Copper Turkish Coffee Maker, Gourd and Zinnia Painting

Copper Turkish Coffee Maker, Gourd and Zinnia

6x8 Oil on Artist Board

Cheri Wollenberg

 

I love coffee.  I am a caffeine addict and I know it!  I have tried to stop drinking the stuff so many times, but it is much more than the caffeine...wouldn't you agree?  It is the warm, hot temperature, the aroma and then the "waking up" sensations that we habitual coffee drinkers have when we get up in the morning.   I especially love it when the weather starts turning cold...like right now in Oklahoma.  My daughter and her husband were missionaries in Bosnia for a couple of years.  She learned to appreciate the stronger coffee there and loved the coffee makers.  She gifted me with this beautiful Turkish Coffee Maker on one of her trips back from Bosnia.  I enjoy painting copper things and it seemed fitting to place it with these seasonal items of harvest....the gourd and zinnia.  Visit my Etsy store by clicking the widget next to my post to find out how to purchase this painting.

Pink and White Peonies

Pink and White Peonies

18x18 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Last spring one of my students brought some pink peonies for my class to paint in a still life arrangement.  I had some white ones that we mixed with them to make a fuller bouquet.  I can almost smell the fragrance they made as I write this post.  Their aroma is extremely pleasing to me.  As I painted this composition, I changed the peonies to a more peach colored pink in this painting.  They were actually an intense or hot pink color, but this particular "vignette" of peonies, I wanted to do warm tones.  I enjoy the challenge of the anatomy of the particular flower, peony.  Since this image was taken, I've painted the bud in the foreground a little sharper.  I felt it didn't need to be quite so lost and it needed to come more forward.  I have set my white peonies in still lifes every year for about 9 years now.  Each year I find that they are a challenge.  I don't know why they are a little difficult, but I thoroughly enjoy the process of painting them and hope that I learn more each time.  To see the price of this painting you can click Peonies. 

Turnips - You Either Like Them or Hate Them

Turnips

9x12 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Recently I found some beautifully colored turnips at the nearby market and I decided that I was going to do a painting of them.  I remember a time as a child that turnips were being cooked in our home, and the aroma was very repulsive to me.  I had tasted raw ones before as my mother peeled them, and didn't mind the taste too much; however, the cooked ones really turned me off.   Today, I still can't appreciate the taste of the cooked turnip.  It is one vegetable that I do not like the taste; however,  I do appreciate the beauty of them!  I love the crisp texture, the purple, green, and creamy white colors and their circular shapes.   I had this sensational desire to paint them larger than life so I did!