Three Day Siege

Due to 20 inches of rain dumping on the Houston area in a single day, we are home for the third day in a row.  

We've played Star Wars in the Hallway and I've painted a little while doing a lab safely training online. My daughter the science teacher laughs at the thought of me being responsible for flammable chemicals. Of course, I'm painting trees.  I could do that blindfolded.  There is something so sensible yet romantic about the parade of leafy maples showing off their best dresses. 

I keep trying to paint this Portuguese fishing village.  The persepetive is tricky, because the viewer looks up at the hill and down at the water.  I've also never explored all the shapes and colors of small watercraft presented in the photo.  But I can picture sitting there fishing or swimming and hearing the lapping of waves.  In the photo, people cluster all along the sidewalk.  With so many dwellings together, I'm sue you can smell cooking, hear chatter, and see small children running around. 

I also took a moment to be appalled at the state of my flowerbeds. 

I love the contrast here.  The dusty Miller plants are quite pushy and crowding out all the others. 

More Inspiration

I brought coloring books, sketch pads, and pastels this time rather than my paints. But just look at these photos! I'll have to paint when we get home: 

Such drama! The play of light on water makes any ordinary scene a delight. 

Future projects

I'm sifting through vacation photos. Look at these gems that would paint well: 

Everywhere one looks in St. Augustine is regal architecture, a treasure of textures and light. We slowed to creep through a narrow alley and I took the above photo into someone's drawing room. Rain poured from the sky and speckled our car windows while gleaming yellow light shone warmly within. 

Here is a peek through arches at the Lightner museum. 

And oh, the sunsets! Look at that mother-of-pearl cloud behind the silhouettes do palm trees. 

What will J say?

I've been asked to paint a lot of different subjects.  Left to myself, I like calm waters, eerie trees, green fields.  However, everyone else has other visions of the perfect place and time, so I've painted golf courses, fanciful trees, bridges, paths, and oceans reflecting all types of water.

For the first time, a friend asked me to paint a relationship.  It was supposed to be a basic representation of earth and elements and attraction. As usual, it took a turn where it has become part paisley and part Dr. Seuss.  If this thing no longer represents her color scheme, I'll keep the crazy thing and start hers over.

As usual, I now both love and hate it and am a little obsessed by adding more curlicues to it. Got out of bed on Sunday morning at 4:30 AM to get back to it.

What do you think?  What will Jessica say?

Whimsy and reality

The painting below is one I did years ago and redid once I'd Lerner a little more about skies and hr ions. But these hills beg for dragons and princesses, shepherd s and dwarves. 

I'm not sure how the unicorns got onto these green Irish hills. 

Below is a sunset view of a Jamaican beach.  

Weekend projects

I love the mellow sunlit tones in this painting.  It hangs on my wall at school.  

This is a small unfinished project.  Soon, I'll try to polish it off.  

Textures and shadows

In my quest to get realism and playfulness on my canvas, I'm continuing the Door Series.,

I'm concluding that American doors are the most prosaic in the world. Let us turn elsewhere for inspiration!  Pinterest Page, Architextures