Late Bloomers original still life painting by Polly Jones

8" square acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. On Etsy here.

I'm reduced to picking flowers from my potted vinca and a little "knockout" rose. I got this rose bush because it's easy to care for, but in my heart I long for the cantankerous to grow old fashioned cabbage roses.

Pumpkin original mixed media painting by Polly Jones

6" square acrylic and paper on gallery wrapped canvas. SOLD

I used the text as highlight on my pumpkin which was painted on top of a dictionary page.

Cup of Pear original still life painting by Polly Jones

6" square acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. SOLD

Today I said no to housework and yes to cheesecake and painting. It was a really good day. This little blue willow painting was done last week. In the studio today I worked on some larger paintings that I'm attempting to find a way to resolve.

Pear original mixed media painting by Polly Jones

6" square acrylic and mixed media on canvas. SOLD

I'm not sure about that painting in the top picture right. I think I'm going to work on the background some more.

Birthday Cupcake painting

8" by 8" acrylic on canvas.

Here's a little memento from my daughter's birthday. My baby isn't a baby anymore.

Lazy Day Pumpkin original painting by Polly Jones

8" square acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. In my SOLD

I was too tired and lazy to do collage with this one today so just enjoyed painting with paint.

Center Stage Spoon original mixed media painting by Polly Jones

8" acrylic and mixed media collage painting on gallery wrapped canvas. SOLD

Spoon patterns conjure up a lot of memories. This one is from my mother.

Peach Study original mixed media by Polly Jones

6" acrylic mixed media on canvas. Here's the last peach for a while. SOLD

Winged Garlic original mixed media still life painting by Polly Jones

5" square acrylic and mixed media on cradled wood panel. SOLD.

A little smaller than usual.

Pepper With Uneven Cut original mixed media still life painting by Polly Jones

8" acrylic and paper on gallery wrapped canvas. On Etsy here.

One reason I combine layers of collage with painting is how it's a way to hint at how complicated and full of memory that "looking" can be. For instance, many years ago when we lived in Knoxville, I had a gig as a demonstrating artist at a KMA event. I was doing a large painting of a bell pepper and an older man came up and stood there a while just watching. He finally said, "I'm so glad someone else feels that way about bell peppers!" It was kind of funny because he seemed to be embarrassed that he was moved by the beauty of a vegetable. Now when I am cutting up peppers and looking at them, I always feel a kinship with that man. So that's one thing I think about when painting peppers. Another is how I plan to use it in a recipe later if it doesn't shrivel too much. Another influence is Edward Weston's famous black and white photographs of peppers changing the way we see them. We bring a lot to our looking and that can make it messy in a lovely way.

More Peaches original mixed media still life painting by Polly Jones

8" acrylic mixed media painting on gallery wrapped canvas. SOLD

I did a painting almost the same as this one a while back and then had a lovely request for a similar one. I don't mind doing this because it's such a learning experience. It forces me to analyze what I had done more spontaneously before and I bring a different kind of thinking to it. Luckily peaches are still in season so I was able to set it all up again.

Red Sugar Bowl original painting

6" square acrylic on canvas.

I've been wrestling with about three large, unruly mixed media pieces lately. It was a relief to do this small one. My intention was to not overwork it. I've been admiring Linda Hunt's work lately because of her fantastic, luscious brushwork, never overworked. You can catch her paintings here.

Apples in Blue Willow original painting by Polly Jones

8" square acrylic painting on canvas. SOLD

Well, school has started and I'm hopefully back in a more disciplined mode. I have reworked the background on the last painting if you want to look at it here. I kept hearing the words "pink nightmare" in the voice of the dad on "A Christmas Story" when I looked at it before.

I've Got Your Back original still life painting

6" square on canvas. SOLD

The black eyed susan plant has not given up in our yard. These are definitely the dog days and I am so grateful for air conditioning.

