"Painterly Painting" Gift Certificate

$78/Workshop

Looking for a perfect gift for your creative friends or for yourself for that matter? Why not surprise them with a painting workshop? "Painterly Painting" is a 5 hour Workshop that I'll be teaching August 28, 2009 at Water Street Art Gallery, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Designed for artists who long to paint looser and more expressively, this one day workshop will include tips and exercises to help in this endeavor.

Purchase your spot today, class size is limited!

Spring Morning in Woodward Park

Woodward Park in Tulsa is an absolutely lovely park. In the springtime the Dogwoods and Azaleas are sublimely beautiful.

Pastels are such a fitting medium for the lovely softness of the colors of the park. I've done a cropped version of this scene in oils - but I like this pastel version even better.

Soft pastels on 9 x 12" Colourfix sanded pastel paper.

Baby Bok Choy

Stopped by the Brookside Farmers Market yesterday morning and got a slew of goodies including some darling baby Bok Choy. We ate two on an Asian salad today along with lots of other delectable crunchy veggies like kohlrabi, carrots, celery, fresh cucumber and grilled teriaki Chicken on a bed of baby Butter lettuce. Topped off with a light Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing and a few cashews, it was fabulous! Nothing like fresh veggies.

Anyway, those 3 remaining baby bok choy were so cute I had to paint them! Here's an acrylic painted from life on 9 x 12" prepped mdf panel.

5 Hour Power Workshop - "Painterly Painting"

Having trouble loosening up when painting? Would you like to paint more expressively? Would you like to simplify your paintings? Learn about "intelligent brushwork" at Water Street Art Gallery's first "5 Hour Power" Workshop entitled "Painterly Painting" taught by Celeste Vaught. Located at 16 S. Water Street, Sapulpa, Oklahoma, the gallery is just 20 minutes from Tulsa, Oklahoma right off historic Route 66. Designed for busy people, these one day "brown bag" workshops have been arranged to maximize your learning experience. Bring a lunch and join us for a rewarding, educational day of creativity!

"Painterly Painting" will teach students through hands-on exercises how to:

• Connect with their passion
• Prepare for a successful painting
• Paint more "mindfully"
  

$78 / Workshop
Friday, August 28, 2009
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Class size limited - register today via email: celeste@celestevaught.com. (Supply list provided upon registration)

Take a look at my website for a selection of acrylic, oil and pastel paintings.

"Downtown Dawning" Revised - SOLD

I never was completely settled with the finale of "Downtown Dawning" and so I let it sit unfinished on the easel for the last 6 months. At last, after studying it for sometime, I could see that the bright morning light that captured my attention enough to take the photo to begin with had been lost. So, I "dove" in and got started reworking things - starting with the too dark sky. I also incorporated mixes of cad red light, cerulean and gesso for the sky. I find that it makes a less chalky mix. This was initially applied with a knife and some areas softened with brush.

Next it was onto the skyline. Needed to get those yellows and oranges subdued a bit because they were really to serve as a backdrop for what really caught my eye that morning. Initially it was the buildings, but as I looked, it was that row of grasses with the sunlight grazing the top plumes. And then how could I miss that delivery truck - it never seems to move. It just seemed so interesting sitting there all alone.

So here ... what I believe is the much improved "Downtown Dawning". (Acrylics on 18 x 24" gallery wrapped canvas.)

Remembering Grandma

Follow up to the earlier pastel version of a similar scene. It occurred to me that a very strong memory of my grandma's house was her huge hydrangea bushes in front of her porch. That was the flower to use in this still life commemorating my little grandma. She was such a genteel woman with lots of wonderful things to teach us about. Too many to enumerate at the moment.

This version is acrylics on 9 x 12" prepped hardboard, painted from life.

Chocolate Set with Coneflowers

A pastel painted from life - 9 x 12" Colorfix. I inherited this lovely Chocolate Set from my grandmother and had fun painting this. Soft pastels create such shimmering color. My goal now is to do a version in oils. May change the flowers though for it - we'll see!

Apple in Japanese Bowl

Oh how much fun I'm having with this new Colorfix Pastel paper! Here's a 9 x 12" pastel painting done from life tonight. I just love this Japanese bowl I found years ago at a yard sale. One lone apple provided a nice color contrast to the blue and white dish. Couldn't see any other way than from overhead to portray the lovely patterns within the bowl.

Naples Sunset

So I'm having a grand time trying out this Colorfix paper with my pastels - just a quick study this morning from a gorgeous sunset scene from a beach in Naples, Florida (wouldn't it be nice to be there)?!

9 x 12" soft pastels.

Summer Pinks

A bouquet of pink flowers from the hot summer garden include Purple Coneflower, Crepe Myrtle and Hosta blossoms. All those pinks looked lovely in my Shamrock green Fiesta Ware pitcher. This fresh painting was completed with pastels on a piece of 9 x 12" Colorfix.

Morning at the Cleaners

Some of the dry cleaners in downtown Tulsa inhabit the coolest buildings! Phoenix Cleaners is one such place on the south end of downtown. I did my small 6 x 6 painting of the building as a dark rainy scene. This one's now a bright sunny morning. Those angled shadows caught my eye - so this one's really about the morning light.

Oil on 10 x 8" stretched canvas.