Another Plein Air

                                                             Plein Air Acrylic, 8x10"

 Here is another plein air.  It took me two sessions to do this one.  Luckily, the scene is the rock shed in the bank alongside my driveway, so it was very easy to go back again.  What a pleasure to be out yet still be home.

As usual, I am dissatisfied with the photo and may try to redo, but I did want to jump on the chance to wish you a good weekend...

Plein Air (and forgot to bring white!)

                                                                         Acrylic Plein Air, 8x8"

Yes, lesson learned--I forgot my white wasn't with my paints when I threw them in the car last night! Even though I was only 10 minutes from home, the light was getting good, so I didn't want to go back for the white. I decided to dull down some pthalo blue and use it transparently (washy, with lots of water)  for the sky and mountain. I know, scary color, pthalo, but these are the Blue Ridge Mountains, so I hoped the dulled pthalo could get away with it.   Anyway, it was the only option I could think of!

Perhaps lesson learned for me is to use less white. I tend to have difficulty with white anyway. I know abandoning white wouldn't always work...that hill wasn't really that dark of an orange, it was actually much lighter with a slight suggestion of orange, so I went with it. I know substituting colors won't always work in place of white, but seriously, I think having to do without it showed me that I can try to reduce my use of it.

I also forgot my paper towel, and I truly cannot paint without it...but luckily I had done a cat rescue transport recently, so I had a clean "puppy pad" that stood in for the paper towel.

Did any of my friends paint plein air today?

Thanks for looking!

Irises and Good News about a Good Friend (or two)

                                                                         Still life, Acrylic, 6x6"

My neighborhood abounds with irises at the moment.   I must remember the lesson I learned last year....since irises are so beautiful, in order to see any value in my painting, I have to walk away from the iris!  I wrote about it in this post.  Irises must have come earlier last year, because that post was from mid-April.  What is blooming where you are?

Oh, I wanted to mention, Cathy Engberg, my friend who is a terrific painter, was interviewed as the Spotlight Artist for Daily Paintworks this week.  I encourage everyone to check out the interview here.

Jane Doe Update:

I am thrilled to report that Jane Doe had her six-week x-ray and recheck with her surgeon on Wednesday and all is great.  The surgeon actually said that her leg looks better on the x-ray than most dogs' do at this stage in recovery.  He said we can move from the recovery stage to the rehab stage, and he thinks she will need less than the standard 12 weeks of rehab time before she can be released to full activity.  If  you are so inclined, by the way, check out this very cool article about Jane's surgeon.

Happy Mother's Day!

 Acrylic 8x10"

This painting was started during the 30 in 30 Challenge and was never finished.  I have worked on it a couple times since then, and am still not sure it is finished.  But it seemed appropriate for a Mother's Day wish, so here it is, in all its unfinished glory.

I know now that I have been blogging for at least a year, because I remember doing a Mother's Day post last year!  Of course, I could look in my archives and find out exactly how long I have been blogging, but it felt more interesting to be writing this and have the memory come to mind.

Hope you are with your mother today, or your children...

Much love to my mother and to my sisters and friends who are mothers!

Learned Something New!

Remember Leslie Saeta, the blogger and radio host extraordinaire who organized the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge?  Well, she is at it again, this time using her know-how and her generosity to inspire her followers in a 30 Marketing Ideas in 30 Days Challenge.

I am no-way, no-how in a position to do 30 new marketing ideas this month, with everything else I having going on.  However, I am taking notes and trying new things and even making some new friends along the way.  The other day, Leslie taught everyone how to make photo buttons for their websites and blogs.  So, instead of using text to invite someone to click to something, you use the photo button. I have always wanted to know how to make those photo buttons, so I am quite excited!  I made the one above.

I was able to figure out how to make it clickable in the right column of my blog (over there --->  check it out!  ----->).  However, I have not been able to figure out how to make it clickable directly from this blogpost.  I know my blogging friend Sharon Graves knows how, so I am hoping she will shine her light in here sometime and enlighten me.  Do you remember Sharon?  She is the one who does all the wonderful nature art and interviewed me for her blog a few weeks ago.

Jane Doe Update:

Wow, blogger is being weird tonight.  I had this update on my blog, and then I didn't...

For those new to my blog, my dog Jane Doe had a very serious knee surgery at the beginning of April and is now confined to a crate, except for potty breaks, for the duration of her recovery.  Five weeks down, three months to go.  Not kidding! The photo to the left is pre-surgery days, when she was free to walk without a leash and without a sling in front of her rear legs supporting part of her weight (and to prevent a fall).

For the update, I will say that Jane Doe is "making the best of it."  As are we.  Keeping my wildly active dog confined is one of the hardest things I will ever have to do.  I am still sleeping on the floor beside her crate, but I have a good piece of foam to sleep on.  Very comfortable, and Jane likes having me near.  Thanks for caring...

The View From My House (quick plein air)

                                                                                            Acrylic 11x14

Sometimes I don't know why I do the things I do.  I know why I wanted to paint plein air (outside).  It was morning (although a dreary, overcast morning), I had the day off, it was warm enough, and I was awake enough.  All I  had to do was bring my supplies to my front yard to paint this  But....why did I challenge myself with:  1) a surface I am not used to (multimedia artboard); 2) a larger size than I am used to; 3) a painting medium I haven't used in years (glazing medium, which as you can see, makes my opaque paints semi-transparent).  I also used a large brush, and this piece was painted very quickly!   It probably would make more sense for an artist to make one change at a time, but that's me....

I am aware that the result is not a masterpiece, and I can see things I would change, but my response to this piece is I am excited for the start of the plein air season!  I think if I keep this up this year, I will get better at it.  I have painted and drawn this view many times over the years, and I can see in this piece the benefit of all the OTHER painting practice I have had over the past year and a half.  For someone who knows this view well (me), I feel the painting gives a sense of what it felt to be out there on this grey day.  So for that, and for the mere fact that I got out and painted, I am grateful.

Coincidentally, I got a message that my blogger friend Cathy Engberg also went out plein air today.  I look forward to seeing what she came up with.  She said it was sunny where she is.  It's sunny here now, too.  Oh well....