Brande Arno Art

4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard  - $ 75. Purchase This being a foreshortened pose made it difficult to paint the depth.  Especially the cute face.  Had to set it just right on that cute fat little body. 

6 x 6 inches, Oil on Gessoboard Sold - Thank You! Still have the cuteness bug running the studio.  I may never get serious again.  I love cute animals and  I think piglets are second only to puppies in the cuteness scale.  Really enjoyed painting this piglet.

4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard  Sold - Thank you! Was in the mood to paint something cute today. 

4 x 4 inches - NFAC Nibblefest Art Contest Sold This little piece was painted today for the Nibblefest Art Contest and like always, starts on the 20th of the month and bidding starts at only .99 cents.  I probably over did it eating tea biscuits while painting this.

12 x 16 inches, Oil on Gessoboard, - Sold My good friend and I were on our way to a grocery shopping trip when she spied this hay field.  The freshly bundled hay bales announcing a hard day of work for a local farmer.  I asked her to pull over so I could get a few pictures. She not only pulled over, but she wanted to commission me to do a painting of said field.  I enjoyed every minute of this painting.  The bales are more stagnant in real life, so I had to change that up a bit for the composition's sake.  My friend is rather literal, so I didn't have as much creative license in the composition area.  But I had fun with mixing color and brushwork, which I think comes through in this piece.

9 x 12 Inches, Oil on Gessoboard - Sold - Thank you! These trees live in my side yard.  In fact, every time I hang laundry on the clothesline, I look right at them and more times than not think, what a nice painting they'd make.  So finally, I got around to painting them. An artist has to be crazy to paint so much green.  I don't remember where (or from who) I first heard: "If I wasn't crazy, I'd be nuts"   But saying just that applies here.  Really, green can make any artist go crazy because it's second only to orange in the garish and unruly color category.  'Nary a time to use it straight from the tube. No, an artist must mix their greens.  And don't think mixing blue and yellow will get you a nice shade of green.  No, it's NOT that easy.  But, I took on the challenge of green and if you knew how much grey is in the green grass and how much green is in the grey trees... Well let's just say they are very closely related.  ...

8 x 8 inches, Oil on Gessoboard -NFS There is a lot of imagination in this piece as the most of it is memory painting.  I let the painting take me in a direction I usually don't go with colors.  I enjoyed every minute of painting today and I highly recommend the practice of memory/imagination painting to my artist buddies.

5 x 5 inches, Oil on Gessoboard - $ 75. Click to Buy I'm building a website and have been a little behind with my paintings. It has given me time to re-think what I'm doing as an artist.  I'm leaning towards painting larger studio pieces and plein air one day a week.  Nature and I are a good match because plein air painting really soothes me, even though the challenges are much different than studio painting. I'm also thinking of keeping a pen and wash journal sketchbook and draw random things around the house, to include Cooper & Cookie...my special doggies.  So, there should be more variety in my postings. 

5 x 5 inches, Oil on Gessoboard-  Click to Bid The painting above is my second attempt at painting a hummingbird for the Daily Paintworks weekly challenge.  The first is below.  There is so much that is different between the two paintings, even though they were both painted by me today and from the same photo source . So what happened to make them so different?  The top hummingbird is painted with colors I premixed all at once, before I began painting.  The hummingbird below was painted with the mix as you go method.   5 x 5 inches, Oil on Gessoboard  Click to Bid I like the second hummingbird painting better because it has more power in the brushwork and bold, fresh color.   I'm finding I like premixing colors before starting to paint because I can compare values right there and then.  But this does change my style as you can see. Which hummingbird do you like better?

5 x 7 inches, Oil on Gessoboard - Sold Looking at Daily Otter again, I found this sweetheart.  An Asian Otter who is just adorable.  I enjoyed every minute creating this painting.  In-process  here

4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard - $ 45.   Etsy Shop When I look at this painting, I feel like my style might be changing.  Not sure yet but I do know I'm having fun getting color combinations I didn't think existed.  Not bold color but subtle color variances.   The weather is exceptionally cold and will be through next week.  All the birds are puffing up their feathers so they can stay warm.  On a day like today (2 degrees), the feeders get refilled twice.  My two doggies (Cooper & Cookie) get their thick sweaters on before bathroom trips and paws wiped as soon as we get back inside.  Then they hang at the wood stove while I get their potty treats.  

