flowers

Hollyhock

Posted by Cranford

I suffer from severe depressive disorder, bipolar 1, bipolar 2, and complex PTSD, as well as the after effects of six strokes, 50 TIAs, and a seizure or two. The COVID quarantine did not help matters. I, like several of my artist friends, found myself severely blocked. During a time, when one would think we could be free from social distractions to spend more time producing art, instead, almost nothing.

An artist friend in Georgia proposed an exchange. She asked me to paint Hollyhocks and mail it to her. In exchange, she would send me one of her paintings. We did not discuss what she would paint for me.

This painting is on a piece of canvas drop-cloth that I stretched on 11″ x 36″ bars. I had attempted to paint three other paintings on this canvas over the last year. Since this is only one plant, I hope she won’t be disappointed. Technically, it is not “hollyhocks”, but just a lonely hollyhock.

She is very pleased with it! Her name is Suzane Jordan Carty. She painted a lovely 8″ x 10″ abstract painting and a ~3″paper mache’ nest with three small paper mache’ eggs. They are faintly iridescent.

Poppies

Posted by Cranford
Yellow Poppies
(laid out on our kitchen table)

This is a painting of what they call “Yellow Poppies”. I guess it is because some of them are yellow and their centers are yellow, not black. The petals range from orangey red to pale yellow. I painted it on five canvasses: four 10″ x 20″ arranged in leftward pinwheel around a 6″ square. They are to be hung with 2″ spaces between them, which makes this piece 32″ x 32″ overall.

Price: $100 plus postage

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Spiderwort

Posted by Cranford
Spiderwort painting on four 14" square canvasses

This painting is an extreme close-up of a small Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) blossom. It is one of 75 species in the Spiderwort genus. It is native to the East coast of the US. It is a beautiful, and easy to grow and maintain addition to just about any garden in Pennsylvania. The bees and butterflies will thank you for it. I painted this on four 14″ x 14″ panels with 2″ gaps. Perhaps it mimics the effect of viewing the blossom through the window of a tiny dollhouse.

The painting comes with Command strips affixed and instructions for hanging.

Price: $200 plus postage

SOLD

Wild Violets

Posted by Cranford
Wild Violets

Many people consider wild violets to be a weed. We enjoy them and plant them! They are wonderful, native perennials that provide sustenance from early spring through fall to bees, rabbits, and other insects and small animals that are essential to a healthy ecosystem. Plus, they add delightful spots of color and bits of softness to a lawn. These tiny blossoms are scattered all across the back yard of the house in Perkasie where we rent an apartment. Each bloom is less than an inch across, so this painting is an enlarged view.

This painting is acrylic on 14″ x 14″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted purple, so framing is optional.

Price: $100 plus postage. SOLD

Nightlily

Posted by Cranford
Nightlily

This is a painting of a ruffled pink daylily from our yard on Front St., Souderton. It is painted in black and white on a 24″ x 24″ gallery wrapped canvas. The edges are painted charcoal gray. The title, date and signature are on the edge, giving the flower a stark, uncluttered look.

Price: $200 plus postage.

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Hope #7 Guns? / Peace?

Posted by Cranford
Hope #7 Guns? / Peace?

The US spends a huge portion of its gross domestic product on its military. Its #1 export is arms. We are the number one arms dealer in the world, including the prime seller to terrorists like Yemen, ISIS, Al Qaeda and Saudi. Of course, the US is the largest terrorist nation in the world with a military budget larger than the next ten nations combined, routine torture, preëmptive war, a congress which openly discusses terrorist tactics such as mining a civilian harbor resulting in the sinking of an ally’s ship.

We hope in guns to the point that it is impoverishing us. We say we cannot afford universal healthcare, yet we spend more than what that would cost,  every year, on weapons systems that the Pentagon doesn’t even want. Three of them don’t even work! Al Qaeda was created by the CIA. ISIS was created by Congress. Sen. John McCain helped promote it! There are photos of him with the founders, and he is giving his support. It is all about selling our weapons, to keep the rich arms dealers wealthy. It has nothing to do with peace or security. So if you put your hope in guns, you will be put to shame. There are revolutionists who admire these weapons and find them attractive, because electoral politics have proven to be hopeless. Both, so-called major parties are in bed with Wall St., Big Pharma, and the military industrial complex.

