Old Homestead Near Cordell, Oklahoma

Old Homestead Near Cordell, Oklahoma

9x12 Oil On Stretched Canvas

by Cheri Wollenberg

This small 9x12 original painting is of an old homestead near Cordell, Oklahoma.  I've painted it several times in different sizes.  It always interested me.  In spite of the badly deteriorating state it was in it seemed to have a beautiful story behind it.  We would see it consistently every year when we traveled west toward the Texas panhandle on our trips to New Mexico.  Once it was old and gray and almost falling down, but the next summer it had been white-washed and sort of pushed back into a vertical position.  Once it looked as if it had been used as a Halloween haunted house:)  I was always so curious about this old home.  I wondered if it had been made to look good for a movie, magazine story or if it was dressed up because of Route 66 promotional materials.  Whatever....I loved this old home.  I'm very curious about past stories,  and I truly wish I were a writer and I could bring it to life by my own creative thoughts, but this will certainly not happen!!! (LOL)  If you are from Cordell, Oklahoma and have some comments please feel free to comment here on my blog or my FB page:https://www.facebook.com/ArtbyCheriWollenberg/

This small painting is listed in my Etsy store.  You can follow this link to see it.

JUNE The White Gentile Cow With Rusty Brown And Black Markings

JUNE

14x18 Framed Original Oil Painting 

Cheri Wollenberg

June is a painting that I started a couple of months ago.  I loved painting her.  The rusty brown and black markings on her white coat brought added fun to me as I painted.  My husband and I are retired now and have moved from our latest farm home.  I miss the country and seeing the beauty of God's creation displayed around the rural countryside.  So, I as I follow my inspiration I have an added  special "love" to my love of pushing a paintbrush around (LOL).  June is another cow from my son's herd in Oklahoma.  He manages SOLA (Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction) at Ada, Oklahoma. If you live in our great state drop by and visit with my son or one of his family or coworkers.  June is displayed there for a couple of weeks and I have listed her for sale in my Etsy shop.  She will soon be available as in print.  Just click on SOLA to visit their website or take a look at her 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.

Mama Red Hen and Chicks - Farm Animal Painting

Mama Red Hen And Chicks

12x12 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

My husband and I have lived on farms all our married life except for a 10 year period that his work as a pastor took us to Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He was an agriculture teacher in Oklahoma and farmed full time, raised cattle and preached!  I taught art in school later after our children were in high school.  We have loved both our farm and teaching lives.   Now during the retirement years we still work at farming though on a very small scale.  Our newest venture in raising animals has been chickens!  LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!!! What fun we have had.  Knowing nothing we have raised enough chickens to have fresh eggs now for a couple of years.  Recently we decided to try our hand at chicks!!!  LAUGH OUT LOUD AGAIN!!!!  We started with four eggs because we don't want to have a population explosion.  The reason being is that we could never eat any chickens....only have fun with them and enjoy their wonderful produce.  So...out of the four "planned family" experience we have hatched two.  These two are in this painting.  I couldn't help but want to paint them.  They would not stay still long enough for me to get a good shot of them, so I had to improvise somewhat.  Enjoyed this venture.  Hopefully I can  post that we were successful in raising these little chicks to adulthood someday.  This painting's description and price are in my Etsy store.  Click Here.

Blue and White Pitcher with Yellow Roses

The Elegant Teapot

10x10 Original Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

I have had such beautiful roses this year.  It has not been easy to come by either.  It has taken a good seven years of experimentation, education and hard work.  We live on a hill in central Oklahoma and the dirt is red!  It is red clay but beautiful, but it isn't the best soil or doesn't provide the best conditions for roses, hydrangea or peonies.  Thanks to some wonderful articles in blogs and information on Pinterest I've managed to get my roses to bloom.  I guess my main purpose for working with these particular flowers is that I love painting them.  This particular still life only features a couple, but I'm working on bouquets.  My love for blue and white pottery and china seems to compliment the roses.  This painting is listed in my Etsy store.  Have a LOOK, and thanks for stopping by:)

