Winter Love

 nfdp

Bird with Ribbon #1 - Debbie Miller

mixed media on watercolor paper

Wait, what?  a watercolor! 
Yup.  I actually did 3 of my favorite little backyard bird, the Junco.  So cute. 
This is the first -  for some unknown reason I always draw birds with ribbons  - seriously ALWAYS.
There is no explaining this.  It just happens.  The branches - yeah, they just happen too. 

As soon as I get more ink and get my nice printer and ETSY shop up and running again, I'll offer these up as prints.  I feel more of these coming along.

Snowy Owl #6 -30/30 Debbie Miller

6"x8" oil on panel  Click HERE to Purchase

This might be due to the large amounts of football watched this weekend but  ALL I can think of when  looking at this Snowy Owl #6 is "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field"

 Said mimicking that great NFL films voice of course.

It wasn't all football all the time though - I did manage some studio time, The Downton Abbey Premier and traveled up to Boston to drop off paintings at The Copley Society of Art for The New Member Show. 

Snowy Owl #1 - 30/30 challenge, Debbie Miller

6"x6" oil on wood panel

Happy New Year Everyone!

Jumping right into things here.  The goals are set - complete with deadlines - because without a deadline, goals just float around in the abyss mocking me with their elusiveness.   Must. Make. Deadlines.

Helping me out with the goals of "regular studio hours", "painting ALOT if not daily" "exploring ideas that have been stewing"  ...I decided to join up with Leslie Saeta and tackle 30 paintings in 30 days.  No Biggie, right? I've done it before - just not lately.

Subject matter - birds.  The bird thing has been brewing for a while - more on this later - So this seems like a good time to explore.  These 30/30 paintings will be little and available through me - not my usual gallery stuff, although don't worry I'll be posting those here too.  I'm starting off with oils but other media will be popping up too.  

If you want to purchase this click on the button below
If you want to see who else is doing the 30/30 challenge go HERE

Barn Swallows - Debbie Miller

30x30 oil on panel  NFS
  Lately Ive been all over the place - going from one thing to the next, trying to figure out what it is I want to paint ...or DO for that matter.
  It happens. 

So what do you do when this occurs?  Taking a break helps, a change of scenery helps
 But then keep going,  and keep doing.
Or in my case keep painting.

Painting is the one thing that I know I WANT to do - its the 'what kind of painter' that Ive been struggling with. 
Sometimes after pushing through something good comes of it - a spark of an idea that excites. 
This painting is that for me  - this is something I can get excited about right now.
Rock on.

Here it is in its new home - my mothers blue living room.  Btw - how cool is it that my Mom had the guts to paint her room this color??
 Still needs a frame (something simple) but it sings against those walls AND my mother loves barn swallows so we're all happy

The idea came from the pink bird painting that was on the cover of last months House Beautiful, tried to find the artist but it didnt give one.

Hello - daily painting,children,birds,oil painting

6x6 oil - do you doodle? this is one of mine, done with paint. always always doodle faces

Lovely - daily painting , floral still life

6x6" oil on masonite panel. Lovely. Ha! it is soooo not lovely here in the N.E. today! i'm ignoring it. I'm going to paint spring and summer in my basement studio for the next 2 days and forget all about this snow....plus I'm on a roll, might as well keep it going (secretly shooting for 100 in a row...shhh.)

Winter - my first encaustic!

6x5.5" encaustic,collage,oil

My first encaustic! - encaustic is painting with hot wax. - and man, is it different than what I normally do - totally out of my comfort zone! But completely fun and addicting. ---ooh the layers and depth! its completely freeing. Ive been waiting to use this stack of old childrens book pages too.

Wood Duck

6x6" oil on masonite sold

Spring Birds

6x6" oil on masonite
spring is slow to come around here, but the subtle signs are out there. Walking my dog in the morning, its usually quiet, not anymore - the birds are making a racket, singing,chirping. love it.



I entered these 2 paintings in the Art League RI Associate Members Show at Gallery 297 in Bristol RI and both got in!! The opening is Sunday from 1-3 , come by and say Hi. I just got back from helping to hang the show and it looks great.

Spring Contained

6x8" oil on masonite

My son Teddy is like me (and many others in my family ) a nature lover. He knows tons about animals and birds, he's constantly filling up buckets with small creatures he finds, he's got a 'bird sketchbook' he's been working on and is trying to turn our house into a 'nature lab'-like the one at RISD which we love to visit. This is one of his finds - a little chickadee nest he found after a wind storm - (fyi-its illegal to take a nest out of a tree or bush, this one was on our driveway).

He's upgraded his presentation from old salsa jars to my wedding china and a handblown glass cloche, an idea he stole directly from my mother whose got another bigger nest he found displayed the same way. So the question is...if he's 'nature boy' does that make me 'Mother Nature'???

Two Turtle Doves

6x6" oil on masonite
I love vintage cards and have a bunch. Recently my mother gave me a few more and one little cutie inspired this painting. I had big dreams of doing a different painting of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Two Turtle Doves might be as far as I get. I pretty much crossed this project right off my holiday 2do list...what was I thinking???