Red Fox Portrait

Another fox?

When I did the first version of this one, it was in my art sketchbook. 

I liked it so much that I wanted to put it on canvas.

The first one was done with watercolor, colored pencils, paint markers, and a little acrylic.

The second one was done mostly with acrylic. 

We occasionally see a red fox, but not often.  I've never had one in my yard or had one bother my chickens, so I'm a friend of the fox.  

When I was a very little girl, I had two invisible friends.  Their names were Foxy and Cool.  My mother once asked me to draw what they looked like. I drew a kind of figure 8 or hour glass shaped blob with eyes, a mouth, and a few hairs on their heads. She used that as a guide to sew them into pillow friends for me.  One was pink and the other was yellow.  

Funny... once they were real... they stopped coming around as invisible.

Thanks to Tamara LaPorte for the fox painting in Sketchbook Revival 2023.

Acrylic Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

[GIFT]

Red Fox

I love smearing paint with a palette knife. 

I love seeing how it looks on the canvas.

I love rubbing my fingers over the texture after it dries.

This  little fox was done with a lesson from Tamara Laporte in a Sketchbook Revival 2023 lesson.

What a pretty little vixen!

I do try to be friends with watercolor, but I'm afraid it's just not a relationship that's meant to be. The very parts that make watercolor special and beautiful (like the blotchiness and unfinished look) also annoy me. 

For some reason, "Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day" is stuck on a loop in my head.

If you're wondering... yes... still trying to use up that left over paint, but it's almost gone!

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

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I Like Thursday 4/23

 Thank you to Leeanne of Not Afraid of Color for reminding me to notice things I like. 

I like seeing my chickens in the backyard.

I like when a hen gets broody and we can get baby chicks!
After dark we replace the eggs with day-old chicks. Momma hen is so happy the next morning.

I like going on an evening walk down the road. 
We never know who we might happen to meet.

I like these gals...
Elenore, Twinkle, Pip, Pauline, Foxy,
Fancy-like, Doily, Ruby-Jean, Jolene,
Dominique, and her two babies who don't have names yet. 

I like Buff Kitty.

I like... nope... bad Buff-kitty!

I like watching my seeds become plants.

I like seeing the trees turn pink and purple and green!

I like putting my onion sets in the ground and covering them up with soil.

I like first signs of spring.

I like getting the soil ready to become a garden.

LeeAnne gave several other prompts to think about. 
Here are a few quick answers to them:

Do you like spring flowers?

I love flowers that return each year.  Lining our backyard and our driveway, we have daffodils in March and irises in April. In may we enjoy the dogwood blooms in the woods behind our backyard. (June used to be for lilies, but the moles and I have battled... the moles won.)

Do you plant a vegetable garden or pots of herbs? What are your favorites to plant?

I love my vegetable garden.  I find it very satisfying to grow my own tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, jalapenos, onions, okra, and herbs. 

Do you like spring flowers?

I do plant some cucumbers and okra in advance.  I have great sunlight in an upstairs bedroom window.  It's kind of my greenhouse. I buy onion sets, pepper plants, and tomato plants.  I buy herb starts, although I did keep some alive inside all winter.

Is your garden in raised beds, patio pots, or in the ground?

My main garden is in the ground.  It's 13'x 20'.  I also have 20 cow-feed barrels that serve like raised beds and each hold a tomato plant, a pepper plant, or onions. And, I have many large pots to grow things on my back deck.  Everything has to be enclosed with wire fencing.  My deer are beautiful to see, but they are not trustworthy to stay out of my garden.

Songbird Silhouette

Although we still have some cold days, it is spring.  I'm not a real bird watcher, so I don't know who is making which sound, but I do love hearing the twitters and chirps and whistles and tweets and caws and hoots and trills that surround our home.

My inspiration for this piece came from an Instagram photo that I loved. It was taken by my good friend and photographer Sara. My further inspiration, or maybe motivation, was that I'm still using up paint left over from our students' palettes from our class a month ago.

The challenge for Creative Companions this month was "Silhouette." In my companion piece, I used different kinds of silhouettes.  

