PaintingContest.Org

"Apple Tea" celebrates the chiaroscuro style of oil painting: light emerging from shadows. This piece is available for purchase.

Thanks to British Artist Tom Croft's Portraits for Healthcare Heroes movement, I was inspired to paint the portrait of one of the frontline workers responding to the Covid outbreak through 2020 and into 2021. I was lucky to have a friend nominate her husband as a subject and even though we are half a world apart I am pleased to now call this delightful man a friend too. He worked tirelessly, helping to lead the response to the emergency and also providing important communication to the news media.  In the painting I wanted to convey a feeling of the anonymous and science-fiction-strange kind of atmosphere that the patients must have experienced. Through the shield are tired but caring eyes, and if you look you can see the Batman logo on hi

Please message Valerie B Gobeil to commission your personal portrait.

An ocean wave breaks over abstracted chunks of ice.

Areion is a mythological horse of ancient Greece that is gifted with the ability to speak.  Working with horses, I have noticed how each horse has a way of speaking very clearly, using their bodies. This ability to communicate, and to listen, helped facilitate the extensive human-horse relationship that has lasted throughout the millennia as well as the perseverance of this social species in the wild.  This painting is of a wild herd in Utah and shows a kind of "conversation", their ears expressing and listening to each other.  My take is that the mythological Areion is a representation of the innate communicative quality of the horse.  2019, oil on wood panel,  36" X 24". Exhibited Equine Art Show, Washington, 2019 and Oxford Arts Allianc

The University Club in downtown Santa Barbara is the subject of this painting, created in two plein air sessions totalling 13 hours, inside the front gate of the Club. I was attracted by the warmth of the locale, and of the inviting facade of the Spanish Colonial Architecture. Perspective, shape, and warm and cool color temperatures all played a key role in putting together this composition.

Giclee reproductions available multiple sizes.   25 limited editions signed and numbered 12 x 18" $150 ea.  

Inspired by those early morning, sleepy waves.

desire and love, hope and beauty of things...

vitality and freshness, coolness and gentleness...

excitement, energy, passion and love...

royalty and ambition, dignity and peace, mystery and magic...

eternal essence of wisdom, justice, power and dignity...

mystery, attaining the impossible...

Metal is one of my favorite things to paint. So when I found this antique, metal urn I knew I had to render it immediately! I used a lot of Transparent Oxide Red mixed with Cadmium Yellow Deep to paint those rich metal colors. I love the exotic feel of this painting, the softly draped fabric, the grapes emerging from the shadows and the dramatic reflections...and of course, all the shiny metal! The frame on this one is absolutely gorgeous - custom, brushed-gold, engraved - it significantly adds to the lush, metal theme.

This gifted boy is the son of family friends, painted from my own reference photo.  I was enthralled by the lighting and the focused expression on his face as he played the violin for us.

  I love stopping in the small ports of call to visit the many shops and taste new foods.  Many travelers find adventure and excitement around each corner.