Work-in-progress BMW commission

This is a commission for my dentist....his cherished BMW. He took me for a 0-60 speed ride in an empty parking lot that scared the socks off me. FAST car! This is in exchange for two crowns. Dollar-wise a decent payment. However, for him that's about 4 hours work....for me maybe 30 hours. Oh well...I should have been a dentist. This is 18" x 21" watercolor on Arches 300#. I'm probably one-third done. Right now it kinda looks like a moonlight scene on the moon...many washes and details to go.

OvationTV art book Volume 11

My oil "Just Glorious" was selected for the cover of the latest OvationTV art collection book. To preview and see my work on pages 28-29 click www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2123277 (The expanding arrow box, lower right corner will enlarge the book to full screen) The OvationTV Community is a wonderful online group where artists can share work and get feedback.

Big Mac with Fries

I painted this for the owner of our local chain of eleven McDonald's restaurants. It will be on the cover of 150,000 newsletters coming out in May. Been awhile since I've had a Big Mac....yum, tasted pretty darn good. 12" x 12" Oil on canvas.

BLOSSOM Art of Flowers national tour

Just found out that my "Raindrops on Roses" has been selected to be included in the National Tour of the BLOSSOM exhibit. Woohoo!
It will be shown at the following venues
ARIZONA-SONORA DESERT MUSEUM ART INSTITUTE Tucson AZ April 30 - June 26, 2011
THE R.W. NORTON ART GALLERY Shreveport, LA July 12 - October 16, 2011
GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY Chicago, IL November 5 - December 31, 2011
ARTCENTER MANATEE Bradenton, FL January 18 - February 29, 2012
GREENACRES ARTS CENTER Cinicinnati, OH March 19 - May 20, 2012

Splash 13: Alternative Approaches

This is my watercolor that got accepted into Splash 13..."Raindrops on Roses" 22" x 29." It's currently in the Blossom show at the Naples Museum in Florida. My feeling about what is "alternative" about this is that its closeup aspect verges on the abstract. Stephen Doherty even mentioned that to me at the Blossom reception. Splash sent out the complete list of accepted paintings this afternoon. Out of 115 people ten got two pieces accepted, two got three, and one got four....Thomas Schaller. He's quite the rising star...well, already risen I'd say. My dear friend Jane Freeman is also in the book with her wonderful piece "Monday's Wash."

Cactus Flower

One more for the road.... "Cactus Flower" oil on canvas, 8" x 10" This will be the last one for a few days. I've got lots of prep work to do in the next 3 days getting all my art selected, matted, wired, more cards printed, signs made, price tags...all the many little details needed for a 3-day outdoor art show....Indian Wells Arts Festival, April 1,2,3.

Three new landscapes

"Tranquility," "Trailhead" and "The Bridge." I may be painting landscapes, but I sure haven't seen the real outdoors for awhile....chained to my easel. Trying to beef up the inventory for next weekend's Indian Wells Arts Festival. I'll have to stop painting tomorrow as I need at least 5 days for the pieces to be dry enough to touch. They're all out in the sunroom with a fan blowing on them. Oil on canvas 8" x 10"

Splash 13: Alternative Approaches

115 artists were selected to appear in Splash 13: Alternative Approaches This year’s winners were selected by Rachel Wolf and the team of judges from over 1600 beautiful watercolor entries. And.....drum roll please.....Diane Morgan and some of my friends (Jane Freeman and Tom Schaller) are on the list. The complete list is on the website at www.splashwatercolor.com
I will post the selected painting as soon as they notify me. I submitted two and don't know which one yet.

Allusions of Grandeur II

My niece had commissioned me one Christmas to paint an acorn as a companion piece for a pine cone that I had painted for my sister. I took many photos prepping for the painting. I decided to paint one of the other arrangements and may paint several more.
"Allusions of Grandeur II" oil on canvas 6" x 8"

Evening Sun

Here's the latest landscape. As you can see I took a little license from the reference photo. It's so much fun to just play and make things up....a little vacation from the very detailed drawings of my watercolors and working so tightly from a reference photo. For this I painted the entire canvas orange first and let it set overnight. I learned in a workshop with Elin Pendleton that a quick color wash before starting an oil eliminates having those annoying white spots showing through if you've not covered the canvas with enough paint. I really wanted the orange to show through as one would want the white to show through on a watercolor. Many of the daily painters do this with their quick studies that are so effective. Also, while the paint was still wet I was able to take a toothpick and a palette knife and scrap off areas to let the orange become an edge or a flower. "Evening Sun" 8 x 10" oil on canvas.

Painting of the Day

"Strawberry Reflection" 6 x 8" oil on canvas. It's much easier to do landscapes. Much harder to tell if you make a mistake.

