Garden Harvest (August 16-31)

It's still fun to fill my little gardening basket every day or two.  

• Okra is definitely winning.  (Ron loves it. We'll see if he gets tired of it this year!)
• Cherry tomatoes are a consistent handful.
• Basil is producing lots.
• Rosemary, chives, & oregano are pretty so-so... Maybe they'll perk up.
• Cucumbers give us all we can manage to eat and I've made two batches of pickles.
• Jalapenos are doing just fine.  (I had so many last year that I didn't use them all up and didn't plant as many.
• Green peppers have been beautiful but not prolific.  I'm not giving up on them.  There are many that just need time to grow.  (I don't know why the orange ones, the red ones, the yellow ones, and the purple ones all decided to stay green.  Oh, well...)
• Onions seem to be gone... but ah-ha... I planted some to try having a fall crop.  We'll see!
• Regular tomatoes... I don't even want to talk about it... too sad. 
• Eggs aren't exactly piling up. Poor little Twinkle is the only hen who's laying right now.  (The others are just freeloaders these days... one has babies to take care of... one is molting... two aren't quite old enough... and the four babies just run around after their momma.

 

Linda's Farmyard Memories

I want to be in this scene.

It's easy for me to imagine sitting on the back porch swing... watching the chickens peck around... feeling the breeze,.. noticing the windmill turning faster... wondering whether that thunderhead will bring rain or just move along.

It feels like a back-home memory ought to feel.

What a pleasure it was to get to paint this one.

My blog friend Wendy of  Pieceful Thoughts posted a photo of one of my paintings alongside one of her beautiful quilts.  From that, her blog friend (and my new blog friend) Linda of Texas Quilt Gal contacted me about doing a painting for her.

It took me about zero seconds to fall in love with the story her image was telling me.

Before beginning, I asked Linda many questions. Her answers would give me a feel for what was important in this photo and what would be important for her to see in the painting.

Here are a few snips of some of her answers:

... photo taken in the late 1950s, showing the view the windmill..., the chicken house (there are chickens at the bottom of the photo), and the old barn... taken from the back of the house...

... thunderheads were my favorite subject with my Brownie camera... still one of my favorite subjects...

... the coop, the chickens, the tree, the clothes line, the windmill, and yes, the thunderheads - all...  meaningful and part of the picture in my head. 

The chickens were dear to me but they weren’t very smart, and Mom and I almost always had to shoo them into shelter before a storm or they’d just get soaked.

Yes to the blue sky AND the billowing storm clouds, if possible....  white billowing clouds but darker underneath, the thunderheads that develop quickly in Oklahoma...

Haha on the chickens - yes most were white, but my big Plymouth Rock rooster (Rooney) was my pet who actually followed me around. We had a couple of Rhode Island Reds and what Mom and Granny called a "black banty hen"...

I hope I captured most of the important parts of the scene.  If you look closely even Rooney the Plymouth Rock rooster, a Rhode Island Red chicken, a little black Bantam hen, and a few white chickens made it onto the canvas! (Linda's not the only one who has an infatuation with chickens! 😉)

Enjoy a little 40 second video of the process. (And, yes. I did totally screw up the tree and have to wipe it out and try again.)

Thanks to Linda for trusting me to put her memories on canvas.

Thanks to this 40 year old book with a pretty great cloud painting lesson.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Swallowtail on Butterfly Weed

In this day and age of constant disagreement, surely one thing we can all agree on is that we're lucky to have butterflies in our world. 

My weekly-ish art challenge was "Flutter & Flit."  This butterfly helped me meet the challenge. 

As soon as this little painting is dry, it will be on its way to The Netherlands for an art exchange that I'm a part of.  I can't wait to see what comes here in return!

Original Oil Painting on 5"x 7" Canvas Board

[ART EXCHANGE]

With a Chick Chick Here and a Chick Chick There...

This is my lovely hen, Dominique.  When she was just a chick herself, my dad said, "Oh, that one's a "Dominicker." Her breed is usually called Barred Rock now, but I think Dominicker suits her.  

Dominique is a good mama.  She's raised three broods of chicks for us. Here's how it works: I know she's broody and wanting babies when she refuses to leave the nesting box for days.  I (along with my granddaughters) go to the store and pick out half a dozen chicks of different breeds. That evening after dark, I slip the babies under her one at a time.  The next morning she's clucking with protective pride at her new family.

