Spring Delight - Apple Blossoms

Although I said I would never paint them again - I am at it - and am planning at least one more.  

A number of years ago I painted a large watercolor of these delicate blossoms, sold it and received three commissions to do similar ones. And so I thought that I was apple blossomed out.

Only we have five mature apple trees and two young pear trees in our yard.  And they are truly beautiful.  Each year as the blossoms open, I am out in the yard photographing them.  Over and over.  And.. there are so darn many of them! This angle...that angle... maybe with more sky... maybe with less sky.  Obviously I am really attracted to this flower.  Maybe just to anything that blooms in the spring. 

So, once this painting is complete, I hope to paint another on a larger scale with the sky as the focal point – much like the painting Blue on Blue below.  

Fair Ladies

These lovely flowers grace the inside of our chicken wire fenced in garden.  We moved all our lilies into this rustic enclosure - in hopes to foil the white tail deer population that absolutely belive lily blooms are deer ice cream.  Well our plan work surperbly...well, until last year.

They have leaned longingly into the fence for a few years now - and managed to bend down a section making it easy for them to leap over.  And well, we cannot figure out how to repair it with out completely rebuilding it!

The deer love lilies.  All kinds of lilies - as much as we do.  Only we do not eat ours!  The lilies grow amoung the asparagus (which deer do not eat) and the mint (wish they would eat) and the clematis (crap shoot on this one, well they will sometimes eat the blooms).

And so, in a effort to get to enjoy these lovelies, I must paint them.  This ia a 12"  x 12" watercolor on Arches 300lb paper.  I think as time permits I will paint this again on Ampersand Aquabord in a larger size.

Nothing like a pending deadline to motivate an artist!

Fushia Delight

I am so excited to be participating in the Kings County Studio Tour this June 9th and 10th - http://www.studiotour-nb.com/  .  This means, of course, I have to be prepared.  Now I have been painting for quite awhile getting ready for a solo exhibit "Full Spectrum" to be hung at the Imperial Theatre the end of August this year.  So I have a lot of really large paintings completed for this.  The gap I have is for smaller pieces.

So what does any artist operating under self imposed deadlines do? Why I checked my framing inventory and, this time wrote the sizes down and went searching for subjects that would be fun to paint and coordinate with my three burgundy frames and two gold ones.

Two Beez

So far so good, I have two completed and the others are lightly drawn out.  There are more petunias, a different variety, pretty lillies (I have no idea which variety) and apple blossoms.  I will be ready for any color other than pink.  Oh, by the way, I have a large painting in progress - pretty pink peonies under way as well.  More to follow on this one -just likely not too soon!

WIP - Longing For Spring

And so I recently started this painting - had it sketched out for quite awhile.  But finally decided to jump and start painting.  My family is making fun of me for painting snow in the spring.  Two things, first I should really be motivated to finish it in record time and second - this spring has been so gosh darn cold - I feel like painting snow.

These are the Adirondack chairs under our side verandah.  I love these chairs and the verandah.  There is a swing off closer to the concrete retaining wall.  This area is our southern exposure - we spend a lot of time there in the spring and fall and on windy days.

When I was painting our clapbords, I realized that our whole house needs to be painting - unfortunately, I do not mean on canvas!  As I started adding in details like the knots and the greenish ting to the gray I realized that while these details may make for a good painting - they do not say this is a well kept house.   Painting the house will have to be a project for next spring.

I started to block in the second window - and have the perspective off - will correct that in the next session. The deck is covered with snow, as are the arms, seats adn the backs of teh chairs.  Once I have the background right - I will start into the snow.

This is a large acrylic painting 36 x 42.