"Travelin' Shoes" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on 10 x 5.5" paper. Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved. This Different Strokes airport travelers challenge reminded me of Elvin Biship’s song, “Travelin’ Shoes,” which I put on repeat as I painted. These days the...

"Telegraph Hill" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper. Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved. This was one of those crazy weeks when I thought I’d never get anything done for the current Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge hosted by Karin Jurick. My first mistake was forgetting...

"Chicago Lifeguard" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper, 8 x 12". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved. Here’s the latest challenge from Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks. This time we’re painting a floating lifeguard on Lake Michigan. I wonder what...

"Concertgoers" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper, 7 x 11". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved. When I saw this beautiful couple at the opening concert of the Symphony On The Prairie season, I knew I had to paint them. In honor of the Grateful Dead theme that night, he wore tie-dye,...

"Sweet Georgia Grown" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper, 14 x 7". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved. Sometimes the paint flows, and sometimes it doesn’t. This was one of those weeks when the paint was not my friend. When I saw the reference photo on Karin Jurick’s Different...

"She Brings Lemonade" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on panel, 14 x 8". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved. She brings lemonade for her man, and water for the horses. Is it any different than when I bring my husband a beer while he’s working on his Jeep on a hot day? This is another...

"Kalifornia Roll" by Lesley Spanos. 12 x 9" oil painting on panel. Copyright ©2009 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved. A California roll is to sushi what Tex-Mex food is to Mexican cuisine – a Western adaptation of a traditional food using local ingredients more suited to the American...

"Night" Oil painting on 8 x 16" panel. Copyright Lesley Spanos 2009, all rights reserved. Painting is a journey. Sometimes a really bad one where everything goes wrong, and you end up hauling your dead grandmother around on the top of your car like Chevy Chase in a National Lampoon Family...

"Jefferson Memorial After Dark" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on 5 x 5" on canvas panel. ©2009, all rights reserved. Yet another painting from Karin Jurik’s excellent “Different Strokes From Different Folks” challenge. I’ve never been to the Jefferson Memorial, and...

“A New Day” Acrylic on Multimedia ArtBoard, 8.5 x 15″ I feel like I’ve waited for this day longer, and with more anticipation, than I waited for Christmas as a kid. Finally, it’s Election Day in the US, and a new era is here! I’ve never felt this kind of electricity...

"New York Stock Exchange" a painting by Lesley Spanos, copyright 2008 “New York Stock Exchange” Acrylic painting on paper, 7.5 x 16″ Here’s another one painted for Karin Jurick’s “Different Strokes” weekly challenge. You can see her original photo...

Acrylic painting of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago by Lesley Spanos. Copyright 2008, all rights reserved. “Da Bean” 12 x 9″ acrylic on panel Talk about being late – this one was supposed to be done by October 8 so I could send it to Karin Jurick for her Week 5 challenge on...

“Somebody Save Us!” Acrylic on Multimedia Artboard (sold) My take on Karin Jurick’s photo of the week on Different Strokes from Different Folks. When I saw the image of this man reading the newspaper in Chicago, I had to make it about the senator from Illinois. I never realized how...