941 Golden Pears

The pears were smaller in size than usual, and therefore fit nicely into my oak leaf bowl, made by Wisconsin artist, Jean Wells.  Jean is not only a wonderful potter, but she gives selflessly to her community, having initiated Milwaukee's Empty Bowls event to feed the hungry, and donating so many of her homemade bowls for the event. 

For  this painting,  I used a dark background in my set up with dramatic front lighting.  The edges of the pears sort of blended into each other, and that was what I was going for.  I'm still learning how the water soluble paints behave, so it took several days with drying time to avoid a dirty mess.

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/941-golden-pears/766236

940 Lured In

I know absolutely nothing about fishing, but I do love to paint collections of things, so this photo called out to me.  I found it on a copyright free site for artists, but there was no person named to give credit to.

This painting is not framed, as it may appear.  The "frame" is painted to give the feeling that the lures are in a shadow box.

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/940-lured-in/765494

939 Quick Change Artist

We picked a beautiful pepper from the rooftop garden and I thought it would be fun to paint.  The goofy thing changed colors right before my eyes from mostly green to mostly red.  I came back a day later to finish and had to revise the whole painting.  Ahhh, Mother Nature's trickery!

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/939-quick-change-artist/757978

938 Love Will Keep Us Together

Another fun painting unfortunately with inaccurate background color in the photo.

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/938-love-will-keep-us-together/757352

937 Triple Play

This was a fun little painting to make but I've had great difficulty getting an accurate background color in the photo.  It's really a pale yellow.

Door County, Wisconsin is ALL about cherries.  Cherries are made into and decorate just about anything you can think of , and I am quite sure greatly contribute to the economy.

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/937-triple-play/757022

936 The Environmentalist

Via Anera's February 11 Facebook video, I was introduced to this 12-year old Palestinian, Hatem, who lives in Burj Shemali Refugee camp in South Lebanon.  I was taken aback by his poise and enthusiasm in explaining how Anera works to promote environmentalism and good hygiene in Lebanon.  Hatem attends one of UNRWA's schools and in addition to conducting a tour of his school, he explained that Anera helped clean the area in just 3 days, and collected 60,000 bottle caps, which were later used in an art installation.

Anera conducts a series of awareness sessions at schools "to change attitudes and behaviors around littering, pollution, recycling, sorting waste at source and composting.  Anera has designed and rolled out a year-long plan, through which these core themes are communicated to young children in an interactive and fun way.  The long term goal is to help shape the youth in Lebanon regarding the environment."

This program is funded by UNICEF and implemented by Anera.  As you may know, I am devoted to Anera and the great work they do in SO many ways to improve lives of refugees in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Jordan.  This is one of nearly three dozen portraits I have painted of Palestinian Refugee children in my effort to raise awareness of Anera's good work, which I firmly believe in.

Please consider making a donation to Anera, and mention The Innocents Project.  www.anera.org

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/936-the-environmentalist/756770

935 Happy Every Which Way

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my rooftop garden of nasturtiums, an edible flower and leaves.  They are such a happy flower.  The vase is a favorite from Off the Wheel Pottery in Door County, and was made using the sgraffito method.

I really enjoyed setting this scene up in my studio, although the nasturtiums are a little hard to manage.

I wonder if you are tired of seeing nasturtiums.

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/935-happy-every-which-way/756210