Charmed by Lilacs

 

Lilac Charm, 
10x8" oil on gessoed panel
©Helen Read 

I love lilacs and am so happy each spring when it's time for them to bloom.
Their sweet scent and lovely color is gone all too soon, though... then we wait another year until they return!  The great thing about a painting is that it never fades or wilts!  The colors are vibrant and beautiful year round!  

This lovely painting is available unframed or framed (see below).
All the details are found at my website:
click here.

Below see what this painting looks like when framed, and also what it might look like in a room.

Creatively Uninspired? Here's Help!

 

Inspiration ~
that magical feeling that artists have as they create!

Hold up! Maybe not! …what if “inspiration” is over rated? If you are like me, there are times when inspiration seems illusive, and you find yourself saying things like:

“I don’t know what to create”
“I’m out of ideas”
“I’m not inspired by anything”
“I don’t feel like creating”

That’s when an internal voice entices us to stop and wait for inspiration to arrive with a spark of creativity. I’ve experienced that… and sometimes I still have those feelings crop up. But, I’m learning to get to work in spite of them. Listen to what this well-known composer said:

“I’m inspired about every 5^th day, but I only get to the 5^th day when I show up on the other 4 days.”
~ Tchaikovsky

Inspiration comes to us as we are working. Crazy, isn’t it? It’s rare that inspiration arrives while we are waiting for it. We may have an idea we want to explore, but really, it is as we are working that inspiration truly comes to call. Does that seem surprising?

It comes in the nitty gritty, when we encounter unexpected snags that need a solution. Problems lead to new ideas and new approaches. It’s as we are creating that possibilities begin to flow. On the other hand, procrastination (or waiting for inspiration) usually results in unrealized creativity or unfinished work. What might have propelled us forward is delayed or derailed. (This applies to just about any area of life, doesn’t it?)

I’ve said it before, and I believe it every time I start a new work; Every painting (or sculpture or drawing or piece of music) is an act of faith ~ we are giving substance to what is unseen. I’m finding that by stepping into my creative work regardless of how inspired I may (or may not) feel, inspiration will usually follow!

It may not feel like much is happening for the first 4 days, but wow! exciting possibilities await on the 5^th day! As it turns out, Inspiration is there waiting for us to show up!

Download my FREE Inspiration Tips pdf!  These are three things I use and that you can do right now that will invite inspiration!

©Helen C Read
Photo Credit: Jon Tyson

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Lakeside Sunflower Landscape Painting

 

Lakeside Sunflowers
11x14" oil on canvas 

Visiting the Chicago Botanical Gardens, I was captured by the serenity of this lakeside scene.

Such profusion of color. It was as if each of these sunny flowers had turned their faces toward me nodding in the breeze.

Deep shadows contrasted with the sparkle of sunlight.  A reminder of the abundance and
delight of nature.

 For all the details & pricing on this painting, visit my website. 

 

Shown framed in a black matte wood frame - 3/4" across the face, 1.25" deep
Framed or unframed domestic shipping is included. 

 

Wildflower Landscape in Progress

 Scroll down a bit and you'll see this same landscape done in watercolor.  Using the same reference photo, I'm now working in oil paint.  There are certainly differences because of the medium. 

Here's the progress so far!
It measures 11x14" on stretched canvas.

Waterside Wildflowers

 

Waterside Wildflowers,  5.5x7.5" watercolor on paper
matted in white for 8x10" frame. 

More information on this painting here!  

 Late last summer, I spent a day at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.  It is a beautiful acreage of plant life in all  shapes, sorts and sizes.
This little lake had a profusion of flowers growing wild along the edge.  I'm glad I snapped a photo, because it has come to life once again in watercolor!  

 Ready to ship and hang! 
There is an option for framing.  Check out the link above for all the details. 

St James Wood

 

At the end of a busy and somewhat stressful day, a sketchbook pen and ink landscape study is restful. I love the textures and values that can be found with this medium. St. James Wood ~  pen and ink on watercolor paper.  There's great value in getting thoughts and ideas out with sketchbook studies. 

Eden's Dawn

 

Eden's Dawn, Abstract  18.25 x 24" oil on constructed canvas
©Helen Read 

unframed, painted around sides
(see images below)

 Link for all the information on this abstract painting. 

 

As this painting progressed, the abstraction began to look more and more like a garden to me; a beautifully vibrant and rather untamed garden.  I felt a sense of motion and a bubbling energetic life emerging.  Jewel tones insisted on their brilliance, greens required variegated variety, and an unexpected roiling of color began to unfold from above.  

