Tantivy

Here is the most recent painting. I seem to have a little series going so I am going to look for another vegetable tomorrow and for some fruit and maybe another flower or two in the next week or so. I am really enjoying these and I think that it might be nice to have a grouping of veggies, fruits or flowers to hang. I think that these (9x12) will look nice in frames. When they are all finished I will make them available for sale most probably. I am working on the windows on the front of our house. They were painted shut long ago and need repainting and of course I like windows that open so I am working on that. Two of five are now openable. The putty that holds the glass in the frame is falling out so I am removing that and will be replacing it but I think that I might have a professional do the painting. On the other hand, to a certain extent a painter is a painter and these are all on the porch so there are no scary places where a ladder has to be on the ground and a rock or so...

This one is hot off the easel. It has been difficult and still needs work but there are parts I really like (those parts are not the lily, as I am sure you figured out.) I have a few more paintings in  mind and then I have to go do some looking and photographing.  Feeling a little better but had a coughing spell that nearly blew the top of my head off! I will be so glad when this whatever virus is gone! Dean said that I didn't need to tell you about dropping my phone and thats all I am going to say.  All will be well,  XOXOXO,  Caroline

This morning when the sunlight started streaming through my bedroom window it caught a scarf draped over my dresser. I had to try to paint it.   I think of this as "old master meets impressionism meets modernism.". The old masters only had the earth colors to work with for the most part. Colors such as blue were incredibly expensive and usually saved for the robes of the Virgin Mary (did you ever wonder why she was so often dressed in blue? That is why.) They used light and shadow to make the most of the reds browns, yellows and greens that they had and the paintings are wonders to behold.  The impressionists, on the other hand, had access to manufactured colors and to tubes so that paints could be taken into the field and their paintings reflect that. They still use light and shadow but also brilliant color. Amazing paintings.  Now we have access to even more colors, and electric lights as well as sunlight. Wow! I want to try to use all these things - light...

Here is the painting - a better, I hope, version. Thanks to Vicki for pointing out what should have been obvious to me. Still not quite right, but better.  XOXOXO, C

This painting is a little different for me. It is looser and it is also painted with a brush and I left a lot that was in the photo out - something that is not easy for me to do. I am still not well, but what I have is more like a miserable cold now. I think that I will survive but I certainly hope that the recovery hastens - I am tired of not feeling well. It is a beautiful, sunny, cool day. The Redbud tree outside our dining room window has started to bloom and the late daffodils across the street are sending cheer my way. Life is good even if a little snotty.  All will be well,  XOXOXO,  Caroline

I am still not feeling well, although each morning I have a few good hours and each day a little more than the day before.  I hope that tomorrow is a huge jump forward because we are supposed to go to a big cocktail party to announce niece Katie's engagement tomorrow evening and I really do want to go.  I even have something to wear all picked out. I was able to get a little painting done (5"x 7") from one of my instructor's photos of roads in SC. In a lot of ways they look like home to me. I am also doing some planning for one of a downtown corner, but since there are many decisions to make about what to put in and what to leave out I haven't gotten much further than a pencil sketch of what I think that it might be. Maybe next week. Here is a question for you. Why, when you are at the age where your hair is thinning, graying, etc, would you suddenly get a black CHIN HAIR? Just asking.  All will be well (the tweezers took care of the offender)and all ...

Very sore throat, slight fever, coughing, aching. I did get a flu shot, by the way. Some time during the day I decided that I could paint (after deciding earlier that standing at the easel was just too much.)Now I know. Do not try to paint when you are sick. Here is the effort; please do not laugh too hard.  My neighbor's yard actually has a brick patio-type area that has plants growing between the bricks. Early(ish) one morning I looked and it was bright yellow in the low strong sun. There is in real life a little playhouse on the other side of the fence. I decided that it was just too much for today or maybe for any day.  We had little snow but we are having rain and more rain. I haven't been out to walk for several days - no wonder I am sick! All will be well,  XOXOXO, Caroline

Here it is -the long awaited onion! This has been a real challenge and a departure from my usual and I have truly enjoyed it. I hope that you like it.  I thought about posting the photograph, but I am not sure that I would like the comparison - a photograph and a painting are such different things. The photograph, however, is beautiful.  Yesterday I walked during a warm sunny afternoon. If I want warm weather for today's walk I had best get my shoes on and start walking- it is just going to get colder and colder all day!  All will be well (and cold, make some onion soup!) XOXOXO, Caroline

I thought that I would paint an assemblage piece that I bought several years ago but then ran across this onion. Later in the afternoon I photographed it in strong afternoon light and the photo is surprisingly beautiful. I am going to try to paint it but it might be beyond my level of expertise. Look for it in a few days. 'Meanwhile, enjoy the sun. Dean heard this morning that there should be 3" of snow Sunday. I hope that is only a nasty rumor!! All will be well,  XOXOXO, Caroline

This has been modified to show the first painting which for some reason did not appear on the original post.  My sister told me after my last post that I write about strange things. But this is not strange, it is my latest try at a still life. I painted it twice and there are differences. I think that probably one is better here and the other there. You can decide what you think. I am including the photo I made of the set-up but you should know that the painting was done looking at the set-up and not the photo and the angle was slightly different so the paintings are not copies of the photo.  This is the photo of my hat and the red shoes I wore to the red shoe gala which supported CASA -Court Appointed Special Advocates. In other places this program is called Guardian ad Litem. They work with children who need advocates in the court system; children who might otherwise fall between the cracks. It is important work that we support monetarily but so far we have not volun...

As you all know, when you get older your hair gets thinner (less of it) and finer (each hair is now smaller in diameter). This happens to all the hair on our body, by the way. The good part is that shaving your legs gets to be a different activity. Since I can't see those fine hairs in the shower nor can I feel them, shaving my legs is something I find easy to ignore. Until, that is, a few weeks ago when I looked at my leg up close with my glasses on and discovered a hair about ¾ to ⅞ " long. It could have been longer, I did not measure. Eeeeek!  I spend a lot of time looking at things to paint them; I guess that I should include my legs! Sarie did not have those qualms about shaving. When she was just three she got hold of the razor and shaved --- her eyebrow off! Don't ask how she got the razor, because no one knows. The fact is that children (girls at least - I have no experience with boys doing this ) always know where you hide the scissors, the razors, and the...

There has been talk today of strong storms with high winds but so far we have only had a few minutes of hard rain. Of course the afternoon is not over and there were a few hailstones in that rain so who knows what will happen. I certainly don't and I am not sure that the weather prognosticators for all their computer models don't know either. We have a huge old tree in our backyard and with any hard wind it loses twigs, branches, and sometimes whole limbs. Life is many things but it is rarely boring.  As to painting  I have done this little one of a street in town which I showed you before. I am not crazy about it and decided to give it another try. The second try really bombed so I decided to scrape it all off and make it an abstract which I will call "at the edge of town." I am really trying to decide where to go with the painting practice but haven't reached any conclusions. I don't want to stop si the only thing I know for sure.  This one could...