Allusions of Grandeur

"Allusions of Grandeur" oil 6"x 8"
My niece and nephew commissioned this acorn painting for my sister for Christmas. It is a companion piece to the "Pine with Cone" I did for her earlier.

Karin Jurick Challenge...Portrait Exchange

At the end of each year Karin Jurick has a portrait exchange for her blog followers. 180 people are participating this year. Very fun to see what everyone paints. This is the portrait I created from the photo reference at the right. You can see the others on Karin's blog

Watercolor Show at Palm Desert Visitor Center

The Coachella Valley Watercolor Society show at the Palm Desert Visitor Center had a great opening reception December 7th despite torrential rains. The show features 10 top award-winning CVWS members. The City of Palm Desert, CA heavily promotes their juried Community Gallery and provided lovely refreshments. The Visitor Center is such a beautiful location for a show and is very well-staffed. Show runs until Jan 24, 2010.
Visit the Community Gallery site to see all the artists' work
http://www.palm-desert.org/arts-culture/public-art/community-gallery

Karin Jurick Challenge...Sounds of Silence

Here is this month's Karin Jurick challenge. Her photo was of travelers at an airport. The pattern of the floor reminded me so much of my piano that I had to move them to the keyboard. Since they seemed to be so separate and uncommunicative I named this "Sounds of Silence" 9" x 12" watercolor on 300# arches

Raindrops on Roses

Another great find on one of my evening sunset walks. I see a painting in the near future.

Starbucks PSP officially open

The new Starbucks at the Palm Springs International Airport opened today with a ribbon cutting by the Chamber of Commerce, Palm Springs Mayor and City Council and the Airport Commission. My three watercolor giclees help "perk" up the walls. By the way....that black wall is made of coffee beans, and smells fantastic.

Facebook Autumn Painting Competition

This is my submission for the Facebook Autumn Painting Challenge. "Autumn Delights" 11" x 14" watercolor on 300# Arches cold press. The painting had to be finished in October. Since most entries were Fall related I decided to go back to my old apple theme.You can see more entries here

Starbucks is getting ready for take-off at PSP.

Employees were busily setting up for the November grand opening of the new Starbucks at the Palm Springs International Airport. I stopped by to sign my three giclees which will "perk" up the walls.

Palm Springs students use art to learn.

F is for Fly. Thanks to the inventive mind of Louisa Castrodale, Visual & Performing Arts Specialist for the Palm Springs Unified School District, students will be learning the alphabet artistically. Louisa enlisted twenty six artists to create a work of art for the letters of the alphabet. 16,000 students will get to see this fun
2009/10 ArtShare Project

Funds raised for Boys and Girls Club

IncredibleArtist.Com and Acura of the Desert presented
a check for $2,500 to the Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City on Friday,Sept 25th at a special party at the Acura showroom. The money was raised through the Incredible Acura Art Event held at Acura of Desert during June and July. The event featured art sales at the Acura showroom, a very successful silent auction, and a donation from Acura of the Desert for each car sold during June and July.
My watercolor "Highway to Heaven" was created specifically for the event, and the children of the Boys & Girls Club used the image to create their own artworks which are now on display at Acura of the Desert. The donation will be used by the Boys & Girls Club for their popular arts programs.

Finalist in "Show us your America" contest

“Heaven is a ‘57” is a Finalist in Aaron Bros “Show us your America” contest. It is one of 10 art finalists selected out of 2000 entries. The winner is selected by vote of the public. To vote go to www.showusyouramerica.com/votes/new Click on the dot next to the painting. Then scroll down and enter you email. Then click VOTE.
I humbly ask for your vote and the vote of every person you’ve ever met. You can vote for one piece in each category, art and photography. Only one vote per person. Thank you for your support.

Sweet Temptation Jurick's Different Strokes challenge

Karin Jurick's latest challenge was cupcakes. Right up my alley. I left off the sprinkles.

Organized Chaos wins award and selected for NWS traveling show

"Organized Chaos" was accepted in the 89th Annual National Watercolor Society Exhibition Oct 10- Dec 20, 2009 at the City of Brea Art Gallery (California.) Only 100 paintings were chosen for this national exhibition. The Juror, Jim Morphesis chose “Organized Chaos” for the "Watercolor West" Award, a $500 cash prize. It was also one of only 30 chosen for the Traveling Exhibition going all over the U.S during 2010. Woohoo!

International Artist magazine selects "I Love Bees" as Finalist

International Artist magazine has selected my I Love Bees 24” x 30” oil as a Finalist in the Still Life and Florals competition. They will devote a full page to my work in the Oct/Nov 2009 issue. Pinch me!

California Senate selects "Bird in Paradise" for high honor

State Senator John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes selected my “Bird in Paradise” watercolor for inclusion in the Senate’s Ninth Annual California Contemporary Art Collection exhibit. This high state honor will allow my artwork to be showcased in the Maddy Lounge in the state Capitol through September 2010. "Bird in Paradise" was the poster art for the 2009 Indian Wells Arts Festival. To say the least, I am thrilled and honored.

National Watercolor Society accepts my Organized Chaos watercolor

What a thrill to have a watercolor accepted in the NWS show. Something I've dreamed of for a long time. 100 entries out of over 1000 were selected. I'm honored and ecstatic, to say the least. The 89th Annual Exhibition is held at the City of Brea Art Gallery (California) October 10- December 20, 2009

Sunday on the Lake

This is the latest Karin Jurick challenge .....a gal rowing on Lake Michigan. 12" x 20" on Arches 300# cold press paper. Couldn't help but be reminded of all the wonderful Winslow Homer paintings of water.....I love looking at them. The one at the right is Homer's "Glouchester Harbor," oil, 1873.
All of the Jurick rowboat submissions look so similar. I usually try to do something different. If I had time to do this over I would just put a giant rubber ducky on the lake.