5 x 5 inches, Oil on Gessoboard - $ 75. Click to Buy This groundhog enjoyed corn on the cob, a photo-op and lots of fanfare the day before Groundhog Day 2014.  On that day, a $ 40000. grant from the Investor's Bank was given to the zoo that cared for him and his family  But... On Groundhog Day 2014, during the photo opportunity with Mayor Bill deBlasio, the poor little creature wriggled out of the mayor's grip and fell about six feet.  But even though the groundhog hit head first, it righted itself, saw it's shadow, then scurried off to the safety of it's shelter.  But... One week later, that groundhog died of internal injuries.  This information was kept from the public and the mayor by the Zoo, until January 2015.  Also revealed was the fact that Staten Island Chuck was really a Charlotte.   Sometimes, things like this have to happen so that they don't happen again.

2015 Punxsutawney Phil, 6 x 6 inches, Oil on Gessoboard  $ 75.  Etsy Shop OK, so Phil saw another 6 weeks.  Here is New York, we'll still have snow through most of April, now matter what he see's or doesn't see.  Although Phil has a following in Punxsutawney, PA - other groundhogs from all over the grand USA have their 5 minutes of fame.   Two that come to mind right away are Atlanta, GA and NY City.  Tragically, NYC Mayor DeBlasio, actually dropped the 2014 groundhog and that accident resulted in the groundhog's death.  So, this year DeBlasio is not allowed to hold the groundhog. I might start a groundhog series, because there are really good pictures in the Internet to work from.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard- sold It's been a long time since a painted a Big Bottomed Bee.  But I had a request from a patron and of course I said yes.  I enjoyed painting this piece, it was a great way to end the work week.

  2 x 2 inches, Acrylic on Canvas- $ 15. Buy on Etsy   Decided to just have some fun in the studio for Valentine's Day.  I know that I'm not alone to say this holiday can be very painful for some.  I've had my years of tears with Valentine's Day.  But not anymore, thanks to my husband of 25 years.   As a child though, I have a wonderful memory of my dad using this holiday as a value in purchasing lesson.  You see, his barbershop was in a small shopping center with a drugstore as a neighboring business.    When I was about 8 years old, we walked inside to see the Valentine chocolate boxes.  Oh, those cellophane wrapped red velvet hearts!  Big and small, some with ribbon and plastic flowers, some were pink and lace around the edges.  Normally, he'd come home on Valentine's Day with a smaller red heart box.  What would be different this year, is I could pick what I wanted...but   To get any of t...

"Amare" 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Gessoboard Sold - Thank you. Amare is finally finished. Me to Amare's pet mom: "Oh what a beautiful cat!  I've never seen a cat like yours...I just have to paint him" That came right out of my mouth just as I was thinking it. Amare is a beautiful cat, but painting his portrait, even with great photography would not be easy for two reasons: 1.  He's all black and therefore very hard to see and paint enough contrast to show his bone structure. 2.  He has very thick and long fur, which creates the same problem for seeing bone structure. All you artists reading this know just how hard it is to paint "form" when you can't see cast shadows or enough of a value range.  Items look flat.  Deep down inside my artist soul, I was up for a challenge.  I was challenged.  The Amare muse and me wrestled for almost three days to include scraping off  and trying another time more than once.  I think I got...

"Teenage Dreamland Sheep" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard, Sold This is one strange sheep, in a strange environment, but I think the two strange elements work well together for a painting.  I hope to paint the Daily Paintworks "Roses" challenge.  What better week to paint roses than mother's day week.

"A Pair" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard Buy on Etsy   This piece is a little more colorful than usual for me.  Maybe I still have some anesthesia in the brain.  I love the stuff they give IV just before they roll you in the Operating Room.  I ponder how these anesthesiologist's stay sober.  What a temptation they face every day.  They are special gifts to mankind and most of them are humble. One of the two that worked with me carried a backpack.  It does not hold books.  But it does hold the tools of his trade, serious drugs. I'm going to be 61 later this month.  I'm the Baby-Boomer generation and it's hard to see my generation retiring and being replaced by thirty-something docs, but this fellow looked to be all of 24.  When I first met him, he looked like the hippies I grew up with... the long hair, full face beard and otherwise 1st year med student demeanor brought me to the conclusion he's way too young to be taking c...

"Buddy-Boy" 4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard  $ 45.   Buy on Etsy I think mice are cute and I had a crush on them and bunnies as a kid.  I was fixated on drawing them when I should have been listening to the teacher.  Gosh, that was before my parents got color TV!  Well, we had indoor plumbing and ashtrays.  Anyway,  Buddy-Boy was painted to be on the short list of awe-cute mice and I kindled an old flame.    

Hummingbird in Amethyst, 4 x 4 inches Oil on Board  Sold - Thank you It's been too long since I've been in the studio again.  But decided to paint a hummingbird to celebrate warmer weather.  Everyone loves purple and hummingbirds.  Tomorrow's temps are going to be in the 60's.  Might have to plant my peas.