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.

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]

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]

Pink Primroses on the Porch

My instructions for this painting were short and open ended, "It needs to be a painting about pink primroses, and it needs to be big." 

Okay then... Let me think... 
What does a primrose look like? It's a really small flower...  A field of primroses would look like a bunch of pink blobs or sprinkles on a green background...
How can I make the primroses tell a story, be the star of the painting, and still be normal size? I need a background that will be important but not steal the show.
How about a white-ish house... with a white-ish door... and a white-ish rail... on a white-ish porch... beside white-ish lattice and white-ish steps...
Oh, and green plant leaves to fill space and cover up all the places where I couldn't make the edges of the steps look right... I mean... to add a complementary color and organic texture to the background.

This is the second painting that I did for one of the bedrooms of Welcome Home Retreat.   It's for the Primrose Room, of course. You can see the one for the Bluebonnet Room here. 

These pretty pink primroses are singing, "Come up these steps!  There's a friendly face just inside the door and a porch swing just outside the edges of the canvas.  Sit down and enjoy. Don't be in a hurry."

I do love a good porch.

I do have a good porch.
It wraps around.

If you come, we'll have to make a choice.... 
The rocking chairs in the front corner?
The swing in the other corner?
Or the gliders in the back?

And... If you happen to have enlarged and zoomed in... yeah... that's Ron's Harley on the front porch...  Sorry about that... kind of makes one question whether we're rednecks with our vehicles parked on the porch... That's not it's home, he just had it parked there. 

Original Oil Painting on 16"x 20" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

It's extra special when I get to do a
painting for someone I love!

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]

Hmmmmm.....

I think this is the hummingbird version of "a kid in a candy shop!"  She's probably thinking... "Hmmmmm... They all look so good!  Hmmmm... Where do I begin? Hmmmmm... Maybe I'll just cruise around... Hmmmmm..."

I love to read.
I love to read excellent literature... trashy novels... children's books... and blogs. I love to discover a blog that feels real... like the the author is just talking in his/her own voice without concern for who is/isn't reading it. Usually it's one that doesn't have sponsors or hundreds of followers; it's just someone writing about whatever it is they're passionate about.  Whenever I stumble across one like that, I like to go all the way back to the beginning of it and read it through. It's like a novel (only better).  It's the oddest thing to do that because a blog is written in present tense, so it feels like it's happening now even though it might have been written 6 years ago.  It's funny how invested I find myself becoming in this stranger's life. Occasionally I can't help myself and leave a comment (even though my present is the author's past... let that sink in a minute...) then worry the author wonders what this random stranger is doing in his/her past.

I discovered one of these blogs during Christmas break. (It's always in a really random way that this happens... long story short... I'm fascinated by high and low tides.  I learned that Nova Scotia has the highest tides in the world. Visiting there was added to my bucket list. The author of this blog is from there.) After reading a few posts of SharleyStudio, I knew I wanted to start at the beginning; I think the first post was done in 2007. It became my winter reading choice.  
Then one day in late January I got to the post written on July 19, 2012 and stopped. All of Sara's photographs are wonderful, but the hummingbirds and those spiky pink flowers on this post and a few more on the post on August 1, 2012, just captured my heart.

I gathered the courage to ask permission to use one as a reference for a painting, and Sara graciously said yes.

So...
I'm often asked, "Where do you get your ideas for paintings?"  
Well, sometimes an image just finds me.

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

Stargazer Lily

What is the most beautiful flower? 

The answer is simple... the one that's blooming in your own flowerbed or garden right now.

I love the flowers that bloom in my flower bed, but I do not love the work it takes to keep them happy and healthy and gorgeous.  I wish it did, but I just don't.  So... I tend to go for flowers that aren't needy.  The stargazer lilies put on the best show a few weeks ago.  Every time  got home, I'd go snap a picture thinking surely that day they were the most beautiful ever.

This week, I'm snapping pictures in my vegetable garden thinking each day that this may be the most beautiful ever.

Look at the fantastic dewdrops on this tomato!
And, how about the height of these amazing sunflowers!



Click Stargazer Lily to purchase 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.

Pink Daisies

What's in your backyard?

These pretty little things grow in my parents' yard.  I think they're called echinacea - pretty fancy name for a pink daisy. 


[SOLD]

Gulf Fritillary on Echinanea

Who doesn't love a butterfly?

A butterfly is the one insect that nobody wants to swat.  I've learned recently that butterfly populations are diminishing.  And, one of the reasons it's happening is because people keep their yards so manicured that butterflies can't find the weeds that they love to lay their eggs on.  This sounds like a good excuse to use for not mowing the lawn!

Thanks to my friend Lisa for letting me paint her gorgeous photograph. This little butterfly was enjoying himself on a flower in the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks.