The Holiday Season is Upon Us!

I haven't been out and in the crowds yet so I'm not exactly feeling the spirit yet. I tell everyone when I get off the couch, go out to the garage and get the wreaths for the front door and the back gate then the season will have begun in this house :-)

I hope the stores are doing well because big sales at holiday time helps our economy...no matter how we feel about the season this is a good thing.

My latest happens to be a holiday scene. Hope it warms your heart and makes you smile:

Right Down the Road from the North Pole

Whether we Like it or Not!

The holidays are coming.....don't know what to buy anyone?  Why not help out us artists and buy original art for holiday gifts?  Here's a sample of something fresh off my painting board:

So many people love candy....why not this 8 X 6" to brighten up a corner of their home or office?  Its different....not the same old tie or shirt.  I bet it would be appreciated.

Check out the auction My Candy Stash There are over 300 available paintings on my website at:
PatriciaAnnRizzo.com

Mouse With a Tootsie Roll

Here's a mouse you don't have to be afraid of. He found a Tootsie Roll in the grass and he holds it possessively.  He tells the other mice "this is mine...I found it!  He is today's daily painting.  Only 4 X 4 inches on stretched canvas with 3/4 inch sides painted black.  He's ready to hang.

Link to the Auction

Halloween!

This was my challenge submission this week at Daily Paintworks.  The object of the challenge was to show black as whiter then white.  I did this with three black kittens in the moonlight.  Their black fur showing white highlights in the light of the moon.

I also used this challenge to enforce one thing about Halloween....if you have black cats or dogs please keep them indoors during this holiday.  Keep them safe!

Link to the Auction

My Daily Paintworks Challenge Picture for this week: ICE CREAM!

Isn't that a great subject?  I love ice cream....can't eat it though because I'm diabetic.  Well, if I can't eat it I still can paint it.  Here's my entry this week.  Listed it last night and it sold this morning.  (Wish they all sold like that):

Link to the Auction

Support Daily Paintworks Artists

There are all sorts of artists making all kinds of paintings almost daily on the site.  Please...they can't do that forever without your support.  A small painting or ACEO will help keep an artist painting.

ACEO Tuxedo Cat and Butterflies (watercolor and acrylic)
Link to the Auction

The Look of Spring

I love the mottled backgrounds I see in photos where the foreground is sharp and the background is muted.  I tried to get that look here with watercolor while painting the butterfly and flowers in acrylic.  I think I hit the mark (for once) :-)

Monarch on Yellow Daisies
Link to the Auction

Mountains, Mountains, Mountains

This week the DPW challenge was "Mountains".  I did two for the challenge and one that will be on auction at midnight tonight.  I find them easy to pull out of my imagination.  The one thing I can't do is make too many.  Some artists have only a few topics they enjoy.  I try to vary my work as much as possible.  It keeps me interested and hope my work keeps you interested too.

Oh...before I forget.  You can join this blog and you certainly can comment.  I'd love to hear from you because after awhile I begin to feel I'm the only person here! :-)  You are always welcome to browse my gallery at Daily Paintworks (link below)

The top one is a 5 X 7 inch acrylic against a watercolor sky.  The bottom one is a 4 X 5 inch acrylic.  Both can be found in my gallery:


Gallery

Pastel Art - The Lesson

This is a soft pastel on Mi Tientes Pastel Paper.  I don't do many of these.  I'm kind of allergic to the dust a pastel drawing makes while you're working with it.  Still, with laytex gloves, a surgical mask and the great outdoors, I manage to do one now and then. 

This is one of the paintings done years ago that I am finally trying to find a home for.  Its done in Rembrandt soft pastels and Conte A Paris pastel pencils on Mi Tientes Pastel Paper.   I'm 73 now and its time....I can no longer keep my favorites stored up.  They need to find homes.

I call this one "The Lesson" because every good wolf needs to teach his young the proper way to howl at the moon!

"The Lesson"
11 X 14 inch Pastel
Link to the Auction

Another Crack At Daily Paintwork's Monthly Contest

I never win these things, never even get in one of the 15 top spots for the month.....that's okay.  I understand competition and I also understand one should never just give up ;-)

This is my entry into the current monthly contest.  Its kind of far out...but sometimes, so am I.

Starlight Nebula

Link to the Auction
(a Daily Paintworks Auction Pick)

New Challenge: Paint Mom or Something She Liked

My weekly challenge this week was kind of difficult since all the paintings I put up on Daily Paintworks are for sale.  I try not to keep any of them.  I didn't want to paint my mom and then sell her...that didn't seem right.  So I painted a young lady very much like my mom at that age...doing her favorite thing...gardening:

Mom's garden was always spectacular.  She definitely had a green thumb and she was really happy when she was in the garden all day.

"Gardening"
Link to the Auction

What Mood Are You In Today?