Another Day Another Sunset

Another little 8" x 10" oil on canvas. I actually finished this one yesterday, making two for the day. Who knows what today will bring. I forgot how much fun it is to do a daily painting. You can't wait to get up and get going knowing that you will actually finish a painting that day. There are many, many daily painters now.....thanks to Duane Keiser who started it all. He even now sells little 2 x 3" pieces that he calls oddments. He's up to number 237 of those and you have to preorder sight unseen to get one. The price of those is now up to $175 each. I believe I paid $125 for mine back at number 69. You can see those at his blog. Carol Marine is another big daily painting seller. You can see her daily's on her blog. Hers sell on eBay for over $200 each. That's a pretty nice little side income, I'd say. She also does larger work and teaches many workshops. Artists are pretty busy people.

Desert Sunset

Two years ago I did a painting a day for 4 months. It was really quite energizing, though kept me from larger pieces. Those small 6 x 8" oils were some of my best sellers. I'm trying to do a few of them for the upcoming Indian Wells Arts Festival.
This one is 8" x 10" and just fell off the brushes. It was really fun to do something loose and quick. Let's see how disciplined I can be for the next 10 days.

Elevator Art

Elevator music is unobtrusive arrangements of popular songs that are designed to be played as background music. I say "elevator art" is unobtrusive art that people buy to fit in with their decor. When I look at model homes, etc. that seems to be what you see. No great masterpieces....just "decor art." I found these heavy wooden frames at a home decor store and thought I'd reuse them sans art. However, the art was permanently attached to the frames. Sooooo, I painted over the art with a gold metallic paint creating a basket weave pattern and then added the white flowers.
Sometimes elevator art is just the ticket to enhance a certain space rather than a "masterpiece" :-}

Golden Sunset

Fresh off the easel. I started this last year, but quit before I finished the mountains. I wasn't sure what to do with them. Still wasn't sure, but did them today anyhow. It's oil on gallery-wrap canvas 30" x 36" $1990 free shipping.

Art Auction for Japan Relief

I am joining my artist friends who are auctioning their paintings, with all proceeds to go to the Japanese Red Cross. You may see the work of other painters who are participating by going to Art Auctions for Japanese Disaster Relief. Thanks to Iain Stewart for getting
this started

To place a bid, email me at dianem1111@aol.com -- please put Japan Art Auction in the subject line.

Bidding starts at $75. I will post bids as I receive them.

Bidding will close at 8 pm PDT on Wednesday, March 30 and the winner will be notified by email as soon as possible. Shipping included in the price.
At the close of auction I will place the painting with the winning bid price on my website www.dianemorganpaints.com and the winner can simply pay with Paypal.

Sunset Serenade

It was so much fun to just whip something off in less than a day after working on the zinnia for weeks and weeks. This is a repeat of the image that was used on the Desert Symphony program cover for this season. The original was 6 x 8" and had sold before I even entered the contest. I decided to try it again in 16 x 20" size with a little more subdued coloring. This is the view from my patio. Desert sunsets, cactus and hummingbirds seem to be selling well this year here. I'm building up my inventory for the Indian Wells Arts Festival coming up April 1,2,3.

"Just Glorious " oil on canvas

Finally finished this big one, 48" x 60" Started it way back in September. 60 hours total. Still a few little areas to tweak, but basically done. The WIP pic gives you an idea of scale. I'll try to get a shot with me and the finished piece later.

Coachella Valley Watercolor Society 22nd Annual Show

This past weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday was our big annual watercolor show. We moved to a new location and were nervous about people finding us. We rented a ballroom at the clubhouse of a beautiful golf course. Our worries were unfounded. We had so many attendees that we actually ran out of "people's choice" ballots the first day and had to print more. Gerald Brommer was the judge of awards. What a nice man! The photo showing him judging only shows about a third of the paintings in the show. There were about 700 watercolors on sale. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the winners. We did around $20,000 in sales. (I sold two :-) Our raffle sales brought in about $1500. We also sell cookbooks and are almost out of them. A percentage of the proceeds of our sales goes to help under-served children's art programs in the area. We select about 10 needy programs and give them grants every Spring. In addition to this show I also exhibited at an outdoor Wildflower and Art Festival on Saturday. Was quite a weekend. I'm still recovering.