Polyphonic, new mixed media large painting

The top one is the new version. Had it on the dining room wall and after reworking it in my head night after night, I decided I wanted to do what Matisse did in his painting. My favorite part of his piece is the black with the fern fronds pattern. I ended up changing my background by using black and adding a lot more collage throughout. I found that the papers gave it a crispness in areas that I was craving and couldn't get with just paint. The collage looks integrated in the photo, but if you click to enlarge the photo you can see more bits and pieces of paper in the paint.

Three Peaches original mixed media still life painting

8" acrylic and paper on gallery wrapped canvas. SOLD

Plums in a Catherinholm Bowl original painting

8" acrylic and mixed media on gessoed masonite panel. SOLD

My color scheme came from a rug pattern I saw in a magazine. I've done this Catherinholm's bowl twice before, here and here.

Little Deer original mixed media painting

A little weird, I know, but it's fun to do something different. It is much harder to paint a tiny plastic deer than I would have guessed. Did another collage I like better and plan to post it tomorrow. 6" square on canvas.

Teacup Party original contemporary still life painting

5" by 7" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas SOLD

I had fully intended to paint a soap dispenser that I have by my sink. I'd made a resolution to paint only things that looked contemporary for a while. Well, after moving that soap dispenser around forever, trying to get a good set up, I noticed my little teacup with this pink umbrella sitting in it over on the still life prop shelf and changed course. Believe it or not this dainty painting was done with Led Zeppelin blasting away. Kenny was in charge of the playlist while we both painted. We've each been having an art crisis but are recovering.

Sunflower and Pitchers progress mixed media painting

16" by 2o" original mixed media painting

Still working on this one. It's not quite finished. I'm trying to work with the idea of refractions that are carried out in the glass and also with the use of collaged papers. I have loved painting pictures of glass for so long and it's fun to try new ways of doing this. Found a wonderful blog called Paper Paintings by Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson who has beautifully integrated collage and images and paint.

Work in Progress mixed media painting

I'm trying to remember to photograph at different points this 16" by 20" mixed media piece in progress. These are some sunflowers that came up on their own in the backyard.

Zinnia Going to Seed original mixed media painting by Polly Jones

6" square original mixed media painting on canvas SOLD.

Here's a small one that I had a wonderful time being self indulgent with. I used very thick paint with bits of collage embedded. I don't know why the idea of "going to seed" has such a bad rap...it's a beautiful process when you think about it!

Earlier this month, I went home for a great visit with my parents and since then I've been doing yard work and helping my daughter get ready for a mission trip. I've also been working on a large mixed media that I feel somewhat vulnerable about sharing. I'm hoping to get in a lot of studio time the rest of the month.

Night Shell original mixed media painting by Polly Jones

5" by 7" acrylic and mixed media collage on canvas, SOLD.

Please excuse the glare, I had a hard time photographing this one. When Kenny (the husband) went wild over this one I finally realized how much it resembled the approach in a lot of his work, light lines on a black background.

Two Zinnia Paintings

A while back I had the best special request ever for a painting of an orange zinnia in a small star design glass... subject matter that had special meaning for this dear requester. I've been waiting for my zinnias to grow, and a few of them have, but not bloomed yet. I'm not even sure what color they will be when they bloom. Well, a couple of days ago I found the perfect little orange zinnia plant in the garden center. The first one was such fun that I've done a second one so she'll have more choices. You can see in the top painting, done second, that I loosened up a bit and have more paint going on.

8" square acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. SOLD

original mixed media painting Keeping Count of Treasures

8" square mixed media acrylic on masonite SOLD

The name "Keeping Count of Treasures" was the title to a graph from an old book I have used for part of the collage. After looking at it on the computer, I think I need to go back in and paint out some more areas to off set the layered parts. There' a picture of Gandhi in here courtesy of a Little Golden Encyclopedia Gg-Hh. Can you find him? Is this a bit like "Where's Waldo?"