"Jack" Rabbit (Oil on 300# paper)

Every garden attracts hungry little creatures. This painting was fun to do. I was in the mood to paint hummingbirds and furry creatures. It was just one of those notions at the time. I loved to paint  it because it was fun with its multi-colors.

"Jack" Rabbit

 Petal Tips: Again, this painting was on old 300# watercolor paper. Like I've said before, I use the best paper. It is heavy and if a watercolor doesn't work, I use it for other medias. As long as you have your values right, you can use any color you want.  That was one of the hardest lessons for me. To translate colors into values. What do I mean by that?

Values range from one to ten.  One being white and ten being black. A soft pink might be on the scale of two. That color can show anywhere you want a highlight. In the shadow, you can use any color as long as the value is dark.

For you who play the piano and read music, yellow ochre is the middle C of paint. Anything lighter than yellow ochre is considered on the light side, anything darker is considered on the dark side.

Once I understood that rule, indulging in all colors of paint didn't scare me. I'll paint faces in multi-colors and they work because I understand the rule.

Meanderings~~~~~ I have always been hungry to learn.  I have eaten of many gardens, taking what I could get. Then I made it my own. I too have been prolific. Just like the jack rabbit. I think it was my hunger to learn that has created in me so many styles and interest in painting everything.

I don't think of having a style any more and I might be criticized by that.  Once I tried to figure out what my style was, now I just paint. There is a certain feeling in my work that says it is mine. I think the freedom comes when we forget whose garden we are eating from and we just consume our talent. I switch so much from oils to watercolors to acrylics and they all work so differently with whatever I paint. 

Oh to be free like the rabbit.  

Chili Peppers (WC 3/4 sheet)

It is harvest time for red and green chili peppers. The longer they stay on the vine, the hotter they get.  I took a picture of a scene of chilis in a fruit market.  The newspaper was laid out for a table covering and all different kinds of chilies were put out to sell. 

This painting was a very loose rendering.  I think I worked more on the design than on the actual painting..  The columns of the newspaper were running up and down and the boxes were stacked diagonal. The focal point is right in the middle where the white newspaper hits up against the box of red chilies.

Everything is a picture.  Sometimes it is the lines and some times the colors, but this time it was the different chilies.

Petal Tips: The ink on the  newspaper was written in squiggly lines in black paint, I dropped water onto the black and let it run.  I didn't want the black to be so definite, but just be there indicating a newspaper. 
I muted out the back peppers so they would recede. The main chilies are in the middle and I made them more defined.

Meanderings~~~~~. Some Chilies are hot and some are mild. It's according to every one's taste. Isn't that the way people are.  Some have fiery personalities, they consume and leave ashes as they leave the room.  Some people are mild as oatmeal, and overlooked and forgotten. These are the ones who usually have some substances and stick-to-your-bones kind of nourishment.

The quiet ones are usually misjudged as if they don't care. Artist's want and need strokes and excitement over their work. The hot personality will usually give you that feeling and bite but will leave quickly. 
So we gravitate to the fiery ones. We shouldn't be deceived, the friends that have been constant to me over the years, usually have been the quiet ones, who have come along side and supported me and didn't need to be out there in front waving a red flag. They weren't as needed as the fiery ones.

Thistles among the flowers (WC 1/2 sheet)

I noticed the thistles and I thought, every garden has weeds. It is a given, It is what we contend with. Either they grow in our hearts or around us. It is a part of this fallen creation.

Thistles among the flowers

The purple thistles in the foreground are called "devil weeds". They are beautiful with their purple heads, but they are ruthless. Plant one and you have thousands. 

Petal Tips!  This watercolor was done in a couple of hours.  I look at it now and I think, I should go back into that foreground and enhance the purple thistles.  It would make it much more dramatic. And I will. I learn as much as from what is wrong as what is right. I painted everything around the white flowers, knowing I was saving the white for the subject.  The subject was just there when eveything else was painted. 

The white flowers was just a spot of yellow with a half-moon stroke of burnt sienna to tuck the middle of the flower down into the petals. A stroke of watery gray-blue gave it shadows and they were painted.

Meanderings~~~~~ As I say, I can learn as much as from what is wrong as what is right.  The Lord has exposed my heart to me and I have seen the thistles growing. Some from the past and some from the current.  Some times they are beautiful purple blooms but, let them grow and they will take over.  The same is when we have a bitter heart, unforgiveness or coveteousness.  You name it, anything the devil plants, it will destroy you.  It will choke out the beauty of the true flower which you are. 

For the painting sake, the thistles need to be stronger in the foreground, for the heart's sake, they just need to be pulled out.

Season of Harvest (Veg. WC 16X20)

This time of the year we receive the bounty of harvest. Fall brings summer's fruition. That's the way we grow.  The season we are in, brings the next stage of our lives. We need to walk through each season, just as a garden needs not only the beauty of flowers but the sustenance of vegetables and fruit.

Season of Harvest

Petal Tips! This watercolor went together with such ease.  I love Charles Reid's loose,  counting-each-stroke technique, which  keeps the painting clean and the colors pure.  In order to do this, I loaded the brush full of red and painted the tomatoes, leaving a white space for highlight.

The cauliflower was done with dirty diluted watercolor from the palette.  It takes a lot of water.  Again the egg plant took one or two strokes. I liked the design, It's almost an upside V.  I made vertical strokes coming down in the background, and then I made horizontal strokes in the foreground, laying down the table top.

