Blog Love

Hello, just wanted to share a couple of wonderful blogs I was featured on recently. I had noticed a lot more traffic on my Etsy store and couldn't figure out the reason. How fun to be notified that my work was put on a holiday gift guide for Chic and Charming! (a modern salon for smart, fashionable women) You can see the post here along with Sandy Mac and Midnight Paintings by Kerri King, two other Etsy artists I was proud to be shown with.

I was also thrilled to be featured on Absolutely Beautiful Things! Talented designer Anna Spiro of Australia authors this blog full of gorgeous photos. Here is the post about my painting that she bought.

Well, I better get to work now.

Lime, Stripes

6" by 6" original acrylic painting on stretched canvas, ready to frame.

For this still life, I used retro fabric found while thrifting. It was a scrap leftover from pillows I made and just wide enough to put the limes on. I like how noisy the color scheme turned out.

SOLD

Two Pickles

8" by 10" oil on gessoed masonite.

This is post 100 for my blog! It's been a little over a year since I started this blog. Thanks everyone for looking at my paintings and reading my ramblings.

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Candy Cane, Unopened

6" by 6" oil on gessoed masonite.

Peppermint

6" by 6" oil on masonite.

I wanted to paint the air around the candy with this one. To do this, I used a limited palette and thinner paint than usual. Had fun with the brushwork. When looking at the real peppermint set-up, it seemed to float since it was held up by the wrapper. I would like for that to have showed up more in the painting. Thankfully, I'm getting a sense of when continuing won't help on these little ones though, so I stopped.

Striped Little Pumpkin

8" by 8" oil on gessoed masonite. I had trouble photographing this one. Please forgive the glare on the left red area. SOLD

Small, Freckled Pumpkin

6" by 6" oil on gessoed masonite.

I'm so happy to be working in my new studio space! My amazing husband replaced screens with real windows on our sunporch. Now I have a bigger workspace that is not in plain view from the kitchen. My first time to paint in it was yesterday. I did two paintings of little pumpkins that we got from a Floydada pumpkin farm.(it's in the panhandle of Texas) I believe they claimed to be the pumpkin capital of the world. This pumpkin reminded me of my mother who has a lot of beautiful freckles and the softest skin. I'll post another one tomorrow. SOLD

Larkspur in a Honey Jar

12" by 16" acrylic on stretched canvas, unframed. SOLD

Here is a painting I did some time ago and never got around to posting. I was trying to capture the wonderful craziness that happens when looking through sunlit glass. I sometimes think of these glass vessels as lenses.

Larkspur in a Honey Jar

With Blue Willow

24" by 36" acrylic and collage on stretched canvas. The paint goes around the gallery wrapped edges and it is wired to hang without a frame.

I did this painting for a silent auction fund raiser for The Center for Contemporary Arts. The theme is "Mood Indigo" and the holiday gala will be on Nov 17th. I had to turn in the title about a week ago before I had even begun the painting. I guess I'm an optimist at heart. It was good to have the time constraint which made it impossible to overwork. Also, I was back with my old faithful acrylics and familiar props. I have done quite a few blue polka dot paintings lately and am beginning to see the blue dots when I close my eyes. Also this week I've been in the midst of finishing sealing the floor on my new studio area and will post pictures when I can of this new space. So exciting! SOLD

The Milky Way

16" by 20" mixed media on stretched canvas. The paint and collage wrap around the edges making a frame unneccessary. It has a high gloss varnish on it. More closeups and details are in my Etsy store.

I've been working on this for quite some time, putting it aside for a while and thinking about it. This piece comes from a sense of wonder at the fragility and smallness of my place on earth in such an infinite universe. That's a big thought to try to put in an artwork but, why not? I just finished a novel called "Beautiful Miscellaneous." In it a scientist who didn't believe in God, wrote a letter to God explaining why he doubted his unbelief. One of the reasons was, no one could explain the existence of gravity. I have another corny name for this painting, "Raise Your Hand If You Understand Gravity."

Candy Corn

6" by 6" acrylic on stretched canvas. I had fun with another candy corn painting. Fall seemed so slow in approaching and now it's going so quickly. SOLD

Teapot Looking Glass

12" by 12" oil on stretched canvas.  SOLD

Here is the final version. (I think) I couldn't paint what I saw exactly. The colors of the paint I have didn't replicate the color of that petunia. Other aspects were emphasized in order to get an affect I wanted. I was thinking about Bonnard and how he said "I am very weak, it is difficult for me to keep myself under control in the presence of the object."

I've been working on some other paintings that I haven't been satisfied with from my daily painting days. I think I'll not clog up your mailbox with a separate post but just replace the old one pictures with new ones when I get around to it.

Progress photo

Here is something I started yesterday in oils. I thought I'd show it in stages. Also I wanted to share the news that I have been juried into The Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene. This is going to be so much fun to be part of!

