Suncatcher

 "Suncatcher" is my fourth painting for "Square Off", a painting project I'm doing with my artist son, Shane Rebenschied.  Before I took my first painting class at the age of 25,  I tried making a large wall hanging of light-through-trees using heavy embroidery thread and fabric. I've painted different images of light-through-trees over the years. For some reason, it still intrigues me.  All the 6"x 6" x 5/8" paintings in our Square Off project are available for US$ 200 which includes shipping from New Zealand.  Click on this link to view or purchase; 

Suncatcher

6" x 6" x 5/8" oil on gallery wrapped canvas, unframed

US$ 200 including shipping

This second piece is my son's fourth painting for the painting project.  Shane's project paintings are also on 6 x 6 x 5/8 gallery wrapped canvases.  To view or purchase his work, click here.

"The Suffocating Sadness of Sometimes"

6" x 6" x 5/8" oil on gallery wrapped canvas, unframed

US$ 200 including shipping

Weather

This is the third piece in Square Off, a painting challenge that I'm doing with my artist son, Shane Rebenschied. We're painting three pieces a week for a month, for a total of 12. We're both working on the same 6" x 6" x 5/8" gallery wrapped canvas so they can be hung side by side. Perhaps the name of the project should have been Pretty Good Paintings For A Pretty Good Price, as they're only US$200 each (unframed) which includes shipping from New Zealand.

We both have personal goals for the project. I've been hoping to push things a bit - paint a little looser with softer edges while exploring new colours. However, I'm finding it very hard to break the habits that I've developed over 45 years of painting. With this little oil, I used thicker brush strokes to show atmospheric perfective. 

Weather by Adele Earnshaw

6" x 6" x 5/6" oil on gallery wrapped canvas, unframed

US$ 200 includes shipping

This is Shane's third painting for the project.

Off To The Market by Shane Rebenschied

6" x 6" x 5/8" oil on gallery wrapped canvas

US$ 200 includes shipping

To view or purchase click on this link

Down River - #2 of "Square Off" Painting Project

 "Down River", 6 x 6 x .6 oil on gallery wrapped canvas. This is #2 in the Square Off project I'm doing with my son. All the little guys we're painting are available for US$200 each including shipping from NZ, unframed. There's a buy button on this link

My goals for this project are to evolve by loosening up, using new colours, work on brushwork, edges and techniques, but I've wiped off more paintings in the past two weeks than I have in the past year. I've intentionally picked landscapes that I've painted before so that I can compare them to the previous image. I start each piece with big juicy brush strokes but I end up with a painting that doesn't look much different than my usual work. Perhaps what they say about teaching an old dog new tricks is true? Today I'm reaching for my very biggest brush and will paint with nothing but. *sigh* I will persevere. Stay tuned.

Down River  

#2 Square Off by Adele Earnshaw

6 x 6 x .6  oil on gallery wrapped canvas, unframed

SOLD

These are our first paintings for SQUARE OFF - a painting project that my son, artist Shane Rebenschied, and I are doing today.  

My first piece is titled "Thaw" It is available for US$200 which includes shipping and tariff from New Zealand.  Starting today, we will release three a week for a total of twelve. There are purchase buttons on our websites; links below each paintings.  

First come first served!

"Thaw" 

 #1 Square Off by Adele Earnshaw

USD $200, shipping included

6" x 6" oil on 5/8" deep gallery wrapped canvas, unframed

If you would like to purchase this painting, please click on this link for my website

"Crosswise"  

#1 Square Off - by Shane Rebenschied

USD $200, shipping included

6" x 6" oil on 5/8" deep gallery wrapped canvas, unframed

If you would like to purchase this painting, please go to Shane's website

Across the Bay

Across the Bay

30 x 30 oil on panel

SOLD 

I've done several larger paintings of Poaka or New Zealand pied stilts. The dainty birds are common where I live in New Zealand's Bay of Islands.  When a king tide completely covers the beach near my home, I see them waiting it out in the car park, along with the chunky oyster catchers.  Perhaps it is time to paint another oil of these beautiful birds. 

Reflection

Another oldie-but-goodie.  Mouser, my friends' cat, passed away a few years ago.  She would sit quietly looking at the wall, so was the perfect model. I painted her many times. RIP Mouser.

