Unique Planters

Relax... Create... Inspire...

These words are the heart of Welcome Home Retreat in Weatherford, Texas.

Pretty much every single thing is fabulous there, but the courtyard is especially wonderful. Plenty of shade and enough rocking chairs to go around... Lovely plants growing out of odd containers... And a feeling of complete peacefulness.

The challenge for my Creative Companions group this month was "Unique Planters." The ladies who keep the grounds at Welcome Home Retreat are so creative with... well, with everything. I could literally just take my pick as there are "unique planters" all around.

For my companion piece,
I had to consider both of my favorite places
to be surrounded by pots and planters.

I've actually painted part of this scene before, but it wasn't quite the same. 

It's not always birds who have a snack at the  sweet little bowl-on-a-stump... 

Original Oil Painting on 18"x 18" Wrapped Canvas

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Mixed Media from Welcome Home Retreat Weekend

Watercolor, colored pencils, pens...

This purple-haired girl is wondering what is happening with my art style these days!

I'm not sure whether I'm having an art growth spurt, an art skill setback, or an art mid-life crisis! 

Torn bits of paper, stamps, bubble wrap blots, pen, acrylics, written words...

It's either a mess or a piece that you want to zoom in for a closer look.

I'm taking part in Life Book 2023 with WillowingArts, 30 different teachers from around the world with lessons each week.  

Who knows what will be next!

Collage papers, stencils and paint...

Weird how drawing and painting a person that's not really a specific portrait always ends up with bits of myself looking out from the paper. (Not the fish-scale looking forehead!)

Layers of cut colored paper, dabs of paint, white ink...

How does a frustrating mess of color blobs gel into a favorite with a few white doodles?

My art partners and I drove to Welcome Home Retreat in Weatherford, Texas for weekend.  We were creative and productive in the relaxed atmosphere they provide there.

Sunflower Mural on Fence - Redo

If you've followed me a long time, this might seem familiar.  The fence that I painted five years ago had to be replaced, so I got a do-over!

Ladies arrive at Welcome Home Retreat ready to both relax and get to work on their projects. Last weekend there were 5 quilters, 3 scrapbookers, and me...I just had one painting project to accomplish... a big one.  My sister was there to keep me encouraged and entertained.  

I had to let a few happy friends join.

Thursday night- Sunday morning schedule:

When it's not raining, keep adding to the mural.

When it's storming, stress over whether the rain will make any paint run.

Besides that... rock in the chairs on the porch, eat wonderful meals, visit with my sister, and relax.

Ta-da!!! 

Just like that, a plain fence is a colorful mural.

Field of Bluebonnets

Texans love their bluebonnets.  About this time of year photographs of fields covered with them begin to show up on Facebook. People plop their babies in the middle of them to take their pictures.  Couples get their engagement photos with bluebonnets all around.  It's clear why... they're simply, unbelievable beautiful. 

Ok... I have to come clean... deep breath... I have never actually seen bluebonnets growing in a field!  
I know!  I know!
I just haven't ever been in the right place at the right time! (I know my friend Karen is probably gasping in utter disbelief and disappointment.) 

Although when we were in Maine, the lupines were everywhere, and I couldn't take enough pictures of them. (I think bluebonnets and lupines are in the same family. So, does that count?)

I was asked to paint four large paintings, one for each of the main bedrooms of Welcome Home Retreat.  I started with this one because I had the idea for it.  

Not long ago I painted a field of blue flowers and loved the perspective the depth, so I decided to use that as my model.

I didn't have one reference photo to use, so this project was a series of making it up as I went along.  (That is not at all how I usually paint, but I had an idea and a confidence that I could pull it off... or at least a back up plan that I could paint over it if it didn't work.)

First, I kept this other painting where I could see it.  Second, I pulled up so many photos of bluebonnets... fields of bluebonnets... individual bluebonnets... leaves of bluebonnets... 
Because bluebonnets don't have the tall thing-y like the blue flowers in this painting, I wanted to add something in the background to draw attention and add interest.   I tucked a little cabin in the background, added some closer trees to push the treeline farther back.  And, because it is Texas, a couple of longhorns are back there too.  When Sheila suggested an outhouse, I laughed because, of course, I wouldn't do that... but... somehow an outhouse did appear... far away off to the side and back... as an outhouse should be! 

It had to be big... because...
Well, everybody knows...
Everything's bigger in Texas!

The trick to finishing this painting was simply getting enough but not too many bluebonnets.  I think there are about 13 zillion... at least it felt like it.  

I keep thinking that this whole painting was made from trial and error... but honestly... it all worked!  Everything I tried... well... turned out the way I'd hoped!  That doesn't happen very often!  
Nothing really went wrong... wait... ummm... there was one thing that did go terribly, terribly wrong during the process of painting this painting... If you haven't already, you really must read "A Painting Disaster Story."


