Wedding Hat

What does it take to be brave enough to wear a hat?

Isn't she lovely!  And best of all, she's not some random lovely lady, she's my very own sister.  I always kind of thought of her as my own Sister Maria (from The Sound of Music).  Maybe that was because she took care of me a lot when I was little or because I always thought she looked like Julie Andrews.


I experimented with several new challenges while painting this portrait.  
First of all, it was the first time I had tried combining two pictures.  In the original photograph, she was standing  in a department store - clothes racks didn't seem as pleasant as the lush tropical backdrop from the actual wedding. 

It was also the first time I'd dabbled in removing information - who wants to see reading glasses or price tags!    The last thing is that this was the first adult I'd tried to put on the canvas.  Although I like the finished product, I discovered that this was not my calling. 

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.

Orange Lilies

Tiger Lily  or Day Lily? 


Take your pick!  I love hardy flowers - those that come back year after year, that manage to survive and be stronger than the weeds, that are able to thrive without much attention. I guess that's why I've always been drawn to lilies. They grow and multiply and never to fail to announce that summer has finally come.

Click GREAT (and say that word like Tony the Tiger would say it!) to enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of related vintage items and art pieces) celebrating all kinds of tigers - including these tiger lilies!

Red Barn in Springtime

What's right?  What's wrong?

Right... it's peaceful... the grass is green, the daffodils are blooming, the barn is red, the sky is blue...

Wrong... a real farmer's working barn would have old equipment all around... there would be cow poop surrounding the barn area... there would have been fences or else the animals would have trampled and eaten the daffodils...

So... I've lived the real-life one.  But, I love the idea of the beautiful (almost enchanted) one.  It would be a good place to set a story.  

Enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of related art pieces) celebrating Pinks and Red or another celebrating Trees by clicking. Go to a horse-themed collection is titled Horseback Riding. Also enjoy My Springtime. Then have a look at other treasuries like Life in the Country..., Country Cozy or Country Sampler for a little bit of everything country.  Finally, stop by Spring Babies where each selection shares the same lovely spring green.

[SOLD]

Spiky Yellow Sunflower

             

What's the symbol of summer?

There are many, but surely the sunflower is one of them!

This one grew tall and beautiful in my garden until the squirrels couldn't stand it any longer and climbed up the stalk for a feast on its seeds.

Enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of related art pieces and vintage items) named for and in created to celebrate the 

Sunflowers.

Pink Bearded Iris

How may colors do irises actually come in?


I grew up on a farm, so there was no time or effort wasted on frilly, persnickety flowers.  But one flower that thrived was the iris.  We had a long bed that stretched down the fence row.  It never required a thing.  Oh, how I'd love to have transferred that row of gorgeous irises to where I live now.
I mentioned it in my poem "I Am From Home" in an earlier entry.


This was painted for the June challenge on Studio Atelier.  It's always fun to see the different variations on the chosen image.  All the same, yet all different.

Dogwood

Do you have a favorite tree?

When we built our house, there was a scraggly tree right beside our deck. Our builder left it but warned us that it would probably die because of the trauma that building around it would have caused to its root system. But... it didn't die. And to our delight and surprise it gave us a show of fabulous dogwood blossoms the next spring and every spring since. A couple of winters ago, however, our part of Arkansas suffered a devasting ice storm that left many trees toppled and stripped of branches. We wondered if the damage had been too much for our faithful little dogwood. Sure enough, its blossoms were just as beautiful as always. It's a survivor!

Original Oil Painting on 9"x 12" Canvas Board
[SOLD]

Cabin in Greens & Purples

What's the view outside your window?

Do you think the pioneer that built this cabin knew what a fabulous scene would appear on the hillside every year?  Or do you think it was a big surprise that first summer when the purple flowers bloomed?

That thought was what drew me to this image.  It was done as the June challenge for A Day Not Wasted.  Have a look and enjoy the variety of styles... all the same, yet all different.