Mouser

12 x 9 oil on panel

SOLD 

Call It A Day

My home port of Opua is a ten minute ferry ride to the small town of Kororāreka Russell, New Zealand's first capital. In the early 1800s, before New Zealand became a nation, Kororāreka was a whaling town, called 'the Hell Hole of the Pacific'. It is said that every business was either a bar or a brothel. Now the capital is Wellington and Kororāreka Russell is a pretty little town on the bay, a major tourist attraction in The Bay of Islands. 

"Call It A Day" is a sunset from Russell's vantage point. The painting can be seen at Bay of Islands Trading Company on Cass Street. 

Call it a Day

7 x 7 oil on panel

Available at Bay of Islands Trading Company, Russell, New Zealand

Bling

Bling

10 x 8 oil on panel

SOLD

Somewhere in the West

"Somewhere in the West" is an 8 x 8 oil on panel, can be seen at Santa Ysabel Art Gallery in Santa Ysabel, North San Diego County in California. There's information below on an upcoming exhibit at the Santa Ysabel Gallery.  I'd love to attend but I'll be there in spirit. It's a long way from Opua, New Zealand to Santa Ysabel, California! 

Somewhere in the West

8 x 8 oil on panel

Drift Away

 I painted this piece a year or two ago. It has since sold at Horton Hayes Fine Art Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina.  

Drift Away

15.5 x 7.5 oil on panel

SOLD

Oldie but Goodie

This small oil was sold a few years ago. When I lived in Arizona, I taught several painting workshops at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum where I had the privilege of staying in a casita on the grounds of the museum. Going to sleep each night to the sounds of coyotes yipping (and a scorpion sharing the shower with me) was quite an experience. 

Perhaps I need to paint more cacti...

Sonoran Gems

8x8 oil on panel

Wish I Might

Wish I Might

8 x 8 oil on panel

SOLD 

A New Painting Project!

My son, Shane Rebenschied, has challenged me to a painting project. He's the boss for the project but all we've agreed upon at this point is that it won't be a painting-a-day (maybe 3 a week?) and we'll work on 6 x 6 gallery wrapped canvases. At this time, we're unsure of subject matter or the total number of paintings.

Aren't I supposed to be enjoying my golden years? Oh well - as I've realised over the past five years, I'd rather be an old artist that just an old lady and most days, I am in the studio anyway. I guess I'll just be in there a bit longer.

Stay tuned!

New Zealand Tui - 8x6 oil on panel

This oil study is from a previous painting project and has sold

“I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”

― Jack London

 Silent Witness

10 x 8 oil on panel

This recent oil has just arrived at Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona, Arizona.  

Aspen in progress

This little piece isn't finished, therefore it isn't titled. It's an 8 x 8 oil, work in progress. When I'm not sure if a painting is finished, I turn it to the wall for a week or two, then will take a fresh look. Sometimes it has miraculously improved while against the wall. At other times I can see that it needs to be tweaked, or occasionally, it goes straight into the bin.

Aspen - work in progress

8 x 8 oil on panel

Free Rein

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I like to paint series of subject matter. This oil is one of four 16 x 8 yachts that I painted for Horton Hayes Fine Art Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. Horton Hayes has represented me for perhaps 18 years. My home town, Opua, is in the Bay of Islands in the Far North of New Zealand's North Island. There are 144 islands total, some being rocky outcrops and a couple with a few occupants. It is a mecca for sailing enthusiasts. Many local friends have boats and will spend a few days out on the water, anchoring overnight in sheltered bays. I was sailing with friends out on the bay when I saw this yacht as it was leaving New Zealand for the Islands. But nowadays, I only sail when the sea is like a duck pond. There is nothing worse than being seasick. 

A Following Sea

 Since moving home to New Zealand, I've been painting a lot of marine-inspired pieces. I live in Opua, New Zealand's northernmost port where yachties sail in to clear customs and immigration. Besides the international community of yachts that come and go, New Zealanders are avid sailors so there is no shortage of inspiring subject matter. 

