The Tallest Palms - Original Oil Painting - 12x12

After yesterday's painting I just wanted to keep painting palm trees. I realized it had been a while and I missed them.

Oil on hardboard, 3/8" thick, 12x12 inches

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Palm Avenue - Carpinteria Landscape Painting - 6x6

I loved painting this one! What a difference a new brush makes! I didn't even realize how destroyed my last one was until I saw what it should look like. I highly recommend these brushes probably the best I've ever used.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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Tangerine Bowl - Still life oil painting - 6x6

This is one of my favorite kitchen towels, the blue stripes match my colander, timer, spatula...and everything else I have in that Martha Stewart blue color that Macy's sells :)

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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The Summer's Hottest Day - Landscape Oil Painting - 12x12

Not a lot to say about this one, I was drawn to this scene because of the dark shadows in the trees, and the shadows on the otherwise very bright green grass. And that blueish building in the distance added a nice break in the green/white/yellow color scheme.

Oil on hardboard panel, 12x12 inches

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The Expressive Avocado - Still Life Oil Painting - 6x6

I thought it would be fun to try a still life using the palette knife... the first photo is the finished painting and the one below it is how I started it out. I had a specific idea of how I wanted it to turn out, and I thought the best way to accomplish that would be by having a pretty good underpainting first. I don't really like leaving parts of the board exposed, and by painting it all in first I didn't have to try to do it with the knife.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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The Large Avocado - Still life oil painting - 10x10

I meant to paint this on one of my 12x12 panels...I didn't even notice I had picked up the wrong size until I tried to put the frame on....ugh.

Oil on hardboard panel, 10x10 inches

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Lake Trees - Palette knife painting - 6x12

This is what I've been trying to get at all week...it's just what I wanted from a knife painting. Getting away from the canvas panels really helped, I thought the canvas texture would be good for this type of painting...but I just don't like it, it gets in my way.

Oil on cradled panel, 3/8" deep, 6x12 inches

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California Sketch - Palette Knife Painting - 6x6

I did another one of these palette knife paintings today, I'm also working on a few other paintings...they'll be up soon. I'm not going to type much today, my wrist is killing me! and I have no idea why!

But if you need a laugh I recommend this post, I laughed so hard I cried and could hardly breath. Amazing.

Oil on canvas panel - 6x6 inches

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Palette Knife Paintings...I forgot it was fun.

It's probably been 6 years since I've done a palette knife painting, but yesterday I saw this painting and it inspired me to try it out again. I just loved how it was sort of representational but abstract at the same time. I loved the broad green color and how juicy the whole thing looked...I could just stare at it forever.

So in response I painted these two pieces, I like the first one a lot more than the second one. But I learned from the second, so it's still successful in my opinion. I have more of an idea of what I want my knife paintings to look like now, I will try again tomorrow.

Oil on canvas panel, 6x6 inches

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Oil on canvas panel, 5x7 inches

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Make Hay While the Sun Shines! Show opening this Saturday

I never really thought about this phrase until I actually saw a hay field...oh make hay! Now if only I could have the same thing happen with phrases like "the bees knees" or "the cats pajamas".

Anyway, two of my paintings are in this show, and the reception is this Saturday :)

Carpinteria Bluffs VI - California Landscape Painting - 11x14

I tried a little bit of a new technique for this one (I have big plans for very different paintings this week) I laid down a really dark base and then wiped out the lighter areas of my composition. I found this technique on this blog post, by an artist named Doug Braithwaite (the blog is written from the perspective of his wife, which I think is really great, sometimes I wish I never had to talk about what I'm painting)

in progress

Oil on hardboard panel, 11x14 inches

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Ps. Clearly Charlie is having a really tough day, he likes to sit right under where I'm painting, and probably gets himself splattered with paint.

Summer Feelings - Daily Painting - 8x8

This was the view from on of the upstairs windows at Grandma's house in South Dakota. I loved how green and summery it was, and how the sun was shining on those bright white buildings.

