PETTING ZOO

Hey Friends,  I have been cleaning and purging my home studio so I can bring everything back from the studio DT at 202 Gallery on the Market.  I hate leaving but my subaru has died on me and I simply can't afford payments on both.

My hope when I went DT was to sell enough work to pay the rent.

But NO ONE ever comes/climbs the stairs.

Anyway, I found this painting of a petting zoo at the art festival in Elm Wood Park in 1995 !!

I still like it a lot so I'm putting it up for sale on EBAY.  Maybe someone else will like the Masa Rice Paper as much as I do.  I like the batiky effect.

Check it out.

HAPPY TRAILS

LAST OF THE GOLD

Hey Friends, No. 3 in my short series of plein air paintings taken from a beautiful sunflower farm in Buchanan, Va.  Right off  Rt. 11 on Wheatland Rd.  This piece was imagined from painting there last year.  And we are planning to return a couple more times this year.

I used a palette knife for this painting and really enjoyed the process.  Not a lot of control with a knife yet but maybe in time.

And here is how it could look in a kitchen.  Of course a black frame would set it off nicely in this kitchen

This is for sale on EBAY as are all my plein pieces.

HAPPY TRAILS

BIG SHADOW

Hey Friends,  Back with No. 2 in my Wheatland Farm short series.  A single giant tree I hope is still standing after the tornadoes Sunday.  I choose to paint it because of the shadow it threw, big and wide.  There were some cows at the other end.

Here it is shown on a wall somewhere in cyber space. 

Would look pretty nice in a frame, right?

I will post more in a few days.

HAPPY TRAILS

PAINTING LEFT FIELD

Hey Friends,  Just finished a small series of  plein air started oil paintings.  I started them with acrylics, as the block in, before going out to this fantastic farm in Buchanan, Va. with my paint buddies, the Double Line Painters.  Obviously I put foliage on the trees, they are just so unappealing naked.

We went last week, and it was and still is winter time here in SW Va.  We even had tornadoes in the area Sunday!! Very unusual for this area.  Lynchburg, Forest area got the worst of it.

Above is what this small painting could look like, but much better if it was framed.  Maybe some day I will learn to frame them on line.  The middle photo is just a detail shot of the tree shadows.

This is for sale on Ebay and it should be dry tomorrow and ready for shipment.

I will post the others scattered over the coming week.

HAPPY TRAILS

IT WAS A LOVELY DAY FOR PLEIN AIR IN SW VIRGINIA

Hey Friends,  Hope you made it outside today!  We don't get these lovely days very often anymore, so you have to make the most of them.

We DLP's, Double Line Painters, went to the Wheatland Farm on Rt. 639 to stretch our plein air muscles.  They have gotten pretty weak.  I even sat down and made a couple sketches, Notans.  The sketch book is on my palette above

Needless to say but it SUCKED out loud and I wiped it off.  And just pretended the sunflowers were up and gave it a whirl.  To Be Continued.

And on the journey home we saw a lot of cows and farms and old sheds and silos.

All that stuff you want to cram into one painting.  HA.

We all know it looks much more pleasing to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Get your stuff ready, It's Time !!

HAPPY TRAILS

RIVERSIDE NURSERY HAS THE BLOOMS YOU WANT

Hey Friends,  Yesterday was a fun day for me at Riverside Nursery painting the koi pond.

The pond reflected the inside of the green house, of course, so that was not very pretty.  And I had a bit of a stroke trying to imagine the reflections if it were outside.

Can't say it was the most imaginative but I like it anyway.

Thank you Bruce for letting us set up inside your lovely house of blooms.

I bought some of the gorgeous yellow pansies for my sister's front porch.  I have never seen such giant pansy blooms.  You know you need some!

HAPPY TRAILS

Enjoy your weekend

HELLO SPRING TIME !!! MOTHER NATURE LET US PAINT TODAY.!

Hey Friends,  Do you recognize the gorgeous Blue Bells above?  Mertensia is proper name.

A shot of the Roanoke River as it travels through Green Hill Park in Salem, Va.  Not very far from where I live.  If you view this log from another angle it looks like a bear.

And here is a painting I started .  Will finish at home.

Can you tell which of these 2 stones has recently been rolled into the river?

The DLP's will be back in Salem next week and then we have plans to go to a farm in Buchanan and a plein air event in Clifton Forge soon.  And we have permission to paint at RIVERSIDE NURSERY in Salem too.  They have beautiful pansies and violas right now.  And houses of other goodies ready to burst into blooms.

HAPPY TRAILS

ENJOY SPRING

ANOTHER GREAT DAY - FINISHING UP PAINTINGS

Howdy Dear Friends,  Hope this finds all of you well.  A BIG shout to my friend, Cathie, Who had hip surgery yesterday to repair what the first idiot did to her !  Hope all is moving along.

That photo above is about all I have to show for my day.   Finishing some of the work I have done lately.  Getting them ready to hang at the Home builders show at the Salem CC this weekend.

My car has taken her last breath today.   I tried to start her for 15 minutes or more.  She started finally and was thrashing like a hay maker.   I turned the key off and took it out of the ignition and she kept on thrashing, throttling, sounding a lot like a boat in the water.  Finally she heaved and let out one last yelp.  Bless her heart.  I really liked her.

So my brother has consented to let me use his ugly white car for the weekend.  I never have figured out why he likes that scruffy thing.  Reminds me of a street cat.

Anyway, Hope all of you with working vehicles can come by the Salem CC and say HI!!

HAPPY TRAILS

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY

Hey Dear Friends,  It was a good day for me and HOPE your day was peachy as well.

I varnished about 7-8 new pieces today and tomorrow I will put the backs and labels on and wire so they can be hung at the Roanoke Valley's Home Builders Show at the Salem CC.

The vendor and Art show will be this coming Fri thru Sun.

I will be looking for you!

And I had to take a break and go to the mailbox.  These little sweeties were blooming.  They always bloom when the earliest daffodils bloom.  Can't remember if they are "Bloodroot" or "Spring Daisy's" or what.  Started to say "MayApple".........DUH.

Anyway more work to do for the show.  Will let you know how it goes!

HAPPY TRAILS

FOURTH ABSTRACT IN THE CHARTREUSE CHALLENGE

Hey Friends, Do you like my abstracts?    I can remember years ago when I was not fond of them.  I thought they were just something some people threw together because they really could not paint.   I was very wrong.  It takes more skill than I thought and more deliberation.

It is an intuitive way of working.

I pick out a scheme for the darks and let the rest come as I work.  I like it best when I can lay down a color and leave it alone.  The more you do, the more you trust your instincts which is why it's called Intuitive.

After a lifetime of painting realistically, then impressionism, then mixed media, I just wanted something else.  I am positive some people never tire of doing the same thing all their life but I seem to have acquired attention deficit and just don't have the patience for making an object look like that object.

I still love plein air because I love being outside and trying to capture my muse, the sky.  I think perhaps just having learned more about plein air and meeting weekly with friends to paint out there in Mother Nature is why I am not tired of it yet.

I will be showing my abstract work at the Salem Civic Center next weekend March 23 thru 24.

The Roanoke Valley Home Builders Show will have lots of ideas for your homes and landscape and now there is a section (a room actually) for art to decorate your walls.  We will be located in the lobby, the first room to the left.

Bring your friends and introduce yourself.

See You There.

HAPPY TRAILS