Herb Garden, Plein Air Oil Painting by Jacki Newell

Herb Garden

8"x8"oil 

$225

I painted with a sketch group in Greenville on Monday. It was a gray, cool day. I found this scene in the courtyard of the Old Episciple Church on North and Church St. Since it was cloudy, I didn't have to rush to beat the shadows. It was nice. This photo is the original plein air piece. Then today I brought it into my studio to make some "adjustments". I will take a photo of the results tomorrow.

Commission!!!

Greenville, Downtown

18"x24" oil

SOLD

This may look like a familiar scene to you by now. I love downtown Greenville, and so do most people who have walked or driven down Main Street. I have done a few paintings similar to this one. Recently, a young man commissioned me to one for he and his wife's one year anniversary. He had tried to win the downtown painting that I donated  at a silent auction for Trees Greenville, but was outbid. He asked if I could do one similar, so this is the result. I just delivered it to him on Thursday evening and then treated myself to a delicious Greek salad at Kozani's. I sat outdoors at one of the very same tables that are in the scene. How cool is that?!

The dog in the painting is a depiction of his doggy. I had never met him or his wife, only through email, and so I had no idea how old they were or what they looked like, but it turned out that his wife is blonde!
Commissions are very scary for me. I get so nervous about them. I'd much rather do a painting and then have someone see it and decide they can't live without it and purchase it, but it's also nice when someone trusts me to do a special one for them. He seemed to like it very much and thought his wife would too.
This is my second commission for this year. That is a record for me so far. May they be the first of many.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
www.jacki-newell.artistwebsites.com

Boy and His Ball #6 original oil painting

Boy and His Ball #6  "Bounce It"

6x6"oil
$175

Here is #6. Some may recognize it as one that I have already done. That was a 8x8 and I decided to try it again, only do it in 6x6 so it would match the others and I might enter it into Randy Higbee's 6x6 show. I wanted to try this one over, because I felt in the first one, that he was taller and older than 2 1/2. This one looks more like his size at the time. He wasn't potty trained at the time I took the photos, so his "pampers" show at his waist line. My grandkids are growing way too fast, I would like them to stay this size for a while. I can't believe that Skylar, my oldest grandson, will be 9 next month!!!!

I know these titles are lame, I could really use some help in finding titles for all six. Something simple.

Thanks so much for view my art.

Boy and His Ball #5

Boy and His Ball #5
6x6 oil
$175.

These are so fun to paint. I love little boys at this age. 

Thanks for looking.

jacki

Boy and Ball Series #2

A Boy and His Ball/#2

6"x6" oil on panel

$125 plus $8 shipping

I can't believe how much time I spent on this little guy, trying to get his mouth the way I wanted it. In the reference photo he has a playful, happy look on his face with his mouth open and tongue kinda sticking out. I have failed in capturing that look, rather, in my painting he looks a little upset. I have spent so many hours on it already, for such a small painting, I'm going to just accept the fact that painting people with their mouths open is beyond my skill level for now, since I am really pretty new at attempting to put people in my scenes. Hopefully, by the end of this series, I will be better at it. The model is my little Grandson, Xavier. He was two and half at the time this was taken.
Thanks for visiting my blog.

Boy and His Ball- oil painting

Boy and His Ball

8"x8" oil

$150 plus $8 shipping

Gah!!! Writing regularly in my blog is one of the new years resolutions that I have not been keeping. No excuses. I am happy to say that I have been painting regularly though!! I did this little piece a few days ago. That's my adorable little grandson, Xavier with his big, red ball. He is 3 now, but last spring when the photo was taken he was two and a half. I was visiting my daughter, Jaimi and her family at their farm and got a bunch of great photos of little Xavier with his ball. I plan to do a series of these, so stay tuned.

For now, my attention has been on a commission that I am doing of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It's a challenge to me, because I'm not used to working so large-it's 4'x2'. I'll be posting that soon.

