Barbours Creek in New Castle, Va.

 Hey Friends,  I started this blog post at about 9am this morning.  Finally gave up - just wouldn't load!  Service is still a bit wonky but I will persevere.  About 2 weeks ago daughter and I took a little day trip, north of Salem to Barbours Creek area of New Castle, Va.  There is a good little family style restaurant called the "HomePlace - that's the photo above.

 This is a shot of Barbours Creek !  The prettiest little creek I've ever seen.  I heard from my brother that this is the creek my uncle and Dad loved.  They hunted in this area.

 This is the last shot I got before I fell in or down.  YowSaz-It was cold.  And the temp's were pretty hot so that made it even colder.  Skinned, bruised one leg and messed up my camera !  Really bummed me out.  Crazy thing is the camera still takes photos but no display so you can't tell what you've got until they are loaded into the 'puter.

Here's a shot of my daughters Boss' horses-whata mouth full!!  Like I said the IE is still messed up (in case you haven't heard, we had severe storms here in VA. a week or so ago.  Lots of people w/o power for way over a week, including my daughter.)

The reason for telling you about this trip is - the Boss wants this beautiful creek painted to hang in his office    YAY !   So I will be going back- again and again.  I've already painted his horses and I'll scan that and show ya soon.

And now go check the DLPBR blog (below-sidebar) to see our piano !!

Happy Trails. . . . . . .

Rice Paper Pigs

Hey Friends,  I've been without my computer for over a week, but I got it back last night.  My famously smart daughter, Angie, fixes this stuff for me.  Bless her little pea-picking heart but she is really expensive !  I have to keep her 2 little monsters for a couple days a week !!!  And there they are at Garst Mill Park.  We had an insanely good time playing in the water.  This is another beautiful little spot here in the mountains of SW Va. with a creek running through it. (we had better get some rain soon or there will be no creek)  I'm already making some sketches and hope for time to paint soon.

There are some of my singing pigs for the "Piano Project".  I've made some pigs and horses and tree branches and butterflys and bees and dragonflys.  This has been a really fun project and you are invited to come see our creation on Sat. July 28th at "2nd Helpings"  from 2 til 4pm.  2nd Helpings is located on Williamson Road close to the intersection with Rt.460 (Orange Ave).  They really put on fabulous receptions so please stop by and say Hello.
Happy Trails.

 Hey Friends, A few photos from the 8th NCCC Walk.  Took place this morning at the beautiful Longwood Park in DT Salem, Va.

 Lots of people this year !  It is growing every year !  For a wonderful Cause too !  2 volunteers above.

 Ms. Snookums was recruited to paint faces and make sword balloons and magic tricks.  Above is the first in line to have a butterfly painted on her whole face.

Above is the glamourous Ms. Promyss getting touches of glitter on her butterfly face.  Really COOL !

Mark your calendars for next year..........

Happy Trails.!

 Hey Friends, I'm getting over the "54th Taubman Museum Sidewalk Art Show" that took place over the weekend.  It is an exhausting job BUT this year was much easier because I shared a tent with my good friend Bonnie Mason !!  Her hubby Randy helped us with the set up and take down.  Bonnie was right - "He can do anything"!

 Midge Ovenshire won a BIG award for "Best in Mixed Media" for her paintings.  They are exquisite...

 here is a couple shots of my half of the tent.  I intended to post only one photo but clicked more than intended and with this "new" blogger I haven't figured out how to delete something.  But I'm learning and getting the hang of it - I just need to practice (thats a nice way to say I need to post more often).

All in All it was a pleasant weekend.  The weather was picture perfect, the crowd was substantial, saw many old friends, the yogurt was delicious, the museum staff was terrific as usual, the new layout was decent so I plan on returning.

Also want to invite you to come to our newly hung show at the remodeled and beautiful "Salem Museum" this coming Friday, June 8th from 6pm to 8pm.  Lots of people have promised to come for refreshments and talk with us, the http://www.doublelinepaintersoftheblueridge.blogspot.com/ about our work.  Hope you can stop by too.  The show hangs through June.  Til next time......

Happy Trails.!

Sheila Wiley and Sue Furrow at 2nd Helpings Gallery

Hey Friends, It has been such a busy month (April). Yesterday, Saturday the 7th is when the opening reception for our show at 2nd Helping occured. Sheila Wiley, whose art work is below, was unable to attend. She had a family emergency, I hope all is well now. The photo above is my work. The 2nd Helpings Gallery is really lovely and a great place to have a reception. They have lots of room and wonderful catering on site.
Marjorie and Mark do a great job of keeping the place running smoothly. And they make wonderful hosts. I appreciate their efforts and enjoy working with them.
The little girl above played some lovely harp tunes. Very talented. And my biggest treat was getting to meet a lovely couple that bought a large piece of my work last year, Beverly and John Martin.! She has lots of stories to tell and I hope I get to hear them. They are moving to this area soon. I just wish I'd had the presense of mind to get our picture made together.

I still need to tell you about Gallery 108 art walk or crawl on Friday night. And show you the featured window artists.! Next time.

Happy Trails.

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.