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Painting Metal – Tin Cans

 My students have asked for me to do some lessons on painting metal and glass, objects that require the artist to see and depict abstract shapes and values in order to render the object in a realistic manner. It takes a different way of seeing and thinking to depict shapes for which there are no words. One has to think, “I put the paint down in a shape like…that. And then this part has to be darker (or lighter). This color is reflected … here… like this.” A new year is a good time for rekindling friendships. Although I painted tin cans, I made them into the kids’ version of…

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A New Year, a New Journey

 The turning of the calendar into a new year is a good excuse to make a new start, or to start again something that has lapsed, like my participation on this blog (yikes!). A new start is like a journey and we don’t know what the year will bring. In keeping with the idea of a journey, here is a picture of an imaginary landscape, a forest of multi-colored trees with a couple walking through the glowing forest. What new starts (or re-starts) are you making as we enter 2019? Where do you imagine your journey taking you?

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Eggplants

 One of the joys of summer is going to a farmers’ market or stopping at a local produce stand. One of the stands near us had these wonderful eggplants, each one being 3″ – 4″ long. A friend of mine saw them and let me know they were there as she said, “You simply HAVE…

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Tree Studies

 I don’t usually start doing tree studies until autumn, but in teaching one of my students how to paint a landscape, we stepped away from the whole scene to practice single trees. I’d forgotten how much I like doing these! First, I used the lightest color to paint the whole mass of leaves, making the…

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Sunny Summer Day

 July 1st, deep into the Maryland summer, and the sun is shining on the office of the Marina next door to our house. The owner’s daughter keeps the gardens neat and plants lots of flowers. It looks wonderful! We’re so thankful to live here. Our sailboat is in the marina, which makes it right outside our back door on the creek. On a hot summer day like today, it’s cooler on the water, so we’re going to spend the night on the boat.

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Lilacs

 For a brief period in spring, the lilacs bloom and fill the surrounding area with their delightful fragrance. Blooming in either pink, white or lilac(!) the cone-shaped bunches of flowers drape elegantly from the ends of the new growth. Lilacs, watercolor, 3” x 3” What are your favorite spring blooms?

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Sunshine

 Today was one of those rare days when everything came together nicely. The Doodlewash theme for the month of June is “Outdoor Fun” and today’s prompt is “Sunshine.” As I thought about how to depict the sunshine (which we didn’t have much of today) I thought of a photo that my husband had taken on…

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A Visit to a Bog

 A couple of days ago, my husband and I visited a bog. There are many different plants in a bog due to the moist, sometimes wet, and acidic soil. I was primarily attracted to the ones that were flowering at that time, as you will see by my sketches. When I haven’t gone out to…

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Allium

 My husband and I spent a couple of hours at a botanical garden yesterday. The roses weren’t blooming yet, but the garden was filled with large, shimmering, purple allium (A. giganteum), a flower related to garlic.

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Bluebells

 When one moves to a new home, it is interesting to find what floral gems spring up from the ground, having been planted by previous residents.  We have had a wonderful flower make its appearance each year in this home, but until this year I haven’t taken the time to paint it before it faded.  It actually took me a couple of years before I looked up the name to find out that we had bluebells planted in a corner of the garden. I had to grab a few painting moments between rainstorms.  Welcome Spring!

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