Blue Bonnet Duo - Two Cows Standing in Blue Bonnets

Blue Bonnet Duo - Two Cows Standing in Blue Bonnets

20x30 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

 

I was inspired to create this painting of these two cows, one an Angus cow and the other a Hereford cow, standing in a field of green grass and blue bonnets when my son brought some pictures to me that he had taken while working in Texas. He is a cattleman and works for Stockman Oklahoma Commission Company. He regularly travels to Texas to film cows for video sale and/or supervise loading cattle for his company's customers. He knows how excited I become when he brings home beautiful pictures of Texas hill country and cattle. He doesn't always have time to take photos, but last spring he got some great shots of blue bonnets.  This painting features two of his own cattle here in Oklahoma close to my home. I placed the Texas blue bonnets inspired by his photos in the composition for fun.  Click here to buy.

Down The Road - Tree Landscape Painting

Down The Road

12"x12" Original Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

I try to paint nearly every day.  Some days I'm successful in accomplishing my goals and some days I have focusing problems!  Some days I look out my studio window which is upstairs in my home, and I see cattle grazing across the road and/or I might have a moment or two giving into a daydream.  Here in Oklahoma we have been experiencing very cold and record-breaking temperatures for the past week and one-half.  The trees that were turning to shades of yellows, rusts and browns are beginning to lose their leaves now and soon will be gray and brown stumps and limbs across winter green pastures.  This painting was a scene of trees about one-fourth mile from our home.  I can see a long ways from my studio...or here in Oklahoma, we might say over yonder!(lol).  I took a picture and this is a cropped view of what I saw that warm day that has turned cold, gray and wintery now.  It is listed in my Etsy store.  Thanks for coming by.

Peaches, Peaches, Peaches!

Bowl of Peaches

12x12 Original Oil Painting

Cheri Wollenberg

 

Recently, some friends of ours from church gifted us with some peaches.  They were beautiful.  They said that this had been one of those years the peaches did well.  They had been healthy, didn't need much maintenance and weren't wormy in spite of not having been treated.  How good is this????  Oklahoma has such extreme conditions on their fruit trees, vegetable and flower gardens.  When we get a good year with moisture at the right time, we can have a harvest dance (lol), just before we eat our crops!  They tasted heavenly and I was so delighted when one of them still had leaves attached to it.  The leaves brought the natural and fresh look I needed when composing them in a still life.  Loved doing this one and I did a small 6x6 painting of them below:  Both can be found in my Etsy store.

 

Pair of Peaches

6x6 Original Oil Painting

Cheri Wollenberg

Black Rooster Oil Painting

Black Rooster In Sunset

16x20x1.5 Original Oil Painting

Cheri Wollenberg

Circumstances have kept me from following through on my creative thoughts about new paintings during the last several months.  However, my mind never lets up!  I see paintings in almost every circumstance and event daily!  I live in a rural part of central Oklahoma.  It has been terribly hot with hot, forceful winds parching the earth's soil and foliage during the last couple of weeks.  The grasshoppers are having a hayday.....that is, until we let our new chickens out to graze!(lol).  Recently I was with my husband as we let our lovely poultry crew out to graze.  I had to run back to the house to get my camera.  It was so hot, but those birds love chasing the grasshoppers.  I took loads of photos and this young rooster perked his head up once...beautiful black against the sundown sky.  It was really magnificent!  I painted him as soon as I could.  The painting does not do him or the sunset justice, but it was a delight to do:)  He is listed and for sale in my Etsy store. Just click. 