A Following Sea

30 x 40 Oil on stretched canvas 

SOLD

Art Genes

 I'm not aware of any artists in my family prior to me. My father explains that as he and his sister were children of the great depression and the Napier Earthquake (1931 New Zealand) there was no time for art - they had to get on with the serious business of earning a living. And though my mother's family was more comfortable, there are no artists on that side either. But mathematicians seem to produce mathematical children and musicians generally produce musical offspring so I assume it is the same with artists. My son, Shane Rebenschied, started painting in watercolour while in high school and by his junior year, set his sights on Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He was definitely influenced by our artist friend, Joe Garcia, an Art Center graduate but also by me. My dear friend, artist Lindsay Scott , was also part of our lives when he was young. There was no escaping it. When working on a painting, I would often ask for his input; 'if you were a bird, where would you be in this painting'?  We discussed composition and colour while driving. "If you cut out a piece of that cloud and put it on white paper, what colour would it be'?  So is it nature or nurture?

Shane graduated from Art Center College of Design with a degree in illustration. He worked for The House of Blues and another company or two before deciding to hang up his shingle to become a freelance illustrator. He has been doing book covers for the major publishers ever since. You can see his work here. Shane has continued to paint on the side and like many illustrators, may shift to gallery work as he gets older.  His new website is up and running and will have a print section shortly.  And yes, there are other artists in the family. My granddaughter graduated with a degree in textile design and works for a university with arty digital fabrication. My sister, Joanne Hanson, is a painter. Her granddaughter is also a gifted artist and so on. Below are some of Shane's paintings. Click on the images to enlarge them. 

Fruit & Floral

Original 6 x 8 oil studies by Shane Rebenschied 

Congregation on Cuba Street 12" x 24" 

Original oil by Shane Rebenschied

Empty Promises

When painting smaller pieces, I like to do a series of images that are of a similar subject matter. When painting my evening sky oils. I usually paint four, all the same size because I like the way they look when they're hanging together as a collection. 

This oil is the second in a series of four of my latest evening sky pieces.  All four have just arrived at Mountain Trails Gallery, located in beautiful Tlaquepaque in Sedona, Arizona and should be hanging on the gallery walls in the next day or two.  I lived in Sedona for 35 years and well remember the hot, dry summer months, waiting for the July monsoons to start.  At the beginning of monsoon season, the dark, foreboding storm clouds produce little more than lightning for the first few weeks. The wait for rain was the inspiration for my little oil; 'Empty Promises".  Click on the image to see the details and brushwork. 

Empty Promises

8 x 8 (203 x 203mm) oil on panel

A Place Like This

I'm hooked on painting these little evening sky oils. When painting them, I rely more on memory than on photographic reference, which I use only for colour, so they come off the brush more spontaneously.  They're usually 8 x 8 (203 x 203mm) and framed simply in a flat profile, 2.1" wide black frame. This piece was inspired by the miles of juniper and piňon between Sedona and Cottonwood, Arizona but it could be many places. 

This little piece is one of 8 new pieces that have just arrived at Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona, Arizona. 

                                                                         A Place Like This

8 x 8 (203 x 203mm) oil on panel

People ask if it is a hassle to ship work to galleries in another country? Not really, because I use New Zealand Post to mail them. However there are size limits so I keep the paintings on the smaller size. I can ship larger oils but to keep shipping costs down, I paint on stretched canvas, remove the finished canvas from the stretcher bars and ship it in a tube. 

Kōrero - Little Blue Penguins.

Please click on the painting to see the full length of "Kōrero - Little Blue Penguins".

I'm back! It has been a long time since I've posted on my blog. I am long overdue for an update. I am bothered by the upsurge of AI generated 'art' that is flooding the internet, including sites such as Etsy, that has been a reputable site to buy original artwork.  So perhaps it is even more important for me to get back to posting on my blog to regularly connect with those who appreciate original art. I do not use AI to create my paintings, from conception, composition and application of the paint.

Almost fourteen years ago, I moved back to my homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand where I have been happily living in the little port-town of Opua on the Far North regioin of New Zealand's North Island. The Bay of Islands is home to Korora - the little blue penguins in this painting. They're cute little guys that come ashore at night to nest in rocky crevices, under tree roots and even under some of the buildings along the waterfront. 

I continue to paint and supply galleries both in the US and here in New Zealand. You can see more work and information on galleries on my website. 

Kōrero - Little Blue Penguins

15" x 30"  Original oil on canvas

Available at Bay of Islands Trading Company, Russell, New Zealand 

(this piece has sold)