Looking Ahead on the Mulberry River & Looking Ahead from Mount Magazine

Looking Ahead (on the Mulberry River)

Looking Ahead (on Mount Magazine)

Each of these paintings deserves its own post, but I just felt like they needed to stay together. Let me explain by sharing pieces of a Facebook Instant Message conversation.

WENDY: So one of my best friends has twin boys. They are getting ready to fly the coop.  I was wanting a painting of the twins when they were itty bitty.  You game?

ME: Hmmm... If the image is a good one, I'm game.  Do you have a good image of them doing something? Not just sitting and looking at the camera?

WENDY: I have to look.  I'll do some snooping. When you say doing something... like???

ME: Oh... I love images that tell a story... that are about what was happening... More than... here are two kids... they are cute.  If you want that, just blow up the photo. I want images that tell a story... not just a kid pretty and smiling. Let me send you a few examples of what I mean. 

WENDY: I love it!  I'm on it!

About 10 minutes later two images popped into my Messenger feed.

WENDY: Like these?

ME: Oh, Wow! There's a STORY in these images!

WENDY: This is what they love.

ME: One is vertical and the other is horizontal.  Some would want them to be the same.  I kind of love that they aren't though.

WENDY: I like the fact that they aren't the same because the boys aren't the same.

ME: I wouldn't tell you I love the images if I didn't.  I said I love images that tell a story.  You must get that because you went right out and found really good ones.

A few days later while I was working on the paintings...

ME: So... I need their stories!  Where are they? Yellow Rock? Devil's Den? Buffalo River? White Reiver? With family? With each other? Boy Scouts? Woodsy guys? Seniors? Accomplishments? Just regular outdoor outings?  All you said was that these photos show who they are...  So... details!

WENDY: Huge accomplishments.  Very outdoorsy. Love outings with friends. Coming up the Hill next year.  Always together.

ME: Thank you for letting me do this.  I loved the photos you chose.  I hope their mom is pleased with the paintings.

*Unless you're from Fayetteville, you might not know that 

"Coming up the Hill" means they'll be attending the 

University of Arkansas.

Original Oil Paintings on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvases
[SOLD]

Gaillardia

What do you miss about summer?

One of the things I love about living in Northwest Arkansas is that we get a little of everything with the four seasons.  Right now we're at that kind of in-between stage.  Autumn was gorgeous, but the winds have blown in.  The leaves are brown and wet, and the lovely things about winter are a while away.  I guess these in-between weeks make us appreciate the best each season has to offer.

During this brown stage, I've been missing the wildflowers.

Mount Magazine State Park is the place to go in June if you love wildflowers and butterflies.  On a short stroll along the trail, you can see butterflies of all colors on wildflowers of even more colors.  
A little research helped me discover that this wildflower is a Gaillardia.   (I think!)  I would have just called it a red and yellow daisy!  Whatever they're called, they're lovely.

[SOLD]

Dwarf Balloon Flowers

What a brilliant purplish-blue color!

These fantastic little flowers greeted us on the terrace of the Lodge of Mount Magazine State Park in Arkansas. The terrace is the most peaceful place - flagstone rock below, pairs of rocking chairs every few feet, butterflies and wildflowers all around, and a view that goes on for miles and miles.

Follow this link to purchase this chunky little painting, "Dwarf Balloon Flowers."

http://www.etsy.com/listing/51783996/dwarf-balloon-flower-original-oil

Black Swallowtail on Purple Horsemint

My husband and I went to an art museum yesterday, so I should be writing about the wonderful paintings I stood in front of. We did see art. It was beautiful.

Oh, but then we went for a stroll outside in the gardens! Perfectly manicured lawns, fountains, flowers of all kinds... and this one beautiful,

yellow butterfly! He practically flirted with me - posing from this angle then that one, flitting from one flower top the then next. I believe he knew he was having his picture taken and enjoyed every minute of it! Surely, he deserves to be painted!

The picture used for this painting was a little harder to get. Oh, I think this butterfly also knew that I had a camera; he just didn't want to have his picture made. I chased him all over the top of Mount Magazine. He'd wait until I was ready to snap a picture then flutter off to a further flower leaving me no choice but to follow.

After a little research, I discovered that he's called a Black Swallowtail. The flower he's sitting on is called a Purple Horsemint.

Click below to view a lovely treasury (collection of art pieces from various artists) on Etsy celebrating Original Fine Art.

[SOLD]

Purple Coneflowers

I wonder if it means you're getting old because you begin to notice things like wildflowers?

There's been some road construction near my home,

and yesterday I got to drive on a section that had been recently completed. That's where I noticed that someone else enjoyed wildflowers. Whatever big, burly crew member had been assigned the job of weed eating the ditch beside the new stretch of road must have had a sensitive side. The ditches and banks had been neatly mowed except that the wildflowers hadn't been touched. It was the oddest thing! It was obvious that someone had simply not done their job completely; every clump of wildflowers had been carefully left alone. Thanks, road crew guy!

These wildflowers were growing in Mount Magazine State Park in Arkansas. They're called Purple Coneflowers.

[SOLD]