GlassnStripesWIP Cont'd

This morning when I checked the Artcolony blog, Doris Joa had posted her latest WIP and for some reason, a lightbulb went off in my head. I have been struggling with the stripes and glass and lights and darks in my WIP and after looking at Doris progression, I realized that my true darks needed to be put in right now so I would have some reference of values as a base line. Don't know why it took so long to do this step as I actually usually work dark to light anyway. I've also included my reference photo (which is not that great) which shows just how much jumping around the darks actually are in these piece. Anyway, we'll see how far I get now that I think my roadmap has finally been found.

AHHHH...Trials of Country Life

It's time for a little venting and since this is my very own blog, I have my very own permission. Last night the joys of country life and having our own water well came front and center. My husband came out of his bathroom..voice raised..and demanded to know if I had left the water on AGAIN from watering my flowers in the heat. Well..Duhhhh..I didn't remember. So, I jumped up, slipped on my flipflops and ran outside and checked both hoses. Luckily, I was in the clear. It was so really dark and it was late, so I knew it would be morning before we really could see the problem. So, no flushes allowed in the Jones house. See, if you live in town, you never have this little problem.
Well, the sun did come up and we did go up on the hill and get to take a look. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it was not a burned up water pump as we have our trip to Galveston for this weekend all arranged. Eureka!!! It was just fire ants..almost a monthly occurance this time of year as they seem to love electricity. Anyway, my hubby filed the points (whatever that is) on the motor, we put the coverhouse back down and I turned on the switch back down at the house for our main water system. And, it worked!!! If you've never fooled with fire ants, thank your lucky stars...they're awful.

Okay, now the second problem comes about. My neighbor who usually takes care of feeding our dog, cats and chickens is going to be out of town. So, now I'm on the hunt for another neighbor (nobody owes me any favors right now) to feed and water our critters while we on the beach. Will work on that in the morning as I'm going to be Scarlet O'Hara and procrastinate on this one.

Our daughter and son and their kids will join us for a last getaway before school starts. We've never all stayed in the same condo so this will be a new experience for all of us. I'm certain that I'll be the babysitter for the 4 month old granddaughter, but I'm looking forward to that. Our other granddaughter (a 4 yr old) has never seen the ocean (if you can call the Gulf of Mexico an ocean) and we're really looking forward to her reaction to it all. So...will check back in when we get home. As a sidebar..I have done a little work on my stripes and glass, but keep getting sidetracked. Figures!!!

Glass WIP

 

Very seldom do I ever post a work in progress, but I'm feeling that I need to give this one a rest for a bit and redraw some of the stripes which I seem to have lost in translation. Don't know why I am drawn to these rather complicated paintings and glass setups, but I am. My intention was to "tiptoe" in by painting light to dark, but I'm finding that I need to go back to Joyce Faulknor's technique and go dark to light as this method maps the piece for me and I can better judge my values. I know in my head that these stripes are going to be fun to do, but when I actually begin painting, without the roadmap of the darks, they all look alike. So, we'll see how this goes tomorrow. Since we've had somewhat cooler temps around here, the garden is beckoning me so I'll have to withstand painting until I can get some weeds pulled, but that won't take long.

My Artcolony blog has our monthly challenge deadline coming right up (15th) so I may actually try to come up with something to post there. Maybe I'm putting off getting back to this piece of glass..could be???

Noonday Onions

Another painting I completed while on my little New Mexico trip was this one of some Noonday Onions that Debbie Cannatella brought along. We did the setup on the back porch and the wind almost did us in. The actual tablecloth was red and white check, but we wanted to use the complimentary colors of the onions with blue. Of course, I had to throw in some purples and magenta's although I didn't actually see any of those hues in the setup. We took a few pictures for references as the sunlight shifts around too much to be actually painting the scene plein air.
There were darling little hummingbirds (Rufus and Broadtails) buzzing us all the time and it was great fun. We hung two glass feeders about 5' from our work tables and we were able to get really good visuals. The little Rufus male was very territorial and wanted both feeders...all the time. We fed mule deer every day and they were so accoustomed to people they just stood and looked at us as we poured the corn/grain off the porch railings on to the ground. On my last morning, a Stellar Jay flew by and that was one bird that I really wanted to see. Seems as though he was telling me goodbye..good birdie.

Ruidoso Morning

If you want a wonderful trip to a cooler climate that we have in Texas, you need to make the 10 l/2 hour drive to Ruidoso. Six artist friends have just spent a week up there painting and it was such fun. Our hostess was Greta Faulkenberry from here in Tyler and she has a fabulous place in the mountains. We visited art museums, played a little at a wonderful casino several nights, did some sightseeing, visited her club for a wonderful lunch one day (salmon cakes and all the trimmings...yummmm), went to the top of a mountain and actually climbed the steps up to the forest ranger's lookout on the top (huffing and puffing) and best of all...just painted and painted on her porches outside. We had put up two hummingbird feeders and they kept us entertained the whole week as they are not shy at all when they find the east pickings. I had never seen Broadtails and only once had I seen a Rufus (who is bright orange with a bright red neck in the sunshine). We had mule deer who came right up to our porch and also enjoyed easy pickings of cracked grain. Had also never seen a mule deer as we only have whitetailed deer here. What a lovely trip we had.

Debbie Cannatella and I were in separate auto from the other 4 artists so we left a day early (so sorry that we left the other girls to do the maid duty)and we made our way to Big Spring on Saturday for a visit with another artist friend, Kay Smith. Kay's work is fabulous as is Debbie's. Debbie is actually the Tyler artist's watercolor teacher and one of the girls from their group couldn't make the trip so I got to fill in. Lucky me!!!

For any of you who read my little blog, Kay is also an Artcolony blog contributor and you need to check her work out along with Debbie Cannatella's.

This "Ruidoso Morning" painting was my gift to my hostess as she had this marvelous set of dishes and I couldn't resist painting them. I took lots of reference pictures of other set-ups with the blueberries and plan to do many more pictures as I loved the colors and the nature subject. The motifs were fish and dragonflies on the cups, saucers, plates, etc. Just too many to make one selection, but I love to paint color. My camers is throwing the picture rather blue, but the morning sunlight was too enticing not to try to grab a bit of the bright shadows.

I also did a painting of some Noonday onions on a blue checked tablecloth that I will post with my next pass. Really am not through with deepening some shadows here and there, but will get that up within the next day or so as I like to live with the piece a bit. One thing, this was my first painting plein air and I must admit that I really enjoyed it. I always thought I had to be in the studio or paint inside, but I think I'm hooked on the wonderful outdoor light now.

We are already planning another trip back up there to Ruidoso, but for now my suitcases are calling for me to get the washing machine cranked up so I know what my next day or so will entail around here. And, husbands don't really pick up after themselves so this is my fate for several days. Yipee!!!