Brande Arno Art

Corina's Purple Cheetah 9 x 12 inches, Oil on Board I received this request over the summer.  My granddaughter, Corina has been in love with the color purple since she could say the word.  Needless to say, when it came time to paint her the requested Cheetah, it had to be purple or so I thought.  But what she wanted was a regular Cheetah with purple spots.  Oops.   Well, I sent her this digital and she loves it.  I'm so happy because I don't want to change a thing about this piece.  Process photos below:     Looks like a cartoon here, but better work is yet to come.  However, I did want to keep the Cheetah on the whimsical side...after all, it's purple!   A little more realistic, yet not too realistic.  Looks kinda sad.     The purple Cheetah is finished, whimsical, making eye contact and will be celebrating Corina's 13th birthday with her,  a week from tomorrow.   

"Cow Bossie" Sold 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Board This is from a photo I snapped on the way back from an errand a few days ago.  The cow in this painting was, in real life, standing behind a few bovine ladies that were lounging.  I tried to include one of them when I started this piece, but found I had to scrape that attempt away.     Scraping away hours of work never gets easier and I should have learned by now to scrape sooner instead of later.   I'm going to try my hand at painting a whimsical purple Cheetah for my granddaughter's 13th birthday. 

Flying to the Halloween Ball- Sold 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Board I thought it would be cool to paint a pair of Big Bottomed in costume ready to go to the Halloween Ball.  The piece will be up for auction at www.dailypaintworks.com     I'm not a big fan of slasher, dark Halloween, but I do enjoy opening my door that night and seeing children all dressed up for trick or treating.   Especially the toddlers and pre-k group.  So cute.   

Shade Bathers Challenge 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Board This is my entry into the Daily Paintworks weekly challenge which is to paint the shade instead of the sun with beach goers.  I'm pleased with this entry because it doesn't copy the photo that we were to use and I'm happy with the suggestion of muscle tone I was able to capture.  Below is the photo:       

Cotton Dandy  Sold Private Collector 5 x 5 inches, oil on board, Big Bottomed Bees Series This is another piece of my series of Big Bottomed Bees. I really enjoy painting Big Bottoms especially when they demand to wear their heels and bags.  In this piece, they also wanted to have a cotton candy feeling so that was worked into the mix also.  They will be available in an auction at www.dailypaintworks.com 

Little Spotted Goat 5 x 5 inches, Oil on Board, Sold This Pygmy goat's name is Godiva. She was just so cute...  a little chubby love-bug and I want one just like her.  She and her sister were at a neighborhood outdoor fall bazaar that I also set up a spot to sell my homemade doughnuts.   I could hear them bleating before I spotted them.  Well I had to get my sketchbook to draw at least one.  Thankfully, my car wasn't that far away and I was able to sketch Godiva before it got too busy.  I wish I could report that this painting is from that sketch, but I also had my cell phone and took 3 pictures.  I can report that it's a combination of both photo and sketch.     

Forgotten Little Shed Oil on Board, 5 x 5 inches   I drive my Mom to Memory Care three days a week.  The drive is about 15 minutes and we take the scenic route.  I've been telling myself that I'm going to do a little Plein Air painting on the way back.  Well today I did it and I'm so happy I did.   I hope that we get our strong autumn sunshine back next week as there are some trees I want to capture next week.  Have a great weekend everyone! 

The Escape Artists Big Bottomed Bees, 4 x 4 inches Oil on Board, Sold This is another commissioned BBBs.  The patron wanted a pair of BBBs flying away with a Sunflower, which is her favorite flower.  So I must say, the first attempt was a scraper and I approached it again today with a bit of fear.  I'm so glad it turned out better than I thought it could.   I love painting Big Bottomed Bees.  I'm off to paint another one for auction at Daily Paintworks.  I'll post it when I'm finished.

Sea Gull's Close Up 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Board This is my entry for this week's Daily Paintworks challenge.  A photo of a run-around Gull was snapped and posted as the muse.  I'm almost happy with this, I see things that went wrong, but if I want to have something to post, I need to let it lie as it is.  There is so much I want to be able to do with brush and pigment that I cannot do.  But I'm going to keep trying.   

Big-Bottomed Bees, 4 x 4 inches, oil on board Melissa's Commission painting one As you can see, I like taking commissions for painting Big-Bottomed Bees.  They are whimsical and can be dressed for shopping, happy hour at the hive, but always they have fun with each other and along with the initials BBB's they are also BFF's.   They are not ashamed of their Big-Bottoms, they have them and they just think of the song, Big-Bottomed Girls you make the world go round.  Below is Melissa's second commissioned piece.  Melissa's Big-Bottomed Bees second commission 4 x 4 inches, oil on board.   She will give one of these pieces for her sister to purchase.  Melissa, tell family and friends and all of you who would like your very own Big-Bottomed Bee commissioned piece, just email me at artistbrande@msn.com .  Prices are very reasonable.   About once weekly, I try to get a new BBB piece to www.dailypaintworks.com  for auction. I will say the BBB will be

Sally Oil on Board, 5 x 5 inches   This piece went through quite a bit of changes and I'm just glad it didn't turn out to be a scrapper.  Of course there is cracked corn and I would be more than corny to add any more to the title of this piece, because I do care!  So does Sally.

Oil on Board, 4 x 4 inches www.dailypaintworks.com to bid   Today, my studio is a bit of a mess.  I'm getting ready for my one and only outdoor art show where I bring about 25 pieces of work and my complete tent set up.  A lot of work, but I have patrons who visit me at this show to select another Brande Arno original for their collection.  I'm so thankful for them.   I wanted to create another Big Bottomed Bee painting.  As I was working on this, they took on the look of snow angels.  Remember falling on your back in the snow and moving your legs and feet make an angel impression in the snow.  Well these guys are doing the same.   I'm not pushing snow or anything like that!

Light Bulb Challenge 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Board   Who would paint a light bulb?  I would, especially if it's a challenge designed by Artist, Carol Marine.  I've been trying to create a painting on a regular basis as a result of meeting a weekly challenge offered by DPW.   I cannot put into words how bad I felt yesterday as I tried and tried to paint a soft white bulb.  I had three scrapers and one start that did not look too promising at the end of my studio day.  I just about cried, but instead sipped on a bit of Irish Cream Whiskey.  Medicinal purposes!   Today, I decided to not let this get to me.  This is the result.  Not good enough, but good enough.  Only you artists can make sense of that last sentence.  It's AKA quit while you're ahead.   I so want to capture color and light better than I am doing now.  This will be a goal for me in 2013 and if it gets better before then, I'll have a reason to sip more Irish Cream Whiskey to celebrate.