Original oil painting Blue Shutters and Flowers palette knife fine art by Karen Tarlton

Hope to bring some sunshine and joy into your Monday work week!

Blue Shutters

12x12

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Original oil painting Tuscany Sunshine palette knife fine art by Karen Tarlton

Spring is officially here!

Flowers are blooming, and birds are singing.

Enjoying the sunshine and fresh breeze today!

18x18

Tuscany Sunshine

Oil

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Original oil paintings by Karen Tarlton - Italy Sunshine

 Two 18x18 favorite Sunshine landscapes

"When you feel a peaceful joy, that is when you are near truth". -Rumi
Hope you all have a peaceful joy kind of day.
"Garden Sunshine"

Palette knife and oil is all I use for my 

paintings. This is the best way to get clean, bright, rich color.

The secret to real vibrant paintings I believe.

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Original oil painting Tuscany Field of Dreams by Karen Tarlton

Field of Dreams

24x24

Oil on canvas

Doesn't need a frame since it's painted on stretched canvas, but it does look lovely in this black and silver floater frame!

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Original oil painting Sunflower Sunrise by Karen Tarlton

Love a sunrise?

How about one with rows of golden sunflowers in the foreground?

Tuscany color is delicious! And pink and gold are my new favorite combo of color!

close up of thick texture!

8x10

Sunflower Sunrise

Oil/palette knife painting

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Original oil painting Provence Sunshine by Karen Tarlton

16x20

oil

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A sneak preview of what's to come!

"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

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Beach time and Poppy Fields by Karen

12x16

Poppy Fields

Oil

Whether it's the glow of  the sun on the field

or the vines growing in the old stone building, ...

it's all good.  

It's all Italy!!!

After painting today we took a little break!

 Sitting on the beach chairs
watching the setting sun
holding hands and reminiscing
how it all begun 

Our lives are so crazy busy,

We actually forgot that it was our 23rd wedding anniversary last week!

It's ok we'll celebrate today instead.

 

 Being a bit of a workaholic

Sometimes I have to be reminded by my husband seated in the above photo.....

Pause to go out for a breath of fresh air.

Remember to stop and smell the roses

Take time to walk Barefoot in the Sand...

 

 We took a break from the hectic business of moving into a new place.

The pace of everything we do is sometimes overwhelming and there's nothing like a bit of 

BEACH TIME  to put life in perspective!

(Ok just an hour or two but we needed it)

Painting this guy tomorrow I think...

Original oil painting Tuscany Vineyard by Karen Tarlton

Tuscany Vineyard

20x24

Oil

SOLD

I haven't painted a vineyard in awhile and Italy's vineyards are so beautiful and fun to paint!  Lots of texture and broken color with thick impasto oil.  

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and has a great weekend.

“I dream my paintings, and then they paint my dream.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

Tuscany Poppy Field by Karen Tarlton

24x30

Oil

Tuscany Poppy Field

Every time I paint Tuscany Italy, my heart experiences an intense feeling of calmness and peace. I know exactly that this feeling comes from the relaxed atmosphere of this serene part of Italy and it's beauty is intensified because of this sense of calm.

This painting is still wet but available for purchase!

A few of my favorite new works!

Tuscany!!!

12x36

Oil

Rich palette knife painting in warm sunny color!

I really love how this one turned out and love this new size canvas!

Title: Walking the Dog

16x20

Oil

SOLD

Walking the dog always helps me clear my head and get my creative juices flowing. Nothing like excersize to lift the spirit and send me creating! This morning I thought I had finished a painting. I Left to play some tennis and when I returned to the painting, I realized it wasn't quite complete..... I really finished it with another layer of paint everywhere!

"A painting that is well composed is half finished." ~Pierre Bonnard

Tuscany Poppyfield Tapestry of Color

SOLD

Title: Tuscany Poppy Field Tapestry of Color
Size: 20 x 24
Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

"A good artist has less time than ideas."

I certainly feel this quote! I have so many ideas in my head which I want to paint, that the only real calm I feel is while painting one of them!

This painting is currently available on Etsy and is stunning in person. I hope you have a chance to take a look at the close ups and amazingly thick textures. Many layers of paint and drying time imbetween are carefully applied here to generate this impressionistic, painterly piece! I am loving painting these sunny Italian landscapes and I hope you enjoy it too!

Tuscany Dreaming

Title: Tuscany Dreaming
Size: 20 x 24
Medium: oil on stretched canvas

This painting is SOLD

THIS PAINTING:
One of my Italy favorites! Filled with color and detail...I used all my favorite umber colors, which set off the brilliant blue shutters perfectly. Terra cotta pots overflowing with flowers on a sunny day! I hope you enjoy this piece of Tuscany!

Tuscany Flowers

Title: Tuscany Flowers
Size: 18 x 24
Medium: oil on stretched canvas

SOLD

PAINTING:
Italy is just beautiful and looking at it through a flower filled doorway is like a gateway to paradise. I used all my favorite warm Tuscan colors and a lot of extra thick impasto knifework. Painting a scene like this makes me nostalgic to go back to visit but I'm going to have to wait awhile for another trip. In the meantime I'll keep painting favorite memories.
TODAY:
All boxes are unpacked....in less than a week and things are getting back to normal. I'm painting in a great new studio with lots of large windows and light and lots of space. It's a wonderful space so I expect I'll be able to paint wonderful pieces here. Thanks for checking in!

Colors of Tuscany

SOLD

Title: Colors of Tuscany

Size: 16 x 20

Medium: oil on gallery wrapped stretched canvas

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

Today was a drizzly rainy and cooler day so I felt like painting a bit of Tuscan sunshine. I layered many layers of deeper warmer golds on top of thinner layers of greens and cooler blues. I usually make the warmer, highlight colors the thickest and this painting has an extremely rich chunky texture that you will want to reach out and touch! I love Tuscany and the rich tapestry of colors it offers. Click to enlarge and check it out on my eBay auction to bid!

Tuscany Italy Chianti Vineyard

Me on our last Italy trip....ready for winetasting in the 500 year old building behind that ancient olive tree to my left. What a beautiful vineyard we stayed at!

SOLD

Title: Tuscany Italy Chianti Vineyard

Size: 16 x 20

Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

I love to paint a vineyard and I used a brush and a knife and all my favorite landscape colors on this original. Light and shadow are captured with warm highlights on top of cooler colors, and I love to use a brilliant cobalt blue sky with the warm colors of hills and vines. The complimentary colors next to eachother like the red and green in the vines appear brighter because they are alongside eacher.

Italian vineyards are just beautiful and so full of color, they just call to be painted.

Tuscany Flowers

Title: Tuscany Flowers
Size: 20 x 24
Medium: oil on stretched canvas

THE PAINTING:
I am in the mood for sunny landscapes lately and summer sun in Tuscany would be fantastic right now. We had sun today! Everyone came out and we shoveled a ton of snow and it looks like Tahoe in our yard, the snow piles are so high! Painting a summer landscape with lush flowers and open skies helped make the day perfect. I used a warm red and green palette and put the paint on thick. I hope you enjoy it and it helps warm your spirit too.

Going on auction tonight at a very low price.