Stargazer Lily on a Stem x 7 (OLLI Class Lesson)

Why so many?!?!

Well... 

1 because I wanted to paint it... 

1 to pretend I was a new painter to see if it would be good for a class... 

1 using only the materials the students would have... 

1 to see see how quickly it could be done...

1 the night before  as a practice...

1 as the model example for the first class...

1 as the model example for the second class...

 

Original oil paintings done on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas, 6"x 12" Wrapped Canvas, 5"x 7" Canvas Board

Click HERE if you'd like to purchase the 6"x 8 or HEREHERE if you'd like to purchase the 6"x 12". Just contact me if you'd like one of the 5"x7" Canvas Board ones.

Stargazer Lily on a Stem

I've always loved stargazer lilies. They are easy to grow. They have a gorgeous bloom. They smell fabulous.  What's not to love!

I'm planning to teach another senior adult oil painting class soon, and this is what we'll work on.  Before I paint in front of a group, I want to be completely prepared so there are no surprises. (Well... there's always something unexpected, but I try to be as prepared as I can.)

Click the video below to watch the process in 1 minute.

Shifting gears a little bit... How about a completely different version!  I've recently become obsessed with "collage quilting." I didn't even know that it was a thing or that there was a name for it.  I first became aware of it when my blog friend LeeAnna showed one that she'd done.

I hesitate to show it because so many of my blog friends are real quilters, and I'm aware that mine is so elementary.  Oh, well; comparison is the thief of joy.  I loved making it and love how it turned out.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8"

This one will be available for sale after it gets used as an example in the class.

Easter Lilies (Palette Knife)

Easter lilies, day lilies, tiger lilies, surprise lilies, calla lilies, stargazer lilies, water lilies... I do love a good lily. I love seeing them... growing them... and painting them too.

This one's different.

It's not very colorful... and it's a pretty loose style....

There are several different meanings listed for the Easter lily. One is that it's symbolic of new beginnings.  I like that. I'm kind of at a place of rediscovering, redefining, and reclaiming myself as an artist. 

Maybe this Easter lily will be a new beginning for me.

I love it.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 12" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Sentimental Stargazer Lilies (Mini Version)

My blog friend, Nelvia, asked me to be part of an art exchange.  Of course, I wanted to say no thank you because, well, other artists are so good and... they might be disappointed when they received my art and... Pffftt.. All that insecure artist dribble and nonsense rose directly to the top. But, it was Nelvia, so of course I said yes.

I painted a mini version of the very first painting I ever submitted to Inspiration Collaboration. Then I made a postcard and wrote about myself to a stranger. The note and little artwork went into an envelope and off it went to New Jersey.

A few days later I received a lovely note and an incredibly beautiful little piece of art from that same stranger... my new friend, Carole.

I look forward doing this again this summer.

Original Oil Painting on 5"x 7" Canvas Board

[GIFT - Artist Exchange]

White Calla Lilies

When I walked to my sister's front door one day last summer...(It was the summer of 2020, so I'm sure I wore a mask, walked to the front door, dropped something off on the step, didn't touch anything extra, and tried not to breathe... Please, COVID, go away soon!)

Anyway... She always has beautiful flower beds, and on this particular day the calla lilies were so gorgeous that they looked like they couldn't be real. I took a dozen photos thinking that one day I'd paint them.  That day was this week.

It was my first time to paint on a black canvas, and quite frankly, I didn't expect to like it much. The first tricky thing was how to get my drawing to show up.  Here's the trick I used.  I covered the back side of my drawing paper with chalk.  Then I laid it on the canvas and traced over the lines I wanted to show up.  That pencil pressure left the chalk where I wanted it on the black canvas.  Ta-da!

I was surprised at how much I liked painting on the black.  I did have to be careful to choose the more opaque paints (titanium white, chromium oxide green, cadmium yellow, etc.) because the translucent ones didn't pull their weight on covering the black.  I ended up covering all the black canvas with deep greens to bring some life into the flat, dead black of the canvas.

I really do love the final product.  I think this one has a very dramatic feel to it. 

I already have a plan to paint on black again soon.

My weekly art challenge was "On Black."  Kind of nice how that worked out, huh... (It was, after all, my week to choose the topic.)