Candy Corn, Last Man Standing

I'm back after a long absence from posting. I have been working on a larger painting as well as doing other art related things. I hung the Big Country Annual Art show at the Cockerell Building (a great art space) This show is scheduled to be online, I'll put a link in when that happens. I was pleased to get a work included in the show. Today I finished this little 5" by 5" acrylic on stretched canvas. It was fun to paint. I have to admit this is last years candy corn I found in my cupboard. It pretty much tastes just like it did last year. It will be up for sale in my Etsy store. SOLD

Lemonade, Half Full

I enjoy painting reflective glass and portraying the light that shows through this vintage pitcher of lemonade. I've used my absolute favorite blue and white Vera scarf from the fifties as a prop. It was painted with acrylic on 12" by 12" by stretched canvas, ready to frame. SOLD

Sunflower Orbit

12" by 12" acrylic painting on gessoed masonite with collage. I have incorporated cut pieces of a vintage map from an old book on astronomy. It mapped the orbit of the earth and the moon. The circles with the collaged paper are on raised wooden medallions and create an interesting textured surface. This sunflower was a volunteer growing in our garden this year. The path of the sunflower's head as it followed the corresponding path of the sun across the sky inspired me to do this painting. It has some bits of a temperate zone map as a part of the petals.

My husband is a huge NASA groupie and has been watching the space shuttle activities through a live link...so incredible. Tonight is the night for the Perseid meteor showers. It's supposed to be quite a show, dozens of shooting stars per hour. We did that several years ago and saw hundreds of them, laying on our backs in some unknown farmers field at 2:00 in the morning. SOLD

Red Bowl, Lemons

8" by 8" oil on gallery wrapped canvas. I reworked this one shown in an earlier post which has been bothering me a while. It just needed a bit more complexity in color and a different treatment of space. Now, it seems to me, like the lemons are ready to levitate, like they are being pulled upward with the stripes. That makes me happy.
SOLD

Teaparty

12" by 12" acrylic on gessoed masonite. My favorite teapot again with another favorite prop. I was happy with the lighting in this one. My photos are slightly off, the true color temperature is somewhere between the detail and the full picture. The smooth surface of masonite is such a different experience than that of canvas. I like both surfaces for different reasons. SOLD

Two Zinnias

I'm back with acrylics again. There is a quality to the brushwork that helps me get an affect of reflective glass that I enjoy--something about how the paint doesn't blend the same as oils. Anyway, here are two zinnias that I actually grew in a new flower bed I have been working on this season. They grew from seed, which amazes me that they survive that trip from seed to flower. This painting is 12 inches square. It is available as a print if you want to email me at pollyjonesart@gmail.com for more information.
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Marbles in a Jar (again)

One reason I stopped posting daily paintings is that the method didn't really fit my way of making art. I just seem to need some time to simmer on a painting, even these little ones. I found myself sneaking around and replacing old pictures of works with new versions on the blog. Sometimes I would confess and other times I just replaced them without mentioning it. Here's an example of an old one that I kept updating. It's newest version, the one with the yellow green and blue background, is in my Etsy store with some detail views. This week I had a lot of fun going back and reworking some of the paintings that have been driving me crazy. I'll be posting these periodically along with some newer ones. SOLD

Etsy Store

Hello, I've been out of town and busy with summer family stuff. I have also been setting up an Etsy store. If you haven't discovered this site for all things handmade you will love it. It's a very well designed, huge, interesting place full of art, jewelry, pottery, clothes etc. I think there are over 50,000 sellers listed. Here's my store....

ETSY

I have been painting but just haven't posted anything, but I will soon.

Blue and White Dishes

I think I just sent an empty post, sorry to my subscribers. I wanted to share some pictures of a painting I did on commission for a wonderful collector who had seen my work on ebay. He wanted a larger piece with many blue and white dishes in it. I don't have a photo of the finished painting because I forgot to take a last photo of it. I was so mad at myself! Anyway, here are some shots of it in progress, almost finished and a detail. SOLD

Madonna With Pears and Moth

It has been a while since I posted. I'm a bit of a lazy blogger since I got out of the discipline of the small daily paintings which kept the current going. My intentiow was to take process photo's to show stages of the paintings at intervals. I've really been enjoying working bigger and with mixed media and it's been good to have time to reflect on the work over a period of time.
"Madonna With Pears and Moth" is part of my work that involves the theme of vanitas, a tradition of painting concerned with the fleeting quality of life. The dutch still life masters used symbols of death among their lush flowers and fruit as a reminder that life's pleasures are fleeting. This piece consists of acrylic paint and collaged paper on a 16" by 20" stretched canvas. The image wraps around the 1 and 3/8" edges and is meant to be displayed without a frame. It is wired for hanging. It's in my Etsy store.

One and One SOLD

"Iris, Green Depression Glass" by Polly Jones

I am taking a break from my daily paintings and am not posting on the Daily Painters Blog for a while. Doing smaller work has been a lot of fun and a good way to learn. Occasionally I will return to this small format. It's a bit hard to let go of the structure of the daily painting challenge. Right now, however, I am longing to return to larger work that I can develope over a period of time. An art works inner relationships must evolve, and I seem to require a little brooding time over a piece. Hopefully, I will have learned some about moving on and not over working paintings from the daily process that I began in October. So...I will be trying to post different stages in the developement of these new paintings.

