Autumn Oaks Path

The oaks have really put on a show this year - despite the drought!  They were more orange-red than I can remember in the past, and the hues have only deepened.  I'm hoping to get a few more landscapes in before those leaves drop.  The 70s of yesterday have been replaced with 40s, so our long warm autumn has come to a close. It is the middle of November, after all! Painting number 4390 in 4390 days. 

Snow at Winter Creek

I can't possibly resist a winding rural creek flanked with snow!  These warm days are melting the snow quickly in open areas, but in the shady areas down by the water, the snow remains.  Through the years, I've become adept at finding snow, knowing where the last vestiges will be, going to those spots to paint.  The ponds and creeks have been frozen around here, and each day I return to see if there's a little melting.  The water looks black this time of year - if the ice is off - and I love to paint it.  This winter's day has been full of soft colors and dappled sun, and I hope it has seeped into my painting.  Painting number 3303 in 3303 days, and day 17 of the #stradaeasel challenge.  

Melting Snow on East Creek

 I love the turn of this creek with it's high banks, and it is even more interesting when mostly frozen.  The water is moving, so even at 12 degrees it is not frozen over.  The dusting of snow we had overnight is icing on the cake of this landscape. There is little wind down here, thank goodness, and the sun offered warmth until it dipped behind the trees.  I stood facing the sun, with my back to the north, bundled up complete with hand and toe warmers on this cold day.  The seat warmers in my car felt so good as I drove away from this place!  Painting number 3291 in 3291 days, Day 6 of the #stradaeasel challenge, and #win_winter2022. 

Home in the Snow

I love these beautiful, snowy days in the country.  Everything is so clean and crisp with a fresh blanket of snow on.  Yesterday's lovely snow was already starting to melt early this morning, as is often the case here in Missouri.  I feel an urgency to get out there fast when I see the drops falling from the eves!  As I start painting with oils over an old canvas painting, I remember the days of building snow forts and snowmen.  My happy, laughing children covered with snow, making snow angels and throwing snowballs.  I would line up beach towels for all their wet clothing and boots, and start hot chocolate for us all.  Hot chocolate is always best after playing in the snow!  I love painting our 176 year old farmhouse, and I love being the third generation to live here.  My children and their children are now making memories here, too, making 6 generations who have done so in this place.  There is something very special about that.  Painting number 2929 in 2929 days. 

Home from the Pasture

I scouted all over the property before finally deciding on this vantage.  Calm breezes, warm temps in the 60's and the fabulous light made this a perfect plein air day!  With about an hour before sunset, I set up my easel and got to work. I love the way that golden light streaked across the pasture, bouncing off the tufts of tall grass.  I paint the colors en masse, pulling the brushstrokes about to indicate grasses, rather than painting every blade.  The effect is much more natural, as the eye sees when looking at the whole landscape.  It is so restorative to be one with nature, doing what I was born to do. Painting number 1827 in 1827 days.

Milk Barn ATC

A light blanket of snow covered the ground this morning - and I knew I had to capture it!  Although a thick layer of snow is beautiful, the grass and wood showing through this snow adds so much interest to the composition!  I would normally head straight my pills for this scene, but today I'm using ink and watercolor in tiny size - ATC - 2.5x3.5!  The best part of working small?  I could paint it quickly and go out to dinner with the family!  Painting number 1803 in 1803 days.

December Sunset

After a busy day climbing in and out of the attic, I rush downstairs to start dinner..... and see the glory unfolding on the western hill!  Too many times I see this kind of beauty, and simply can not stop to paint it.  Not this time!  I turn the water on to boil, and by the time it is at a full roll, I have captured the sunset!  I've gained speed in the last months, I was finished before all the light was gone - and the sun was already down when I started.  I did not even take the time to get my small pochade out of the car!  I held my panel instead, using two brushes to paint the whole thing.  I would have used one, but I didn't have my oil to wash my brush out!  I can't be picky with so little time!  I guess you would call this "roughing it " plein air style!  Painting number 1783 in 1783 days.