Thanks to my sister, Sheila, for the opportunity and ideas.
Thanks to my art friend, Nelvia, for the advice along the way.


Original Oil Painting on 24"x 36" Wrapped Canvas
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A Piece of Cake

We arrived at Welcome Home Retreat on a Thursday afternoon.  We enjoyed a good supper together, set up our work stations, then each worked on a small piece.  I finished my "Little Red Hen."  The entire next day was dedicated to our big painting.  Besides meals, we basically did nothing else.  By bedtime, "Field of Blue Flowers" looked pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself.  

The project we chose for Saturday morning was meant to be a simple one.  It was easy as pie; literally, it was a piece of cake... 

We chose this lesson from YouTube because it said it was meant to be painted in one sitting, alla prima.  The guy was a very good teacher and explained  every step. This was my first time to use impasto. It's a "goo" that you mix in the paint to thicken it and make a very textured surface. It made the icing look like icing... like you'd want to stick your finger in it and have a lick. I love the look and feel of the finished piece, but honestly, I did not like using impasto at all. 

To sum up the weekend, we ate... painted.. laughed... slept... painted... ate... painted... laughed... painted... ate... painted... laughed... painted... ate... painted... laughed... painted... slept...... just keep repeating that...

I always show my paintings, so how about a look at some of the meals Welcome Home Retreat put in front of us!

Gorgeous AND delicious!



We did find a little time to enjoy the farm friends who live on the grounds there.

These two tom turkeys were the funniest things!  They'd come to the widow of our workroom and have a look at what we were doing!  They'd puff out all their feathers to look as big and manly as possible strutting around.  Every time we'd laugh, they'd gobble to cover over our laughter.  So, of course we'd ha ha ha just to make them gobble gobble gobble again and again!

And how about this rooster!  I think they said his name was Thor.  What a beauty!  I think he may have to end up on a canvas one of these days.






Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
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Field of Blue Flowers

I can not stop looking at this painting!
I'm not a fan of blue (I know, I know!  Nearly everybody in the world is a huge fan of blue... sorry!) and this is clearly a painting about blue, but I love so may things about the piece overall. Honestly, it was an unexpected treat to like it so much.

This painting was the our biggest project of our painting workshop weekend at Welcome Home Retreat.  My Thursday-afternoon-art friends and I  traveled to Weatherford, Texas for 3 days being pampered, being very well fed, and being creative.


On other times we've had a teacher, but this time we had to come up with our own lessons.  Hooray for YouTube!    Julie & I would watch a little while, try to understand the colors and techniques, then turn to our canvases to try it ourselves. 


The whole painting was kind of one experiment after another. 

We got to use our fingers (in rubber gloves) for whisping out the clouds. We needed a fan brush for the trees in the distance. We used a big wide flat brush for the field and a color that didn't make sense at all until the end. There were layers of paint on our canvases that ended up being important when we dragged an erasing tool through them for some of the grasses. Then we got to load palette knives with lots of blue for the flowers. Finally a long bristled signature brush finished out the grasses.

Packing supplies for this kind of trip is tricky.  There's limited space in the car, but it's hard not to bring every single thing! Would you look at all those brushes!  Really?  Did I think I'd need all those?  


We began this painting first thing Friday morning, and stopping only for meals, we stayed with it until a late-night bed time.

What a fun day!  My sister Sheila worked across from me.  She was sewing gorgeous new pillow cases for each bed there. She finished all 28 during the weekend.  Can you see that little old machine she's sewing with?  It's a Featherweight that she bought (already old then) in 1970 when she left home for college.  She says, "It still sews like a charm!"

Our friend Jeanne was working across the workroom on her mixed media assemblage.   She looked up and said, "Oh, you're finished!"  I asked how in the world she knew that.  She said, "I can tell.  You have your signing-your-name face that you have when you're putting your signature on."  What?  Do I have a signing-your-name face? Hmmm...

Ta-Da!!!  
A pretty good day's work!


And a good fresh Coke in a pretty goblet is pretty standard sight at my art table.
Mmmmmm....

Does this painting
a.) Draw you in?
b.) Draw your eye back through the field? to the trees?
c.) Draw your eye up through the sky? to the clouds?
d.) Make you feel like taking a deep contented breath?

For me it was a yes, yes, yes, yes... 

Thanks to our YouTube lesson painter lessons.rybakow.com. (In case you want to give it a try... A little tip... He doesn't speak at all and has the most annoying music ever. Unless you want to hear an 80 minutes of that, mute the volume.)

Oil painting on 18"x 24" wrapped canvas
[SOLD]