July Challenge: I Love Shoes

The challenge this month for my artist group, Artcolony.blogspot.com was to paint unusual shoes. If I were ever able to wear a 4” heel, or think of spending $900 for a pair of shoes it would probably be for Christian Louboutin. (That was before I knew about Mark Schwartz :-} Hi Mark! Since I love shoes, I did a little take off on one of Louboutin’s classics and added some heart shapes. The toe was supposed to be a heart, but seem like it looks a little like a mouth and tongue.

More artwork for Starbucks

Starbucks has ordered large giclees of three of my watercolors to hang in their new location at the Palm Springs International Airport scheduled to open September 2009. All are gallery-wrap giclees on canvas. The Desert Dinos will be 30" x 42". The other two will be 24" x 30". I can't wait to see them on display. What a thrill!

More Organized Chaos

I don't ordinarily paint the same subject twice, but Organized Chaos got so many comments, and sold so quickly that I decided to paint a larger version to enter in a competition. The first one was 8" x 10." This one is 12" x 19" Minimum size for the competition is 9" x 12"

Fly by Nightshade

This is the latest Karin Jurick challenge......a plate of summer vegetables.
Since I've been focusing on bees and bugs lately, I decided to add a little pest.

ET with Wings

Dragonflies are amazing little creatures. They just sit there and stare right back at you.....no fear

Morning Glorious....Zinnia

It's normally 105 degrees this time of year here. This past week or so has only been in the 80's. It's just been too beautiful to be indoors, so no studio time. While enjoying the unexpected coolness, I've been getting hundreds of reference photos for future paintings.

Now Appearing at Starbucks

"Sunny Flowers" is at the El Paseo Starbucks (the Rodeo Drive of Palm Desert, CA)

"Heaven is a '57" is at the Sunrise/Ramon Starbucks in Palm Springs

Watch for an exciting new location coming in September!

Yes, Virginia...Bees Do Have Tongues

Bees have tongues. Hummingbirds have tongues. Who knew?

Red Hollyhock Bee

I couldn't resist shooting more bees. I've got to get back to painting!

Highway to Heaven....new 2010 Acura TSX

Acura of the Desert and IncredibleArtist.com have joined forces for an Incredible Acura Art Event to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City. Transforming the beautiful Acura showroom into an art gallery, Acura will host an art reception Saturday, June 27 from 4-9 pm to unveil the new 2010 Acura TSX. In honor of the event I was asked to create a watercolor of the new Acura which I call Highway to Heaven. The painting will also be unveiled at the reception. Open to the public, there will be free refreshments and entertainment, and a silent auction. A portion of art sale proceeds will benefit the Boys and Girls Club, as will a portion of car sales and leases during June and July. For more information go to acura.incredibleartist.com

Smoke Trees are Buzzin' with Bees

The smoketree flowers are so small it's easy to walk right by and miss them. Up close they are really beautiful and loaded with bees these days. Got lots of photos today for reference. Can't wait to start another bee painting. I have one in the works now, and another large car in watercolor. Hopefully, can finish both this week. The orange mass on the lower bee photo is not part of the flower. These bees have large orange outgrowths on the backs of their rear legs. Quite unusual.

Photo of the Week...Has there been a Murder?

I've been working too hard. Needed a little fun. Jensen's market has the best desserts.

American Art Collector Artist Feature Page

I'm very happy with how American Art Collector magazine put together the Artist Focus page about my work. Look for it in the June issue on newsstands around June 1st

I Love Bees

This is my first in a series of bee paintings. Bees are just so darn cute. This was so much fun to paint. Did you know....the average worker bee makes 1-1/2 teaspoons of honey in her lifetime, and, that one-third of the food we eat exists because of bees? That makes them pretty darn important, too. This 24" x 30" oil on gallery-wrap canvas is available on my website http://www.DianeMorganPaints.com

Cream Puff for Amanda

A bride-to-be had registered for two of my paintings as wedding gifts on http://www.myregistry.com/ She wrote to tell me that one of them, the cream puff had been sold and asked if I would consider painting another. How could I refuse. It's the same cream puff as the first, but with a slightly different angle and lighting. This one is especially for Amanda. I hope some nice wedding guest will get it for her.

Photo of the Week.....Interesting Character

The world is full of interesting characters. Be proud if you're one of them. This fellow could be the poster boy for reasons not to smoke. It makes you wear ugly shirts and drive disgusting cars.

Bronzed Baby Shoes

This was on my list of 100's of images waiting to be painted. I guess Mother's Day brought these shoes to the forefront. These were my baby shoes, bronzed after I outgrew them. My Father found them and sent them to me for Christmas a couple years ago. What a sweet gift. What Baby Boomer didn't have a pair of these? Do parents still do this??? This 6" x 8" gallery-wrap oil on canvas is available on my website http://www.dianemorganpaints.com/

Bridal Registry

Got an interesting email this morning. A gal had put my "Cream Puff" painting on her bridal registry at http://www.myregistry.com. It's a website where you can list things you want from any store anywhere. Much better than being restricted to registering at one store. People can easily shop online. You can also use it for birthdays and graduations......any occasion you want. What a great idea to register for art! She wrote to say she was sorry to see "her" painting had sold. Guess I'll have to paint more cream puffs. I know that the buyer didn't buy it for the bride-to-be because the lady bought three and came back the next day to say how happy she was to have them in her kitchen.