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Stretched Canvas

[SOLD]

Sunshine Orchids

My calendar says that I should be teaching a group of seniors this week.  They should be working on a pretty orange tiger lily on a dark background... But, the class, like everything else has been cancelled or postponed until whenever.

Since we have to be home anyway, the quarantine allows for some extra time to paint.

Have a look at the submissions to Paint and Draw Together this month.  Since they were also painting orange flowers on dark backgrounds, I thought I'd join in the challenge. It's always fun to see all the paintings that look exactly alike and completely different at the same time.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
Click Sunshine Orchids if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Sentimental Stargazer Lilies

Stargazer Lilies will always remind me of my momma.  She had a long row of flowers that she loved... irises, day lilies, tiger lilies... One year I bought her a pot of blooming stargazer lilies for Mother's Day.  After they finished flowering inside, she replanted them into her row, and they bloomed again every year.  We dug those stargazer lilies up when they moved to Northwest Arkansas and replanted them beside the porch where she continued to enjoy their beautiful pink blooms each summer.  

This particular stargazer grew in my own flower bed.

I painted this as part of  January's Inspiration Collaboration.  As soon as I saw Sara's Inspiration Image and read about how this Christmas cactus was a reminder of her mother, I knew exactly what my response painting would be.

Anyone is welcome to join in this creative community... painters, quilters, photographers, potters, poets... Click HERE and have a look. Maybe you'll be inspired to collaborate with us! And click HERE to see the reveal page. Maybe you can add something you've been inspired to create!  I hope you do!

Pounce always "helps" when I
 photograph my paintings.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 12" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Orange Tiger Lily II

I love orange lilies.  
I love having them in my flower bed and on my painting easel.

 

 

 

I knew that flowers have certain meanings, so I decided to look it up. Google would know what the orange lily symbolizes, right?

According to FTD, the orange lily symbolizes confidence, pride, and wealth. 
According to 10 Flowers You Should Never Give Anyone, the orange lily symbolizes hatred, pride, and disdain.
According to Flower Auora, the orange lily symbolizes respect and honor. 
According to the Flower Expert, the orange lily symbolizes passion.
According to Fresh Flowers, the orange lily symbolizes energy and warmth.
According to Teleflora, the orange lily symbolizes a 30th anniversary.

I quit looking.
I'm pretty sure you can just assign any meaning you want.
So...
According to Helen Eaton, the orange lily symbolizes home, joy, and peaceful times.

Thanks to these two cuties who volunteered to be my practice students.

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Stargazer & Buds

I love stargazer lilies.  They smell wonderful. They are so beautiful that you just have to stop and look closely. And, they remind me of my mother.  I gave her a stargazer lily plant one year for Mother's Day.  After enjoying it inside for a while, she planted it in the yard where if flourished.  After a few years when they moved, they dug the stargazer plant up and replanted it where she continued to enjoy it each summer.

This particular stargazer belongs to a friend from high school.  He'd posted a photo of it on Instagram, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to put it on canvas. Thanks for sharing the photo, Travis!
He sent me a photo of the same lily taken a few days later...  Wow...

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

The Color of June (Orange Lilies)

I think of each month in spring as having its own color.
March gets yellow with all its daffodils and forsythia.
April would be pink and white with blooming dogwoods, Bradford pears, red buds, and azaleas.
May takes purple of all shades with irises.
And, June gets orange.

I used this thought as I planned a flower bed in our backyard.  My idea was to create a long row stretching from my garden to the chicken coops. In this long row, I'd plant daffodils in the front to be beautiful in March.  (Yes, I have dogwoods and azaleas for April, but those don't really fit in a bed of bulbs.)I'd plant irises in the back to make May beautiful. Then I'd plant tiger lilies and day lilies for a pretty June.

Let's see how that worked out.

This is the third year, and the daffodils put on their show beautifully!

The irises have gotten thick and beautiful.

Hmmm... Where is the picture of all the lilies I planted?  And why does it look like there's a blank row down the middle between the irises flags and the daffodils? What could have happened?

Here's a picture of the lilies before I dug them up
from my parent's last home to transplant them to my row.

Now you'd think that if I'd planted them incorrectly (Ummm... poking the root in the ground and watering) that a few would have survived. But not even one single lily appeared.