When we built our house it was summer.  When we moved in it was autumn, and we got the most wonderful surprise with the rich yellows, golds, and reds.  Then when the first spring came, we got an even bigger surprise when we discovered all the dogwoods blooming just outside our back window.

[SOLD]

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas

Amelia*

How do you capture the person, not just the physical likeness?


How sweet is this little one!
Some parts of this painting came so easily for me.
For one, I learned that I love painting with purple - so uncomplicated!.  Just add white as needed... how simple!
Second, I learned that it's the imperfections that add to - not detract from - the story I want to paint... little wisps of hair sticking out here and there, a collar rolled over...


When I was given this commission, I had one overarching desire.  That was to honor who she was without emphasizing what she had.  The physical characteristics which are indicators of Downs Syndrome were a part of her, but they did not define her.  I so wanted to honor this little one through my humble brush strokes... a beautiful, sweet, happy child.

'[SOLD]

Ben's House

How can you keep stripes even?


I loved this technique.  I broke an old hair comb, clipped out every other tooth, then had my perfect tool to keep my boards evenly spaced.


I love simple little cheats!

Amy

How do you paint shades of red?


This was really my first attempt at red, and it was frustrating.  Adding white makes pink... not a lighter shade of red... hmmm... I learned that a light orange helped with the lights adding some purple helped with the darks.


And, then back to the paint recipe for flesh... Well, obviously what worked for Abby and for Tanner didn't work for Amy.  The other thing that was a huge lesson for me on these three paintings was having to study the differences in facial features.  Noticing is half the work.  On my very first painting lesson on February 22, 2007, my teacher said, "I want to teach you to see in a different way."  I love seeing things through a painter's eyes.

Purple Iris

How long does it take to see the silver lining?


I always love hardy flowers like daffodils, lilies,and irises, but this one has a special story. 
A friend gave me a box of iris bulbs as a house warming gift for the house we were building. Unfortunately, we moved in during the week of September 11, 2001. As every American knows, that was a tumultuous time for many reasons. There didn't seem to be time to think through the perfect spot for planting the iris bulbs. Finally I poked them in the ground on a hillside beside our little pond just so they wouldn't dry up and be wasted. 
Every spring after that their flags (leaves) grew up strong and healthy, but never was a single bud or flower produced.
Then two years ago our part of the country suffered the worst ice storm in history. Our beautiful trees were broken and mangled. It took the summer to get the limbs cleaned up. The canopy of limbs was sparse to say the least.
But... surprise... the next spring the irises bloomed and were fabulous! 
The loss of tree limbs was the opportunity for sun that the irises had been patiently waiting 10 years for.


Visit Spring Irises or  Awesome Finds From Arkansas to enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of vintage items and art pieces) that celebrates purple!  Or visit I Is For.  It's a clever collection of things that begin with the letter i.  And, of course, you have to see Stunning Iris Displays!


Click to purchase "Purple Iris."

Baby Under the Blanket

When do you use your artistic license?

I believe that it was in working on this painting that I discovered I had an artistic license, and I was allowed to use it!  Very freeing!


This sweet little baby had a right hand that was giving me fits!  There's no telling how long I spent trying to get those little fingers right.  Finally my teacher suggested using my artistic license to pull that blanket down a little further and cover them up.  What a thought! No one would ever know the difference, and I could sign my name and be finished.


FYI... this little one grew up to be my "A,B,C,D...E!" girl and the picture for the very first blog entry I ever did.


You can purchase a giclee of "A,B,C,D...E!" by clicking the title.

Tanner

What color are teeth?

Well, they aren't white.  We think they're white, but they really aren't! Finding the right color was so tricky. This lesson was enough to make me decide that I'd choose to paint people with their mouths closed.

And... what color is flesh?   

What made me think the flesh recipe that worked for "Abby" would work for the next little one?  Of course, it didn't!   But how fun to find the right mixture to put another little face on canvas!

:) Hike... Kings River Falls

Sunflower Field

I love sunflowers. (I even used one as my little Etsy icon).