Meanderings~~~~ A student, Jean Shad,  brought in some vegetables for one of the art classes.  I just had to paint it with her. Other people's ideas feed into us, and hopefully what we are thinking and feeling will enhance how they are looking at life.  I probably would not have thought of vegetables.  But I am so glad that the student had the thought of bringing them.

Walking on Sunflowers (Acrylic)

The Sunflower! That's a fun flower to paint. I've planted hundreds of them. There ae so many varieties. Big black centers, small green, and brown, pointed tips, ragged squared off tips, flat rounded tips, but they are all sunflowers. I have also painted them in array of different mediums, from heavy textured oils, soft washy watercolors and flat hard edged acrylic. All of that and they still remain sunflowers.

Walking on Sunflowers (36X36 Floor Art Acrylic)

When we built a new road on our property, the first thing that came up in the newly turned dirt were sunflowers. They stood large in a golden yellow line as if they were guarding our driveway, always with their heads pointed to the sun..

Petal Tips:
This painting was done on a large loose square canvas which I  painted as floor art. This painting was painted in acrylic and hemmed. This is not usually my style. I do not paint with hard edges, but it was another experiment.  

I sized the canvas with gesso, laid the canvas flat on the table, drew my image on, then painted with acrylics. I painted dark blue behind the orange flower, and also kept the yellow tips light, all  to make the center the focal point. I didn't do anything but paint. This painting is more for the idea that art doesn't have to hang on the wall, it can be floor art too. 

I turned the edges and ironed them down, then glued them so that I had a nice flat hem. I've used the same idea and turned these loose canvases into table runners, place mats, and images under glass. 

This big bold images is definitely a stopper. People will stop and look before they walk on it. 

Meanderings~~~~~ Sunflowers grow wild, they pop up where no one has planted them. How does the seeds of sunflowers find their way into loose soil? The mystery of God's grace. I have found so  much beauty in places I had nothing to do with  and yet the Spirit wooes me to turn and look. How can we not be overwhelmed at God's goodness and beauty. Just in a simple sunflower, we see beauty.


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Bursting Forth (Roses 11X14 WC)

Bursting Forth (Roses 11X14 Watercolor)

I woke up this morning anxiously wanting to get to my garden, just to see what has grown overnight. This little rose painting caught my eye. I love this little watercolor. It was one of those paintings that just happened. I could almost count the strokes. 

Petal Tips! This painting was done wet on wet. That,  meaning I laid clean water down over the paper, I dropped a little yellow in the left upper corner, made some swirls in red paint, leaving the middle one ,white. I added green and blue letting the water fuse the leaf colors together, and while it was wet I threw in some salt.

This whole process was done in wet. While it was drying, I added more strokes in green, added a stronger swirl in red and called it finished.

The salt crystallized and because it was wet at the time, the salt moved the water out as if the flowers were bursting forth. The whole work on this painting was done by the paper, water and paint.  I just gave it a swirl or two.

Meanderings~~~~ This is the way of life.  Sometimes we struggle and struggle in doing something. It never seems to fit. Those times are teaching times and the outcome never seems to be that satisfying but the lessons we learned, are priceless.

Then there are those times we just start something, like this rose painting and it just goes together. I could have never done this rose painting in the confidence that I put it on paper without all those years of struggle. Life is the same way. We need those teaching moments in order to perform magic.

White Petals (Mixed Med 11X15)

I am picking this floral for you today, just so you can see another technique. I am hoping you are learning that art can be anything and any way you want to go, it is an expression o f beauty, and will come in different forms and different mediums. According to your mood and choices.

White Petals (Mixed Med 11X15)

I save my old watercolor paper for these kinds of mix mediums. Old, in the sense, they start out as a watercolor, and with possibly too much labor, too much dark, too, too, too. Anything can take a watercolor over the edge. I use 300# paper, it's heavy like a board.  I never feel intimidated in using expensive paper because I know if I cross over the line, I can always add another medium. I would rather work freely than cautious. I've painted enough to know when to stop, but there is that moment when you love a certain color more than anything and you can't stop yourself. Then you look back, and scream, "Oh No. I should have stopped."

Petal Tips! Again this is an impressionist rendering. It is considered a mixed medium. This has almost a scraping effect, like I used sandpaper instead of a hard white bristle brush. I applied the white acrylic to the tips of the flower, one tip at a time.  I pulled it down to the center. I added color at the center of the floral and then pulled it up to meet the tip. Each one was done the same way. I added polymar medium for a frosting-like consistency. The petals were random. I wanted the feeling of the flower spreading loosely.  One flower with green around it would have killed the flow. Extra petals could belong to this one or to another one beneath it.  So did I have any flower in mind? No. I was going with the shapes that were already there and followed through.

Meanderings~~~~~  Some of us have re-invented ourselves many times, each time pulling from what we were born with, what has been given to us and the detours we have taken. Those times when we loved something more than good sense and we couldn't stop ourselves.  We are more beautiful than when we started. We actually are becoming what God has intended us to be.  

If you look at the weathered skin, the lines in our faces, and the sagging bodies, you would say, "No! That's not true." But if you could see the  heart, you would know what I was talking about. Life has scratched away at some of us until the rough sandpaper has smoothed us out.  Those places in our personalities that were jaded and rough are now smooth. The bitterness has turned sweet. We have been redeemed from ourselves. Praise God.