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Behind the Milk Barn

This day was a gift!  Who knew it would be 75 degrees on this beautiful February day?  Taking full advantage of the weather, I took painting class to the milk barn!  It is absolutely invigorating to paint in perfect conditions - especially when compared with a normal February day!  We set up in the dappled shade of a willow tree, trying to get panel and palette both shaded.  It is so much easier to judge the colors in the shade versus full sun.  Countless times I have had to paint in full sun, only to find my painting too dark when brought inside.  So, if I must paint in full sun, I now check my painting in the shade before calling it done!  Painting number 1494 in 1494 days :)

Old Barn on Y Hwy

Another morning of drawing before I head to the gym, and another morning I get there late!  I just can't resist a beautiful scene, and the sun is not rising early enough for me to be on time!  On the flip side, I LOVE painting early!!  It revs me up and invigorates me before I ever reach the gym, keeping my head in the game once I get there!  There has lately been heavy equipment and activity around this barn, and with it's deteriorating condition, I'm afraid they are going to bring it down.  These little treasures are slices of Americana, and each one that slips from existence is forever gone.  With this in mind, I am getting this one down in ink and watercolor while I can.  Painting number 1486 in 1486 days  :)

Back Side of the Barn

Another foggy, moody morning, another chance to capture that feeling in oils!  I teach two classes on Mondays, so I quickly prepped for the first one and grabbed my pocket box and headed for the barn.  The fog had only thickened since sunrise - and I had less than 45 minutes before class!  Again, I started quickly, sketching the composition lightly with my brush. I love the ragged twist of hedge apple branches - and there are two of these trees on the back side.  Once sketched, I painted in the dark shadow areas followed by the foggy grays.  There were no warm tones in this morning's light, only cool, frosty ones.  It was cold enough that the fog was frosting all surfaces.  Will I ever grow tired of painting this barn?  I don't think so.  Painting number in 1475 in 1475 days.

oil on panel, 7x5
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Autumn Color on East Creek

Yesterday afternoon, I met with a couple who have ties to the Alderson Cemetery, at that secluded location.  I have not been there in years, and when I had gone, it was through dense woods in the dead of winter.  In search of the old foundation of Lucinda Alderson's homestead, we walked through woods and cornfields.  During this adventure, I found some amazing painting spots!  The creek is banked by rocky bluffs, and winds beautifully through the wooded landscape.  Who knew I would make new friends and find such beauty in the woods this day?   Painting number 1399 in 1399 days :)

Oil on panel, 7x5
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Flowing into East Creek

Oh!  What a busy day!  This morning's classes at the gym were grueling - but always totally worth it.  I followed that with four hours of hard labor in the yard (with a few plantings :).  After Mike and Michael left for a little shopping, I grabbed my paints and headed to the closest creek!  I checked two before deciding this light would last the longest.  It was late enough, there was little traffic.  One small dirt bike came by three times - to check my progress!  One little boy was exclaiming to his dad as they drove by, "She is painting!  She is!"  The weather could not have been nicer for painting - and the bugs just weren't out!  Unexpected so close to the creek.  The hoot owls were calling to each other, and lulling me right into the zone with their conversation.  I love being totally enveloped by the beautiful place I am painting.  Its just a little mini vacation, minutes from home.  Painting number 1338 in 1338 days.....I think.....!

Clouds over the Meadow

I love this time of year!  The heat of the day brings on the most beautiful and dramatic cloud formations in the afternoon!   I picked up a couple more of the Princeton poly tip brushes,  as well as my favorite Connoisseurs at Creative Coldsnow's yesterday.  One, an angled tip, and the other a smaller filbert.  When painting the clouds, it was hard to keep the clean filbert tip from leaving those perfect little marks. I found myself picking up a well used bright to soften the marks.  I wonder how these brushes will wear.  I really like the black heads and ferrules, they will not reflect the bright sun while painting outside,  and sometimes, that reflection can be blinding!  I am looking forward to some intensive "in the field" painting with them.  That is my true test for any brush that makes it into my paintbox.  Painting number 1294 in a 1294 days :)

Fleeting Light

The sky is full of paintings tonight!  Every direction boasts of another fabulous sunset composition!   I am simply not fast enough to paint the three beauties before me!  So, I will have to paint the others from memory and my photos.  I can only hope to do the landscape justice.  I'm trying a couple of new brushes with this one.  They are the poly tipped filberts by Princeton, and they work like my bristle brushes, only they feel different as they apply the paint.  So far, so good.  I may need to use a lighter touch as the brush seems to push down on the surface a little harder.  I am having fun with these sunsets, this may just be a week of sunsets!   Painting number 1290 in 1290 days :)

Fleeting Light
Oil on panel, 7x5
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Snow at the Stream

Snow at the Stream
Oil on wood panel, 6x8

Last weekend, we had such a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground!  This stream is very close, and I have taken many photos of it in all kinds of weather.  It is ever changing!  The skies were very thick with clouds, creating a wonderfully dark, moody atmosphere, with just the hint of morning in the background.  Do you remember the thin titanium Liquitex paint that I recently squirted out on my palette - and did not like at all?  Well, this painting was he perfect application for this paint.  Still on my palette, I found it so pliable with my brush for the chunky foreground.  With it's thin texture, it did not even try to pick up any of the paint already applied.  Ultramarine violet and burnt umber toned my Gamblin greys - which I used heavily in this landscape.  That white was so easily moved around with the palette knife, it was the only one I used int he finish work - although my thicker ones were used for blocking in the masses where I needed the paint to behave as it should.  My favorite white?  Winsor Newton's artist color titanium white.  I love the pigment in this one white better than all others I have tried - and it is time for me to order some more!  My number two pick?  Probably Utrecht's titanium white.  This is painting number 796 in 796 days.  Looks like we are headed for warm, sunny days, so these winter landscape opportunities may be coming to an end.

