Lemons and Candlewick WIP

Decided to go ahead and post this WIP.  We're having our PaintingFriends SplashIII adventure in SanDiego in September this round.  I'm trying to zero in on what I'm going to demo for my friends and needed to get started.  After working on this little ditty today, I've decided that this one is not going to be on the menu...too much crossed eyed action with all the stripes in the plaid going on...our goal is to paint one in just one day and this one just won't fit the bill.  I'm enjoying the limited palette...just yellows, blues and greens...and it'll get done tomorrow.  I've been having fun doing photo setups this past couple of weeks...lots of new stuff to paint rolling around in my head.

Cherry Tomatoes n'China

This is a small demo WIP I did for our Painting Friends Forum for July...thought the lace turned out pretty fair for a detail oriented artist who is trying to paint a bit looser ever now and then.  I enjoyed the little hits and misses of the lace holes...you really don't have to paint everything you see like I usually try to tell my brain.  Anyway, it was another fun painting to do.  Arches 140 and 8x10 size.

Spiced Oranges

Gracious...it's been so long since I've posted anything I've almost forgotten how to go about it.  I have been painting...honestly...just nothing that I really enjoyed enough to post.  This spring has been spent mostly in my new sun garden (which is burning up now in the Texas sun) and watering gardens for two friends who have had hip surgery and broken bones...maybe they don't need to claim our friendship because seems that I have another friend having hip replacement surgery next week...hummmm.

This little painting was a fun paint...bright happy colors, and reds...8x10 on Arches 140.  I just have to have reds somewhere to enjoy painting.  I had found the jar of spiced oranges in a magazine long ago and tore it out...I added the cherries into the mix, blueberries, and the plaid cloth for interest.  There was no background that I felt I wanted to tackle, so I took the easy way out and just painted it solid...but it was good to get back to painting.

A Visit To Texas...Jane Freeman and Janet Belich

My friend, Jane Freeman, called one day and asked to come to "hot Texas" to get out of the snow of Minnesota...what a thrill to have her visit.  And then, another friend from Artcolony (and my roomie from our Artcolony reunion in Chicago 2 years ago) couldn't stand it so she booked a flight down from Maryland for the week too.  We had such fun.  I had intended for us to do flower garden stuff, but it was a bit on the cool side...Janie was sweating in the 70's as she's used to snow and ice right now...but we turned on the AC and that worked.  Janet's weather is very much like ours, so she wasn't in "weather heaven" like Jane.  But, we fooled around all week...shopped, went to plant nurseries, and mostly giggled and talked art like kids (and we think we are...you know). 

We went out to our art retreat to meet the girls I paint with every Tuesday  and they were very happy to welcome Jane and Janet...we took pics and they signed our "wall of fame". 

The rest of the week we just fooled around...shopped Chico's(bad Janie!!), ate fried catfish several times, enjoyed some Tex-Mex, drank a little wine and just had a marvelous week.  Wish they could have stayed longer...but Friday I took them back to Dallas to catch their respective planes.  We'll do this again next year...maybe at one of there houses...that's a promise.

The Alamo

This painting is somewhat different for me...and I was pretty happy with it all in all.  When I was in SanAntonio several years ago, I went by The Alamo...our beloved Texas shrine.  For you who have not ever seen the old treasure in real life...you'd be very surprised at the exquisite carving and relief work done in the front door area.  The columns and windows and niches are just beautiful.  I thought I'd keep a pretty simple limited palette as there are no shrubs or flowers there...just the grand old building.  This is half sheet...and I'll crop it when I decide whether or not to continue the columns lower in the bottom area...going to live with it for a few days and then decide.

Azalea

While I was looking around for something to paint that required glazing, I found that if I painted a floral that's almost around the corner for blooming...that'd be a good thing.  Our azaleas here in East Texas rival those of further south and east and are always the first big show of spring.  My thing isn't really in the glazing department...so I thought I'd try some here.  My usual way to paint is to charge in and just let the paints merge.  I'm not so sure I even like this glazing stuff...maybe I need to do a bit more before making that decision.  This one is quarter sheet and I painted it large enough to be able to do the glazing.  I find that painting small doesn't give me enough room to do much and probably would have had more fun had this been half sheet.

Cindi

This is my friend, Cindi DeWeese, from California.  Last summer after our Florida get together with our PaintingFriends group, she and I decided to take a "Thelma & Louise" road trip for a few days to New Orleans on the way home.  What a fun town...Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, casinos, jazz and clubs, great food, just a fabulous few days of wonderful things to do.  On one of our little shopping excursions she found this darling crochetted hat...and while having a bit of food and "drink"  somewhere in the FrenchQuarter the photo op with these sun spots bathing her face was just too good to pass up for a painting.  Portraits aren't my strong suit, but this one was really lots of fun...