Irises are blooming great around here this spring. The white ones came first and just as soon as they faded, the purple ones have take up the slack. I've used a 12" by 12" stretched canvas with a 1 and 3/8" profile for the surface. It is done with acrylics. SOLD

"PInk Party Umbrella, 2" by Polly Jones

This painting is 8" by 8" on gallery wrapped canvas with a 1 and 3/8" edge, staples in back. I went back to acrylics to paint this one, for crisp edges and clean color. These umbrellas are so optimistic looking to me. They fit my frame of mind this time of the year, evoking the possibilities that spring holds. SOLD

"Strawberries With Jadeite Mug" by Polly Jones

This is my favorite mug. I had a garage sale a while back and had it with me drinking tea. I had to refuse two different people who wanted to buy it. This painting is 6" by 6" oil on masonite.

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"Strawberries on Blue Willow"

The hardest part in painting this was not eating them before I finished. They smelled so good. I painted this in oil on 6" by 6" gessoed masonite. It has been a while since I worked on masonite and I enjoyed the change in surface quality. Canvas has such a different reaction with paint than paint on panel. SOLD

"Jar of Marbles" by Polly Jones

8" by 8" oil on gallery stretched canvas, no frame needed. It has a 1 and 3/8 inch edge.

Red Bowl With Lemons by Polly Jones, 8" by 8" oil on gallery stretched canvas no frame needed

I had fun with color and shape on this one. I meant to paint another white iris today, but it kept unfurling and changing on me. Finally, I had to give up on it and do a different painting.
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"White Iris, 2" by Polly Jones, 8" by 8" oil on gallery wrapped canvas, no frame needed

This iris was the second blossom on the stalk from my last painting. It's so convenient how they stagger ther blooming so you can enjoy them over a period of time, a short time. I've painted this on a gallery wrap canvas that has a profile of 1 and 3/8 inches. SOLD

"Night White Iris" by Polly Jones, 12" by 12" oil on gallery wrapped canvas with 1 and 3/8" profile, no frame needed

It's so great to get back to doing some small paintings. I've been working on a larger oil which I will be posting later. This iris was growing in our garden. It survived several risky situations including the dogs trampling near it and a hail storm. Irises are just about my favorite flower though that's as hard to pick out as a favorite color. Recently my husband got me a book on Manet that has reminded me how much I love his work, especially the small still lifes he did late in life. This iris painting is a response to those wonderful Manets. SOLD

"Pansy In A Swan Vase" by Polly Jones

This tiny vase is perfect for a single blossom. It's the first day of spring and really felt almost like summer.
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"Glasses, Grape Juice" by Polly Jones, 6" by 6" oil on stretched canvas

One thing I enjoy about doing still life is how simple little objects can be loaded with meaning. When I was a child we always used these star glasses for taking medicine. I was using one this morning for that purpose (using grape juice instead of the reccommended water) and was struck again by the pattern of light that they make. With grape juice it is jewel like. Grape juice has associations also, more profound, it is the drink we use for communion at church.

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"Orange on Pink Plaid" 8" by 8" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, no frame neccessary

This little painting is not for the faint of heart. I believe we all need more orange and pink in our lives. These colors do occur in nature you know. Don't forget to click on the image for a closer look. The gallery wrapped canvas has a profile of 1 and 3/8" so it has a bit of a presence. SOLD

"Spring Branches" by Polly Jones, 12" by 12" oil on stretched canvas

These branches are from a flowering shrub in our yard. I'm not sure what they are. I want to paint some more of them but they are rapidly blooming and loosing my favorite stage of bud and bare branch. This is a 12" by 12" oil on canvas. I've actually repainted this some since this photograph and haven't really resolved it yet. More to come later, it may be "fall branches" by the time it's done.

"Daffodil on a Pink Flowered Cloth" 8" by 8" oil on masonite

The backs of flowers are so beautiful. For such a delicate creation, flowers are amazingingly strong miracles of engineering. SOLD

"First Daffodil" by Polly Jones 8" by 8" gallery wrapped canvas, no frame needed

I'll never forget my 2nd grade teacher showing us how to draw a daffodil 3-dimensionally. It was the first time I really thought about drawing something from what I saw and not what I knew about it. Her chalkboard drawing was posed just like I posed my daffodil from our backyard.

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"Blue Willow Cup" by Polly Jones 6" by 6" oil on canvas

Another Blue Willow. SOLD

"Lemons" 6" by 6" oil on masonite by Polly Jones

This painting is a little different vantage point than I've been doing. It was good to step back a bit further, and to do a symetrical composition.

SOLD

"Big and Little Marble" 6" by 6" oil on canvas

This is a new version of this painting posted on February 27th. One morning I stepped on it with my houseshoes on and had to repaint some areas. Just a reminder that all of these images can be clicked on for a closer look.

"China Teacup" 8" by 8" oil on masonite $75

It is in my Etsy store.