This week Began a new painting adventure. Day Lilies! Steve planted 100 of them along with 100 hostas two years ago to create a border alon...
In between settling in to our new home, I have been creating holiday ornaments for Evergreen Farms Holiday Market - November 30. Families can cut their own trees and enjoy a holiday experience.
Botanical miniatures and winter bird themes are painted on each ornament with a stamped motif on the reverse side. No two are alike.
Moving a household is one thing, moving one that houses an art studio is another! But it happened! From West Lafayette, Indiana to Pelham, New Hampshire, we have been warmly welcomed by our daughter’s family and the wonderful New Hampersherites.
This is the title that came to me as I was finishing up a “one more time” painting adventure before we move to New Hampshire. When a friend posted an invitation on Facebook to come pick sunflowers in her field, how could I resist? So with my art buddy, Nancy, we drove out to the country and took photos and picked an armload of sunflowers. The bees were very busy pollinating and didn’t seem to mind us at all. We then spent two glorious afternoons under my pergola painting the golden blooms.
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| Don’t Worry -Bee Happy |
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| Nancy Hathaway’s Sunflowers |
In the process of moving from Indiana to New Hampshire, the last thing to be packed up is my studio. I couldn’t resist painting another big dahlia painting as I demonstrated for my classes. The blooms are irresistible to my heart and paintbrushes!
Painting plein air has it joys and pitfalls. There is the joy of being outside, surrounded by glorious natural beauty, letting the sun, wind and sounds soak into your soul. I fell into one of the pitfalls painting the lilies of the field. One of overpainting. The sun dries the paint quickly. The colors seem to fade in the bright sun, even when I 'm standing in the shadows to paint the subject in the sun. The danger is to keep painting past the time when I should have put my brushes down, resulting in a dull image.
When I looked at the painting back home, I ran hot water in the sink and soaked the painting, lifting layers of overpainting. While it was still soaking wet, I added a few touches of color here and there for accent and called it done!
I will try again the next time I'm out!
This week Began a new painting adventure. Day Lilies! Steve planted 100 of them along with 100 hostas two years ago to create a border along our fence line. So I painted a half sheet watercolor of his blooms, quite a variety.
Then yesterday I went with Nancy, my painting buddy, to a huge day lily farm to paint plein air. There are over 1300 varieties on acres of land - a bit of heaven. It made me think of the masses of tulip fields we saw in the Netherlands in the 80’s.
I painted in my travel journal and then a larger painting. It is a place we will go back to for painting inspiration.
