Summer Doors

I'm reworking some old paintings and trying others with architectural details.

Here's a close-up of the grillwork on the door. 

I added in the light gray tree branches.  Hmmm, I think the flowers need to pop more.  It's funny how photographing a work shows all the little issues more clearly. 

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I can see that this door is a little crooked. I'm pleased with the the bicycle and the overall feel. The play of light on brick turned out well. Shadows baffle me sometimes!  

This one was really easy and fun as the perspective is straight-on. 

A Teacher in Summer

We've been out of school for a week, and I'm just now finding my balance. It might surprise people to know how long it takes. It's like recovery after a long illness.  I begin remembering who I am when I am not immersed in students, grades, state testing, and mountains of paperwork.  Even in summer, I am hard put not to think of every experience, "My students would love to see this!" I am remembering that I am a wife, mother, grandma; a painter, a cook, a (pretend) lady of leisure.  I don't have to rise at dawn's early light (but I do.)  I don't have to set the coffeepot and lay out clothing in order to dress in the dark and leave the house by 6 AM--but I still maintain all except leaving the house.  

I believe that if we all take time to breathe, to talk, think, relate, and yes, to paint, we will go back to work as more decent human beings.  And those frantic prayers on the way down the freeway?  Especially the ones for safety and well-being of my students?  Let's deepen and expand those prayers.  Let's take time to listen to God's answer.  

Lovely Doors to Secret Gardens

I am starting a couple of pictures for my daughter's new place.  She likes doors.  She is not into the fall tones and earth tones that continually show up like unexpected guests in all my works. So here goes, something different.  

Here's my beginning:

I need to get the white bicycle in there. Keep it light, don't get overbearing.

I like the palette, although Krystal says the flowers to the left of the door are too blue.  And the bicycle looks a little off. I like the wisteria.  The doorknob is too high. There--the flowers are lightened up, the bicycle is straighter.  Tomorrow I'll blacken the tires and add shadows. Let it be noted that I'm not an art teacher, but I visit the art room frequently! Hmmm, I don't like that bike.  Let me finish the greenery, further straighten it out.  

Summer Essence

Yesterday was the first official day of Summer.

K. and I were zombies.  Still, we ran errands, shopped, bought Taco Bell for lunch. 

I bought a new dress for a graduation. 

She turned in her loan forgiveness for 5 years of teaching science in a Title I school in Texas. This one small thing equals years of finding oneself, finding a profession that is, in truth, a calling.  I have experienced the same transformation, but my loan forgiveness was in the area of special education.  Spending 5 years with such students in such a school grows deep roots in a person.  It's a heart, should, and mind shift.  

Last night, I dreamed that S. and I were in a dead sleep.  (In reality, we were in a dead sleep.) I think we were at Leakey. 

A knock came at the door.  A friend and his kids were in sleeping bags on the front porch. The painting below reminds me of the dreamscape outside the house. Paisley fields and fragile trees. 

I brought them all in. Meanwhile, our house guests (whom I did not know) came out.  By now, I desperately needed coffee.  I fumbled for the components of the coffeepot.  I accidentally threw oatmel in there, then the pieces didn't fit.  My thirst and caffeine craving grew. 

By now, I was truly awake and in dire need of coffee...and it is magically perking. I'm going to have some.  I'm going to live this day.  But first, there will be coffee.

My goal this summer is to paint tropical themes; to improve my animals; to rework some paintings that I can better finish now.

This one lacked definition. I added brown and smoky branching brush.

The above painting was one of my very first efforts. K loyally hung it above her couch. I'll rework it for more depth and subtlety. Good grief! It looks like a field of lollipops or balloons! Maybe I should use that and add frolicking unicorns. 

In acrylic, I hope to capture my dreams. Maybe not the shark dreams, or pajamas-at-school dreams, but the never ending houses stocked with treasures and mythic creatures.  Those dreams.