I found a picture of the row just after I'd planted it.  You'll see it there in the background... behind that aggravating pest gorgeous doe  who's probably teaching her babies how to search for my delicious lily bulbs guiding her precious twin fawns across our yard. The ungrateful thing can't just enjoy the corn we put out and leave our other plants alone.  We adore our deer and never fail to get a thrill each day when we see them.

Since I don't have any beautiful orange lilies of my own, (Insert my sad face here.) it was a pleasure to paint these.  I did this little painting to participate in the Paint and Draw Together Artist Challenge.  Every few weeks there's a new image for artists to use.  I'm fascinated by the varied artistic styles.  Every painting is both exactly the same and completely different at the same time.

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas
Click "The Color of June" if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Stargazer Lily II

If you read yesterday's post, you know that my art friend Nelvia put me up to a Facebook challenge that I truly dreaded doing. I had some sort of irrational fear of showing my art to people who know me. And, if you read it, you know that it turned out to be the best thing ever.  One reason was getting to reconnect and paint with a friend from college.

But wait!!  There's more!!!




Mixed in with all the sweet comments from friends, came a comment on each of the seven days from Lynn. The comments turned into conversations. Lynn had been my high school Sunday school teacher!  Between moves and name changes and 36 years, we'd completely lost touch but reconnected through Nelvia's challenge!

We discovered that we'd both spent the years as teachers and both happened to live in the same area now. As it turns out, Lynn's always been artistic and longed for an opportunity to learn to paint.

Who knew what wonderful things would come from that little Facebook challenge. 

And... yes... there are few other good things yet to add to this challenge story!!

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 6"x 2.5" Canvas.
[SOLD]

Two Tiger Lilies

How do you "get back in shape" after time off?

I have done a lot of traveling this summer and just didn't have that much home time.  Since I didn't get to paint much, I felt a little "off" when I finally did sit down in front of a canvas.  I decided to start with something small and comfortable.  I've painted lilies many times before.  These two grew in the flowerbed beside my front porch. I know I've said it before, but I do love lilies.

Click Two Tiger Lilies if you're interested in purchasing this little painting.

Pink Lily

What makes you smile when you come home?

I love pulling into my driveway.  We have kind of a winding gravel road through wonderful trees.  There's usually a yellow cat sitting on the porch rail who's waiting for the door to open so she can go inside. And there's a black and white cat rolling in the dirt or pouncing on some poor grasshopper.  In front of the porch there's what could be a fabulous flower bed, if only it had someone who thought it was great fun to keep it weeded and watered.  I have planted all my favorite things there, irises, daffodils, tiger lilies, day lilies, and hyacinths.  Luckily those are all fairly hardy flowers who bloom and are beautiful even with weeds and little attention.  This pink lily bloomed last year and is almost ready to bloom again this year.

 Here's sweet Daisy relaxing on the porch rail waiting for her chance to run inside.  And, here's crazy Pounce; she's crawled through the tomato cage in order to roll on top of the little tomato plant.  Thanks, Pounce :(

Sometimes we see other friends in our yard as we come home.  Seeing our deer as we drive in makes us smile too.

When I come from school tomorrow, this is what I'll see, purple irises blooming in the flowerbed. And here's what I'll smell, a wall of honeysuckle on the edge of the woods.

Click Pink Lily if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Red Lily

How many colors do lilies come in?

What a surprise when I drove home and found this gorgeous red lily!  I didn't even know I planted it.
Okay, I admit that sometimes buy a bulb on clearance or get a plant as a gift then just stick it in the flower bed and forget about it.  When I get surprises like this, I'm glad I do it.

 I haven't painted that much with red.  It was a little tricky to add the white highlights without turning it into pink.  I'm actually not even sure I did it right.  I think I'll paint another one just like it and practice the shades and highlights of red.  

I also know that I stress way too much over the greenery.  I work and work to get each leaf and blade of grass right, then I just go in and kind of fuzz it all out.  On my next one, I'm going to try to paint loosely from the beginning.   We'll see.

Click Beautiful Dreamer to enjoy a lovely Etsy treasury (collection of related art pieces and vintage items) that celebrates beautiful things. Then visit Christmas Reds for a beautiful bright collection for a wintry day.

I love painting on these chunky little canvases so that they look kind of three-dimensional.    Click "Red Lily" to purchase this little painting.