OUCH

 Won’t be posting any artwork for a while.  I fell this week and now am in a big ole cast which is making it hard to get around on the main floor (my little art room is on the lower level with 2 sets of stairs so it’s off limits for a while).  I am not handling the pain, the stress, or anything else about this, very well.  But once I start feeling better I can post some photos from walks.  

Slipped during a walk down a little hill before getting to a walkway and heard the ankle pop.  It’s a broken fibula (the thin leg bone on the outside of your leg that connects from the knee to the ankle) at the ankle.  Out of commission for 8 weeks, minimum.  

FINAL VERSION AND PUMPKINS!

 

Finished with the poke berries painting.  

Started another of some pumpkins and a little crow watching from afar.  

Blogger is acting strange and I think it has to do with the 2-factor verification Google now has started on your accounts - each time you sign in to Google for anything (Blogger, Mail, etc.), they send you a text on your phone.  I removed that because I don’t want a text sent every single time I sign in to Google - so now things are funky.  Plus, when they had the 2-factor verification on, they send a number to verify your account which you had to type in…and it had 2 numbers too many and wouldn’t accept the code numbers!!  D’uh.  I guess they’ll get it worked out after everyone complains.  

Today there is an online course from John Muir Laws, teaching how to draw owls.  Should be fun.  You can find it through Audubon or through John’s site.  It starts at 11:30 Pacific Time and is through Zoom.  

ANOTHER GO AT THE POKE

 

I drew these larger and really spent time on the first dark and wine-colored berries.  They look more shiny than the first attempt at painting them.  

I watched Billy Showell (well-known botanical artist) on video showing how to paint a single cherry - OMG! she took forever lifting and lifting and lifting and lifting and…nope, not the style for me!  ha ha. She had a lovely, shiny cherry when she was done but I skipped through a lot of the middle part of the technique.  Did learn to use lifting preparation (WinsorNewton makes it) prior to painting anything = makes it easier to lift back to white if you don’t use any staining pigment.  

POKE BERRIES AGAIN

 

Tried to spend some time making these more rounded than I got in the first go-round.  And cropped off some edges that were unnecessary.  

I’m having to really think about the shades in the berries and how to make them look shiny.  

FROM A WALK IN THE GARDEN

 

Another nice walk in the Extension Center gardens to see what was blooming.  

The bumblebees like the long flowering bits of this plant (did not see a name tag to tell me what this was called).  Do you think certain pollinators like certain plants for their color?  What does a purple flower taste like, compared to a pink one?

Lots of plants with berries in various colors - red, orange, even blue berries for the birds and still some hardy flowers for the bumblebees, butterflies and (a few) honeybees.  

POKE BERRIES

 Poke berries.  These plants grow 6-7 feet tall with berries and red stems; lots in our wooded walks.  I have one in my planter on the deck (put there by a bird, I’m sure) - was going to take a photo of it (about 2 feet tall) but a mockingbird jumped onto it, pulled it down to the dirt, and ate every berry off it while I was watching the other day!  Guess those red and black berries taste good.

ELEPHANT EAR PLANTS AND OTHER STUFF?

 Finished version.

GREENS A’PLENTY

 On Aches rough paper.  Needs a bit more work but almost there.  

SAVANNAH MAGNOLIA

 I’ve painted a version of this one several times.  I think this one comes closest to what I envisioned when I saw the magnolia bud on a trip to Savannah, GA.  

AND MORE MILKWEEDS

 

This one was painted directly, with no drawing.  I did have to use gouache for the white stuff holding the seeds.

PITCHER PLANTS FOR DEBBIE

 

Debbie asked if I’d ever seen pitcher plants - these are the ones I saw during a walk through a nature/park area in Florida one year - took several photos of them hanging down from the pots (which were at the top) for sale.  Pretty cool plants but I’m not sure they grow here in KY.  

ANOTHER WAY OF PAINTING MILKWEEDS

 

This one has some pods and pods that have opened, trailing the white stuff and seeds.

FRUITS OF SUMMER - DONE

 Finished.  

FRUITS OF SUMMER

 

Another started - fruits of summer, which is now over, but FALL is here = YAY!!!

BLUES IN THE LANDSCAPE

 From an online demo…can’t recall who or where and it looks nothing like the painting the artist did but it was fun playing.  Went in after I figured it was finished but it wasn’t working so…more changes.  All monotone and looking like winter coming…not too soon, I hope!

MILKWEED PODS - 2ND VERSION

 Much better after going back into the background with darker colors and more variety of colors.  Sometimes I quit before the painting is finished and I should go back and revisit some after they sit for a few days.

MILKWEED PODS

 

 

Milkweed pods before they burst open and have all that white fluff blowing around.  Hadn’t seen a milkweed pod since I was a kid - but the Extension Center in our neighborhood has a wonderful pollinator/butterfly garden full of flowers the butterflies and bees love.  

Every time I take a walk there, I think I should learn more about gardening - but I don’t.  I just paint flowers.  

PITCHER PLANTS - 2

 

Another version.  Wanted it to look somewhat like a fence behind it.

PITCHER PLANTS

 

From photos taken at a garden center during a recent walk.  Pitcher plants were in a large orange pot with black fence railings behind them, but I didn’t want to do it that way.  

I’ll try another version and see how it turns out.

PLAYING WITH COLOR AND SHAPE

 

A couple of small pieces on scraps of watercolor paper. 

Just playing with colors and shapes and seeing what happens.  

No rhyme or reason in mind when I start.  They still look pretty organic to me so that seems to be my thing.