A little something

I'm popping in today, not because I have much to say, but to simply share a new painting in progress { #3 in The Rider's Series } and to get myself back into the rountine of blogging after almost five days of no phone, no computer, and no tv!  It was slightly disorienting...ok, majorly disorienting to shut my "routine" down for almost a week and live out in a cabin in the woods where the only thing on the agenda is which trail to ride and what meal to share.

And chores, of course.

Riding horses requires a great deal of work.

My focus this month is getting as much painting done as humanly possible.  Shows and outdoor festivals are just around the bend with my first one May 5th.  So far I'm really loving The Riders Series and enjoying the steady flow of ideas that seem to pop into my head throughout the day.  How are you liking it? 

Oh!  Thank you for the wonderful birthday wishes!  I really love hearing from you all and appreciate your feedback so much!

a girl and her sheep

When the cold basement feels a little too imposing, I bring my paints upstairs and watch as it dries while Seth and I talk or laugh at our favorite tv shows.

While I was sitting in my comfy chair, I couldn't help but think of my sheep painting.  Laying in the background is one of favorite parts of any painting and seeing that clean white background was much too tempting.  Painting backgrounds gives me a chance to use my bigger brushes and play with pools of water.  See how the two colors are bleeding together there in the middle?  That happens when the paper is fully saturated before the paint goes on.  Once it's evenly coated with water, I slowly drop and brush in color and watch as the paint moves the pigments together.

Whoever thought watching paint dry could be so fun?

See the bottom left corner?  That dark line, like the one under the girl's feet, are from an excess of water.  The water actually pushes the paint to the very edge of the pool as it dries.  That may be why I like to paint in the backgrounds first, come to think of it.  The pooling water creates outlines around all my figures and sharpens edges around objects (like the one along the right edge of the mountain).

And that "new wintery painting" I posted about ages ago?

Well, I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow (it's been causing me some angst).

The owl and the orphan: progress



I've officially brought these paintings out of the ugly stage.

Phew.

Mr. Rabbit has given me a new thought.  Doesn't it sort of look like he has hopped right out of a book?  I like where this idea is taking me...

It makes me think of this illustrator. 

                   

work in progress

As the wind moves the leaves in Autumn, so it begins to graze the wings of the Monarchs, whispering a secret song so enticing that their wings intch to fly, to move, to be carried with the winds to a distant land where the sun rarely hides and the trees keep their leaves and all the orange-winged bugs gather. But what is left behind to weather the storms of snow and cold as it encases the land and covers the leaves on the ground until a new Spring? Sadness may linger in the wind, but it is taken, too, to a warmer place inside her chest, to be stored until a new Spring brings them back.