Oil on panel, 8x8 inches

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Window Shopping - Daily Oil Painting - 5x7

I loved painting this piece, I was instantly attracted to the bright yellow wall and the shadows. This was painted from one of my oldest reference photos, it's been in my "to paint" folder for over a year now. I'm glad I finally got to it.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 5x7 inches

To view this painting in my shop click here

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Wheat Crop in July - Original Landscape Painting - 6x6

It's Zach's birthday today so we're off to the beach! We went for a hike earlier this morning, we were trying to find the great hike that we did a few years ago, but instead we just found a very sunny horrible trail that was filled with bees! We did not bother to finish that hike.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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The Grain Elevator, Sunset - Daily Oil Painting - 6x6

I don't really know what this building does, Zach said it was a grain elevator...so I tried typing that into google... the forth suggestion from google was "grain elevator explosions" so that made it a little more interesting. What I do know is that I loved the sunset reflection on it's metal sides.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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Dakota Cow - Daily Oil Painting by Sharon Schock - 6x6

I don't usually like painting animals, but I figured I couldn't visit South Dakota and not paint a cow. They were shinier than I thought so that part was fun. Also baby cows are the cutest!

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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Steps of the Capitol - Daily Oil Painting by Sharon Schock - 6x6

This is the capitol building in Pierre South Dakota. I feel like I kind of had an ah-ha moment with this piece...I'm not going to say any more about it, it was something so obvious that I'm embarrassed I hadn't tried it before. But I'm glad I finally did because I'm really happy with how this painting turned out.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

To view this painting in my shop click here

Eureka South Dakota - Landscape Oil Painting - 6x12

I loved this view so much when were driving past it that I made poor Zach drive us all the way back to the house to get my camera. It was worth it though, those pictures turned out to be the best ones. I love the long shadows created when the sun is setting.

Oil on 3/4 inch cradled panel, 6x12 inches

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Colorado Rockies - Daily Landscape Painting - 8x8

Clouds are a bit tricky to me, I used to be really good at them, but they also turned out super realistic and that's not really what I want. I guess I'll just keep painting, and hope I figure it out.

Oil on panel, 8x8 inches

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Plains in Wyoming - Daily Landscape Painting - 6x6

We had been driving through grasslands for so long that these buttes (is that what they're called?) were a welcome change in scenery. I don't know why I chose to paint them first... I'm a little overwhelmed with ideas at the moment, but I guess that's a good thing.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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Regroup!

It's my first day back to work after our trip, I can't believe we were hardly gone a week, it feels like so much longer! I saw 4 new states, both Dakotas, Nebraska, and Wyoming...lots of wheat, and corn, antelope, deer, barns, and cows. I'm looking through my photos, lots to paint! I'm excited.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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Me and Zach in front of Mt. Rushmore...my eyes look tired and that's how I felt too :)

Zach being the 5th face of the mountain, he cracks me up.

The Lonely Lifeguard Tower - Carpinteria Beach Oil Painting - 6x6

The rain kept on, so this photo isn't great either. It's not even rain, it's just enough drizzle that I can't set a painting down. I've painted this lifeguard tower before, but in a group of three, I think I like this simpler one a little better.

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6x6 inches

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Carpinteria Bluffs V - California Daily Landscape Painting - 5x7

Happy 4th everyone!


I couldn't get a very good shot of this one, it was raining outside so my options were kind of limited. In person I was really happy with it though :)

We're still in Eureka, it's kind of like another country here. We ran the 5K around the lake yesterday and instead of giving us bananas or oranges at the end, they gave us kuchen....I think that's how you spell it anyway...I don't even know how to describe it, but it's huge here, along with lots of other foods I've never heard of. Right now I'm in the library...the cleanest cutest library I've ever seen. Every book looks like it's in perfect condition and none of them even have plastic covers, the children's section is perfectly organized, and right now the librarian is typing out the cards for the card catalogue...I haven't seen one of those in forever!

I'm very excited to get back home and paint some of what I've seen around here...I'm glad I didn't bring my paints with me, I'd probably die if I tried to sit outside and paint, it's SO hot!

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 5x7 inches

To view this item in my shop click here

Avocado and Purple - Still life oil painting - 8x8

Today we're driving to South Dakota, we left at 6 this morning and right now we're in a little town called Valentine in Nebraska. So far it's greener over here than I expected, way better than driving through Utah and Nevada! I think we have another 4 hours before we get to Eureka SD. Oh and we saw a reindeer!

Oil on panel, 8x8 inches, 3/8" thick

SOLD