A BEAUTIFUL DAY

Hey Friends, Yes, today was a beautiful day! This was the first day this year that felt like spring. My oldest daughter, Angie, came over with her first born - my precious grandbaby above. We spent hours outside and in the greenhouse. Angie was transplanting seedlings for her garden and the babe spent hours planting black-eyed peas and various bits of junk.

Here is a close up of a black-eyed pea. She kept hers together in a mini-greenhouse. Silly!

She did her work right out of the wheel barrell with a funny little bear on the chair singing - "Come and Get Your Love". Thankfully, her parents believe children should be allowed to play in the dirt and run outside. Some kids aren't allowed to get dirty or break a sweat. She will probably do more damage in the garden this year than the 200 deer that pass through.

OK - I wanted to show you what I posted in my Etsy shop last night, too tired to blog about it last night. And with the unlikely threat of Confikker hanging around tomorrow, I thought I'd do it now. This was painted with acrylics on 300lb. Arches watercolor paper. It's nice and bright, using the primary colors. It measures a 9 1/4" square with a 2" border.

Happy Trails.

PAPER LANTERNS

Hey Friends, Continuing on with the studio clearance sale. Do you have a ton of stuff you'd like to get rid of? I guess if you're an artist you might have a lot of little stuff too. Or do you have big stuff? What do other artists do with the paintings that haven't sold? Granted I have not done any festival shows for the past 4 years (just here in my home town) so that must be the problem. In the past I've not had this much accumulation. Since I can't stop painting, I've got to do something with them. I do plan to donate some to a few local auctions. Anyway, if you want to take advantage of my obcession, I'm posting these in my Etsy shop.

This is Painted Photo Collage. Do you like the paper lanterns? I used to have a hard time finding them, now you can pick them up almost everywhere. Mix some paper lanterns with flowers and a darling little girl and a little imagination and you wind up with a sweet little painting! Click here to go to Etsy.

Happy Trails.

Dr. Wang

Hey Friends, We made it back from UVA pretty late. We were all pretty tired from riding in a small car and sitting a lot in waiting rooms. Jessi was pretty much out of it or asleep the entire day. The only thing that happened was the doctor and his nurse took a lot of history notes and flipped through her medical records and viewed a CD of her CAT SCAN (is that spelled correctly?) Basically how he summed it up was, the Roanoke doctors had already performed the basic or obvious and easiest tests. Now Dr. Wang wants to dig a bit deeper. He drew blood and collected a urine sample for tests he said he will evaluate with other specialists. We go back on April 7 for a barium type test of her upper bowel. Shhheeewww, the best part of hospital waiting rooms is catching up on your reading. Next visit I'll be taking the book I bought from Alyson Stanfield - "I'd rather be in the Studio". Apparently this is going to be a long drawn out process, because Dr Wang doesn't have "A Magic Bullet"!!
Happy Trails

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Hey Friends, We are off to UVA today! Jessi's consultation appt. is at 3:30. We are about 2 maybe 2 1/2 hours from this hospital learning/teaching center. I've always heard great things about this place. My sister takes her youngest adopted child here every 2 or 3 months so they can stay on top of her disease - HIV. It's totally under control or remission might be the word, because the people seem to know what they are doing. I'm hoping and praying they will figure out Jessi's problem quickly. I included the picture above of Jessi (on the right) and her sister, Angie (who will be having a baby in Sept) just so you can connect this face with my posts.

On a quick lighter note (this is supposed to be a blog about my art work) I did paint an hour this morning on a commission for 3 pieces with flowers and insects as the theme. I'll show them to you soon, I hope. Wish us luck.

Happy Trails

POND

Hey Friends, This painting was done from some photos I took at the college my youngest daughter was attending. Maybe you have heard of it - Hollins College - here in the SW mountains of Virginia. She graduated this past May "08 so I'm guessing I painted it in 2007.
The sun was setting and casting long shadows. Everything was really green, with a few flowers blooming here and there. I gathered them all up into the foreground. It is one of the prettiest campus' you will ever see. I must find those photos and make some more! Click on this.
Happy Trails. BTW-it is 8"x 16".

