

Let the countdown to school begin!!  Brother, I am sooooooo looking forward to these teenagers having something to do with themselves again.  I don't remember ever hanging around the house whining and being annoying at this age--I was always out....getting in trouble LOL.  Maybe it's better they stay around and whine about being bored!!!

Here is my newest study out in the field...it was actually done about a month or two ago, but I have been slacking with keeping up with my photography, so here it is now!  It's called "Poppy field," because, it was a field full of poppies and wildflowers!!  Sorry, I wasn't thinking of anything exotic in terms of names with this one.  I really enjoyed painting it though...it was one of those really relaxing and satisfying paintings with no hiccups...hiccups usually occur outside like your easel being blown face down in the dirt by the wind, getting stung by a bee or eaten by mosquitos, forgetting your turps, or getting chased away by irate farmers who don't want their land "painted."
None of that for this one!

So, out to get a jog in and some other stuff today...enjoy!!♥

Cool nights

Wow, when I was a little girl, I absolutely LOVED this man. I know it's weird, but his voice is so sublime, and I was transfixed with him. I thought he was such a handsome man, maybe because he reminded me of Jesus LOL.

This song takes me back!!! I love watching the video, and seeing how music was original then, with no corporate backers marketing them as objects or products, and they picked their own clothes instead of being dressed by staff that made a "look" for them, etc. They actually wrote and sang their own music, and looked like they were having fun, not enduring a choreographed workout some pencil pusher indicated they should do, to enhance their marketable image.

R.I.P. Paul Davis, you were a true artist, and you shaped my thoughts about love from when I was a little girl...romantic, exciting, contemplated. Just delicious. 

Come on over tonight...come on over....

All snowed and crowed out!

"Foggy field with crows" by Hilary J England, 9" x 12" oil on canvas panel

Well, it's snowing again, wet, slushy snow, but it's coming down pretty persistently...enough to be irritating when you are outdoors.

This is the last of the crows for a while...I am snowed out and crowed out.  Now, on to something else to study...I decided not to do any detailed studies of the crows, because, (a) honestly, they don't interest me that much that I would, (b) they were more interesting as part of a "larger" picture, a backdrop to what else was going on, (c) my winter cabin fever seems to have lifted, so on to something less morose.

I am setting up for my next painting in my series of young adults, so I have alot of preliminary ideas I'm fine tuning, and will get the sketch together and onto the panel probably sometime tonight or tomorrow.  In the meantime, I've decided to do some quick studies on something decidedly brighter than crows--seashells!  I guess my mind is moving back to the beach, since it's been a few months since I've been there, and I do miss it.

So, enjoy the soggy, slushy weather if you are here in the Northeast USA!