Meadow Flowers

Meadow Flowers
Watercolor on paper, 7x10.5

This morning was cool and very cloudy - the perfect day to get back to cleaning my flower beds!  Expecting rain, I worked quickly - and didn't get rained out for 5 hours!  Now inside, waiting for the rain to stop so I may return to my work, I am doing a little watercolor painting.  The pastures have not been cut yet, and there is the most wonderful assortment of grasses and lazy susans.  This is my landscape choice of the day, although my first purple garden phlox just started blooming!  After applying the Pebeo drawing gum (which I am quickly going through this first bottle), allowing it to dry, I washed on some background color.  When that was also dry, I rubbed off the gum, revealing the white of the paper beneath it.  I started laying in the colors, flowers first.  I wanted their color to be rather true to life.  The other grasses - I pushed them any way I felt like, dropping in happy colors that simply popped next to the colors already painted in the first layer.  It is so freeing to not be restricted by life, I know.....it sounds crazy.  But as a born perfectionist, it is a very unnatural thing for me to do.  It is almost like I have this other self, one who wants to paint with reckless abandon and wild colors, and who cares not if people think I have lost my mind!  Well, back to the real world of cleaning and gardening and preparing for company, and this is painting number 544 in 544 days.  Maybe I'll go crazy again tomorrow!

Hummingbird in the Trumpet Vine

Hummingbird in the Trumpet Vine
Acrylic & molding paste on panel, 10x8

After two week of watercolor painting, today, I am mixing it up a little with acrylics and molding paste! I have only done a handful of these textural paintings, and three of those have sold!  With this one, I am trying to learn the different palette knives and how they can maneuver the light molding paste.  Each stroke is a lesson - some succeed and some fail, and those I resculpt into the shape I want with the knife.  It is challenging, especially when the petals have very distinct shapes!  Each time I switch mediums, it takes me extra time to get my head back into the right place to work whatever medium I have at hand.  When I do the same thing each day, I simply jump right in without thought.  But today, I had to gather the right paints, palette and brushes - checking to make sure I did indeed have all the matching stuff!  These trumpet vines have burst open in the last few days - right outside the bay window in the kitchen - and how the hummingbirds love them!  This painting makes 541 in 541 days.  I will be plein air painting in the morning in Raymore - I wonder which medium I will choose tomorrow?

Goldfinches in the Redbud

Goldfinches in the Redbud
Oil on panel, 12x6

Every day, when I finally get to my easel, I need to decide what to paint.  Sometimes, I already have ideas floating around in my head.  Other days, I really have no idea.  I feel like I should be painting snow, while we have snow.........but my heart is not in it.  As I was scanning though my reference work, I found some wonderful redbud photos - and the goldfinches are right outside my window, so today, I combine the two for a spring painting!  This has been such a cold winter, it has me really longing for warmer days.  I had to dig out my permanent rose tube for this one - I think I only bring it out for spring and summer florals!  Painting number 411 in as many days :)

Late in the Winter Woods

Late in the Winter Woods
Oil on panel, 10x8

Back in the woods is a winding creek, very shallow, and sometimes it even runs dry.  My grandma always called this the "wash".  They used to dump all kinds of things in various locations of it, trying to stop the erosion of the banks.  She told me of brass beds, old furniture, discarded farm items of all sorts - all hidden somewhere along it's expanse.  We used to go "hunting for treasure" back there, and once in a while, I'd bring something back to the house.  I would tell my children about it, and we would go exploring when they were very young.  So many good memories.  Painting number 403 in 403 days, and yes, I'm still snowed in :)

Frozen Creek

Frozen Creek
Oil on panel, 10x8

This wintry landscape is close to home, and a place I have visited many times.  I have never attempted a completely frozen body of water, and this was my chance!  Using my brushes first, I blocked in all the values, finally finishing with my palette knife.  I forget how much I like the knife, until I pick it back up!  I also went back to prussian blue for this one, lending a moodiness to the cold.  I rarely paint over a previous painting, but I did on this one.  Under this frozen creek is a lackluster spring lake scene from years ago.  Since I am running out of panels - and snowed in - I thought, why not?  Painting number 401 in as many days :)