A SINGLE ROSE

Hey Friends, I'm back with more stuff I found while cleaning the studio. Boy! It's amazing how I can pack boxes. I've been told the way I can pack a refrigerator is amazing too. Anyway, this is a sweet, little gardener with a sweet poem that would make a great gift for Mothers Day or a gardeners birthday. And in case you didn't know, a similar Painted Photo Collage could be created just for you, using the photos you treasure. If you scroll down, way down, I have a tutorial about these collages if you prefer to give it a try! You can find this painting in my Etsy shop by clicking HERE.

Happy Trails.

A SHORT WALK

Hey Friends, Today I took a short walk or a stroll just to be outside. I live in Salem, Va. next to a tiny stream of water called Gum Springs. This little spring is dry most of the year. When we are lucky enough to get rain, usually the spring, I love to walk around the area just to look at the water. The photo above is directly at the bottom of our gravel, muddy driveway. Pretty small at this point. In a couple of months the area to the left will be covered in day lillys. In another 2 weeks or so, there will be a bunch of May Apples, Dog Tooth Violets, Jack in the Pulpits and several other wildflowers along with daffodils and perennial geraniums springing up everywhere. This is the best time of the year.

In the photo above, I'm further down the stream and its getting a bit bigger. Can you see the moss growing on the big rock? This is a very rocky area and most of them have moss growing on them. Again the Dog Tooth Violets are sprouting already. I have painted these wildflowers many times and this little spring also.

Now I'm almost to the end of our little country road. This farmer made a dam to create this little pond. Gum Springs flows into it and out again and on for several miles to merge with the Roanoke River. Don't know why he wanted this pond, he has no horses or cows. He probably likes the ducks that visit. I took a bunch of photos that I plan to use as reference for paintings. So come back again to see what I've done with the paint. Have a wonderful weekend and get outside, life is much shorter than you realize.

Happy Trails.

NEW SYMPTOMS

Hey Friends, My blog is suffering from my neglect but my youngest daughter is suffering also. Her newest symptom is jaundice. Her liver seems to be reacting to something, hopefully the new medicine she was taking for her stomach. Erythramyacin? (sp) seems to have helped a bit with the stomach muscles working but now this. She had bloodwork and a sonagram of the liver done yesterday. I have not heard the results yet. She looks so weak. I LOVE HER.
Maybe tonight I'll get my thoughts together and post some more of the work I found while cleaning the studio a few weeks ago. It's hard to believe but I found some more yesterday while I was searching for a painting that was sold on Etsy. Yes, thats right, a lady in Michigan bought a painting! It's an unusual event anymore!
Happy Trails.

NO NEWS - CAN IT BE GOOD?

Hey Friends, I haven't posted for a while 'cuz I was away from home for a week, then had to jump back into my job. The other job, which I also love! LOL. Seriously, my baby girl is still sick, even after having her gall bladder removed. It's called gastroparesis, which means paralyzed stomach. The last 2 days seem to be a bit better. She got some new medicine on Friday and thinks that may be helping. She has lost a lot of weight but that will be OK if this is the end of her struggle with keeping food down. I love her.
While I was away a young lady left a comment on my last blog post, thanking me for the Painted Photo Collage tutorial. Hope she gets to use it soon and I wanted you to check out her blog, which is www.hayleyjudithegan.blogspot.com and then check out some of the blogs she follows. I clicked on a couple and found them very interesting, I'll have to check out more of them later. So go click on www.blackrosecreations.blogspot.com and www.doorno2.blogspot.com.
Tomorrow I'm going to paint ALL day so I don't want anyone ringing the phone, banging at the door, or blowing their car horns to get me to sell my art work. Sorry, It'll just have to wait 'til next week. I've got to finish a piece I promised to be ready last week.
HAPPY TRAILS!