Painting #59 - Memorial Day and Cactus

This is how to celebrate Memorial Day on Cactus Monday.

Painting #58 - Church Hat

I see this lady in church every Sunday and she ALWAYS has a hat on.  

And it is always a different hat. 

And it always coordinates with what she is wearing.  

Always!

So I did a one minute pencil sketch and painted it at home.

I am quite fascinated with her hats and you may be seeing more of them.  I can only imagine what her 'hat closet' must look like.  An artist dream no doubt.

There is something so appealing to me in this sketch that I am making it one of my '100'.

Painting #57 Iris

All my iris were budding last week and I just had to paint their graceful lines.

The top one is what I started with, and I like it.

However, I was in the kind of mood where I wanted to try adding something special to the painting but I like the first one better, it's cleaner and more of a botanical specimen.

Painting #56 Multi-media Cactus Blooms

I was in a creative mood when I did this multi-media sketch.

I wanted to do something in ink and it evolved into an ink, water-soluble graphite and watercolor cactus bloom.

Then it evolved even further into leaving the audience to finish the image in their mind.  Sometimes our creativity just takes over.

I like the way it turned out.

Painting # 55 - Wyoming Bull Bison

I recently found "The Wilderness Art Challenge" created and managed by Gary Keimig who is an artist of nature in Wyoming.  He submits a photo each month for everyone to use as a reference and paint it in any medium they want.

So I did.  I tried to make that Wyoming landscape as vast, open and sunny as it is in my mind.

Thanks for making this challenge available Gary.

Painting #54 Daisy Tuesday

I received these daisies on Mother's Day from the restaurant where we ate breakfast.  They are still fresh in my vase so I just had to paint them.

Love those daisies.


I want to get back to landscapes but those flowers just keep getting in the way. :)

Painting #53 - Blooming Cactus

This is from a photo reference I took of a blooming cactus just before we left Arizona.  I am trying to play with light more but those yellows get me every time!

Painting #52 - Puppy Time

The grands are getting a puppy, a Golden Retriever, in 10 days.  I painted this from a photo taken when they went to visit, hold and cuddle the puppies.

I foresee a lot of painting opportunities coming up!

Painting #51 - Pine Cone

When we returned to Wisconsin we had a million pine cones all over the yard and they had to be picked up or they wreck the mower.  Needless to say we were so sore from raking and burning them that it only seemed appropriate to paint the biggest one I found. 

After the wind blew and it rained for two days guess what we did again?!!

I had a hard time scanning it because I did it on 10x14 inch paper.

As basic as this pine cone is I had fun painting it.

Painting #50 - Blooming Saguaro

Painting #50!  Half-way there!!  WHOOHOO!

I really didn't know what I would paint for #50 but I wanted it to be special to mark my half-way point.  I had no idea it would be this one.  

My neighbor in Arizona has a Saguaro that was blooming and I insisted that my husband stop so I could take a photo.  Saguaros don't usually bloom this early so I was thrilled to find it.

It is one of the first paintings I did when we got back to Wisconsin and when I went to post it on my Blog I looked to see what number it would be and there it was, #50!

Funny how these things work out.

I have been reading a book about using more light in painting watercolors (Elizabeth Kincaid's "Paint Watercolors That Dance With Light") and am trying to do just that.  I am pleased with these results because I did manage to get the light in there.

Onto #51!

Kelly - Painting #32 - Prothonotary Warbler on the Little Miami River

Painting 32, Prothonotary Warbler on the Little Miami River

I saw this fellow last Thursday on the Little Miami River trail. He was tucked deep in shadow, but his beautiful yellow-orange feathers could not be dimmed. He caught my eye as the perched in a tree near the river.

#007 Graduation Owl--Kathy

Umbrellas and owls have always been two of my daughter's favorite things. She is graduating from Louisiana State University this month and wanted an announcement card to send to the people who have been an important part of her life over the past 22 years........something "her." This is the illustration I created to print on the announcement.....her idea, my design.

Kelly - Painting #30 - Ladybird, and Painting #31 - Five-minute Sketches of a European Robin

Painting 30, Ladybird on a Daisy

Hmmm....this doesn't look like a bird to me, but I'm accounting it as one! In England, Ladybugs are called "Ladybirds," ....sooo semantically....she sort of counts as one of my 100 bird paintings!

Painting 31, Sketches of a European Robin

These are very quick sketches. The first robin took three minutes, 20 seconds (I've put the times next to the sketch). This was an assignment from Laure Ferlita's Imaginary Trip to England. No pencils...no lines...just water brushes. Again I'm surprised at how quickly I could obtain a likeness (seems like a lot more time compared to the 20-second Eastern Kingbird!). We were allowed to spend up to five minutes per sketch, but 3 minutes, 45 seconds was the most time I put into a bird. I used the entire five minutes for the nest, which was really fun to paint!