Jo's Dolphin

We have some dear friends, family really, who have just celebrated their 15th Wedding Anniversary. Normally the husband is really easy to buy for but it can be harder to find the right thing for the wife, Jo. Knowing that Jo loves the ocean and enjoys dolphins, I painted this with her in mind. I will be giving her the painting this weekend. I am posting it now since I will be out of town with them and, because, I don't think they will have time to view my blog before our trip. Happy Anniversary Bob and Jo. We love you.
WC paints on Strathmore paper, 8 x 10

A Rose by any other name. . .

A few months ago, a lovely lady did something for me that really helped pick me up during a difficult time. Today, I wanted to send her a thank you so I painted this. I'm not mentioning who it is since she hasn't received it yet. It's a surprise! This is actually a view of my front fence, with the roses spilling out over it and the lovely rocks that my husband placed out there. 5x7 WC painting on wc paper.

Exploring

This past weekend my family and I took a drive to explore the surrounding area and to get some sun and fresh air. We went to the hills around Paskenta, southwest of our home. Sadly, I have lived here for 18 years and don't recall ever visiting this area before. Paskenta is a small town on the edge of the Mendocino National Forest. This time of year the rolling hills are green with gorgeous purple, white and orange flowers sprinkled about and plenty of young calves and lambs in the fields. It was a perfect day to explore.
We continued our drive up the mountain to find a camp ground that was mentioned on a sign earlier. Always on the look out for a fun place to camp, we decided to visit it. We were able to get to within a mile of it before the road was completely blocked with snow! 70 degrees and sunny at our home less then 45 minutes away and cold and snow on the mountain. We couldn't pass it. We couldn't visit the camp ground. Guess we will try again later in the spring.
The sketch above is of an old country store in Paskenta. It was done with WC pencils and ink on my new Raffine Sketchbook. There will be many more sketches from our little adventure. Just goes to show that one doesn't have to visit exotic locations to find beauty and interesting sites.
Thanks for visiting!

Monet

Did a quick card today for the Wet Canvas Masters Post Card exchange. It is sketched after Monet's Hay Stacks. This was done quite quickly using Oil Pastels on WC paper. The paper really wasn't toothy enough to hold the pastels as I would have liked. But for a quick sketch, it isn't too bad. Since I rarely use Oil Pastels, this forced me out of my comfort zone, which is good for me. I will need to try more of these.
Thanks for looking!

Celebrating Life

One often thinks about life in the spring. New flowers, the birth of baby animals and the warmth of the sun all help one to appreciate life. Well, a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to appreciate life more. My brother and sister-in-law were vacationing when they nearly died. My brother was ok but my sweet sister was in a coma for about a week and things were not looking good. But she has come through it all. My sister, my friend, is alive! So to celebrate life and her continued recovery, I painted her the picture here. She should have it today. Hopefully it will bring her cheer and warm feelings as she works through the therapy and the day to day issues that she still faces. Pat, if you are reading this, I love you very much.

For Connie

This latest painting is much looser then I normally work in. I was trying to get a loose, juice look and feel pretty good about the results. It is for my dear friend Connie who always has wonderful words of encouragement for others. She is truly one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Hopefully this small bouquet will bring a bit of color and sunshine to her.


This post card will be going out soon. I did it in preparation for a painting I am doing for someone else very dear to me. Hopefully I will be able to post that painting this weekend. For now, this painting is 3x5 and was painted with watercolor paints and watercolor pencil highlights.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

Painting after the masters

I was working more on my post cards this afternoon and finished these other two cards. The one on the left is painted after Constable's "The Hay Wain" and is painted with Derwent WC Pencils. The one of the right is painted after van Gogh's "Sunflowers". It was done using Lyra Aqua Color crayons. Both are done on Strathmore post card watercolor paper.