Showing posts with label austin landscape artist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label austin landscape artist. Show all posts

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Fall in Austin ©2015DSR #debbismithrourke

©2015 Debbi Smith Rourke
Fall in Austin 24" x 24"
 Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas 
 SOLD

This is a new abstract for my 2016 "Nature Interpreted" show with photographer Jack Marshall at Bruegger's Bagels in Westlake Jan. 3 - Feb. 27. So swing by to view it and several new paintings, plus all the amazing photographs that inspired them all. FYI - 25% of exhibit sales will be donated to Eanes ISD Art Dept. Happy New Year!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Mayan Breeze #mayanbreeze #anotherpalmtree

©2015 Debbi Smith Rourke
Mayan Breeze 11"x14" 
Oil on panel. Framed size: 12"x15"
$425 unframed / $525 framed 
Available via ArtfulGalleries.com



Here is one more palm tree painting in my beach series. This one is a horizontal version. I love painting beach scenes of my favorite spot on the Mayan Riviera, especially when we are experiencing cold temps in Austin! Wish I were on the beach!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Creative Possibilities ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Creative Possibilities 12"x12"
Oil on gessoed .5" thick plywood board / unframed
$400 + sh/h in US
Contact me for purchase

I started this painting in the Sandy Ostrau workshop I attended back in January. But after I got home to my Austin studio, I added the red-orange elements. Now it is a tretrad of blue-green, blue-violet, yellow-orange and red-orange. Yummy. Love the simplified shapes, large brush strokes, mix of brush and palette-knife work and surprises of color where they might not appear in reality. Creative possibilities are infinite!! Love that. What possibilities inspire you?

Monday, March 17, 2014

Sandy Ostrau Workshop Jan. 2014

Sandy doing a landscape demo 

I was thrilled to attend Sandy Ostrau's 3-day workshop in Orinda, California (Bay Area) in January. Everything about it was delightful. My dear friend and fab artist Nancy Hartley invited me. She and her hubby Brian went all out to make every moment of my trip so delightful. Thank you, all!!! I was inspired on so many levels.

 Sandy's color mixing

 Sandy showing ways to optimize use of layers

 Another sweet Sandy demo

Learned a few fabulous tips: 
- Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. 
- Experiment. You can always paint over the work, or turn it 90 or 180 degrees.
- Color gets all the credit. Value does all the work.
- Quinacridone red and white make a luscious sky color.
- Learned to make earthy taupes that mix well with oranges and greens.
- Unexpected color pops brilliantly when placed next to a neutral.

Play time!!! I burned the candle at both ends. Up early for breakfast then Nancy picked me up and we laughed our way to class. We watched Sandy and were endlessly inspired, painted with amazing painters all day, enjoyed al fresco lunches, went gallery gazing, took walks on the reservoir, dined out, laughed and shared, enjoyed home cooked meals and even attended Brian's running club's annual gala in San Francisco the last night. On top of that, I met ad pal Roberta Taub Abel for a delightful dinner, too! She drove into Danville from Berkley to see me and catch up. What fun.

 

 Yummy home-cooked meal at Nancy and Brian's. Delightful and healthy. Oh the stories I must have told.
Nancy and me after painting, shopping and drinking. Art buddies for life!

 Nancy and Brian on gala night in San Francisco. So delighted to be their guest. We danced all night!
 Dinner with Roberta Taub Abel. We worked at Leo Burnett and JWT together in Chicago 
too many years ago. So many stories and so many common friends!!

 Sad departure. Glorious views!!

Thank you, Nancy!! What a dear, dear friend!! Lot's of love to you! XOXO

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Fall Colors ©

©2013 Debbi Smith Rourke
Fall Colors 12"x12"
Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas / unframed
$400 + $50 sh/h in Contiguous US
Contact me for purchase
I'm re-posting this from last fall. It is part of my Side by Side series with photographer Bill Oakey. We had a joint exhibition of new works last October. Look forward to more collaboration and more fun projects.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Cedar in Tall Grass ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Cedar in Tall Grass 8"x10"
Oil on canvas board
SOLD
I painted this Monday and just love it. Snapped a pic of this cedar in some tall winter grass on our way back from San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. Love applying a few simplification techniques I learned from Sandy Ostrau. Also love the mixture of brushwork and palette knife application. So much fun!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Snow Shed ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Snow Shed  6"x6"
Oil on 1.5" wide gallery-wrapped canvas
$150 + sh/h in contiguous US
Contact me for purchase

I painted this from I photo I took on a delightful winter excursion near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Love the little shed tucked into the trees. So enjoying painting snow scenes, even though I am totally ready for hot weather! My feet are cold!!!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Beach Time ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Beach Time 8"x8"x1.5"
Oil on 1.5" wide gallery-wrapped canvas / unframed (no frame needed)
I painted this from a photo I took while vacationing at on the Mayan Riviera a couple of years ago at Grand Velas. It is an abstracted or simplified representation using techniques I learned from the fabulous California artist and generous instructor Sandy Ostrau. I love my beach time and this painting takes me back to this memorable adventure.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Swirl ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Swirl  48"x36"  
Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas
Contact me for purchase 
This is the right side of the diptych I recently started. It is now hanging in our entry. Yay!!! But not for long. Hoping it goes to a collector soon as it IS available for sale. Here's how the diptych looks installed. 