• The cardinal silhouette at the bottom was cut from a photograph I took of the cardinals that hang out in a tree by the bird feeder in our backyard. 
• The bird at the top was done through a fun site called Word Art. I simply put in the names of all the bird I could think of that live near me, chose my color palette, and printed.
• The words are just something I've noticed as I get nearer 60!  "Ignored... in the background... They've always been there. The older I get, the more I notice them... enjoy them... look for them in the foreground."

Original on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

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Christian Church of Stilwell, Oklahoma

It's such an honor when someone trusts me to put their memory on canvas.

"Do you ever do commissions?"

    Yes, I do!

"I'd love to have a painting of the little church I remember from my childhood."

    Do you have a photograph of it?

"I don't think so.  It was torn down in the early 1960s.  I'll see what I can find."

"My daughter had this plate showing the little white church. Would that work?"

    I think I can work with that. 

"I do still have a few broken pieces of the original stained glass.  Would that help?"

    Oh, my goodness, yes!

Let me ask you some questions before I begin.

• What shape would be best? rectangle? square?
• What size? 8"x 8"? 10"x 10"? 9"x 12" ?
• What was the church made of? wood? brick? 
• What color was the roof?
• Were the windows stained glass?
• Were the doors wooden?
• Are those steps in the front?
• Is that a sidewalk? a road? a corner?
• What season would you like? summer? fall? winter?
• What kind of weather would you like? blue sky? evening?
• What colors do you use in decorating the other parts of your home?

It was an interesting conversation.  There were some things she didn't quite remember, a few long-forgotten things that came back to her, and others that were still very vivid.

Her granddaddy was the pastor.

He stood on those front steps with her in the crook of his arm as he shook hands after services.

She remembers running through the grass between the sidewalks and almost stepping on a snake beside that big tree. (FYI, I doubt it shows in the little photo, but just for fun, I did paint a snake in the grass beside the tree.)

Original Oil Painting on 10"x 10" Wrapped Canvas

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Arched Rock Bridge

 Looks like a peaceful scene to come across on a hike.

I'm still finding ways to use up the left over paint from the palettes of our students a few weeks ago.  As long as I put it in the freezer between uses, oil paint will last a long long time.

By the time I finally get through all the little left over piles of earthy hues, I may be ready to paint with some bright red, orange, and purple!

My weekly-ish challenge was "Manmade."  It took me a long time to settle on what I wanted to do for that.  I wanted to think of something where everything was nature except that one thing.

I'm going to love seeing this one on my own wall until someone wants it for their own.

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Meyer Creek

 

Meyer Creek played a vital part in the lives of my mother and her family.  They used it for bathing and laundry washing. They kept their gardens and animals watered from it.  Meyer Creek was a constant in their lives.  When I helped my aunt create her autobiography, she gave it the title, The Tallents of Meyer Creek.

There were so many stories revolving around Meyer Creek... well, a whole book full of them.

I'll write about MY memories of Meyer Creek.

I was #20 out of 21 cousins. A visit to Grandma & Grandpa's house in summer meant walking to the swimming hole in Meyer Creek.  The aunts and uncles would give us towels, tell us to be careful, and send us on our way. Once we got there, the older cousins would first throw rocks at the snakes that would always be sunning themselves on the big gray rocks.  Once the snakes had slithered off the rocks, we'd have the all clear. (Now... seriously... think about that for a minute... Where did those snakes go? Into the water probably?  Into the cracks of the rocks maybe? Hmmm... ) It was time to try to wade in. I say "try" because the water was sooooo cold.  On the hottest summer day, lips would be blue, teeth would be chattering, and limbs would be shivering.  The big boy cousins would get in and splash around.  The big girl cousins would spread their towels out on the low-water bridge to lay out.  (Of course they'd squeal and have to jump up whenever a car would come.) The other little cousins and I would wade up to our ankles or knees then probably think it would be more fun to go and play on the big rocks. (Totally safe since the snakes could no longer be seen.)