Its fun to paint.  When I want something sweet, I paint up a bunch of jelly donuts:

Available in my DPW Gallery

Today, I felt like having a quiet, peaceful day:

also available in my DPW Gallery
The great Norman Rockwell said "being able to draw and paint is like always having a bag of lemon drops in your pocket". He was right...creating art is a joy and one must do it for the sheer joy of it.  Try it :-)

This Week's Challenge Painting on Daily Paintworks

I did one challenge painting...a patch of bright yellow daffodils.  Our challenge this week was something colorful and blissful.  Seems that wasn't my mood today. I had to have something different...something a bit outside of the box. So my mind turned to this rubber duck with red and green stockings. He's sitting and enjoying a very large piece of cake with a cherry on top. What could be blissful then to enjoy a large piece of cake with a cherry on top on a bright Spring day? This auction starts on April 15 but can be seen now in the Challenge section.

Link to the Auction

A Real Challenge!

Daily Paintworks runs a "challenge" to artists each week. This week it was to paint a picture using only four tubes of paint. Here is my entry using just black, red, blue and green:

Girl with the Red Umbrella"
Link to the auction   A lot of people don't know or don't realize the versatility of acrylic paints. I watered down my acrylics until they handled much like watercolor. In doing so I get the transparency and mixability of watercolors. In this painting I mixed the red and green to make the brown you see and I used the paper itself for white. Those artists who use acrylics, try it...its a completely different side of acrylics.

Oh...I Love This Time of Year

I can almost feel it...Springtime! A time when flowers peep up out of the cold ground and trees display a pretty pale green from new leaves forming.  Its on the way and next month is Easter and that means my favorite candies will be all over the markets! Yes, I'm a Peep addict and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE jellybeans. If left with a bag of jellybeans I will dig out all the orange ones first (my favorite) followed by the red ones then purple....and so on.

Thinking of this candy, I sat down and painted some in watercolor. They are up on Dailypaintworks.com to be published on Thursday, March 6, 2014:

Link to the Auction

I Love Surrealism...So Why Don't I Pursue It?

You see a painting...it interests you and maybe you even buy it, but do you know what went into it? I don't mean the usual questions buyers sometimes ask sellers like "how long did it take you to paint that?" I know, its almost as funny as "I can't even draw a straight line" or "is that that paint by numbers stuff?" No, serious painting is something I seldom get to do and then chances are it will sit in storage for many years before the right collector comes along. This painting...done in the mid-2000's just found the right buyer:

Pretty simple...paint a horse, an ocean, etc. What's the big deal? The big deal is it takes thought...believe it or not and also time.  Sometimes a LOT of time! An Artist will sometimes walk around for weeks or months with a thought in his/her head and it will grow and grow, then some sketching or doodling...finally transmitting it to canvas.

This painting "Toward the Light" took over a year from first thought to completion, then sat in storage for years until I finally decided to make a serious move toward promoting and selling it. I wanted to represent life...from birth to death and that is what this painting represents. The black and white tiles representing the ups and downs, good and bad of a person's life. The moth (which I prefer to paint more like a butterfly) is called a Painted Lady and represents myself in the scene.

An artist can sit down and paint something from the heart....or a vase full of roses.  Mostly, we paint the roses...they look good and sell well.  Neither is right or wrong, but It takes a special person to appreciate the heart that goes into the work of a painting like "Toward the Light".

Just Something a Bit Different

I don't make many of these. They are wooden nesting dolls and fit one inside the other. This set is six pieces that I call "A Walk Through the Secret Garden". On sale on my own website or Etsy or Zibbet.

Decidedly Different Nesting Dolls

Each doll is hand painted by me and each is OOAK. When I get the blank wooden dolls I sand them until they fit together with little effort.  Then, I make up the painting on each one as I go along and sometimes this takes weeks because I have to think up the next step, the next nesting doll until they're done. Then I paint them with about 5 coats of lacquer, sand and wax. A lot of work indeed....which is why I don't make many of them :-)

Some Artists Jump from Holiday to Holiday

Yep, that's me. I paint the holidays and enjoy doing it. I just finished up with Christmas and now I'm on to Valentine's day:

This is a 4 X 4 inch acrylic on artist's stretched canvas. The painting continues down each 3/4 inch side which makes this painting ready to hang without a frame.

Link to the Auction

I do hope there is more of an interest in art this year among buyers. Artists can't continue if they are not supported in some way. We depend on sales to help us keep on painting. Please remember that as you check out all the works on Daily Paintwork.

Thank you.

Patricia Ann Rizzo

Plants on my Patio

When I lived in New Jersey, raising plants outside was a challenge.  Even plants in the house were a challenge.  Then, I moved to Southern California and plants here seem to grow no matter where they are.  My patio is very very sunny even with the help of two patio umbrellas there isn't much shade.  So, I started putting potted plants under my patio table.  They LOVE it there.  For some reason that is the premo spot on the patio.  This is a painting of the plants hiding under the table.  Some have been there for over 10 years and just keep blooming.  I find the Cyclamen blooms best in Winter and has few blooms in Spring and Summer.  My latest work with a link to the Daily Paintworks auction:

Plants Under My Patio Table