Small Landscape Painting | Marsh Painting | Small Oil Painting | Daily Painting | Southern Marsh by Carol Schiff | SOLD

I just love playing with the palette knife.

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I love smearing the paint around with it.  I love the textures I achieve.  I love trying new techniques with it.  I like the way I can just give my knife a swipe and it is clean, so unlike cleaning brushes :(

It is maybe a little addiction.

Most of the time, I like to incorporate the brush and the palette knife into a painting, but some days I just go all the way with the knife.

It's kind of like cleaning my kitchen counter.  I could clean off my counter for hours on end.  I have to have a wet sponge and then I could just wipe, wipe, wipe.  It's just so satisfying.....and I guess that it how I feel about using a palette knife.

The only thing I don't like is how fast my tubes of paint disappear!

Have a fabulous weekend!!

Daily Wildlife Painting, Oil, Birds, "The Gangs All Here" 4x12 SOLD

I think pelicans must be very social critters.

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I cannot help but wonder what these are thinking.........safety in numbers?  Fishing strategies?  Chase away the herons?  Gossip???

I kind of like this idea....big fish, little pelicans.

I spent the weekend at the beach in Sanibel and had the opportunity to observe plenty of pelicans.  Did you know, the brown pelican is the only one that hunts while flying and then dive bombs into the water to catch it's prey.

That's it for Pelican Week at Carol Schiff Studio.

Daily Painting, Original Oil, "Pelican Portrait" 8x6" SOLD

Here it is FRIDAY and PELICAN WEEK is quickly drawing to a close.

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Today, I am posting several of my favorite pelicans from the past.  This guy was hanging out at a fishing pier, waiting for a chance to get lucky with a fisherman's catch.

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This group looked like they were out on patrol.......maybe looking for unlucky mullet or possibly chasing the herons away.

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I found this one, early one morning, hanging out at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club.  So, of course, I called this painting "Just hanging out".

And now, one more..............

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Hey!!!  WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?????!!!!???

Isn't that just like a couple of gulls to barge in where they don't belong!

I am taking the weekend off, to celebrate the holiday, so I will see you Tuesday for the final post of PELICAN WEEK.........NO GULLS ALLOWED!

Daily Painting, Original Oil, Birds, "The Loner"

A wonderful bird is the pelican.........

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His bill will hold more than his belly can.

He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week.........

But I'm damned if I see how the hell he can!
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That is a little poem from my childhood days.  I lived in Ohio, my grandparents in Florida.  My grandmother had a postcard of a pelican that included that poem.  Florida seemed like a magical place to me then, and the poem stayed with me through the years.

Join me tomorrow for more of Pelican Week!

Daily Painting, Oil Original, "Pelican Buddies", 6x8" SOLD

King and Queen of the Pelican we;

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No other birds so grand we see!
None but we have feet like fins
With lovely leathery throats and chins!

Edward Lear

It's PELICAN WEEK at Carol Schiff Studio.  All my posts this week will feature
pelicans!

Happy Monday!

Small Oil Painting, Daily Painting, Seascape, "Pacific Blue" 4x12" SOLD

Most of my seascapes are from the Atlantic, or the Caribbean, but today I am visiting the Pacific.

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My reference photo was taken a few years ago on a trip to California with my daughter and granddaughter. We were in San Francisco most of the trip, but one afternoon we drove south to Half Moon Bay.

For us east coasters, the Pacific was an untamed beast, quite different from our usually gentle Atlantic.  Just that fact that we were peering down from a cliff and that the brave souls who ventured to the beach were all ON THE SHORE was foreign.  Not that we do not have sunbathers on the shore, but there are ALWAYS bathers or surfers in the water, even on the coldest of days.

I decided to use a palette knife on this scene to help capture the power  and texture.

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Daily Painting, Oil, Floral, 6x8", "Spring Pansies in the Park"

Don't you just love pansies?  They have to be one of my all time favorite flowers.

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I found these cheerful beauties in a park in Asheville.

They brightened my day and I hope they do the same for you.

Daily Painting, Birds, "Pelican Patrol" 6x18" sold

You may notice that these are not your everyday type of pelicans.  Most pelicans are brown and gray and kind of dull, unless they are a breeding male, their heads turn yellow during breeding season.

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These beautiful birds, are larger, and a little on the rare side.  I found these in Sebastian, Florida where a large colony lives.

I think they are much more attractive with their brightly colored orange beaks and feet.  They seem to get along just fine with the brown guys.

Daily Painting, Floral, "Red Hibiscus" 6x8" SOLD

Hibiscus is one of my favorite flowers.  They are very tropical, hula girls always have them behind their ears, and they come in a variety of colors and sizes.

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This is a common type that I found planted behind the Eau Gallie Library.  I went there early one morning on a photo shoot, looking for stray pelicans and egrets that usually hand around the fishing pier behind the library.  No birds in sight.....also no fishermen.  I was just about to drive away when I noticed the flowers, turned to the morning light.

So, it was not a wasted trip after all.  It is always a wonderful feeling to be out in nature in the morning stillness.

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Happy Weekend!

Daily Painting, Floral, "Blooming Dogwood" 6x8 SOLD

One of the things I love about the South is in the spring, when the dogwood blooms.  In North Carolina, the trees are impossible to ignore as the mountains are covered with them.

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My reference photo is of a tree in our North Carolina backyard.  The blooms seem even more alive against the blue sky and surrounded with gray leafless trees.

I wish I could bring this tree home to Florida for my friend LaVerne.  She is originally from Knoxville and misses her beloved dogwood.