 

No one knows, of course, what the imagination or hand of God brought into existence at the formation of the first garden. We can imagine, though.  Was it a tidy, orderly formal garden? Or was it something more wild and free, tumbling with abundance, extravagant in color, bursting with energetic life…. beautiful and good, yet untamed and filled with possibilities? 

 

This painting explores that question using color and brush stroke, with an unconventionally constructed canvas.  Experience an idea of Eden’s Dawn.

 

This painting is painted around the sides. No framing needed. The canvas is a constructed canvas, with unfinished edges and fraying becoming part of the composition. The canvas was primed and gessoed prior to painting. 

 

(Detail of the right side of the painting. Highly textured.)

(painted around all 4 sides. Painting is 1" deep)
 

 

 

Herrick Woods

 

Herrick Woods
7x5" - matted in white for 8x10" frame - Watercolor on paper |
shown in a solid wood frame w/cherry finish.
Ready to ship!

The woods holds a sense of wonder for me, particularly when the golden light of autumn filters through leaves just beginning to change.

Nearly every color of the rainbow can be seen for the eye that looks deeply.
This painting is an invitation into the beautiful, jewel tones of God's lovely creation as seen with wonder! 

See all the details on this painting right here!

An Old Canvas - New Ideas

 Years ago, I stretched a canvas by piecing together pieces of canvas, priming it, and giving it several coats of gesso.  I wasn't completely sure where to go with it.  I added a few layers of thin paint and put it aside to think about.  

And it's sat, untouched, ever since. 

This week,  I picked it up again and have been working with a very expressionistic style to create something of interest, incorporating some of the interesting features of a pieced canvas.  

It's still evolving but there is something happening on this canvas now. 

It's still coming together.  I have a few more ideas before it is finalized.
It's been very freeing to work in this uncharted way,
listening as I go... sensing the direction.

Ballerinas

 

Ballerinas,  7x5" Oil on gesso panel
©Helen Read

With a graceful dance in the breeze, these lovely blossoms are some of the first signs that spring is arriving.  They come in an array of shades - yellow to orange - with their lovely green foliage standing tall. 

This painting is ready to frame, or there see the framing option below

See more details here where there is a purchase link.
Domestic shipping included
(IL residents please add 8% sales tax)

April Cheer

 

April Cheer,  12x12" oil on panel

©HelenRead

Spring seems quite delayed this year.  It's been cold and rainy - even a dusting of snow. 

So, I'm painting spring into being!  

Tulips are cheerful in color and shapes, they inspire hope that spring will come!
I'm counting on it!

See all the details on this colorful spring painting right here! 

 

And visit my gallery website for many others!

Win THIS Tiny Oil Painting!

 

Give aways are fun!  Especially when you are  the recipient!

This small original oil painting is my next give away!
It measures 3x3" and is on a rigid canvas panel. It is perfect for display on a tiny easel
or
because it has a magnetic backing, can be affixed to a metal surface 

The brush marks in the paint as well as the canvas surface give it a lovely texture.

I'll be sending this to one of my friends who receive my email each month. All the details about how to enter to win will be in my May note.  OH! -- maybe you'd like to receive that note! 
Not only will you get details about this give-away contest, but I frequently have free art to download, special discounts, as well as fun links and resources for art lovers!  

It's so easy to be included! 

Yes! Include Me!!

For Email Newsletters you can trust.

Don't miss out!  You can never have too many friends!
You'll get my first note in the first week of May! Can't wait to see you then!

Sunflowers in a Blue Jar

 

I've had several requests for this painting, but it was not painted in a saleable format. But, now - it's available as a beautifully printed Giclee print!
Print is 5x7" and matted in white for a 8x10" frame.

 

A Giclee Print is a true to color, professionally printed image on paper that is the same weight and texture as watercolor paper. It's very hard to tell the original from the print! But the pricing on prints is much less than an original painting. I've just posted Sunflowers in a Blue Jar on my website.

 See more on this print here.

This print can be sold matted or
matted and framed.

Trinity

Trinity, 7x5" oil on gesso panel
©Helen C Read

SOLD

It is said that the Iris symbolizes wisdom, hope, trust, and also the Trinity.
 They are a hardy flower, and sometimes bloom in unexpected places.  As a child, living on a ranch in northern Texas, I remember finding a stand of purple iris in bloom in a distant pasture.  It had once been the site of a homestead, now just a chimney remaining, some 40 years or more burned down. Yet, the iris flowers continued to faithfully bloom.  A lovely surprise amidst dust and rocks, scrub and cactus.