Thanks for visiting here.

jacki

Grapefruit Still Life Oil Painting

Grapefruit

6"x6" oil on panel

$75 plus $5 shipping

I've wanted to paint a pink grapefruit in this bowl ever since eating breakfast at my daughter, Jaimi's house. She gave me the set of bowls because I enjoyed eating my grapefruit out of them so much. It's taken a year to get around to doing a painting, but is definitely something I want to do more of. The photo is bluer than the actual painting, which is more greenish blue. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Clementine

"Clementine"

8"x8" Oil on panel

$175 plus $5 shipping

I finally finished this one. I didn't expect it to take as long as it did. I was happy with the way the silver spoon came out, and I enjoy silver with that turquoise colored bowl.
Thanks for looking.

Untitled

Untitled

8x10 oil on panel

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. I love everything about Christmas, but I'm always glad to get back to normal life.

I started this painting before Christmas and tried to finish it to make a card out of it, but, you know how crazy it gets this time of year. I finished it today. Everything about it was a challenge to me, but I learned so much. Thanks for visiting. God bless you in the coming new year.

jacki

Silver and Red, oil painting still life

"Silver and Red"
8"x 8"oil on panel
$175 free shipping
I am a lover of Christmas. I love everything about it and try so hard to squeeze as much out of the season that I can. Always trying to do the same things we did the year before and the years before that along with trying to experience new things. For the first time, I have painted something "Christmassy". I love the shiny things of the season, and the smell of pine and have attempted to put a glimpse of it in a painting.
Thanks for visiting my blog. I would like to wish all of you a blessed and merry Christmas.
Oh yeah, shipping is free during the month of December!!!!!

Big Granny Smith

"Big Granny Smith"
8"x8" oil on panel
$125 plus $10 shipping

Ok, I'm no longer calling my quick paintings "30 minute paintings". They are now officially "30 something minute paintings". I'm an honest person, and when the timer goes off at 30, I always have a few more things I need to do before I call it quits, so I can't, in good conscience call them 30 minute paintings.

I'd like to say "welcome" to the new followers to ths blog and a big"thanks" to Diane Hoeptner http://dianehoeptner.blogspot.com/for the link to here from her blog.

If you are interested in receiving an occasional newsletter via email from me, go to my art website http://www.jacki-newell.artistwebsites.com/ and click on the "email list" link located right under my bio photo.

Thanks.

"Zinnia Fest" Oil Painting by Jacki Newell

"Zinnia Fest"
24"x 24" oil on linen
$550 plus shipping

I gathered up most of my remaining zinnias and arranged them in a vase. Once again, it took forever to get them to cooperate but finally I had them in an arrangement that I was happy with. I painted them on a larger canvas than normal. I exhibited this painting with my smaller zinnia pieces in groups on both sides of it. I was so pleased with the result. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo before taking them down.

I will be sending out a monthly email newsletter soon. If you are interested in receiving this, please go to my website www.jacki-newell.artistwebsites.com and click on "join email list" link.

Unruly Zinnias

Unruly Zinnias

10x10x1 oil on panel

$200 unframed plus $10 for shipping

This piece is a continuation of my Zinnia series. As long as my zinnias are still alive, I will paint them. They are such unruly children, as I attempt to arrange them in a vase. None of them will stay where i put them, always looking in the wrong direction. (They remind me of my grandkids when we are trying to get a decent family photo :) It takes me about as long to get them the way I want them, as it does to paint them. Well, almost.

I will be sending out with a monthly email newsletter. If you are interested in receiving this, please go to http://www.jacki-newell.artistwebsites.com/ and click on the link"join e-mail list" located right under my profile picture.

30 Minute Painting-Attempt #2

Here's 30 minute (more like 32 minute) painting #2. I hope to explore this subject more in the future. I bought the pitcher at Pier 1 this summer because, I needed a decent pitcher but mainly because I loved the shape of it and wanted to try painting it. I painted this outside, yesterday, on my deck, since, it was just too beautiful of a day to be inside.
Today, Dave and I made the hour drive to the mountains with the full intention of me painting at Jones Gap after a short hike. Our hike ended up being much longer than we planned because it was just too beautiful to turn back. We kept going, especially when we found out there was a 50 ft waterfall about 20 more minutes up. Wow, it was definitely worth the climb. So gorgeous and the colorful leaves were falling right along with the water. It's days like this that I'm so glad that I work so hard to stay in shape everyday! Unfortunately, I didn't get to paint there, today.

