Still Life Painting - Turquoise Pitcher With Red Mums

12x12 Oil On Artist Canvas Board

Painted by Cheri Wollenberg

I was traveling to the studio this morning.  It is only three miles from me so I don't get too much viewing of the "townscape"between home and there, but this morning within a couple of blocks from my destination I noticed that the leaves on the maple trees that line the streets are beginning to turn red!!  Gee, no one told me it would be overnight that the color would be there!!  Amazing how much joy color can bring.  I love it!  It first reminds me of growing up which is a story for another time! We haven't even had a freeze yet, and my husband is mowing the lawn almost every other day!!  What can I say?  It just sneaked up on me (LOL).  I listed this painting yesterday in my Etsy shop.  If you are from Shawnee or the surrounding area and are interested in taking a look at it, it resides in my studio window downtown!  Thanks for taking a look.  I loved painting this little still life too.

 

The Faster I Go - The Further Behind I Get!

I think my post today is a very FAST "CATCH UP" post.  Somehow in my head I think I can get all of May's posts made before the DEADLINE (May 31, 2015)!  Do you ever feel like that?  I do enjoy posting about my work, but as the title above reveals....something in our lives has to suffer.  I try not to allow my painting be the one!  

Gardening is very much on my mind these days.  For right now we do not have to worry about watering the gardens here in Oklahoma, so my tomato plants may have a better survival rate (lol).  I love tomatoes.  I love painting them and they are wonderful subjects for paintings.   A friend and fellow blogger raises tomatoes and makes salsa every year.  I would love to be like her (Wordweaver Art).  Just getting those tomatoes to grow is a challenge for both my husband and I.  Anyway, I couldn't wait for them to start producing so I have been buying them.  These two in the painting below were so pretty that I took one off and consumed it, but decided to paint the other two with the vine still on them.  I set them on a window sill and the light is from the back of the tomatoes themselves; however, the light bounced around them and the sill providing several exciting design elements that hopefully I managed to record on canvas.  Click on the title if you are interested in buying.  It will take you to my Etsy shop.  Thanks for coming by today to hear me "whine" about time (lol).  

Two Bright Tomatoes

Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

Purple And White Iris Oil Painting

Purple And White Iris

8x8 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

I was upstairs in my studio when my husband called me from downstairs and said he wanted to show me something.  As I went down I began to question him....what was it?  Of course he wanted to be mysterious and made me wait.  He showed me this volunteer iris that had popped up very close to the foundation of our home.  It was an unexpected one and he knows how it pleased me to see its beauty.  He also knows what I do with these kind of finds?  It was from some bulbs that I had dug up in my mother's yard last summer.  I had thrown some of the leftover bulb "trash" and soil at the corner of the flower bed thinking that there wasn't anything in it but dirt!

Painting this iris reminded me of my mother.  She left this world last August but she left many memories for her four girls, family and friends.  She loved to garden.  At anytime of a spring and summer day you could drive by her house and she would be stooped over pulling weeds.  Everytime she came to visit me...everytime....if we were standing around visiting outside and she saw a stray weed (she saw plenty of them), she would stoop over and pull it up.  

My mother!  I miss her.  I thank her for many things she brought to my life.  I thank her for the opportunity to see this flower grow up and provide an opportunity for me to paint such a simple, little work.  During the process of painting it I enjoyed once again....my mother's presence.  A long post...sorry!  You can find this painting in my Etsy shop by clicking here.

Maud II - Cow Painting

Maud II - Cow Painting

16x20 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

I think my motto for today will be "pray" in addition to "paint".  In Oklahoma we have had torrential rains the past couple of weeks flooding many parts of our state.  AND, there is more rain to come!  This magnitude of downpour doesn't happen too often here in our state.   In fact we have been in a very bad drought the last several years.  Record downfall and rain measurements are being recorded and might never be broken at least in this generation's lifetime.   Many folks here have lost their homes either in tornados or damage from floods.  Texas has also had such a bad season for storms.   Wheat crops in both states have been jeopardized; however, hard to see during times of hardship, the good and positive news is that our ponds, streams, and lakes have risen back to normal and above.  Also, many other types of crops may thrive.  People in city and rural areas that depend on lakes for drinking water and daily living will perhaps have  a generous amount for a couple of years.  Our cattle will have grass.  It is very easy to see the negative, but we must focus on the positive.

This painting was one I finished a couple of days ago.  She brings a smile to my face.  Hope it helps your day as well.  She is listed in my Etsy shop.  Click here to see.