Gene's Ducks

Gene's Ducks

6x6 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

(SOLD)

When my husband and I moved back to Oklahoma we decided to do some things that we had never tried before....sort of a bucket list!  We always raised cattle on our farms before the ministry called us far away from our farm home in southwest Oklahoma.  So, cattle are not new to us; however, considering some things we thought we would do after moving back to our roots was our decision to raise a few chickens.  I cannot tell anyone enough about this "trip".  We have had some hilarious moments.  We have a neighbor...a bachelor friend...who also raises some chickens....Gene.  He has a beautiful variety of breeds of chickens and roosters.  One day when we visited him I took lots of pictures of roosters, chickens and these wonderful ducks.  Did you know that they will not pose for photographs (lol)!?  I kept following them all over the place.  It was such great fun and I managed to get a few photos to paint. This little painting was one of them.  I placed it in my Etsy store and it disappeared very quickly......Someone else is experiencing the same love for those cute little white ducks as I did.......I would love to invite you to my new Website and Gallery.   

Strawberries and Vintage Blue Glass Creamer Still Life Painting

Strawberries and Vintage Blue Glass Creamer

12x12 Oil Painting on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog.  Usually I'm singing my woes that I cannot find the time to paint, but during the last couple of weeks I've painted very consistently full time.  But, to get them posted is another issue!  Spending a great deal of time in one task always takes from another.  Don't you love strawberries! These strawberries were so huge!  My husband and I ate them within 4 days and literally two of them made a huge helping (lol).  When I buy fruit one of the first things I think of is how beautiful!  How Beautiful!  What a blessing it is to eat beautiful food and then in my case, arrange them so that I can make them last longer by painting them in still lifes!!!!  Even in all the snow and bad weather we have had here in Oklahoma we can go to a market and buy beautiful and delicious fruit to eat!  How blessed we are in this life.  This medium to small sized painting is listed in my Etsy store.  You are invited anytime to take a look here.

Crock Pitcher and Green Onions Still Life Painting

Crock Pitcher and Green Onions

6x8 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

 

We have had such a lovely garden this year.  In spite of all the bad weather and tornados in Oklahoma much of the state has pulled out of a very long drought.  We have gathered lettuce, onions and potatoes for several weeks.  Now we are beginning to get squash.  Ummmmmm.  Love that fresh food!  As I think of how I'm going to prepare these treasures I can't help but think how they would look in a painting as well.  So, I get double pleasure from my veggies.  This painting was such a delight to do.  It is listed in my Etsy shop if interested.  Click here!

Hollyhocks and My Bucket Babies

Pink Hollyhocks

8x8 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Hollyhocks are an old fashioned flower.  Every time my husband and I take a trip to New Mexico I have a desire to have them all over our farm landscape.  This year I planted some from seed in seeding beds.  My sister (who is a wonderful gardener) said that sometimes they are very hard to transplant to the garden from the seedlings, but I think mine are going to make it.  Oklahoma, especially where we live, has such extremes...high wind one day, lots of rain, no rain, very humid, very dry....on and on.  Anyway, I have protected those babies in buckets with the bottoms cut out......until they are very established they will stay in their little "bucket home".  All this to say that I love them.  I love flowers period and I have such a desire to paint every kind of flower.  I have some digital images I took of hollyhocks at our home in Arkansas filed away in my computer.  I took a look at them yesterday.  This one spoke to me and I painted a small 8x8 painting late yesterday and last night.  I am practicing for when my "bucket babies" are grown and I can paint them live.  Until then painting from a picture will satisfy me.  I have this painting for sale in my Etsy shop.  You are welcome to visit there.