Five Shows in Three Days and more

This is a CRAZY week. My best customer had a cocktail party this evening to introduce me to some of her neighbors and show them my art on her walls. Tomorrow night is the opening reception for over 20 of my watercolors at a new gallery on exhibit for the month of February. I was chosen for this exhibit because of winning the Desert Symphony Program cover competition. Friday night is the opening reception of my new permanent gallery showcasing all my car paintings. All of the people at the cocktail party tonight said they are coming to both receptions. Then I got a piece accepted in the City of Palm Springs annual art show today. That reception is also Friday night. I won't be able to make that one. Saturday, I'm doing an all day art show at the Nat'l Monument Visitor Center again. That's a monthly event. Tuesday I leave for Naples, FL for the BLOSSOM award ceremony and the day after I return I'm exhibiting at an all-day outdoor Car Show which is a local cancer fund-raiser. They get around 10,000 attendees. After that.....I think I'll crash onto a bed of cotton or maybe clouds somewhere.

WIP "Waiting for Breakfast" class demo

I had 14 students in my class yesterday. We had fun pulling all the many color variations out of the fish and sea lion. Some painted just the fisherman. Others did the whole scene. I flipped the image from the original photo then turned the man so he wasn't facing out of the painting. I didn't get very far on mine as I spent a lot of time walking around viewing the students' work. I'll probably add a bunch of seagulls before I'm finished. Really having fun with this one. The photo was taken in Punte del Este, Uruguay.

Rainy Day Rose

This is the piece I started in a 5-hour workshop/demo ten days ago. Add twenty more hours and it's as done as it's going to get. This actually would have been easier to do larger. This is a half sheet 14" x 21, 300# cold press. Part of the beauty of watercolor is the layering of colors, but just once it would be nice to put down a single wash and have it be exactly the right color and effect.

Chris Beck features car artists Diane Morgan and Ron Morrison

Chris Beck's wonderful blog brush-paper-water features two watercolor car artists with different approaches this week. Over the past two years she has featured many of the best watercolorists working today. I'm extrememly honored to be included on that list.

Rainy Day Rose workshop WIP

Taught a class today and presented this rose which was a little more complicated than I usually do for a class. There were a few moans and groans, but in the end they were all happy to have been pushed to try to learn water drops. For the first two hours there was not a peep out of any of them they were concentrating so hard. After lunch everyone was more talkative. Maybe they just needed nourishment. There wasn't enough time for anyone to finish. They invited me back in two weeks for a portrait demonstration so they have an assignment to finish the rose (and so do I) "Rainy Day Rose" watercolor 15" x 21" 300# Arches.

Bug Collection photos now online

"Trumpet Taster" photo shot at sunset. I've just posted 80 new photo images from my "Bug Collection" on my website. You can see them here http://www.dianemorganpaints.com There are a few non-bug photos interspersed. Just click on through to see them all. The images are for sale in a variety of sizes printed on paper with mats or as gallery-wrap giclees on canvas.

Diane Morgan juried as member of International Guild of Realism

"Liquid Sunshine" oil on canvas 24" x 30"



"Diversity" and "Autumn Delights" watercolor

"I Love Bees" oil on canvas



I have been juried in as an official member of the International Guild of Realism in Scottsdale, AZ. The roster of members is quite impressive. I'm thrilled and honored. The 5th Annual International Exhibition was held last February at J.Willott Gallery on El Paseo, in Palm Desert, CA not far from my studio. I hope to be a part of the show next year. My oil "Liquid Sunshine" was selected to represent my work on their website. In the acceptance letter they commented that they especially enjoyed "Autumn Delights", "Diversity" and "I Love Bees." You may see all of the members at http://www.realismguild.com

Exterminators buy four Insect Painting giclees

Frazier Pest Control bought full-size 24" x 30" giclees on canvas of all four of my insect paintings for their office. And, they want more...crickets, ants, cockroaches, beetles, spiders... I'm going to be busy painting bugs! The IncredibleArtist.com fund-raiser wreath auction for the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City was a tremendous success!

Poinsettia watercolor demo

I started this piece last week for a demo at a painter's group...mostly oil painters. They wanted a holiday theme. The demo was only two hours, so I didn't even come close to finishing during the meeting. Took me another fifteen hours to finish it. Guess this will be next year's Christmas card. Watercolor, arches 300# cold press, 14" x 20"

Misssion Accomplished photo in Vermont show

My "Mission Accomplished" photo was juried into the FLOWERS, TREES, BIRDS, BEES: NATURE EXPOSED photo competition at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. Only 40 images were selected out of over 1200 entries. Exhibition: Jan 4th - 29th. See all the winners at the website: http://www.vtphotoworkplace.com/id97.html

Winner of Desert Symphony Program Cover Art competition

Great show Thursday night at the McCallum Theatre with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy performing with the Desert Symphony. My art "California Sunset" was chosen for the cover of the program for the 2010-11 season. Perks.... 6th row seats and back stage passes. A fantastic evening.