Arkansas has a law, a real honest-to-goodness law, that says you have to buy chicks six or more at a time... not five... not three... not one... Six.

AR Code § 5-62-121 (2012)  (a) It is unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to sell or offer for sale, barter, or give away living baby chicks, rabbits, or ducklings under two (2) months of age in any quantity less than six (6).

So... hmmm.... If I only had to get six, why are there seven in the painting? My husband asked a similar question... "Why are there seven chicks here?" Really? Seven? Are you sure? Well, how about that! Hmmm... You know it's hard to put a tiny chick back once it's already in your hand and peeping... Seven is about six anyway, right?

Fun fact - You can tell what color eggs a chick will lay by looking at the color of its feet!

This painting was my response to my weekly-ish art challenge.  The challenge was "Our Feathered Friends."

Original Oil Painting on 9"x 12" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Garden Harvest (August 1-15)

1st - I went to North Carolina to visit two of my darling grandbabies (and their parents).  

Ron watered and picked those three days. Can you guess which of these photos he took?

2nd - As you scroll through, do you wonder why I don't have big tomatoes? 

Hmph!  I'm at war with the squirrels! And, they've been winning.  

I always say that we have a love/hate relationship with our beautiful wildlife.  

Right now it is not leaning in the love direction.

There's a huge hickory tree beside our back deck.  All these squirrels sit on the branches, look down at you as they eat the nuts, and throw down the sharp woody shells. You can hear the shells fall all around. You literally cannot walk across the deck without shoes.  You'd think they'd be satisfied with all those hickory nuts. 

Nope!  

They hang off the bird feeders and eat the birdseed.  You'd think that would  be enough.  Nope!  

They go right into the chicken coops and have a snack on chicken food.  Do they appreciate that?

Nope!

They climb up my tomato cages, sit there grinning and pick the biggest tomatoes for themselves.  Do they at least enjoy the whole thing? 

Nope!  They eat half then toss the rest on the ground for me to find. 

The hickory nuts - They're welcome to them.

The bird feeders - We're letting them hang empty.

The chicken coops - We're not leaving food available during the day.

The tomatoes - We've put Irish Spring chips on the ground, and we've sprayed Repels All on the plants.  So the garden now smells of a weird combination of soapy clean and some dead rotten meat. Yuck... And... Sigh... 

Little White Church in Winter

 

The longer I thought about my last Little White Church, the more I knew I had to do it again.  I can't exactly put my finger on why, but I am so much more pleased with this one. It's done more loosely and painterly, yet it's oddly more realistic.

I called my art mentor and told her I wanted to change my response to our weekly-ish challenge for "Little White Church."  She laughed since we've been making up our rules as we go for as long as we've been doing this.

*Thanks again to Sara for the image that I used... then used again!

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Little White Church in Autumn

Painting with a palette knife is such an experiment every single time... every smear of paint onto the canvas.

This Little White Church also challenged me to experiment in color.  I loved the church in the reference photo, but it was set in a winter scene.  I wanted an autumn setting, so I had to make colors and scenery up throughout the process. 

Because I most often think on the left side of my brain, I'm never too comfortable at making things up.  I think I'm pleased with the final result. I do keep looking back to make sure though.

This painting was my response to my weekly-ish challenge with my art mentor.  The challenge was "Little White Church."

**Thanks to Sara Harley for letting me use her photo as a reference.

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

Click Little White Church if you'd like to purchase this painting.

 

Field of Poppies

This was by far the largest canvas I've painted with a palette knife.  I was thrilled when I was asked to do it and couldn't wait to get started.

Now that I've done over a dozen paintings in this style, I wanted to reflect on what I like about painting in this way.

💖I love the laying the loaded palette knife on the canvas and swiping the paint off.

💖I love the way colors smear but don't completely mix together.

💖I love the challenge of making blobs and smears look like something more.

💖I love that I get to use up old paint that needs to be used up.

💖I love that it stays in the ugly stage a long time before the image begins to form.

💖I love the loose painterly look of the finished painting.

💖I love to glide my fingers across the texture after the paint is dry.

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 18"x 24" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Garden Harvest (July 16-31)

Red and green are Christmas colors... unless you're a gardener.  

Then they're the color of summer.