The power of the lilac

Paul decided with the price of gas hovering around four dollars a gallon we could no longer afford the RV, so he sold it a couple weeks ago. I don't think a posted a picture of it when he bought it last fall so I am posting now.

We may not have cherry blossoms but the lilacs look real good this year.

You really can't tell in the picture but the apple trees look pretty good too.

I am not sure the raspberries are going to make it. This is all I have to show for three years, but I am still nursing them. I think we don't get enough moisture for raspberries.

The weather today is so perfect. Here are a couple of geese that are just taking it easy.  Can't help but think what a great painting they would make.

Bye bye Acrylics

Next week we are back into watercolors in class. I have finished all of my acrylic paintings and I am posting in order of what we did in class.

The fist project was a couple of pears. They remind my of the folk art pieces I did back in the 70's.

The second was a impressionistic image of lilacs. The original looks a lot better than the photograph. Some paintings photograph well, others not so much.

Then we painted a field of Poppies. I hope you think this is bit better than the last time you saw it. As you can see I lighten it up. Mom told me she though it needed to be lighter.

Then we all painted cows. My teacher told me mind look more like a dog. I have to agree. I think it looks like MY dog. I sense Brandy's personality in the painting.

The last thing we painted was suppose to be a Southwest scene. The colors in my painting are not muted enough to be southwest, or even Colorado. Do you think it looks a bit like Fairview canyon, or Mt Nebo?  I liked my colors better than the picture I was copying that was SW,  but then again I liked the poppies when the field was darker... It needs a frame it will look better with a frame. Still there are a couple of places that need to be improved in this piece. The beauty of acrylics is you can keep painting until you get it right.

Peaches and Cream

I took a colored pencil class Saturday, using someone else's pattern, I was so thrill with the new techniques I learned that I went home and tried a couple of semi-original pieces.

Actually, I took projects we had already done in my watercolor class (the one where we are now working in acrylics) and adapted the colored pencil techniques.

The peaches is the project we did in class. The open field of poppies and the pears are the projects I adapted.

I used paper I had on had rather than paper made for color pencils. The paper with the pears is a stonehenge multi use paper, the paper with the poppies is a fawn colored pastel paper. I think is was a bit to porous for colored pencils.

Ski Bum

It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to post the drawing I did of Paul skiing. So, here it is. I think it I started painting because I was so disappointed with my drawing skills. But comparing the two, it looks like I am a better drawer than I am a painter. It seems like the more I obsess the less able I become!

Poppy Fields

I had painting class last night. Last Wednesday we were given a choice between a vase of lilacs or a field of poppies. I chose the lilacs, but most of the class wanted to paint poppies.  That week I work on lilacs while the rest of the class worked on poppies. What I am trying to point out is the fact that while the teacher was demonstrating the techniques for poppies I was fervently creating lilacs.
This week the teacher demonstrated the next step for the poppies first. So, after I patiently waited I paid attention to the next step of creating poppies. Then I asked for my next step, and there was another gal that wanted to see the lilacs too, but she had not started, so my teacher asked me to work on the poppies while she catch Patty up to where I was.

Well, we never did get around to working on lilacs.  I only got my first step done toward creating poppies (laying in the dark colors). When my teacher came by she said that she liked it the way it was and I didn't have to lay in poppies if I didn't want too. She was probably thinking what I was thinking that I have a tendency to overwork pieces and I need to just stop once I have a pretty good painting.  I am posting a picture of my painting (the dark one with no poppies) and a picture of my reference painting (the one Judy painted in show us the technique).

I have a bunch of these little canvas panels (5x7) so I can always paint another picture with the poppies. Maybe, I will do a series.

Building Rome

It seems like I did spend a lot of time working on painting last week, but I don't have much to show, my pears are not finished and I am not sure I will be finishing. I might just paint another picture on top of them. I have moved on. I am working on a lilac painting right now, and after that I plan on painting a field of poppies.

I did buy a couple of pears to help with the pears, but they are such a different shape, I more or less used them just to see where the shadows fell.

I did manage to go to the Friends of the Aurora Public Library Outlet last weekend.  Aurora Library does not have a sale once a year like most libraries. They have an outlet that is opened Friday nights and Saturday mornings year round. I ended up spending $13.74 for books that were priced between fifty cents and a dollar. I bought two books that were in French and didn't realized it until I got home. I also have collected a lot of acrylics since we started painting with them in my class. I think the saying should be, "those who can't buy supplies."

I did say I might post my failure from last week, I am still embarrassed about how uncoordinated I am. For some reason I just don't seem able to get the technique no matter how often I try.  For me practice is not making perfect.

I must say I was more disappointed in the rocks than the trees. I did try painting the rocks in acrylics and that piece turned out better that the watercolors, but I don't have photograph of it. I also have a couple of drawings I did of Paul skiing that I don't have photos of so maybe I will post shots of the acrylic rocks and the drawing(s) of Paul skiing later. Actually,  now that I look at the photo of the rocks they look more unfinished that bad.

Back to the pears, right now for me the hardest part is the composition and one of the reason I don't like the pear painting is I don't like the composition. My teacher has a really nice composition of pears on the wall of her studio and I think the class wants to try that painting next, but it won't be our composition, I really shouldn't post it because whatever I come up with it will not look as good, but I am going to post because I want you to see how good she is and it also explains why I feel so inadequate.

Skiff of Snow

We were suppose to get a light dusting of snow on Thursday, but we got six inches.

Driving in the morning was pure torture because the roads had not been plowed and the snow was heavy and high enough to hit my axle. It was also icy and slippery.

After the shock wore of it got pretty, and it was nice enough that Paul took Brandy to the dog park. I wish I had picture of that because he said she had such a good time rolling over and shaking while she was on her back. I only had geese to watch, but they appear to be have a good time.