Busted by the hubbie!

Well, I didn't think my husband read my posts! He read what I wrote about him getting the "wrong apples" in the last post! Out of the blue he said, "oh, by the way, you didn't specify what apples to buy". I thought for a second and then smiled, "you read my post?!!!" Believe it or not, nobody has eaten the red delicious apples, yet. I even brought them on the plane with us to Cape Cod because I can't be wasteful with food. I received many wonderful suggestions on how to paint the apples. Thanks so much!

As you can see, from the photos above, we are at the beach now. The photos above are of low tide in the morning and in the evening. Notice the location of the sun in each photo? I have said before, low tide is my absolute favorite time at the beach. I just love how far the tide goes out on the bay side of the Cape. Does the tide go out this far anywhere else? Please let me know. The house we are in this time has a tide clock. It tells you how many hours until low tide or high tide. The beach is ever changing here, you can literally measure time as the tide comes in, hangs out for a while and then slowly goes back out.

About the two paintings. Cathyann suggested I darken the left side of the painting on the watering can one. Well, I darkened the "other left". Cathyann, I am sorry, but, I am so impatient that I did not try your suggestion on acetate first. Very good suggestion and I highly recommend it. I ended up giving this painting to our gardener. I think he tried to fake a smile. Oh, well.

The second painting is on hot press. Experimenting painting glass. I took this photo when I noticed the evening sun coming in across the table. The dining room was so dark in contrast with this bright ray of sunlight coming in the window. I had 5 different vases holding uneventful flowers and herbs. I decided to paint three since it was my first time to paint clear glass. The glass is not gleaming as I have seen other artists achieve. I do like the free flow of the paint in the background and on the table though.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here so despite a boot on my foot, I have been enjoying the beach. Maybe I will take my watercolors out there today.

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to tell me about your tides!

Limeade, sold.

Limes in a Blue Bowl, sold.

With the heat now in Dallas, one is always trying to stay cool. That is how this jar of sliced limes came about. I worked on the bowl of limes at the same time while I waited for paint to dry or contemplated what was the next step. Limeade started out as one of those old fashion glass beverage dispensers with a little spicket at the bottom of the jar. The background ended up getting muddy so I cropped it on the computer. I really liked how the lime slices looked so I didn't want to trash the whole painting.

What I learned from painting the peaches is that I really like the light and shadow patterns on these round objects. Most of the time I am painting rectaliner shapes or if there are curved objects they are in the distance and the shadow and light just gets lost with all of the other information in the painting. I guess that is why I also like to do close ups of flowers. To explore the curves of the petals, the light and the shadows with paint. I don't know what I am going to paint next. I sent my husband to the grocery store to buy 5 apples. I didn't specify what kind. He came back with 5 Red Delicous apples. I don't like the color of Red Delicious apples or the shape. They look more like red bell peppers. Unless I go to the store with my broken foot.... any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by.

Locally Grown

Locally Grown
11x14

I really enjoyed painting these peaches! I have been wanting to paint peaches since last summer, but, peaches do not seem to last a day in our house. Especially local Texas peaches. They have so much peach fuzz on them and our slightly smaller, but so sweet. Whenever I see the shape of these Texas peaches I immediately remember when I was a kid and picking the peaches off of a peach "bush" in our backyard. I say a bush because the tree was there when we moved in and nobody ever seemed to do anything with it. Prune it/shape it or fertilize it. It wasn't an attractive tree/bush, but it produced a lot of peaches and we were free to pick them off and eat them without even washing them! My friend has a large peach tree here in Dallas. I will have to ask her if I can go by and take some photos of the peaches on the tree. Last summer she sent us home with a giant paper bag of peaches that my kids had the pleasure of picking.

Oh, back to the painting, I enjoyed this painting because I loved "playing" with the yellows, oranges, reds and magenta. I was inspired to paint the peaches in one of these little baskets from a drive we took to Tyler, Texas. All along the way there were stands on the side of the road selling "Locally Grown" everything. We were dropping my son off at camp so I couldn't ask if we could stop and take photos for maybe future paintings. I had one of these baskets at home so I set up my own little peach stand to paint. When I was painting (outside) every now and then I would get a whiff of the awesome fresh peach scent.

Enjoy and have a peach!

Dented but Still Works

Old Watering Can
11x14

Well my watering can turned up with a dent right on top of it. I asked my 3 sons how did this happen and I got 3 "I don't know" answers with each one shrugging his shoulders and running off. Do I continue to paint the watering can with a dent in it in every painting? How can I buy a new one if this one still works?

In any event, I cannot complain about the perennials or the heavy rains that we have had. The flowers are just thriving. The tall pink flowers in the back are over 4 feet tall. There is a whole mess of this pink "bush" which continues up beyond the painting. It is like a wild tangle of Medusa's hair. There are so many blooms on the zinnias and they are just spilling out over the walk. The black salvia is spiking out tall and proud.

This photo has an overall blue overtone compared to the painting. The upper left corner is unpainted but in the photo it came out blue gray. I did use the auto correct on the computer, but, this is the best it came out. I think I may need to connect some of the darks to get rid of the spottiness.

Strawberries

Strawberries
9x12
Here are some strawberries I painted outside around 4:00 in the afternoon that's why they have the long shadows. I set them up in two different bowls as well, but, I liked this composition the best. One of the bowls was cut glass which would be a good study and the other is the same silver bowl from the lemons. I really like the reflections of the strawberries in that bowl so maybe on another day I will try that.

4th of July in the Country

Glen Rose, Texas
Above is a plein air painting that I did from the balcony of our hotel while my toddler napped. Because of my broken foot, we went to Glen Rose, Texas where the kids could do all sorts of activities and I could sit. So for 4th of July, we were in landlocked Texas. This turned out to be a wonderful experience. My family enjoyed the activities at the hotel and the fireworks while I got to sneak in some painting!

I did two ugly paintings and two decent paintings. I thought the one above was okay, but, my husband who is pretty honest and critical thinks it is outstanding. Everyone has their own opinion. This is however, a good representation of seeing land, land, land as far as you can vs. my favorite which is ocean side!

The highlight of the trip was a drive we took through a safari park. The wild animals are more like friendly house pets. I had to post these because I couldn't believe how the animals would stick their heads into our car waiting for treats (every car gets one bag of food). If one animal was being a bully and not allowing the others to get to the treats, the animals knew to walk to the other side of the car to get treats!!! To see more of these photos, they are on my blog.