Texas Style Daffy Doll Chicks

On my other blog, www.artcolony.blogspot.com, we have a monthly challenge where we all paint an agreed upon subject and intrepret it any way we wish. Our May challenge was "Daffy Dolls" and my painting was a result of several of my artist friends coming to town for a workshop and coming out to our farm. We went down to the chicken yard to see the chickies and took pictures. This just happened to be one of those pictures, plus several of the resident chickens thrown in here and there. It's pure fluff and such fun as I tend to get rather sloppy unless I'm doing a "serious" piece. Had done a larger version and got too ambitious and ruined it and just had to start over. But...the girls are telling me that they can see a likeness to all of us (heaven forbid) so I guess it works in some quarters.

I did one for April that I particularly liked of "messes" and it was a crumpled up Whataburger sack and drink cup. Will post that when I can find it on Picasa. I'm just not that great with the computer posting of photos yet.

Caliope Crystal

This week looks so crammed packed with things I need to do that I don't really know where to start and what to procrastinate on. First thing I must do is get my painting off to the Louisiana Watercolor Society exhibition in New Orleans. Caliope Crystal was a real labor of love as it was probably the first ambitious large painting I attempted. And, eureka, it looks like it was a winner. Painting crystal and glass is a real passion and you'll see much more of that subject...if I get my act together.

We welcomed our new granddaughter, Addison Sabine Jones, into the world on April 27th and we are going down to Austin this weekend to see her in person. I just love babies...especially grandbabies. If it would just stop this raining so we could get some of our farm type chores done around here, it would help tremendiously. My husbands veggie garden is soup and we can't get it all planted. Of course, my flower gardens do their own thing in that it is mostly perennials that come back every year and the ones that self sow in the annual families that are the wonderful surprises that appear wherever they want. Love those unexpected surprises.

I have some new drawings in the works and hope to be able to post some progress and stages real soon.

Mary's Petunias

Seems that I'm still fooling around with this blogging stuff and my original post that accompanying the photo of Mary's Petunias is floating around in cyberland somewhere. This is one of my favorite floral paintings and belongs to my friend, Mary Grabbe of Noonday, Texas. It was painted while studying with a premier Dallas, Texas artist, Naomi Brotherton. She had us execute a painting with no drawing underneath and this was quite a challenge for a pen&ink artists who always does a rather detailed drawing before a painting...ME. Anyway, I loved the way it turned out. I wet the paper thoroughly, dropped in color wherever I did not want the white of the petunias to appear and went from there. There is much negative painting going on here and after many times of drying a wash and rewetting and dropping in more color here and there, the petunias magically appeared. Negative painting is a method of bringing your stars forward that I hope to persue in future paintings...it is really rewarding.

Mary's Petunias

False Alarm

Well, we're going to have to wait a little while for Addison to come. Seems that we had a false alarm and they went back home. So...it's back to trying to finish a new painting. It's full blown Spring in Texas and the flowerbeds keep taking my interest away from my painting. How fickle!!!

Life Is Just a Bowl of Strawberries

Today is my first posting to my art blog and my blog heading image is really large because that is the way I am looking at life. Large and colorful. For those who don't have a passion in life...please go out there and find one. You don't know what you're missing. Watercolor is my passion and colors my life with abject joy. It has brought me friends, admiration, comfort, a sense of accomplishment, and even some good money here and there. My family supports my art and have always seemed to know that it is a great part of me, and now, in my retirement from the work-a-day world they all seem to understand it's importance. I am very fortunate. I am hoping to take anyone who reads this blog along with me on my adventure into becoming a better watercolorist. So...let's get started.