Blue Creamer and French Cup and Saucer Still Life Painting

Blue Creamer and French Cup and Saucer

8x10 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

Just before Christmas I was looking for a cup and saucer for a still life painting that would look nice in a large custom still life painting I've been commissioned to do.  The buyer wanted something that would look good with French Country Décor.  As I researched the particular décor I found that copper, roosters, sunflowers, and French pottery was usually incorporated in kitchens and dining rooms.  So, I was delighted when shopping in this little Antique shop to find a cup and saucer signed by the French name of Henriot Quimper.  This small still life was a practice composition to work on designs and color before painting the larger composition for my customer.  This painting can be found in my Etsy store here.

Pink Tulips Oil Painting

Pink Tulips Still Life Painting

8x8 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

I am very ready for spring! 

The garden spot is being tilled...ready for new seeds, sprouts of new life, and fresh, tasty yields of vegetables and fruit.  I love this time of the year when the tulips, hyacinth and daffodils begin to peep out of the ground to the sky.  Painting these pink tulips made me smile.  They are in my Etsy shop.  Just click tulips.

Nellie - Pig Painting

Nellie

6x6 Oil on Artist Board

Cheri Wollenberg

Nellie is a Hampshire pig.  Hampshire pigs are usually all black with white markings on their faces.  My grandson shows pigs in the local livestock fairs here in Central Oklahoma.  His favorite breeds of pig are the Hampshire and Spot hogs.  Nellie is pretty young here.....and clean!  It doesn't take much for her to find mud and have a dirt bath.  Details of this small painting can be seen in my Etsy shop by clicking here.

Hot Pink Peonies in Black Vase Painting

Hot Pink Peonies in Black Vase

11x14 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

A black vase sets this bouquet of hot pink peonies.  Muted pastels surround the subject matter in the background.  This black vase is almost like a metal pot because it reflects the things around it.  If you look very carefully, you can see the abstract artist in the reflection.  This painting is listed in my Etsy shop.  Just click the following phrase:  

Hot Pink Peonies

Floral Paintings

Red Tulip Painting

6x6 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

White Tulip Painting

6x8 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Haven't had much time to post about my paintings lately.  Here are two little floral paintings that I've decided to use as some of the first of floral daily paintings.  I love this time of the year even if the weather has an "attitude".  In Oklahoma we enjoy nice warm days a lot in February, but the cold North wind doesn't play any favorites and the wind certainly "comes sweepling down the plain" (laugh).  We are planning to raise some chickens in our retirement so I better get these florals out of my system before the chicks come along to inspire my paintings.  Both of these little paintings can be found in my Etsy shop.  Just follow the colored link under the paintings:)

Garnet the January Cow

Garnet The January Cow

9x12 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Garnet is the name I decided for this Black Baldie cow.  I wanted to give her a personal name instead of cow #3, or #4 so I named her for my birthstone which is this month, January.  She is actually from a "cow" group picture I have.   I liked her because she was clean nosed and she seemed to be looking back at me as intently as I was her (smile).  She is described more thoroughly in my Etsy shop.  Just click here.

Rooster - Rooster Painting

Rooster 6

12x12 Original Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

It won't be long until my husband and I will be moving to our farm home.  I mentioned in an earlier post (June 14)  that my grandson and I had talked about raising some chickens.  He has not forgot!!!  Thinking about chickens again caused me to remember a painting that I did of a rooster.  I never was very happy with the results.  The compostion was not right for the support size.  So this is what I did to this fellow....  I cropped him on the canvas, took my exacto knife and did a little "surgery".  He was painted originally on a 16x20 stretched canvas.  I cropped and cut a 12x12 image from it and I'm much happier now.  The composition reads better.   I glued the painted canvas to a heavy foamboard with archival glue and framed him.  He is in my Etsy shop.  You can see two views...one of him and one of him framed.   Have a look at him.  He is a very welcoming fellow:)

Pumpkins I - Original Oil Painting

Pumpkins I

6x8 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

The leaves are falling here in Fayetteville just like it was already fall.  School has started, the kids are getting on buses everyday in their new school clothes, and there is always excitement in the air about football, new friends, various other things and change.  Changes in the seasons are also exciting.    The stores have changed their decorations themes.  Pumpkins and harvest themes are already being displayed everywhere.  Magazines are beginning to print new recipes and the newest fabrics and fashion trends. Artists are inspired by these changes too.  I am inspired with the colors, textures, and  aromas of new candles.  So I decided to start painting pumpkins and gourds.  I prefer to paint them from life but this one is from a picture.  I took a lot of pictures last fall of various gourds and pumpkins so I may do several while waiting for the first fruits of harvest to show at the neighborhood markets.    This is my first attempt for Autumn 2011.  Click Pumpkin I to go to my Etsy Shop if you would like more information about it.