Small But Beautiful

“Small But Beautiful        3 x 3”       Oil        $25        © Sharon Lewis

            Even though I’m mostly a landscape artist, I love painting fruit from time to time. It’s easy to paint from life and if you don’t take too long to paint it, you have a healthy snack waiting for you in the end.

            Happy Weekend!

 

My View

“My View”              2.5” x 3.5”       Pastel        $25        © Sharon Lewis

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             I’ve been visiting family and staying with my daughter and son-in-law. They live in a beautiful neighborhood with lots of trees all around. To warm up, I painted this small study of the view from my room of their neighbor’s beautiful house with flowers lining the front.

            Happy Weekend!

 

Low Country Dunes

  “Low Country Dunes”               2.5” x 3.5”        Pastel       $25        © Sharon Lewis

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             I was at the beach recently and was struck by how beautiful the colors are in the dunes. There’s the warm greens and yellows of the grasses contrasting with the creamy yellow or peach of the sand and the pale blues, turquoise, and pink in the shadows. Protecting beaches against erosion, the dunes also provide us with a gorgeous array of colors to enjoy.  

            Happy Weekend!

 

All To Ourselves,

“All To Ourselves”           2.5” x 3.5”        Pastel       SOLD        © Sharon Lewis

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            One of the benefits of going to the beach early in the season, before the water has warmed up enough, is that you just might have the beach to yourself. While I really enjoy being around people, there’s something about walking a beach without the crowds that allows me to be more focused on the smell of the sea air, the sounds of the gulls and that hypnotizing rhythm of the waves. Ah, my happy place!

            Happy Weekend!

 

Seaside Getaway

  “Seaside Getaway”    2.5” x 3.5”       Pastel       $25       © Sharon Lewis

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            It’s almost summer now, with the temperatures warming with each passing day. Hopefully, sometime this summer I will be on a coast, enjoying the cool ocean breezes, the salt air, the sparkling sea, and the long hours of light.

            Happy Weekend!

Blowing in the Wind

“Blowing in the Wind”       2.5” x 3.5”       Pastel       $25       © Sharon Lewis

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When I travel, I always try to take some time to paint on location. It’s such a wonderful way to get to know your environment since you pay attention in ways that you might not normally. This painting was done at the beach recently where my attention was drawn to the softness of the grasses and the delicate hues I could see in the sand dunes. As my third painting of the dunes, you can tell that this beach trip made me a fan of this very vital part of the coastal ecosystem. 

Happy Weekend!

 

Alpine Meadow

“Alpine Meadow”          2.5” x 3.5”          Pastel           $25          © Sharon Lewis

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            Given the hot summer temperatures we had this week, I was drawn to a scene that while still looking summery also suggested that a cool breeze might be possible. This painting describes the kind of summer day I love, with the warmth and color of summer in this beautiful meadow contrasting with the cold, icy peak above.

            Happy Weekend!

A Touch of Scarlet

“A Touch of Scarlet”     2.5” x 3.5”      Pastel      $25      © Sharon Lewis
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            This pot of scarlet geraniums was just one of many wonderful surprises I saw on my first visit to Monterey, California. These beautiful flowers (one of my favorites) were sitting on a balcony overlooking the water where I could see otters, some with babies, cracking open their dinner as they leisurely floated below. There were also gulls, cormorants, and sea lions. What an amazing place!

            Happy Weekend!

Brighter Skies Ahead

    “Brighter Skies Ahead”        2.5” x 3.5”        Pastel         $25        © Sharon Lewis

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            This painting was started on location and finished in the studio from memory and my imagination. I love painting skies, especially blue skies with beautiful, colorful clouds. If you add in mountains and a stream, it’s even more interesting to me. What I saw last summer was a sky that looked a little bit like this one but the landscape was uninteresting. So, I made up some distant mountains and a stream that meanders through this beautiful countryside and off into the distance. Who knows where it goes?

            Happy Weekend!

 

Like Mother, Like Son

                    “Like Mother, Like Son”     2.5 x 3.5”     Pastel        $25    © Sharon Lewis

             This is a petite painting done on location in one of my favorite parks to walk or hang out in: Panola Mountain State Park in Stockbridge, Georgia.  It’s a time of year when you’ll see whole families out fishing, with the kids either looking on or with their own fishing poles which they seem very proud of.

