Artichoke stalemate

Last week I started to put in geometric shapes as a background for my artichokes and now I'm at a stalemate with the painting. I think other painters experience this from time to time, I hope I'm not alone. Also, being limited in time with lots of family activities the past couple of weeks has made it difficult to even think of what to do next. Things should settle down so that I can study it and decide how I should proceed. In the meantime, I relaxed and painted some little flower paintings for birthday cards.Those I will post in the next couple of days.

Mini equipment

Today's post is a picture of the second painting I did at the lake. It's of one of the clumps of birch trees that are around the property with the lake in the background. To my dismay, I've painted so many Florida scenes that I have almost forgotten how to paint birch trees, one of my first watercolor lessons. I think I captured the look eventually, though. Along with the painting is the the tiny brush, Pocket Box and and Moleskine. Until I started painting the miniature paintings with gouache last summer, I never used a small brush except for an occasional detail. Just look at me now!

Pam's Peonies

My gardening friend, Pam, graciously picked some of her peonies for me a few days ago. I have been working on a painting of them ever since. I have a vase that is made to look like birch bark that I love to use, it's shaped like a big piece of birch bark that has been curled around and fastened together. This was a bigger painting project than I thought it would be. Interspersed with the peonies were daisies, just to add some interest. I was challenged all around with the white daisies and peonies, it was quite a lesson. I think painting from a live subject is so much more challenging than from a photo but it is worth the doing.

Spring Flowers; Peonies

I've been trying to paint the peonies that I saw this week. They were the single petal type and remind me of poppies. The first ones I painted are tight and hard edged, which was OK but I long for a looser style. Nothing gets me painting loose like Yupo, so I threw some paint on some Yupo and think the first results are quite fun. I may play around with it some more and if I do, I'll be posting any additions that I make.

A Different Strokes Challenge

I'm just getting into painting again since the "transition". I wanted to enter the Different Strokes Challenge and today was the final day to submit an entry. I had to get my brushes going fast. Sometimes if you don't sweat it too much things work out better. That was the case today. I had a picture of a bull that I always wanted to paint but didn't know about what background would be interesting. The Challenge provided me with a perfect background for my black bull. Is he an Angus? I don't know, he was all by himself on a ranch in Wyoming, and he wasn't too happy about it. He stopped complaining long enough for me to take the picture. I think the farm picture is Pennsylvania, maybe he'll be happier there.