Seasonal
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Monday, July 28th, 2008
A new heart shape in nature to add to the series today.
Pumpkin leaves and blossom
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
The first of the pumpkin blossoms are opening; they open early in the morning and close fairly quickly. This morning a bee was struggling inside a flower that had collapsed before it finished gathering pollen. When the flower wilts, the sticky soft petals bond together, and the bee would never have escaped had I not investigated where the frantic-sounding buzzing was coming from. I didn’t think a tender flower could be so strong!
The 4th of July on the 22nd of June
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
Added darkest values, mapping out the composition more clearly, now will define a few blossoms in the foreground by washing off dark areas and paint with pure colors from the tube and bring back to the cheery lights and brights that were present at the start.
The Fourth of July 01, work in progress
Friday, June 20th, 2008
The Fourth of July 01, 36H x 48W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted, sturdy custom built stretcher frame. Work in progress. Rarely do I draw outlines to start paintings.. just start splashing paint in a frenzy around the canvas, responding to the subject matter.
Not only does the Orange Milkweed remind me of fireworks, but it was on July 4th last year that I stopped to photograph the vibrant wildflowers growing alongside the highways in Kentucky.
Happy Tree
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Happy Face – Pecan tree, Lewisville, TX
The Art of Caring
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Who would save a drowning rat? These two little boys, Haydon and Noel would.
When I arrived at the neighborhood pool this morning they had just scooped a helpless rat out of the water with a little pail. It was still alive but barely, and the oldest boy who was six years old, explained to me about the circle of life – he used this term, not me. He explained that if rats died then snakes could not live, and so that’s why he saved it. I was impressed, but their other new pool playmate, a toad also discovered in the water… not so much!
By Natural Design
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Canna Lily leaves.
Strawberry Fields
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
I wonder if the Anole that lives indoors with us thought it saw lunch when it climbed near the two photos of strawberries, pictures of my sons when they were two and three years old.
Sun Shower 04
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
May 30th: Today I’m starting to remove miles of rubberized masking medium. It’s so exciting to unravel the results; they look a little like Batik, where wax or resist is applied then removed.
Sunshower 04, 49 x 85 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas. 29th: Starting to build thin layers of acrylics, gel medium and water. As previously posted, when painting is all finished I plan to remove all of the masking medium and reveal the original colors underneath. Paint catching on the textured surface gives the look of 3D raindrops…very interesting, and in retrospect I don’t know why it wasn’t obvious that this would occur.
I was mostly thinking ahead about the atmosphere and negative spaces. There are so many things that you can’t anticipate or put into a plan, that you only discover by doing, even the obvious. As the painting changes you have to keep changing your plan along with it. Preconceived ideas are a must, but you have to be willing to let go of some and stay open to others. This is what I love so much about painting..how one thing leads to another; planning and surprises working together. Now this will have multidimensional surface of every grade from watercolor-like washes to thick applications of paint.
May 28th: Anxious to finish placing the raindrop patterns and get to painting the light rays. The next layers of paint will resist those raindrop areas. I’m usually content to go with the flow, following how the painting gradually comes together. With this painting I have to think ahead, visualize, and plan the completed piece more than usual. As the canvas fills in more with the resist, mark-making is more strategic. I can’t wait to see how it will look when the resist is removed.
May 26th: …am on the third bottle of masking medium. Soon the surface will be ready to start painting light and dark sun rays, layering color washes of acrylics and gel medium.
May 23rd: As I fill in with streaks of masking medium to block off areas of rain, progress is slow because of the painting’s size, but I work a little on it every day. Toothpicks keep breaking, and my hand gets cramped and numb after a few hours, so I bought some of the smallest paper pencils usually used for smudging graphite, and those are working out much better. I devised a sort of brush with a few toothpicks taped to a brush handle, but this is awkward to use, and there is not much control over mark placement. One streak at a time.
Green Thumb
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Green Thumb – photography, May 7th: A volunteer Sunflower, must be from last year’s seed, sprouted about 2 weeks ago, is already 5 feet tall with very large leaves.
Red Sunflower, photography – May 22nd: the plant is already 97 inches high, almost to the eavestrough today – that’s over 8 ft., and growing a few more inches every day. I cut off quite a few of the large lower leaves and some secondary flowers to enable the energy to go toward developing the main flower and seeds, which I definitely want to collect. There are still 19 long-stemmed secondary flowers unfolding and 8 more blooms stemming from the secondary flowers. May 26: With more secondary blooms unfolding every day, the plant is now over 9 ft. high.
June 14th: The main flower seed-head was removed. Only a few seeds may be mature enough to reproduce another plant because most of the energy has gone into secondary buds, then as those mature, smaller third and even fourth successive buds are still unfolding.
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