            Happy Weekend!

Waiting For Us

“Waiting For Us”         2.5 x 3.5”     Pastel        $25    © Sharon Lewis

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            It’s a cool spring morning, maybe too soon to be thinking about the beach, but this painting reminds me that this beautiful, relaxing place is still there, even if the water is a bit too cold for swimming right now. It’s there, waiting for us to look up from work responsibilities and stressful deadlines, waiting for us to pause and remember, and breathe, and once again enjoy the beauty of nature.

            Happy Weekend!

 

Last Walk of the Day

“Last Walk of the Day”        2.5” x 3.5”       Pastel        $25      © Sharon Lewis

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            Sunsets have this ephemeral beauty that always makes me wish to slow them down.  Since that’s obviously impossible, I try to notice every magnificent aspect of them.  I always fail but the effort is always enjoyable.  The evening of this sunset, I noticed the luminosity of the clouds, the reflections skimming the beach, and a family out enjoying the last walk of the day.

            Happy Weekend!

 

Waiting for Them to Return

“Waiting for Them to Return”   2.5 x 3.5    Pastel         $25         © Sharon Lewis
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            This time of year I find myself longing for the beach. This little study of a beach I visited a couple of years just looks so inviting on this grey, winter day, especially with all the small birds who seem to be waiting for our return.

            I hope wherever you are, you have light and warmth on this winter day.

            Happy Weekend!

The Best Gift

“The Best Gift”           2.5 x 3.5            Pastel         $25         © Sharon Lewis
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            Last weekend I got the best birthday present because I got to celebrate my birthday with both my kids in the mountains. It’s not often that I can get my son, a busy Economist and young father and my daughter, a busy attorney, to take an entire weekend off. It was a wonderful time of catching up with what’s been going on in each other’s lives and enjoying the outdoors despite the gray skies. We hiked along the Ocoee River through trees alternately green and bare. Being with the people I love most is the best gift in the world!

            Happy Weekend!

Autumn Beauties

“Autumn Beauties”    Oil            3” x 3”         $25       © Sharon Lewis
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            I love apples in the fall! I don’t seem to eat them much during the rest of the year but autumn is when they taste so delicious! And on a cold, gray, and rainy day, I found the reds and oranges in these apples so warm and inviting that I had to paint them.....especially before I forgot and ate them all!

            Happy Weekend!

Lyrical Limbs

“Lyrical Limbs”      Oil       3” x 2” on Canvas    $100       © Sharon Lewis
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            I’ve been experimenting with painting with oils, a medium I’ve always been fascinated by even if my first love is the medium of pastels. I have been playing with water-mixable oils because I can avoid the odor and potential health hazards of using the medium in its more typical form. For some reason I had several small canvasses and so I have been creating a small oil painting after work for each of the last three nights. I have been wanting to paint this tree for some time. It seems indomitable, standing as it does on a coastal ridge but also has a lyrical or beautiful, expressive quality to it. On to more small oils…..

            Happy Almost Weekend!

A Time of Light and New Beginnings

“New Life”     2.5” x 3.5”    Pastel   $25      © Sharon Lewis
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            Mother Nature sure seems to love messing with us lately. Just when we settle into the idea that spring is really here to stay, since the beautiful blooming trees and flowers seem to attest to this, it get’s cold again.

            Oh well, no matter what the weather, Easter finally occurs this weekend (and it’s the middle of Passover). It’s interesting to me that the two holidays seem to center on hope, remembrance, and renewal of faith, and both occur in early spring. Upon conducting some online research, I found out that “Easter” comes from the name for a pagan goddess, Eostre (Old English) or Ostara (Old High German), who derived her name from a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn.  Somehow, this association with light, new beginnings, renewal and spring, makes this a particularly joyful holiday for me. Although I’m not religious I think holiday rituals are wonderful when they allow us to transcend the ordinary patterns of our lives. They can help us reflect on what we hold sacred, what we believe, and maybe all of those things and people in our lives for which we are grateful.

            Today’s painting is based on photos taken near the Mount Washington area in New Hampshire. We were hiking through the woods and along a stream when I found unexpected beauty poking up from amongst the weeds along a path; new life in the form of these beautiful daisies.          

           Happy Easter, Chag Sameach, Happy Spring and Happy Weekend to all!