So this image is a hope against hope; that we would learn to disarm, demilitarize, re-prioritize, and spend our resources to support life, instead of spending our lives supporting arms.

I positioned the AK47 and AR15 in the form of a Cross and painted them red, white and blue. Most Americans are deluded, thinking that the US was founded as a Christian country and fights for democracy and human rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. The country was founded on religious bigotry, opportunism and genocide. It has been at war continually since its founding; many times with multiple countries.

Painting is acrylic on 10″ x 10″ stretched canvas.

Price: $30 reduced to $10 plus postage

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Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Posted by Cranford
Ruby-throated Hummingbird

I painted this Ruby-throated Hummingbird on coarse canvas to echo the one I painted on the cinder block wall as part of the Birds of Perkasie mural that I painted the summer of 2018. This is Bethann’s favorite. I painted the Beebalm in shades of lavender instead of pink. This is closer to the color ours was. This is now pasted on one of the bedroom walls, where I live. I was on the hallway wall of the house we rented on Ridge Ave. I simply used warm water and a sponge to peel it off without damaging it or the wall. The clay based, wallpaper paste remains water-soluble forever.

The painting is acrylic on a 25-3/4″ diameter canvas.

Price: $200 plus postage.

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Butterfly Garden

Posted by Cranford
Butterfly Garden

This painting was inspired by our visit to Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery. They have a beautiful butterfly garden that contains all of these plants plus several more in a dense, four foot tall jumble. We have all of the plants portrayed, in our yard in front of the little house we rent. They are goldenrod, milkweed, boneset, butterfly weed, native bee balm, oxeye daisies and red lobelia.

Several types of bees were all over the blooms, this summer, along with about a dozen types of butterflies.

It is also available on a deck of cards and soon on other things from our Zazzle store. Click here to learn more:
Butterfly Garden Playing Cards
by ShoutForJoyNet

Painting is acrylic on 30″ x 40″ stretched canvas.

Price: $300 plus postage.

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Coneflower

Posted by Cranford
Coneflower

This is not a natural color for a coneflower unless one is looking at a yellow coneflower through black light sunglasses, naturally.

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted black.

Price: $50 plus postage

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Echinacea

Posted by Cranford
Echinacea

Echinacea is commonly known as coneflower. It is native to where we live in southeastern PA. By native, I mean it was here before European settlers arrived. Yes, it is the same Echinacea that is in your cold remedy to help dry up sniffles. They grow and spread quite nicely in poor soil, as long as there is good sun and drainage. They are my kind of flower, as they thrive on neglect and attract all sorts of beautiful birds, butterflies, moths and bees.

Painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $60 plus postage.

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Bumblebee on a Virginia Rose

Posted by Cranford
Bumble bee on a Virginia rose

I painted this bumblebee on a native Virginia Rose based on a photo from our garden from last summer.

Bumblebees are now endangered in US (regardless of what the so-called president Trump says) due to the use of Monsanto’s RoundUp, mono-culture farming, and the supplanting of native plants with exotics.

We replaced 30% of our lawn with native plants and always see lots of bumbles and other bees, along with butterflies, moths and birds of all types. Native plants are those that were in the area before Europeans arrived about 400 years ago.

The painting is 6″ x 6″ acrylic on stretched canvas, so is about life-size.

Price: $40 plus postage

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Stoplight

Posted by Cranford
Stoplight Daylily

This is a stylized painting of a Stoplight Daylily. It is obvious how this variety earned this name. It is red, yellow and green just like the traffic lights.

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $65 plus postage

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Purple Suspenders

Posted by Cranford
Purple Suspenders daylily

This is a stylized painting of a Purple Suspenders Daylily from our yard last Summer. There is a huge ladybug on a leaf in the upper right. This variety blooms late in the season with 7″ to 8″ blooms.

The painting is acrylic on 6″ x 6″ stretched canvas.

Price: $30 plus postage

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Peace Valley Sentinel

Posted by Cranford
Peace Valley Sentinel daylily

This daylily stands guard at the front of our yard and again at the edge of our patio with its vibrant, hot pink petals and luminous, deep yellow throat. On a sunny day, they almost seem electric. Roland Teich of Teich & McColgan Daylilies & Hostas bred this variety, so it is Hilltown / Peace Valley born, Roland & Robin’s place is just a half block off of Perkasie’s Callowhill, too.