Green Pear and Orange Persimmons

 

Orange Persimmons and Green Pear

6x12 Oil on Linen

by

Cheri Wollenberg

 

When I was a child we didn't have "high-tech" tools and toys.  In fact, the year I enrolled in college at Oklahoma State University as a student I was "only an IBM card".  Some readers may know exactly what I'm talking about, but in summary, computers were so large they took up huge rooms in  buildings,  and their information or data was coded on....in this case.....perforated or punched IBM cards or extremely long perforated paper!!!!  If your card was lost....you were lost as a student until they could find the card.  Oh well, to get to my "main" story...losing anyone that might have been interested....persimmons was a mystery to me as a child.  I broke open the seeds and there was a knife and spoon!  I pondered on that a great deal.  In Oklahoma the wild persimmons are small fruit and so bitter it makes your teeth hurt if you should bite into one that is not extremely ripe.  I thought of this as I was painting this little still life!  As noted above, I included the finished product along with the original still life that I painted from although it is very small in the background.  I have more persimmon stories I must share sometime:)  This painting is listed in my Etsy store.  Please visit.

 

Baby Face - Horse Painting

Baby Face

12x12x2 Oil on Cradled Birch Wood Panel

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Baby Face has a fuzzy mane, blazed face, sienna colored coat against a golden to yellow background. He is the first of some baby horse portraits I am planning to paint.  Several years ago I took photographs of a pasture of new baby colts here in central Oklahoma.  They are so curious and playful (chuckle).   So many times they would kick up their heels, run fast and stop and look straight at me as if they were "showing off".  I loved it and I am looking forward to painting this group of babies.  To purchase this horse painting you will need to contact me personally.

Horse Painting - Paint the Midnight Sky

Paint the Midnight Sky

16x20 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

The story about this horse goes back a few years....I was working on my masters degree and I drove to Weatherford, Oklahoma which was about 90 miles from where my husband and I were living at the time.  I, like most artists,...always have my camera with me so that if there is some candid event, subject, or scene that catches my eye I might take a snapshot.  My trip was through beautiful country and farm animals were along the way.  I had noticed this magnificent paint horse at this one farm that I went by and made the decision that I would take his picture when the time was right.  The moment came and I parked my car in the ditch, got my camera out and just about the time I clicked the camera...a Great Dane (an angry Great Dane) dog was running toward me with a young teenage boy screaming for him to stop.  I managed to get to the car and the boy came up to the door and was apologizing to me.......I apologized to him too for not asking permission to take the picture in the first place.  The frightening experience was worth it and I thoroughly enjoyed painting this beautiful creature.  He has one blue eye and one brown eye.  He is listed at my Etsy store.  You can check him out there by clicking Paint:)

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.

Sea Gull Painting

Little Sea Gull

11x14 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

We went to the east coast this summer for a Bible conference in Asheville, North Carolina.  Then we traveled on to North Myrtle Beach and south to Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. We visited the beach on numerous occasions.  I enjoyed the little sea gulls. I'm sure they can be quite annoying to the people who live around the beach, but being from Oklahoma I became entertained by them.  This is one of the first paintings I have done with them as subjects.  This little guy had just shook the water off his back and his feathers were a little ruffled, but I loved the feathers on his head.  He looked like he had a spiked hairdo (laugh).  You can find this painting here.

Brilliant, Yellow Sunflower Bouquet Still Life

Sunflower Bouquet

11x14 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

Brilliant yellow sunflowers are beginning to pop up from the red earth here in Oklahoma.  By the end of July these wildflowers will be in the ditches of country roads everywhere.  Many choose to think of them as a weed of nuisance but they are such beautiful wildflowers.  I love to paint them (as do many artists) in still lifes especially when they are placed with their complementary colors of blues and purples.  This color combination brings a dazzle to my eye and brings a "happy" sense of feeling to my heart:)  To find this still life follow this link.

Blue Hyacinth

Blue Hyacinths

8x10 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

Working in flower beds this spring has taken hours of my time.   I get inspired by the different blooms of bushes and bulbs.  We are only a few official days into spring here, but Oklahoma is having record breaking highs in temperature.  We've had some wonderful rains come quite early and consistent for this time of the year.  The flowering bushes have been blooming for almost two weeks and the aromatic scents of these beauties are intoxicating.  It is a wonderful time for an artist.  These hyacinths inspired me for today's daily painting.  It is listed in my ChatterBoxArt shop on Etsy.