"Water with Lemon"
6"x 6" oil on canvas board
$75 unframed plus $8 shipping

30 Minute Painting-Attempt #1

I was inspired by artist Robin Cheers' blog post http://robincheers.blogspot.com/2010/10/30-minute-start.html to attempt to paint a small painting in 30 minutes. It took me about that much time to find something to set up to paint and adjust the lighting, etc, but I did paint this one in just 30 minutes. Well, to be honest, I took 2 extra minutes to touch up the highlights, etc. but was suprisingly happy with the results.

Some of the benefits of painting so quickly is that it forces me to work more instinctively rather than labor over each decision. The brushstrokes are fresher and bolder as I hurredly move on to the next section rather than hang around and redo the paint that I just put down. One of my favorite things to look at in other artist's work is the freshness of their color and brushstrokes. Learning to work quickly is especially helpful when I paint outdoors and have to keep up with the changing light and shadows. I'm hoping this little 30 minute excercise will help. This zinnia theme continues, as I have never been one to let a perfectly good little zinnia go unpainted:)

"Zinnia and Coffee"

8"x 8" oil on gessoed board

$125 unframed plus $10 shipping

"River Song"

I started out painting this "en plein air" on a bridge over the Middle Saluda River at Jones Gap State Park in June of this year. It's much larger than I have ever attempted outdoors and was quite a challenge. I made three trips to the park (about an hour from my house) to paint it at the same time of day and same lighting conditions. I also worked on it in the studio to finish it. I hope to paint this large again, but I better get faster at it or make sure to paint a subject closer to home. This will be hanging at the West Greenville Art Festival in the Pendleton Street Arts District the weekend of September 18 and 19. Stop by and say hi and see this piece in person.

Untitled

28" x 22 x .75" oil on stretched canvas

$575 plus postage

Recent Painitngs

Here's what I've been working on lately-more zinnias! When we got home from our 3 week trip to Omaha and Colorado Springs, I was happy to see that my zinnias were still alive.

All 4 are 8"x8" oils on gessoed panels.
$125 each unframed. .

$150 framed.

$10 shipping

Orange Begonias

I painted this piece earlier this summer but forgot to take a photo of it before I took it to the gallery. Sadly, the gallery had to close and all my paintings are back home.
The orange begonias have, since then, exploded in blossoms that have lasted for 3 months. I'm out of town right now, and I'm afraid when I get back home they will be fried from the hot sun. If that is true, I'm going to have to go out and find some more to enjoy for the rest of the summer.









Orange Begonias
10"x10" oil on canvas
$200.00 unframed plus $10 shipping
$225.00 framed plus $10 shipping

Juried in!

I was happy to hear recently that my painting "What now?"was juried into the Spartanburg Artist Guild Annual Show. This is the second year that one of my paintings made it into the show. I was so impressed with the quality of the art there and wanted to see if I could get one in this year to prove to myself that last year wasn't a fluke.
$250
$275 framed
add $10 shipping

Fishing on the Toe River

In May, I competed in a Plein Air Paint-Out in beautiful Burnsville, NC. This is one of the two paintings I entered. It was a cloudy day as I painted alongside the Toe River. It was so enjoyable. The competition was excellent. I was so impressed with the entries. I did not win anything that night, but had a great time meeting artists from the Ashville/Burnsville area. The judge did an excellent job (I agreed with her choices). I look forward to going back next year. This photo seems a little blurry, I 'm going to have to try to get a clearer one.
Fishing on the Toe River
11x14 Oil on Raymar panel
$350. unframed, $450 framed plus $10 shipping