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $100 plus postage.

Fill out the form below so we can arrange payment and delivery. I take PayPal, so all credit and debit cards are accepted.

Yin & Yang

Posted by Cranford
yin
“Yin”
"Yang"
“Yang”

I decided to just have some fun with the paint last Wednesday and paint a lighter subject, so I painted two daylilies. I used a limited number of colors. “Yin” is based on a Peace Valley Sentinel Daylily, with a Kelly Green and Green Apple split background. On the “Yang” the colors are reversed. I think they make a fun, colorful set. They are each 12″x12″ and are just fine informal, unframed for a sun room or at a beach house, any place you want to spread a little cheer!

Starving artist price: $50 for the pair, plus shipping.

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Daylily by Numberless

Posted by Cranford
Daylily by Numberless

Daylily blossoms only last for one day, then wilt and die, hence the name. This blossom bloomed over three years ago along the driveway, two residences ago. I photographed it, then processed it in Photoshop to reduce the number of shades of color used in the photo to about 40. I further reduced this number down to 22 shades of paint. Of them, only the yellow, white and two of the shades of green were ready out of a can or tube. The remaining 18 I custom blended. I painted it in the style of the paint by number paintings we did when we were kids, only there were no numbers and there were no pre-printed lines, and it is on a 36″ x 24″ stretched canvas instead of a 14″ X 11″ cardboard. At this size, it makes quite an impact, as it pays homage to a fading pastime.

The painting is acrylic on 36″ x 24″ stretched canvas.

Price: $250 plus postage.

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“Here’s Looking at You!”

Posted by Cranford
"Here's Looking At You!"

This is my first photo of a daylily from 2014. The bloom was looking straight at me, dead center in the photo. I superimposed an iris, that is a human iris, onto the bloom. The bloom was the exact shade of yellow my mom used in our living room when she redecorated it. It was the first time she was ever able to redo a whole room at once. The iris is the shade of green she used. I made the background the unique shade of aqua she used. That color became very popular in Golden Valley, MN. The florists my mom used would dye flowers that color for our parties. People would see them at our house or at the florists’ shop while awaiting delivery and request it for themselves. It became known as “B.J.  Blue”. My mom’s name was B.J., short for Betty Jane.

Then I asked John Haggerty to help me by making the shape of a camera bezel for the frame on his Shop-Bot. I painted it black and inserted the museum quality print on canvas in the back.

~14-3/4″ diameter x 3-5/8″deep

Price: $350 plus shipping.

Fill out the form below so we can arrange payment and delivery. I take Paypal, so all credit cards are accepted.

Stoplight at Midnight

Posted by Cranford

At our house on Front Street in Souderton, I planted a Stoplight Daylily at the end of the driveway by the sidewalk. It is aptly named because of its brilliant red and yellow blossoms and bright green leaves. I am known for not noticing stoplights. At one point, when I was in my 30s, I started to count the red lights I noticed just after I blew through them. I stopped counting at 70, after a few weeks. When I drove my Scion xB for The King’s Jubilee, and we were giving rides home to people, it was customary for my regular passengers to quickly claim the back seat. This included 6’5″ Tony. At any rate, stoplights at midnight are a bit easier to see. Everyone was relieved when I safely arrived home to the one at the end of my drive.

It is subtle, but the background is not true black. It has a hint of blue in it. Also, in person, the stamen appear more orange than they appear in the photo. It is a very dramatic piece.

The painting is acrylic on 24″ x 18″ stretched canvas.

Price: $120 plus postage.

Fill out the form below so we can arrange payment and delivery. I take PayPal, so all credit or debit cards are accepted.

Bee’s Eye View

Posted by Cranford
Bee's Eye View

Another photograph in my Lily Gilding series, this one has been filtered with a yellow “neon glow” then dabbed with touches of orange at the centers of the blooms to signify scent. Bees are especially attracted to the bright colors of the blossoms and filter out the greens. It is said, in fact, that perhaps they only see yellow. They are mostly guided by scent. Hummingbirds are especially attracted to yellows and reds. So this photo is all about the birds and the bees.

skep
Skep

I made the frame out of native PA poplar and ribbed it reminiscent of the traditional bee skeps, then coated it with nine coats of black lacquer. It is museum quality printed on canvas.

