Marsha Whitesides Piper

                         Still Life with Crystal & Peonies                         oil on panel  15 x 17 (image)

Still Life with Tea 12 x 12 (Sold)

   Silver Rimmed Bowl 16 x 20 oil on panel Available at Abend Gallery.com Detail Silver Rimmed Bowl

Beets - Locally Grown 10 x 20 oil on panel Available at Abend Gallery.com

In between living & painting, I've finally completed some of the Munsell Exercises as recommended by Graydon Parrish at Rational Painting. The investment of more than 3 years, lots of paint & work, and the Big Book of Color is starting to pay off.  I've set up the current round of exercises that I finished last fall just to show myself how much I've accomplished - even though they're not perfect - I am beginning to get it! I'll start on a new round of sphere studies soon. As with most things, one must actually do the work to arrive at a deeper understanding. The value sticks have come in very handy! I started with these: It's hard to know if I'm on the right track, as I haven't been able to attend Graydon's Color Workshop in person. Learning all this stuff over the Internet by trial and error, not having anyone to critique the work, has been frustrating to say the least, but also very satisfying to accomplish what I have on my own! T...

Finally, I'm back! So much to say...but most important event happened during a blizzard on Halloween Weekend, October of 2009. My husband Steve and I moved into our new townhome - ranch style - all living area on one floor (1500 sq') and all of it is wheelchair accessable! (Steve has MS, so this was extremely important to us.) Second best thing is that this ranch style townhome has a full basement that has become my new studio! The Living Room has 12' ceilings and 10' ceilings throughout rest of house. My studio has 9' open ceilings! The pictures above show how main part of studio looked when we moved in and 2 of the 3 5' window wells. It's now May 2010 and I still wake up every day not quite believing that we live in this beautiful place! This is how the studio looks today- Main Studio and Drawing easel on left Set up area Work area from side Hughes 3000/palette area etc .   Drying Rack/drying box and table for layout/framing etc. Panel and frame rac...