Shades of Gray

Manhattan Bridge

I chose this picture to paint for the Virtual Paint Out several weeks ago and when I looked at it I couldn't figure out why I chose such a gray subject. I'm the girl who likes color, and lots of it and here I am doing an exercise in grey. Even the sky and car were grey. The only things colorful were the orange barrels lining the road. I guess I was intrigued by the grandness of a bridge gate with the colonnade flanking the sides and the arch with the figures on each side. It reminds me of the grand aches you see in Europe that are in memory of great victories and heros. Perhaps this arch is a monument as well, who knows?

On another note; I'm am in the midst of packing and preparing to move back to our winter home in Florida. I may get in one more post before we leave. Otherwise, I'll be back soon.

Lighthouse

This is the lighthouse at Diamond Head in Hawaii. That was the challenge for the Virtual Paint Out this month. I've been painting water scenes for the paint out so I needed to find another subject and came across the lighthouse. It was a nice change from the other kind of painting I've been doing today. The "roll the paint on the walls" kind of painting. It was for a friend that needed help so there we were, an all day paint out, just not the fun kind. After that it was refreshing to think about sunny Hawaii, especially since this was the 8th straight rainy day in Minnesota. Now I have a little 5X7 piece of Hawaiian paradise for those rainy days ahead.

Stavanger Norway

After a hectic week of being in charge of one of our local art league's show it was good to have a class so that I could have some time to paint. It's so nuts to do everything about painting and not actually have time to paint! Last night I spent some time finding a scene to paint by searching Google Maps. The assignment for the Virtual Paint Out blog was to paint a scene from Stavanger, Norway. I was in Norway in 1994 and loved it; it is such a beautiful and rugged country. Besides that, my mother's ancestry is Norwegian. I wanted to find a cottage by a fjord to paint. That was not so easy but I found a few lovely scenes and will be posting what I have painted here and at www.virtualpaintout.blogspot.com. Even though the little cabin or boat house in the picture was brown, I had to paint it red. I just love the red houses in Norway. I was told that they painted them red so that the sailors could identify their house and port in bad weather.