The canvas is 24″x24″. The overall dimensions of the frame are 29-3/8″x29-3/8″x2″

$400 plus shipping

SOLD

Widow’s Bonnet

Posted by Cranford
Widow's Bonnet

This is from a photo of daylilies by our driveway taken in 2007. The “bonnet” is the spent blossom from the previous day. I filtered it to wash most of it to black. The name for this piece is “Widow’s Bonnet”. This is why she is wearing black. It is also why she is surrounded by about a 4″ ring of hammered copper. This represents the “Widow’s Mite” in the Gospel story. Daylilies are the lilies of the field that Jesus was talking about, which we are “to consider, for they do not labor, neither so they spin, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Yet they are gone in a day, to be replaced with another equally beautiful bloom the next! The mite was the smallest copper coin with a hole in the middle; it was worth so little. That was all the widow had, yet she gave it to the poor at the Temple collection box. Jesus pointed out that she had given more than all the rich who had gone before and after, because she had given all she had.

So this piece reminds us of these two lessons. There is more than enough to go around every day, if only we share it. Give everything if necessary to make that happen.

This is a photograph that has been altered and museum quality printed on canvas. The frame is hand-hammered copper flashing tacked over a black painted, plywood base. It is 18-3/4″ diameter.

Price: $300 plus shipping

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Phoenix

Posted by Cranford
phoenix
“Phoenix”

This is from my Lily Gilding series. Before I painted daylilies, I painted with them. This is a photograph of a Backdraft Daylily, from a couple of summers back, right next to our front step. I modified it using several filters and adjustments, then cropped it just right. I call it Phoenix as it shows the persistence of new life and hope, even in the midst of entropy and crumbling bricks.

The border and frame paint are taken directly from the colors in the photo. Each time you look at it, be emboldened to hope and to work for positive change that we may rise from the ashes of our brokenness to see in each and every man, woman and child, a sister or a brother, worthy of dignity, respect, and care.

This is museum quality printed on canvas. I custom-made the frame from native PA poplar. The canvas is 24″x24″. The overall dimensions with the frame are 27″x27″x2-3/4″. The price is $450 plus shipping. (I have been told the frame is worth that alone.)

Sold.

The person who purchased it calls me every couple of months to thank me again for the beauty and brightness it has added to her home.

I can make another. I have committed to making no more than 10 total. Each are signed and numbered.

Wild Poppies

Posted by Cranford
wild poppies

I wanted to paint poppies and figured that Georgia O’Keeffe had already done that better than I could ever do, so I tweaked it. This whimsical painting is based on a photograph of wild poppies with the color profile shifted to be similar to black light, or as if they were viewed through black light sunglasses.

Painting is acrylic and Sharpie on 20″ x 16″ stretched canvas.

Price: $200 plus postage

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Blue Waterlily

Posted by Cranford
Blue Lotus

This is a stylized painting of a Blue Waterlily (nymphaea caerulea). It is also known as a Blue Lotus. It was sacred in ancient Egypt, associated with the sun god Ra. In 2009, it was made illegal in Latvia, Poland, and Russia, for its drug uses. It is floating on the water, of course, which is reflecting the blue sky.

I painted this waterlily using just three colors of paint: Titanium White, Cerulean Blue, and Cadmium Yellow.

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $20 plus postage.

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Zinnia

Posted by Cranford
Zinnia

This is a simple, stylized painting of a zinnia, just for fun!

The painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas. The paint continues over the edges, so no expensive framing is required.

Price: $50 plus postage

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Snowball’s Chance

Posted by Cranford
Snowball's Chance Tulip

This painting of a single tulip set on the background of a fiery diamond was inspired by the blizzard we experienced in Perkasie, PA on the first full day of Spring where we had over a foot of snow fall. Well, to say it fell is to misstate the situation. Much of the time it was flying sideways. The next day it was over 40º F. As the snow melted, the crocuses were still blooming, the tulip leaves and hyacinth buds had appeared. Sports fans are eagerly anticipating baseball opening day. We have three rapidly melting snow boulders in our front yard, the handiwork of our younger granddaughter, Brigitta.

