Lake Huron From the Deck

10" X 8" Oil On Canvas

Simplicity. I am trying to find simplicity in my life and my work. I have finally cleared my cluttered life enough to slip a painting in! I haven't painted for over a year now and it really effected my balance. I thought this would be a great first painting.

The painting is a view of Lake Huron from the back deck at the house of my friend who lives in Pinconning Michigan. Yes, the home of Pinconning cheese! A girls weekend is held there at least once a year and we bask in the views, dine on wonderful cheese while enjoying a cocktail or two or three or....

This represents the simplicity, peace and tranquility I hope I can find in my life.

Laguna Beach

Laguna Sunset 20" X 16" Oil on Canvas

Another sunset from my Laguna Beach Photos. I really wanted the glow of this amazing sunset to be featured along with the vibrant color in the clouds and sky. Wish I was there right now! Catalina Island in the distance. This a view from the opposite direction of the last painting post.

Catalina Sunset

Catalina Sunset

14 X 11 Oil on Canvas

This past January I was in California and took a picture of the sunset at Laguna Beach. On the horizon is a faint outline of Catalina Island. The sunset is sooooo beautiful there. I was apprehensive about painting this scene because the beauty is so intense. Here is my effort.

Yellow Stone Landscape -Heiner Hertling Workshop!

11" X 14" Oil on Masonite
Yellow Stone Park, Grand Tetons (Day 02)

14" X 11" Oil on Masonite
Yellow Stone, (Day 01)

Heiner Hertling Workshop
Your Brush With Nature

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to take a 2 day workshop with Heiner Hertling, the artist who hosts the PBS show, "Your Brush With Nature"! It was such a great learning experience. We worked on landscapes and techniques to prepare us for plein air painting. This is something I really would like to start doing. We completed a finished piece each day. These are the paintings we completed. Both are scenes from Yellow Stone National Park

What I loved about this workshop was learning to paint with a large brush and not worry about the details. We focused more on shapes, color and values.

Main Street Art Bev Larsen Featured Artist!

This month Main Street Art in Milford, MI will be featuring my paintings in their front window!

I am very honored & excited to have my art work displayed in their gallery . If you haven't seen any of my original pieces and are in the area please stop by and check them out. Its a great gallery, filled with wonderful artwork by local and national artists along with framing, art supplies and great gift merchandise.

Main Street Art is located at:
432 N. Main Street
Milford, MI 48381
248.684.1004

Sprinkle Row

10 X 8 oil on canvas

This is my submission for the DSFDF challenge. It really went along with my theme of recent paintings! I was a bit nervous about attempting this one, but once I got started it was much easier than I thought. I am glad I did it. Like I said before, DSFDF challenges me to paint things I would never have considered. It is such a great learning and expanding excersize!

Strawberry Row

Strawberry Row 22" X 16" Oil on Canvas

I had so much fun painting the apples that I thought I would do same with these strawberries. Its a little smaller painting, but I still like the graphic boldness to it. I may continue doing this as a series. I am working on the DSFDF project right now with the cupcakes, which incidentally is in the same fashion as these last two paintings! I may have to add it to my series!

Apples

I finally got a break this weekend and was able to do a painting! These beautiful red apples were just calling me and they wanted to be big! So these are painted on a 28' X 22" canvas. It felt really good to get a painting done. I have been very busy with my graphic design business (which is also not a bad thing), but really needed to to chill out and do a painting. I really like they way it turned out and this one is definitely one of my favorites!

P.S. I ate the apple on right when I finished!

Cats Out of the Bag!

Yes, its true! The Cats out of the Bag! Just thought I'd share some funny pictures of my cat, Toonsis and his sleeping habits!

Sorry I don't have any paintings right now, I am in an art festival this weekend and will be back painting after next week. Its been crazy this weekend with lots of rain! Hopefully tomorrow will be better though the temps are supposed to reach in the 90's!

See you in a couple of weeks!

Tea with Grapes!

6" X 6" oil on canvas

Those darn grapes just keep popping up everywhere! LOL! Another quick study on canvas. I'm not sure if I will even call this done. I wanted to limit my painting time so I stopped here. I kind of like it right now, but I will decide tomorrow. Sometimes you need to step a way for awhile to really get an idea of what it needs or if its fine. Because this is small, I really didnt't want to much detail and I wanted it to be more expressive.I think I am really starting to favor the hardwood boards to paint on instead of canvas now!

Blueberries

"Blueberries"

7" X 5" Oil on Canvas

This is a quick little study I did this morning on another one my most favorite fruits! Doing this on canvas right after painting on the masonite is an adjustment. Because there is so much tooth to the surface quick paintings seem to have a more painterly look. Here I forced myself not to blend to much which is really hard for me to do.

Fruitful Painting

"Fruitful"10" X 8" oil on masonite board

Grapes are one of my favorite fruits and I do love to paint them. They are so fun and full of light. I painted this on gesso'd masonite type board, and really do like the smooth finished look of this piece. When I painted it yesterday, I wasn't crazy about it, but today when I looked at it, it really popped for me. I have to get used to the surface. Its' really slippery compared to canvas.