Sundancers

Sundancers, 7.5x5.5" watercolor on paper
matted in white - ready to fit an 8x10"  frame

(Framed option shown)
Take the decisions and waiting time out of framing,
Frame with a simple black contemporary style wooden frame.

Sunflowers!  They do seem to dance and sway in the summer sunlight!  They are the icon of summertime!  I love the deep golden color and the way they follow the light!  This watercolor painting is matted in white, and it has an option for framing.  

Please visit my website for pricing, purchase link, and frame options.

 (Domestic shipping is included, IL residents please add 8% sales tax.)

The Tunkhannock Viaduct

 

Tunkhannock Viaduct, 9x12" Oil on canvas
© Helen Read

framed in cherry frame - ready to hang
(Domestic shipping included, IL residents please add 8% sales tax)

In this painting, I hoped to capture the grandeur of a landscape with man-made architecture in it. The lighting and the magnificence of the structure were of equal interest to my eye.  I happened, very unexpectedly, upon this scene traveling through northeastern PA - and was completely captured by the beauty of craftsmanship and God's beautiful creation!  

 

Please click here to visit my website with all the details about pricing and framing.

Green Glade - oil pastel

 

Green Glade, 6x8" Oil pastel on paper

© Helen Read    
Matted in white for a 9x12" frame

A framed option  is available as well.

(domestic shipping included,  IL residents please add 8% sales tax)

Oil pastel is a beautiful medium!  And though I don't work in it frequently, this painting has such a wonderful mysterious sense of the woodland.  It is sold matted, either framed or unframed.  It's one of my favorites! 

Please visit my website for more details on this painting, pricing and framing options.

Elm Grove

Elm Grove,  14x18" oil on canvas

 ©Helen Read

Domestic shipping included,  IL residents please add 8% sales tax

ready to frame

Please visit this link for full details and pricing. 

The beauty of spring in the midwest is especially stunning after a long cold winter of gray upon gray.  Within a few weeks, everything bursts into color and song!  This little glimpse is just around the corner in my neighborhood.  The ordinary becomes extraordinary!  Colorful light gives a cast of beauty to all it touches! 

  Visit my website for more colorful vistas! 

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Text the word HELEN to 22828 and you are in!  I look forward to communicating with my friends and hearing from you, too .... Join us! It's easy!  :)  

Today's Featured Painting! Summer Scents

 

Summer Scents (peonies),  7x5" oil on gesso board
©Helen Read

Framed option available - contemporary black wooden frame

approx 1" deep and 3/4" across the face
(ready to hang!)

 

Domestic shipping included.   IL residents please add 8% sales tax.  

 

SOLD

What speaks the lazy days of summer as much as a casual bouquet of peonies in an old fashioned mason jar?

These pink and white beauties are have such sweet aroma and that lovely pop of color, set against the beautiful blue of a country window and shutter.  I love the sense of calm serenity they give.

Perhaps they speak that kind of serenity to your heart.

Swedish Birches

 Swedish Birches,  matted in white to fit a 11x14" frame
oil pastel painting on illustration board
©Helen Read 

Unframed option - comes matted and ready to frame

Framed option - in 11x14" wooden frame (cherry finish) w/plexiglass

Domestic shipping is included, IL residents please add 8% sales tax.

Please visit this link for all the details, pricing, and framing option. 

Oil pastel is a beautiful medium for painting!  It's blendable, yet it shows expressive stroke marks.
This pastoral scene captures a Swedish countryside with a stand of young birches and wispy grasses in the foreground. Softly muted colors and a sense of minimalism that so is often expressed in Scandinavian design is exactly what this painting speaks to the viewer!  

It is shipped either ready to frame in a standard 11x14" frame, or framed in a simply beautiful wooden frame (1" deep x 3/4" across the face). 

A Virtual Studio Visit! Summer Cathedral

Summer Cathedral
20x16" oil on canvas
(ready to frame - or - with a frame option) 

©Helen Read
Please visit here for more details about this painting!

 

Vibrant Landscape - Experimenting with color combinations

 

Color....  I seem to always be chasing more interesting color combinations and how they relate to one another.  I'm working with oil pastels to try some new combinations... to see the atmosphere they create.  In this experiment - I was working with warm and cool combinations - juxtaposed next to one another...  I like the sense mystery that has resulted.  

If you look closely, there are subtle juxtapositions - warm colors that have a leaning toward cool.  Cool colors that learn toward warm.  And also, value shifts that are intriguing.  

Experimenting and working with known variables in a new way is an important part of discovery. 

What's next for this??  Possibly a full sized oil painting will come from
these color combinations.

Bluebell in Bloom

Bluebells in Bloom, 5x7" watercolor on paper
matted in white for 8x10" frame
©Helen Read

Magical, don't you think?  Sunlight filters through leaves of golden green, floating on a sea of blue. 
To me, there is magic in the woods!  And bluebells add their glory! 
What a gift given to the one who will stop and see! 

Ready to frame
(domestic shipping included - IL residents please add 8% sales tax) 

Please visit my website for details and pricing on this painting.

Peonies and Lavender

 

Peonies and Lavender,  5x7" watercolor on paper
matted in white and ready to put into a 8x10" frame
©2021 Helen Read

(Domestic Shipping is included,
IL residents please add 8% sales tax)

Please visit my website for details, pricing, and framing option for this painting. 

Peonies and Lavender has a loose and more watery approach. They bring an interesting color into the space where the bright flowers are not.  These bright pink peonies flow with liquid color! A touch of lavender gives additional visual interest.

 

Floral in Blue Jar

 

Floral in Blue Jar, 
7x5" watercolor on paper
matted in white and ready for a 8x10" frame
©2021 Helen Read

(domestic shipping included,
IL residents please add 8% sales tax)

Floral in a Blue Jar was done with a combination of watercolor and ink. The ink and soft colors create the sense of a charming bygone era. The summery colors are offset by the transparent blue jar, with some shadow notes of lavender.  This lovely still life is ready to slip into a frame and hang! 

Please visit my website for details about this painting, pricing, and a framing option. 

Woodsy Pathway

 Looking ahead to a watercolor workshop I'll be doing this fall, I'm experimenting with watercolor landscape ideas.  Today's effort ~ this woodsy scene with spring greens and a lavender bloom.  I'm not sure, yet, if this is the one we'll use... but I like the sense of it and actually think it would be fun to walk that path!   

Summer Scents!

 

Summer Scents
© Helen Read
7x5" Oil on gesso panel

Available framed in a black wooden frame - 1.5" deep and .75" across the face
or unframed
(pricing includes domestic shipping.  IL residents please add 8% sales tax.)

Sold

Yes, Please! More Peonies!

 Peony Blossom ~ Perfect Beauty
© Helen Read
7x5" Oil on gesso panel

Available framed in black wood - 1..5" deep, .75" across the face)

Or, sold unframed

(domestic shipping included in pricing, IL residents - please add 8% sales tax) 

Please click here for more information and a purchase link.  

Why buy art framed?  All the guess work is taken out - when you receive your painting, it is ready to hang!  This saves time and allows you to put your beautiful painting on the wall
immediately!  The frame that is included is a solid, well made wooden frame which accents and protects the painting perfectly!