Brande Arno Art

"Waiting for My Turn" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard Sold - Thank You It's been a while since I painted a Chickadee and now, I'm hoping to warm up my skills to paint a Blue Jay. We have a pair of them that visit our feeder.   At the feeder, I change my offerings from only black oil sunflower seeds in the winter, to a blend of seed, fruit and nuts in the summer. You probably think it should be the other way around, but the Chickadees need the former in the winter to survive and in the winter, it's all about those little birdies.  They do play nice at the feeder with everyone else too. 

"Spots" 6 x 6 inches, oil on gessoboard Click to Bid This little owl was painted for one of the Daily Paintwork's weekly challenge.  

"Memory Patch" 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Board I've been noticing tall weedy grasses peering from the dramatic and dark backdrops cast by shade trees.  The combination makes for a great painting and I've told myself several times as I drive by, you can paint that from memory.  So today, I did.

"Retro Daisies No. 3" 5 x 5 inches, Oil on Board- $ 55. Buy on Etsy Not able to paint at all last week.  Looks like it will be difficult to paint for the beginning of this week also.  At least I can say I enjoyed a wonderful week with my granddaughter.  My world is better when she visits.

"Retro Daisies No. 2" 5 x 5 inches, Oil on gesso board Buy now on Etsy I'm on a Daisy roll.  I've found them to be a lot of fun to paint with the palette knife.  I'm looking to achieve a whimsical and impressionistic rendering of them.  I love the decorating style of the late 50 - 60's and if I was younger with lots of energy, I'd change my home decor to reflect it.

"Retro Daisies" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gesso board Buy on Etsy Sometimes you just need to paint daisies. I was a teenager in the later part of the 1960s.  It was a fun time to be young.  Not like the times we live in now.  My generation was the grovin', flower child, all you need is love generation.  We had the 5th Dimension singing "Aquarius", The Association singing "Cherish".  We had short skirts and long hair and I was sent to the Principal's office for laughing loudly in the bathroom.    I painted these and two other Retro Daisy paintings because I often miss the 60's.  Yesterday, I really missed the 60's and I'm sorry, so sorry that Airplanes can be shot down from the heavens.    

Mouse Mugger, Party Hat & Swiss 4 x 4 inches, oil on board - Sold This little happy mouse will be offered on ebay as my entry for the July NibbleFest Art Contest which starts at the 20th of each month.  The link will go live at 6 am that day PST.   In case you don't know the theme, its animals wearing hats .  Also all NFAC paintings start at just .99 cents!

Introducing "Heavy Petal No 2" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Board Sold Learning so much about painting florals just from painting this series of garden daisies.  When you decide to have throw caution to the wind...and ease up on what you already know, so much learning can happen.

"Heavy Petal, Daisies" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Board The trouble with painting flowers is keeping it loose and fresh.  Daisies especially, because they can get looking like piano keys pretty quickly.  When I was in my 20's...not going to say what decade that was...but in the local art group I was a member of, was a wonderful floral painter.  I was so mesmerized with her finished work.  What I remember was a variety of brushwork describing the bloom and a wonderful greyed down background in a variety of color to set off the flowers.  But it was the technique of her brushwork.  Something she could have told me how to do, even standing right there with me and I still couldn't do.  Because that was unique to her hand.  Can't teach that.  

"July's Daisies" 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Board  $ 120.   Click to Buy I've been working at creating this painting longer than I thought.  Florals are deceptively difficult to capture in paint.  I'm sure if I painted more flowers, I'd have a better plan of attack.  Anyway, the daisies are from my daisy patch, which is bursting with blooms.  

"A Spot of Lavender" 5 x 5 inches, Oil on Board  $40.   Buy on etsy If I had to pick a favorite in the flowering herb world, hands down it would be Lavender.  I love the way it smells and looks.  I tried to grow my own without success.  I might try it again, buying more plants and putting more effort into their care. I decided to paint Lavender yesterday and would have posted if I could have gotten a proper photo.  This morning the light was right.

"Mouse Mugger No. 7" Oil on Board 4 x 4 inches- Sold Another daily Painting, another mouse.  I had some struggles with painting today which keeps me humble and sometimes crying.

"Mouse Mugger No. 6"  Oil on Board 4 x 4 inches, $ 45.   Buy on etsy Looks like I'll be painting more than one mouse this week.  I don't know who's more surprised, Mugger no. 6 or me!