I planted a row of them in my garden. Right now (mid May) they're about 6 inches tall. It's hard to believe they'll be 6 feet tall in a few short weeks. I'm anxious to see them and do my best to get a picture of them before the squirrels climb up and have a feast.

This painting was done as a challenge piece from Atelier Studios.


Click on Summer Field to enjoy a lovely Etsy treasury (collection of related art pieces and vintage) that celebrates the yellows and greens of summer.

Original Oil Painting on Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Abby

What color is flesh?


I was astounded to learn the "recipe" for flesh.  I know now that there are many, but the one that I started with was: 
yellow-green + red-orange + white.
I would have never come up with that on my own, but it works!








FYI... this little one grew up to be my "Blow on It!" girl.  See that post from July 8, 2010.

Visit an Etsy treasury (collection of art pieces) celebrating Children and Summer where she's featured.

"Blow on It!" can be purchased in several forms. 

8" x 10" giclee

8" x 10 print on fine art paper

8" x 10 print on photo paper

and can be put on any size upon request

Immigrant Girl

Isn't a face the hardest thing to paint?

The lesson I learned with my first portrait was not to look at it as a face.  It's not an eye, it's a shape and colors... It's not a nose, it's just shapes and colors.  It's not a mouth, it's onlly shapes and colors...

Then... you leave the room for a minute, come back, and voila... a face has appeared on the canvas!

"Immigrant Girl" was the very first painting I ever sold to someone I didn't know.

Red Barn at Sunset

How does an artist control the viewer's eye movement when looking at her paintings?


This is a barn we discovered while driving through a neighboring Northwest Arkansas county. It was actually near the highway (not in a lovely field with trees and a country road.) It was a working barn... What were my clues to that? First -a metal horse fence. Second - the strong scent fresh manure. Finally - three angry guineas ran out the door and chased me back into the car after just a few photographs.  


I learned - no, not learned, began to understand or at least think about - something while working on this painting.  When searching for a setting for this great old barn, I found something that I liked and thought it would be perfect with some modifications to make it mine.   The inspiration image had a great old barn with a fence, road, and tree in front of it.  But it didn't quite work for my barn, so I flipped it - made a mirror image.  But somehow, mine became a great big old tree with a fence, road, and barn behind it.  
The focus completely shifted... and with neither my intention nor my permission!
That weekend, I got my first installment of  Weekly Painting Tips from Daniel.  The short video was about this same idea!  I am very interested in learning to be in control of this, but for now... I think I'm still just surprised every time I paint something and it actually looks like what it's supposed to.

In case you wondered if my story of photographing the barn was true... These are the mean old guineas that chased me.


Original Oil Painting on Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Trumpeter Swans

What's the difference between a swan and a goose?


I proud to say I'm a farm girl, but I'm embarrassed to say I'm not sure I know.  
Can geese swim?  Maybe that's the difference....
Or, maybe it's their attitudes and behaviors.   
The goose is a symbol for silliness. (Don't be a silly goose.)
The swan is a symbol for elegance. (The ballerina was a graceful as a swan.)
My experience with these silly / lovely birds is limited to children's literature. 
Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White and Goose Girl by Sharon Hale are both wonderful!


This pair of trumpeter swans nests in a little Northwest Arkansas pond .  The real ones have wide green "necklaces" or bands that allow them to be tracked.  On the way back from a hike near the Buffalo River, we pulled over to take a few pictures.  They seemed to enjoy performing for me.  They'd paddle over, look at me, then wiggle their feet to make the water muddy.  Then they'd dip their heads in.  That made their heads and necks all brown and muddy! 
Luckily, I have my handy artistic license that's ready for use in these situations.  I was able to remove their numbered green bands and wash them up a bit for their debut on the canvas.  I think they'd have wanted that.


Enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of related art pieces or vintage items) that celebrates these lovely birds by clicking Serenade with Swans or Elegant Swans for the Holidays.  Another treasury celebrates water in with a tranquil, yet funky collection.  Click Spirit of Water to have a look.


To purchase this painting, click "Trumpeter Swans."