I started this painting with the intention of it being painted in one sitting, but it took much longer than anticipated and a few "real life" things came my way. This is under lamplight, so it's more yellow than the previous painting in this series. I’m still using the Fibonacci composition, but it is flipped to be the opposite way around to the pink tint version of this still life. I want to do one more with a blue tint to complete the set, but it won’t be finished and dry t

Still life (with pink tint), 12” x 12”, oil on wood panel. I had been bottling up wanting to do this painting for a few days. It's a little bigger than my 2020 normal square format, but I wanted to really focus on this one and try and nail the lighting and reflections. I moved the items a ton of times, trying to get within a Fibonacci composition. I want to make a little set of them with slightly changed lighting situations. There is a 12” x 12” show coming up at Sierra Arts

It wasn’t the month of landscape painting that I had envisioned (wildfire smoke filled days, don’t mix with Plein Air), but I did get plenty of still life painting done. Today I challenged myself with glass, iced tea and plaid for the last painting. I hope that my crossed eyes won’t be permanent. Haha! #paintanyway #renoartist #cheltenhamartist #oilpainting #dailypaintings #stilllifeart #caroleannricketts

From the garden goodies, I have a lusciously red pepper for chopping up and cooking with an onion to go into rice tonight. Double goody, because I had the fun of painting it first. I wonder if I will keep up the garden next year? I imagine that next year, I will be traveling as far and as often as possible (assuming the pandemic is over). #oilonpanel #classicpainting #stilllifeoilpainting #oilpainting #stilllifepaintings #classicalstillife #fineartpainting#artistsoninstagram

It’s a practically a fiesta in my kitchen with all of our peppers! Well, we’ve got a happy plateful anyway. I’m trying to paint their skins to look shiny, as sometimes my peppers look too matte. I think painting from life can be visually overwhelming sometimes, I know that I lose focus if I am staring at highlights too long! I used a lot of Alizarin Crimson oil paint, but I did have some Cad Red to warm the peppers up. So far so good and there are more models from the garden

Day 21 #stradaeasel My second Empty Bowls donation, for the Reno Sparks Food Pantry event. The auction will be on September 27th at 11am. There are lots of beautiful bowls made my local artists, plus a few other items such as mine. To register for bidding please follow the link: https://m.charityauctionstoday.com/m/auctions/13241 #dailypainting #emptybowlsreno #emptybowls #oilpainting #caroleannricketts

Day 17 #stradaeasel The same funky red apple as yesterday, but from a different viewpoint. Mindful repetition is a great way to sooth the mind. In painting, I find that I can play more freely with brushstrokes if I have already studied the subject previously. I’m not Warhol though, so I have a limited threshold before boredom of repetition creeps in! #dailypainting #oilpainting #caroleannricketts

Day 15 #stradaeasel An apple a day, keeps the smoke away? Well, maybe not. #dailypainting #oilpainting #caroleannricketts

Life in quarantine had lead us all into deep internal diving. I think that there must be artists all over the World on the cusp of really big things and that in a couple of years time we will reap the benefits of their creations. Something that I have been mulling over is the idea of creative cycles, despite living in a pandemic vacuum. It feels as though I am in a cycle that a thought spark can inspire intuitive painting and that intuitive painting can spark a creative thoug

#25-River Avon Countryside The prompt of the day was "Countryside" and I made this image of the river bank in Tewkesbury. It is behind an old Tudor inn that was mentioned in Charles Dicken's "Pickwick Papers". The swans swim (sail?) up to Stratford by the theatre and back again. It is such a pretty spot in the Cotswolds, with a lot of history. I don't always have time to write on this blog, so to see all of the challenge entries, you can join my Facebook page, or follow me on

#23 -Evening Sunlight Like many, I enjoy visits to St. Ives to soak up the incredible light and water. I periodically check house prices, but they are staggeringly high. Sandra Blow (a leading female abstract artist) had a studio here in St. Ives and it just came on the market. I contacted the estate agent, to find that it was already sale pending. Sadly, it will probably be developed into individual flats rather than be used for artists to work in. The artists that made it a

#22-Leaves As we are all cooped up like chickens, I looked through my camera roll for some leaf inspiration. I found summer photos from a visit to Monet’s garden in Giverny. My piece obviously isn’t as good as the great master, but it was an awesome feeling to be able to paint the waterlily leaves and tree reflections that inspired his great works. I was aiming to get a sort of smoothed pastel look. I don't know if I got there, but I am learning a lot about this medium. #52in

#21- Nest With all this time in the house, I am wanting to decorate some areas, or give some walls a new lick of paint. It’s funny how the colours in my palette today, are being influenced by the colors I want to have in the house! I picked up on the angles formed by birds with the threaded grasses and used them to guide shaded angles outside of the focal point. I quite like the look this has made. #52in52weeks #marchmediamadness #the100dayproject #caroleannricketts