So... why did I decide this was a good time to paint this one?

Well... 

When cleaning up after our OLLI class, (Click HERE if to see that.) I scraped all of the students' left over paint onto a couple plates.  Hmmm... what to do with all those greens and blues... 

There's still plenty left.  I may have to do a whole series using only the left overs on these palettes.

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Life Book 2023 - (January, February)

I've been participating in Willowing Arts Life Book 2023 for two (only two?!?!) months.

I thought I'd share what I've created so far.

Let's look at a score on the comfort level:

My normal oil on canvas realistic paintings - 0

Mediums and subjects I'm not used to - 15 

How about a score for trying new things, learning, and having fun: - 100

So many different faces...

A couple of animals...

A still life...

A cityscape...

And some random things...

Collage, acrylic, watercolor, pen & ink, stamps, stencils, pastels...

Fruits & Vegetables under the Umbrellas

Our state has many good roadside fruit and vegetable stands, and we have a wonderful farmers' market around our city's square. The reference photo I used for this painting; however, was taken when I spent some time in Indonesia a few years ago. There were so many beautiful fruits and vegetables and many I'd never seen before and haven't seen since.

Fun fact: I think that apples were a delicacy that that they must have imported from somewhere else.  Each apple on the stack would be wearing a little "jacket" to keep it safe. Look behind the oranges. Those are yellow apples! Each one has a pink spongy wrap. (The pink spiky things to the right of the oranges... who knows what odd kind of fruit that was!)

This might look like a painting about fruits and vegetables, but it's not supposed to be. My Creative Companions topic was "Umbrellas." I really struggled to connect with that one... a lot! I'd go to bed each night thinking... Umbrellas in the rain, beach umbrellas, folded umbrellas in a stand, umbrella plants, fancy umbrella parasols, umbrella strollers... 

Ugh... days passed...

I went to YouTube and practiced drawing every umbrella they had to offer. 

Zero connection...

Then I finally noticed this painting that hangs right there beside my bed!  Umbrellas at the farmers' market!!! Yes! But, I couldn't get by with just painting that one again.  So I went to the other side of the world for inspiration!

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

I Like Thursday 3/23

Thank you to Leeanne of Not Afraid of Color for reminding me to notice things I like. 

I like my art space. 

I love everything in there.

I love spending time there.

Click for a 30 second tour.

I like the rug I got for my art room.

I like writing in a journal.

I like my new refrigerator so much! 
I've never had a such a fun and fancy one before!

I like the daffodils in my yard. 
They're the first to announce that spring is arriving soon!

LeeAnne gave several other prompts to think about. 
Here are a few quick answers to them:

Tell us about something you collect... or used to collect now are tired of. I feel like I'm getting to the age when I want to collect and accumulate less stuff. Collections... let's see... I suppose journals.  I started writing in a journal in 3rd grade and never stopped.  I have quite a collection. I wrote about them in these posts. Journals Pt 1 and  Journals Pt 2 and  Journals Pt 3 and Journals Pt 4.

How do you feel about the Panetone color of the year magenta?  I love magenta!  Put a little aqua or turquoise next to it, and I like it even better.

What thoughtful things does your special person do for you? I have a very thoughtful guy.  Special things? Yes... always. But, how about practical things! He does all the laundry! There's plenty more, but that's a pretty good one right there!

What do you like about your creative/sewing space ? Do you have a dedicated space that is yours alone? What works in there for you? How do you feel when you're there?  I love my art space... my Atelier. There's a section for everything crafty and artsy that I love doing. My oil painting area, my sewing machine, my Cricut, a television, sitting area, tables for painter friends, storage for my (too much / too many / need to use up) materials, paints, fabrics, and supplies.

What would you like to have in a dream studio space? Think about layout, cabinetry, tools... Have you ever seen a studio space you wished you had?    About a year and a half ago, we made my art space into that dream studio space.  We repainted, put new lighting, and installed new flooring.  If it was a dream studio, then I suppose it would have a bathroom and kitchenette... but then I might never come out... Perhaps best to keep it as it is.