 
"Swish and Swirl" diptych
Oil on two 48"x36" gallery-wrapped canvases (48" x 72" together)
Contact me for purchase

Monday, February 17, 2014

Swish ©

© 2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Swish  48" x 36"
Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas
Contact me to purchase


 Diptych of "Swish" and "Swirl" 

Oil on two 48"x36" gallery-wrapped canvases (48" x 72" together) 
Contact me for purchase

I did two studies last year for this diptych titled "Rising Bubbles" and "Colorful Currents." This larger version of Rising Bubbles is more about movement – clearly there are no bubbles. I just totally got immersed in the process and the flow of moving paint around in large areas. Was a blast! Came together rather quickly. The study helped, but I was definitely in a groove that felt GOOD. There appears to be a heart emerging, and I recently realized these are chakra colors. Maybe it's a combined aura!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Trial Islands Lighthouse ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
Trial Islands Lighthouse 8" x 10" 
Oil on canvas panel
SOLD

I recently took a workshop from Sandy Ostrau in the San Francisco Bay Area. She paints intriguing abstracted landscape, water scape and figurative works. This is the first painting I've completed since my return from the workshop where I used more of her simplification techniques and some color-mixing ideas. WAS SO MUCH FUN!! These islands are near Victoria, BC and I have wanted to paint this scene for a couple of years. So glad I waited!!

Friday, January 31, 2014

Sprinkles ©

©2014 Debbi Smith Rourke
"Sprinkles" 8"x10" 
Oil on canvas panel / unframed
$250 + sh/h in contiguous US
Contact me for purchase


My first donut painting! I have been teaching the most talented 10-year old girl in my still life classes. She loves donuts. She was so excited when I had a set-up for her with this donut, sans coffee mug. She painted a more overhead shot. Was so sweet, I decided to paint it myself, though this is a more straight on view and I added the mug. Pretty fun. And I bought and extra donut for my hubby, which he loved. He named this, by the way. :-)

Saturday, December 28, 2013

SOLD! Thank you!


"Thistles" ©Debbi Smith Rourke  20"x20"
"Inspired Dream" ©Debbi Smith Rourke 30"x24"
"Winter Holiday" ©Debbi Smith Rourke 8"x10"
"Spring Snowfall" ©Debbi Smith Rourke 11"x14"
"Illinois Gold" ©Debbi Smith Rourke  8"x10"
"Sweetie Pie" ©Debbi Smith Rourke 8"x10"
"Two Peppers"  ©Debbi Smith Rourke  6"x 8"
"Jamaica Mon"  ©Debbi Smith Rourke  8"x10"
These are some of my favorite oil paintings that were sold in 2013. Yay! So appreciate each and every one of my art patrons, from this year and through the years. Your support and encouragement mean a great deal. I'm also now leasing artwork and teaching art classes to adults and children 9 to 12 years of age, here in my home studio. Contact me if interested. More inspired work to come so stay tuned. All the best to your and yours in 2014.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Teal Hills © / In-Home Studio Holiday Sale

©2013 Debbi Smith Rourke
Teal Hills 24"x 24"
Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas
SOLD

I am enjoying painting abstracted landscape imagery, particularly of Lake Austin. Unexpected surprises arise when I explore techniques such as multiple layers, interesting new color mixes and a variety of textures.

This Friday and Saturday, December 13 and 14th, I am hosting a Holiday Art Sale in my home and home studio. Email, text or FB message me for my address. The inside of our home is decked out for the season and my paintings are hanging throughout the house — an homage to myself! If you are in Austin, pop by! 
Home Studio in NW Austin
Friday, 12/13: Noon to 5 pm
Saturday, 12/14: 11am to 5 pm

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Winter Holiday II ©

©2013 Debbi Smith Rourke
"Winter Holiday II" 10"x8"
Oil on canvas, framed in natural wood and black frame
$350 framed + sh/h
Contact me for purchase

I decided to try a vertical of this photo I snapped from my trip to Santa Fe in December 2011. My friend Nancy Hartley and her husband Brian took us to visit some artists friends who lived just outside of town in a winter wonderland. We had a lovely visit with Bunny Tobias and Charles Greely and toured their home and gallery. Special memories. I also have a horizontal painting of this same scene.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Autumn Gold ©

©2013 Debbi Smith Rourke
Autumn Gold 30"x24"
Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas 
NFS
Bill Oakey and I have enjoyed collaborating in our artistic endeavors since 2007. This year's "Side by Side" work offers new views into this theme of parallelism. My fascination with abstracting the essence of a scene is more pronounced in this years' body of work. We also have some solo pieces in our October exhibit, so some of my purely abstract works will also be exhibited.
Autumn Gold was painted from a photograph Bill shot in Illinois. When you see this in person, it feels like you can just step right into the scene. It feels to me as if the natural world is inviting us to venture beyond the open meadow and into the mystic woods. Aren't you curious what lies ahead? I am. I want to just slip away into the magic.