In Process

Yes, that's one doggone bright yellow canvas!  I thought I'd show you what you do when you've got a BIG canvas to paint, and it's getting a wee bit chilly to paint in the garage:  You improvise!  Well, really, you ask your husband to improvise, because he's much handier with a screw gun!

So this is where I'm spending a great deal of time... and all with OIL paint, which is just delightful beyond words.  I really don't know if I can express how much I LOVE painting with oils!

Next, the pencil drawing, which you really can't see.  Then some outlines of the foreground.  And then the beginning.  Here's where the house starts to smell strange.

I've reached the point in life where my son can take some pretty decent pics.  So, these days when he comes home from school, I say, "How-was-your-day-will-you-take-some-pics-for-me?"  In this instance he also took a bunch of pics from funky angles that made my brain sort of hurt.   I chose to show you the ones where you can actually tell what's going on!!

Can you tell the sky changed?  I painted that initial swatch of blue and white and then laid in bed thinking, "what was I thinking?"  So a couple of days later, I edited.  And once I was content with the sky, I was able to move on to the Peak.  It got edited too... you'll see...

Can you see the edit?  The darks in the Peak were a bit too dark to please me.  Not a lot.  But when something isn't quite right, you really can't sleep.  Really.

That's all for now!  I'm THOROUGHLY LOVING THIS!!  I tell my musical friends it's like hitting that perfect note, with the perfect tone, and a lung full of volume.  And I tell my writer friends it's like coming up with just the right string of words... poignant, lovely, unique.

I'll show you the final thing in a few days (providing I don't lay in bed one night and decide that the whole thing is wrong!!).

Bed Head

If you saw a rumpled up rooster, wouldn't you call him Bed Head?  Honestly, I couldn't help myself!!

This was GREAT FUN to paint!  He's just 6" square, and fits in a lovely black floater frame.  I was going to take progress pics, but then I got all consumed and completely forgot!  So all I've got is the very beginning.

My hubby came home and said something like, "you've got some green in there...", like maybe it was a mistake.  But no!!  IT WAS ON PURPOSE!  A rooster's neck just begs for a splotch of inappropriate color!

Pulling Out the Oils

"UNDER FOOT"

"FADING FAST"

The other day I pulled out my oils to do a chicken for a friend (I'll post him later), and OF COURSE, I couldn't waste the left over paint!  So I played and came up with these.  We're just coming to the end of our fall colors, and I've taken a plethora (love that word) of reference photos.  We'll see if I can wrangle my self-doubt long enough to paint a few more!  It was great fun.  I dearly love painting with oils!

More Items for the Arts & Crafts Fair

Remember I told you about an Arts and Crafts Fair that would benefit Choices, a local organization that preserves life for unborn children?  It's coming up in another month, and these are some of the final pieces that I painted for them.  

The first three pics look sort of wonky, because it's kind of hard to get an image of a shelf...when the shelf isn't hanging on the wall.  Just stand on your head, and you'll be able to see it!!  There were two shelves, each having a groove for a plate to stand up in.

The three trees are painted the same on the back as they are on the front.

It's astounding to me how long I pondered these before I figured out what I wanted to paint on them!  Particularly the trees!  In fact, I think I painted them three times!  I like the results though.

If you're local, here's some info on the sale:  It's called the Rocky Mountain Christmas Boutique.  It will be held at the Shining Mountain Golf Course, north of Woodland Park on November 7th and 8th, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Gray Jay

I've always called them Camp Robbers.  I don't know if it's really the same bird, or not.  They have very well known behaviors, though:  no fear, a strong longing for whatever you're eating, definite curiosity.  It's a delightful thing to lure them in for a cracker (or whatever!) and end up with them landing on your head!

And my Father cares for them.  But He cares for me far more.

"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?"  (Matthew 6:26)

It's a good thing to rest in the care of our loving, sovereign, saving God.