Poppy's Paintings

Nice Day 1996

 One of the first paintings I ever did.The other was of a sail boat painted with my grandma's oil paints. I didn't understand the significance of keeping my very first oil painting ever safe and secure so I left it out on the porch after finishing it and, sadly, it got ruined. But at least I have this! It's unclear as to which came first, though...a mystery we all shall never uncover!

Volcano Island 1998

 Volcano Island was painted with my very first oil paints! I got them for my 11th birthday, along with some canvas, brushes and an easel! It was one of the best birthday presents! And I sure took to it like a duck to water. My brother decided to draw on it with marker one day.. tsk. tsk.

Little Angel 1999

Peaceful Valley 1999

The first paints I ever had were green, red, blue and yellow. So I was limited. This is the first painting where I experimented with fading as well as clouds. After painting the angel I think I decided I would stick to nature and inanimate objects. :p







Mountains! I was so proud of myself for the shadowing I did on the sides. And that tree was done with my first fan brush. Since I still didn't have any purple, I tried mixing the red with the blue I had to make purple. It wasn't a good combination, but it worked.

Midsummer Night's Dream 1999

First attempt at roses and a sunset clouds. This was one of my favorites for a while.

Hats! 2000

And the turn of the century brought us hats. My sister had a hat that looked like the bottom one, that was my inspiration. It was originally supposed to be a hat shop but I think I spelled it wrong (since it was from inside the store, it had to be spelled backwards and mirrored and I guess that was just too much for me!) so I painted it out and it turned into a sort of abstract!

Blue Stream 2000

Here is my first attempt at a stream and forest. It was mostly (if not all) painted with a fan brush; A brush that I was most obsessed with in my younger years.

Peaceful Place by the Sea

 This was one of my favorites for a while (as most of them were at one point or another). My first attempt at a bird, detailed rocks and shadowing. I thought the red lettering was a nice contrast, you know, dramatic.

Cabin in the Woods 2002

 


 Not my best work, to say the least. Some people said it was nice but I never could appreciate it myself.

Foggy Mountains 2002

 I remember doing this painting, I believe my cousin, Megan, was over and we painted pictures together. This was the one I did. There were originally three mountains but I covered the two up with my trees.

Fairyland 2003

When I was a kid I used to play fairyland with my sisters. We had fairy names and a villain named Black Raven. This fairy, taking a nap under the tree, wasn't based off of any one fairy we made up, but was of my own creation. But the black raven in the sky was a nod to our childhood games.
The fence was my first attempt at wrought iron, I was learning the use of highlighting and was very proud of the outcome.

Too Pretty for a Name 2003

When I did this painting I threw caution to the wind and just started painting an "abstract". It actually started out upside down (with the light blue on the bottom right corner).
I don't remember what I did to mess up but I put a ton of white to cover it up. Once the painting was dry I took my most favorite rubber stamp and stamped the image on then painted over it. This was probably the only painting I actually put glitter glue on top of. It's one of my all-time favorites. A highlight of its life was when it was on display and my artist uncle asked how much I'd sell it to him for.

Space 2003

 My first attempt at a space painting...as with most attempts, it did not turn out the way I had hoped and I gave up on it. Probably one of my biggest disappointments (as I'm not a real artist that just accepts art as art, I'm always wanting to mirror life, not mimic it.)

My biggest disappointment isn't even being posted on this page. :p

I finally got some purple paint! The first thing I did was try to recreate the sunset picture in the examples folder on Windows. (Anyone with an older version of windows will recognize this). I was obsessed with that picture and I'm obsessed with this painting!

This was a picture April sent me. I love this one because it was one of my first real sunsets with sunset-y clouds. It was before I watched Bob Ross's instructional video so I figured out the clouds all on my own. I gave it to my sister.

Hope 2003

I met April in 2003, she was a spiritual inspiration to me, even at a young teen. In fact, it was her friendship that led me to the truth about sin and the Holy Spirit. I painted this for her. It was also my first try at painting sunshine rays.

Jessica's Beach 2004

I remember I was painting this while simultaneously talking to April's sister, Jessica, on instant messenger. Jessica was a good older "sister" to me. I named it Jessica's Beach because I was talking to her while painting it.
This was my first time figuring out shadowing on mountains and palm trees.

Moonlit Mountain 2004

 Painted on the same day as Jessica's Beach and the one below, it was just a quick, little painting on a small canvas.

Fire Sunset 2004

My first fading sunset! I was very proud of this one, so much so that I did another just like it, you will see that one later. This was actually a big thing for me, learning to fade.

Friendship Land 2004

There is no good explanation for this except for the fact that April was coming to visit and I was so excited I poured it out onto a canvas. Pink was her color and purple, mine. It's just... yeah. If it weren't for those crazy trees and that weird sun, it'd look nice! In fact, I should try re-creating it. That would be an interesting challenge!

God's Creation 2004

Since I had just met April the year before, I was obsessed with her and her family (a new thing to throw my attention at). I painted them this picture, it was inspired by as scene from my old house in CA. You could very nearly see the ocean from where I lived if you got on a high enough hill. The glimpse of the ocean is something I miss most about CA. These clouds were also a pain to paint.

Nowhere 2004

My first Bob Ross painting. I watched his instructional video what I got for my birthday. He taught skies, trees, mountains and water. I put them all together in this painting.

Beauty Comes After 2005

Testing out my new sky-painting skills I learned from Bob Ross. One of my favorite things about this, besides the rustic look of the wood, are the mountains clothed in clouds and mist in the background.

Comfort 2005

 Bob Ross said that you could just paint clouds and skies all day long, practicing them, scraping them off, then starting over. I never liked to scrape stuff off unless it was horrible.
This was a practice painting. Of course it had to be purple. If you could make a sky purple, wouldn't you, too?

Purple Skies 2005

The next cloud painting was done with a fan brush. I had the idea to throw on a small strip of bright green and felt quite pleased with the outcome. This thing sits on my shelf right now.

Piper's Sunset 2005

My dear friend, Piper, was talking to me on instant messenger. There was an application you could use where you could doodle together. I scribbled out a scene similar to this. She said it was pretty or something to that affect so I told her I would paint it for her. So I did! Piper is always such a character, in her own Piperish way, so I added the eyes because it just reminded me of her.

Brother and Sister 2005

My mother saw a painting similar to this in a magazine and commissioned me to paint something like it. My version was a little brighter and she says she likes it better. It is one of my only people paintings. A vast improvement from that angel face in the beginning... but I had a picture to go off of.

God's Love 2005

I'm not sure why I named this God's Love. It was a practice painting. I threw in the mountains for good measure but didn't like them much. Despite the strange hills, I find this painting mezmerizing. It sits in my room on an ornate easel my mom bought me for my 24th birthday.

Love Eternal 2006

I was pretty proud of this painting after I finished it. I loved the glassy water effect that I tried and was pretty happy with the rocks on the awkward hill. It just makes your heart want to sing, I think.