This is a framed painting of Graham at the beach with the sun in his eyes on an 8x10 porcelain tile.  There was seaweed at the beach and none of the grandkids really wanted to go into the water. (Well, I wasn't crazy about how it felt on my legs either.)  But we were all very brave.  No seaweed's gonna keep us from having fun!  

This is a framed portrait of our Lizzy at 2 yrs old on a round tile.  I hope her sweet personality shows.  It is so much fun to paint someone you love.  I could look at her all day long.

This portrait is from a photo I found.  I wanted the scallops on the blouse to work with the edge of the plate. Also I see a lot of portraits that are tan (wait until you see Graham) so  I was trying to make this pink, blue and yellow in the skin tones.

Happy Easter, and here is a duckling and dandilions for you.  I masked out the subjects and airbrushed the blue background.  Nice effect.  This painting is on a 7 inch square plate.

This is the other side of the cup. Now that I look at it, it would have been fun to paint each seahorse's bubbles the color of the seahorse! When painted, the paint just sits on the surface of the porcelain until it is fired or cooked in a kiln.  Depending on the kind of china and the color, the kiln is fired to a range of temperatures.  As the pieces are fired the colors sink into the glaze and become part of the china.  Just a little porcelain painting lesson for you.

Are you thirsty?  Well, I like sea horses and I've never painted sea horses so I thought I would do this cup and saucer. It was fun to paint.  They are speaking in bubble.  Can you translate from bubble to English?  Well, what they are saying is that they are sorry that the saucer broke in the kiln.  It sometimes happens.  Everything goes into the kiln just fine but when you open it, what a disappointment to have something cracked or broken.  So this will just not have a saucer.

Jackrabbits are really fast. As they run, their back legs come in front of their front legs.  And did you know that a baby Jack is called a leveret.  Having painted a number of Jacks in  preparation for the seminar, I got tired of brown so this Jack is running away to hide - embarassed to be seen in purple.  The purple Jack is painted on the lid of a bisque pink box.  This is a hand made box.  The porcelain was tinted pink before the box was formed and it has no glaze on it so it appears very soft instead of shiny like patent leather.  

Soon the Easter Jackrabbit will be leaving eggs in the wildflowers and cactus.  When teaching a seminar, I always try to paint a number of examples and this is one of them that I did for a recent seminar.  This piece is painted on a rectangular vase.  The photo makes it look slanted at the top but it is really not! I haven't painted anything on the back yet.  Maybe those eggs in the wildflowers.  

In painting on this rectangular tray, my goal was to use red, everywhere.  So there is red in the grass, red on the sheep, red in the water, sky, trees, and clouds.  Many of my landscapes are cool and it is important to me to push myself.  Because the tray is not flat, there is a little bit of haziness from the photo.  It is not easy photoing porcelain because there is often a glare.  

Fairy terns are not good mothers.  They lay their eggs anywhere.  Sometimes they lay their eggs on the sand and when the tide comes in the eggs wash away.  I have a photo of a fairy tern egg on top of a water faucet handle.  My mother fairy tern is taking good care of her chick!  This is painted on an 8x10 porcelain tile.

This blue-eyed kitty is painted on a 5x7 tile.  It is for sale at Pepper West Gals Gallery in Lorena Tx.  Go visit but don't get scratched!

This is not a good year from bluebonnets here but we do have a few.  So use your imagination, and visit this make-believe peaceful country scene.  Can you feel the breeze? Do you smell the bluebonnets.  Now if the wild turkeys or deer will amble through,  it will be perfect.

I was comissioned to paint a rooster and sunflowers on the front of a country sink.  To work out the design, I painted this rooster on a large tray surrounded  by sunflowers.  My daughter Michele wanted the tray so these two chicken pieces live in North Carolina.

When my son Grady and his wife Michele married they talked about having a large family.  Michele wanted chickens painted for her kitchen and I gave her a tray with a rooster on it and then this large plate with a hen and many chicks.  But....... now that they have two very active boys, we all wonder how parents of a large brood would survive????  I love them but get tired trying to keep up with them.  I really enjoyed painting this and hope you enjoy it too.