Greenway between Colorado & Apperson

Hey Friends, Took a little walk along the Roanoke River as it flows through Salem. Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the mountains of SW Va.
Next Thursday, the 5th of april already, our group will meet at this spot for some Plein Aire painting !!! I DO love to paint outside. And there is plenty of beauty here to capture.
The photo above is right along the rivers edge and if you only look at this edge you would think it was some place tropical.

This is a photo of our beautiful wild flower, Mertensia, or Va. Bluebells. Their color is so intense I can't seem to find a paint that suits.

And obviously, this is the fun spot. Someone has even put little strips of wood for a ladder up the tree. Summer memories ! I didn't test but I'm sure the water is too cold yet.

Happy Trails.

Plein-Aire Painting at Gum Springs

Hey Friends, The weather was fantastic here in SW Va. today. So I went outside to paint. Plein-Aire its called. Haven't done that for the longest time. And it is TUFF. It's really hard for someone so easily distracted as myself to concentrate outside. The first one above is 10x8.

The second above is 9x12. The spring isn't really those colors but I've not learned how to make brown water look like water yet. I need to do some tiny studies of just the water.

The third is 10x8 also and not nearly as red as this photo. Getting decent photos for the web is way to hard with a camera. I'm used to my scanner but these are oils so I can't scan them yet.

All 3 are at the bottom of our driveway and it is one tiny little spring. Most of the year it is dry but we've had some rain lately so I had to make the most of it. Hard work but FUN !! Surely I will improve with practice. I intended for these to be paintings not studies. So maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse.

Any feed back is welcome, just leave me a comment. And I'm sending this to my friends that I paint with. They don't know how to leave comments so I'll find out the slow way.

Happy Trails.

Gallery 108 - Featured Artists for March

Hey Friends, Of course I screwed up the order for posting these photos, but I wasn't going to change them. It takes forever to fix the line up. So..... Mary Anne Meador is above and it is REALLY difficult to get a decent photo through the big glass windows from outside. And Mary Anne's are spread out a bit, so I took this from inside.

Darcy Meeker does some lovely but large copper work so it wouldn't fit in the camera frame from any angle. So all you get to see is a card and a bit of sculpture. She does fabulous stone work.

Angela Shields has been an art teacher in high schools for a lot of years. She gave that up to be a full time artist. She creates paintings w/ a lot of textures and patterns.

Bonnie Mason is a traditional type painter. She uses oils and creates soft textures in her landscapes and still life.

Terry Lyon creates highly textured oil paintings. Mostly landscapes but a beautiful nude is thrown in every now and again just to keep him interested! His studio is downstairs and he usually is there every morning to paint.

That's the line up for this month. We have several new artists joining us, as members and consignment. I will post those next week so I don't bore you to death with a post any longer than this.

The weather here in SW Va. has been amazingly beautiful the past week. So get out there and enjoy !!!!!

Happy Trails.

Lessor Flamingo Painting 6x6x1.5

Hey Friends, I can't say I've got DPW figured out BUT I did get 2 paintings posted on there!
I'm not sure how their posting dates work. You would think that part would be clear as mud.
The problem could be I got tangled up, so to speak, on my first post and kept screwing up after that.
Anyway, some lovely person has placed a bid on my first, the Greater Flamingo !!!! I'm hoping they will click to this blog and see what the sides look like. DPW as far as I can tell doesn't let you post multi views.
I will try again to get the blog feed on there correctly.
On another note, today was fantastic weather here in the mountains of SW Va.. Sunshine and breezes. And my favorite little boy came to visit for an hour. We went for our usual little walk to the mail box and throwing stones and stuff into the creeks. Beautiful Day.
After my BabyDoll left, I went back down to the creeks to sketch and photograph all the fantastic moss growing everywhere. It actually seems to grow best on rocks or mortor. I hope/plan to do several paintings within walking distance of home. Should be fun to produce.

Now I'm back to DPW to post a few Dragonflies. I love playing with the colors on DF's.

Happy Trails.

Greater Flamingo

6x6 Acrylic on Deep Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Hey Friends, I finally joined the DAILY PAINTWORKS Gallery. It is a website where you can list your art works for sale or auction. Your blog is supposed to be integrated into your shop and it automatically pulls the paintings into your shop !
So this is a test run. I always do hate the first time I do anything on a computer. But I'm no longer afraid of screwing it up, so here we go.

Have a fabulous weekend. The weather doesn't look very promising here or in most of our great country.

Happy Trails.