Other than the stem, the painting was all accomplished using white, red and yellow paint, blending to make all the shades of pink, pale yellow, orange, and hot pink.

Painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $60 plus postage.

Fill out the form below so we can arrange payment and delivery. I take PayPal, so all credit or debit cards are accepted.

Waterlily

Posted by Cranford
Waterlily

When I set out to paint a purple and yellow waterlily, I thought I was inventing something new, since I had only ever seen white and yellow waterlilies in the wild in my time growing up in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It turns out, they grow in all sorts of colors: violet, blue, red, purple, pink, fuchsia, orange, yellow and white. So, in this case, art imitates life.

Painting is acrylic on 20″ x 16″ stretched canvas.

Price: $200 plus postage

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Good Morning Sunshine!

Posted by Cranford
Good Morning Sunshine! dahlia

This painting of a single dahlia blossom was the first time I have been commissioned to do a work in advance. In fact, I was paid, in full, in advance, and given complete artistic freedom. The client, who is our neighbor, only specified the size of the canvas. He sent me photos he had taken of his wife’s prizewinning dahlias. I could choose to do a grouping, a stand, a bouquet or a single. Neither he nor I knew the names of the varieties. The painting was a surprise for his wife’s birthday. I played around with the 10 or so photographs he had given me, until I settled on this: a single blossom on a 20″ x 20″ x 2″ canvas. I painted the entire area of the blossom with Cadmium Yellow as an undercoat. The paint for every petal has some of that yellow blended in it to convey the glow of that blossom. It took me over a week to paint. I painted the 2″ edges Cadmium Yellow. There is no need for a frame. I coated it with museum quality, clear spray acrylic to protect it. Dave was thrilled with it. He told me his wife Tammy is thrilled with it. I had named the painting, “Good Morning Sunshine!” Tammy saw it and recognized the blossom immediately as a “Sugartown Sunrise” Dahlia.

Sunflower Power

Posted by Cranford
Sunflower Power

This painting really makes an impact at four feet wide and three free tall! It was such a beautiful weekend, I decided to accompany my wife and daughter to the Franconia Township Fall Fest, where they were selling their wares. Bethann makes clothing, purses and quilts. Hilary makes jewelry. I went along to help set up and take down and took this painting, along with my good easel and supplies, to work on it Saturday 11 to 6. Last week, when our daughter, April, saw it, she said it looked trippy. I said, “Yeah, sunflowers on acid.” She said, “More like the artist was on acid.” Full disclaimer here: neither one of us has ever done acid. (At least I know I never have. I mean, not that I remember.)

Illustration of Vogel’s model for n = 1 … 500

Sometimes, while I am painting, I learn more about my subjects. April mentioned the Fibonacci Sequence in the pattern of the florets in the heads of Sunflowers. In 1979, Helmut Vogel devised a formula based on it. His formula looks like this:

On Saturday, Hilary also mentioned the Fibonacci Number. She has a friend who gets excited about all of the different places it shows up. I mentioned that Sunflowers always face East to greet the rising of the Sun. She replied, “Except when the sun goes down, they turn and face each other.” Another person told me that later that day. I don’t know if that is true or just a romantic folk tale.

I had so much fun interaction with folks, especially the little ones, at the festival. At one point, about a half dozen 4-foot tall girls were walking down the path in front of my easel. They all happened to look left at the same moment, and in unison exclaimed, “Whoa! That’s beautiful!” That’s when I knew the painting was a success.

This work was what I did over the canvas I re-primed after giving up on the Indonesian floating market painting I had stewed over all Summer.

The painting is acrylic and marker on 48″ x 36″ stretched canvas.

Price: $400 plus postage

Lavender Sunflower 2

Posted by Cranford
Lavender Sunflower 2

I painted a Lavender Sunflower for our granddaughter, Isabella, for Valentine’s Day 2017. She loved it. Several of her paintings and a couple of mine that I had given the girls were destroyed by their wicked landlord, when he illegally evicted their family. They lost all of their toys and games, and household goods. The judge has awarded them restitution and punitive damages, that they are waiting to receive. I am painting simple daylilies and fantastical flowers to sell at reasonable prices so we can help replace some of the things they lost, as we find them at yard sales and thrift stores.

This painting is acrylic on 12″ x 12″ stretched canvas.

Price: $80 plus postage