Charlene Swift's Paintings

I have been a member of the Southeast Louisiana Branch of the National League of American Pen women for almost 20 years . The members incude...

My friend Dottie and I decided to paint this boy from a newspaper clipping that she had cut out years and years ago. . It is a black and ...

It is that time of the year again. I have been accepted into the Pirates Alley Art Show that takes place in conjunction with the New Orleans...

  Never miss a photo opportunity. I was buying some eclairs at this local bakery and this man with his dog entered the shop.The dog was ...

  These are my fellow classmates. We get together once a week to improve our painting skills with Roy and catch up on the latest gossip,...

  This is at Roy's studio. He has a life sized poster board of his idol, John Wayne behind him always keeping an eye on what he is ...

  I took a picture of this little girl at a church festival. Never miss an opportunity for a potential painting. I removed the harness a...

Yes, I did this painting before but it was worth repeating on a slightly larger canvas board. If only you could really see the rich color...

What a great opportunity to get some interesting reference material at Renaissance festivals. I really like this painting because of the ...

What a special treat to be honored with a third place ribbon for one of my miniatures at the Pirates Alley Art Show!   My friend Jane also t...

There were several things that caught my eye when I decided to paint this. I liked the idea of the old and new- horse versus car and old bui...

Come visit me at the French Quarter Festival. I will be one of many artists at the Pirates Alley Art Show which is going on in conjunction w...

What is the focal point? I want to say it is the dog and the lady leaning over to pet it. The woman to the right was intentially painted so...

After I put in the Lafitte sign on the side of the building, my brush got carried away in other areas. I tried to put it down but it would n...

The real building is painted white. I mixed various light grays of pale pink, blue, yellow. I put blotches of that on first and followed up ...

 I am told that this fellow was already a master chess player when he was starting LSU. He seemed quite at home in front of the French Mark...

I like how the colors in the focal point, the buggy and mule, are repeated in the blue sky and the red canopy & roofs, and the rust of...

The things that attracted me to paint this were wrought iron work against the intense background colors of the buildings. It screams New Orl...

Does the angle of the side of the streetcar disturb you like it disturbs me? I keep looking at my reference photo with the grid lines and it...

The thing that attracted me to paint this, aside from the fact that it is so New Orleans, were the dynamic angles and repetitive "strip...

I moved a few things around from the original photo. More of the cathedral is showing and is not blocked by the large post which I placed be...

I found out that you can take some pretty descent reference photos cruising down the streets of New Orleans in my car. No, I did not do both...

This is another view of Columbia Street. Really it could be any typical Small Downtown, USA. Quite charming. I thought the cars would take s...

My daughter came in with a group of architect students from college one weekend and we walked the streets of Uptown New Orleans taking photo...

  I was debating on whether to add foilage on the upper left area of the painting. Magnolia leaves or such. But I decided to stay purely arc...

 I thought this painting was going to be a challenge but it turned out to be really fun. I still have memories of the night I took the phot...

This is the photo that I cropped into a square using my computer program. Notice the red pen marks that divide the photo. "The Cour...

This was a commision that I recently finished. It is only 5" x 9" but took as long as a large painting. I wanted that sky to sing.

No I did not fall off the face of the planet. I know it has been a while since I posted. I have been busy with "larger" paintings-...

The little filly was painted using various shades of light grays. From cool pinks and violets to warm yellow ochres. It helped tie the bott...

Breyer horses are so great to paint. They are the next best thing to a live model. After a few minutes, I wiped out the whole thing with...

Ok, why the title? I remember my grandmother with a navy blue dress with white polka dots. This feather stuff is getting kind of fun to pa...

If this rooster didn't look like it belonged down a runway, I don't know what rooster would. His pose formed an abstract design tha...

Today was still overcast but a bit brighter so I decided to make another go of it and take another photo. For those eagle eyes, yes I did c...

I usually take a photo of the finished painting in a hall that has a high window. The ambient, natural light usually gives the true colors ...

This poor rooster got separated from the rest of his family who decided to find a safer area on the other side of the fence in order to esca...

The Line Drawing This was a more complicated composition for me because of the horse so I wanted to play with it a while by using vine char...