A Little Black Spot On The Sun Today.

I scored these goodies in the clearance section at the Hobby Lobby.  I was there Saturday (Mother's Day weekend), with Mom.  We had a blast-that store is fascinating. My dad was so patient, my husband, not so much.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day, wonderful.  Silly, but wonderful.

And just look at those prices, think of all the money we saved.

I have been riveted to this all morning long.  Riveted.  They're playing beautiful classical music as the Transit occurs.  The fact that there's really not a lot to see doesn't matter, I'm still riveted. Riveted.  Absolutely fabulous, this modern technology trend.

And I am blogging my breakfast to encourage you all to eat well, and if at all possible put pretty little edible flowers on it.  Those greens were straight out of the garden, not my garden, but somebody's garden.  They were lovely.

lovely.

May Flowers and A Yellow Elephant.

Its May and I had to paint some flowers.  Everything is so lush.  Its all so green. There are flowers everywhere you look.  This doesn't last forever-even though it seems that it will- so enjoy it now.  Our mornings here in the heart of the good ol' USA have been nice and chilly with lots and lots of dew.  The hostas are loving it.  I've almost brought my houseplants inside at night, but haven't.  They seem so happy anyway.

These are on Rives BFK paper, it had a great feel to it and I had to see what it was all about.  I don't think it is particularly made for watercolours and acrylics and collage but it was fun to experiment.  It feels strong, like it will hold up to a lot of abuse.



detail, sort of blurry, oops sorry

better...

there's Tim Holtz Distress Crackle on those posies.  See it?  It's subtle stuff but I love it.

its all happening.

The flowers are by no means anatomically correct and its so abstract are they even flowers?  Yeah, they're flowers.

This guy.  This guy is a distorted yellow elephant with nice big tusks

and a whole lotta toes

Happy Mother's Day everybody, enjoy.

May Morning Dew.

The fair maid who
the first of May
goes to the fields
at break of day
and washes in dew
from the Hawthorne tree
will ever after
handsome
be.

Old English proverb with lots of deep meaning.

I always splash a bit in the MayDay morning dew, ever since I was young and first heard this.  Can't hurt, right?  I mean I'm out there feeding my ponies anyway.  They help out.



This is an unfinished j page I was playing around with today.  I was in sort of a mood, so...

Actually, painting this page made my mood dissolve.  Hallelujah.  Then I started looking through the j.  I liked this little illustration/map of my last-year's Marigolds, thought I'd share.

You KNOW you live in the country when you see these.  Come one come all!

Morels and Wayne Trees.

This is on a small canvas, maybe 8x10?

Sun, or Moon?

Here's a whole group.  This is on a "recycled" piece of slate.

detail.

Another, on 8x10 canvas...

These.

My brother found these beauties, there were 92.  Were.  They ate a bunch.  He had to cut out of work early yesterday to go back.  "I didn't even make it to the good spot yet, back in the back".

Everybody Knows...

Some watercolours I worked on last week.  I got so into it I might have to do the entire alphabet.

This one (below)got away from me.  But still, there are parts of it I quite like.  I apologize for not taking a close-up of the elephant's pink penis.  It was entirely by accident, I didn't mean to make him so anatomically correct.  And its shooting out a pink droplet which is even more glorious.  Zoom in, you'll see it.
If I think of it today when I'm over at the art room I will get the close-up you all need and deserve to see.
The story needs to be changed, I should claim that this was completely intentional because it is so freaking perfect.

Freedom and Garden Glamour Stones.

This is the "first finished version" of this little painting on the narrow bookcover. I say the first because I think its going under the knife again...
Its difficult to read the quote, which I like.  If you do the work you get the reward.  But I'm not sure I like the quality of the difficultness.
Its just not there yet.

Lately I've been having trouble bringin' it home.  It comes in phases for me, and I haven't had that cycle of the phase for too long.  I love it when I go in to work on paintings and I can just look at them for 1/4th of a millisecond and know what they need and grab them and do it and boom, its right.  I'm needing that day.

Meanwhile, these glamourous beauties are now in my container gardens.  I always forget which green is which when they're still itty bitty, problem solved.

And you know how much I love to paint a rock.

Oops, there's no item in the photo to tell you how big or small this beauty is.  They're each maybe 3 1/2 inches, fits right in your hand.

So even though I can't seem to bring it home with my paintings lately, I'm making it happen with the garden markers.  My level of happiness over this is waay too high.