A Visit to Monet's Garden

I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago

 and made another visit to Giverney to see Monet's Garden.

The cherries were in bloom in front of Monet's iconic pink and green house.

I walked to the other side of the garden

 and sat for a while on a bench near the pond.

My sister Mary was with me.

She sat alongside me and read while I did a little painted sketch.

Here is the sepia drawing I did with my new waterproof sepia sharpie.

Thanks Dawn, for the gift of the soon to be discontinued color!

Here is my finished sketch.

Well it's not mine anymore, I gave it to Mary as a keepsake of an absolutely perfect day.

It was all too short a visit as always.

I took lots of photos so I hope to do a few more paintings

in the coming months.

Something Fishy

This little fish swam up through the wet weather

 to the Clear Lake Art Center 

for their May fundraiser. 

Arty Fish Al

5 x 7 Watercolor

I haven't had much time to paint lately.

I've painted a few watercolors

 including several versions of this one.

I'm sure hoping that it warms up and I can get outside to paint.

Somewhere......

Bright Prairie

A little summer.

Bright Prairie

14" x 18" - oil on canvas

This is one of a series based on a plein air painting I did

 out in the tall grass of my friend Jeanette's prairie two summers ago.

Has it been that long?  Wow!

(You can see that painting on my September 3, 2012 blog post)

From the first study I did a 24" x 36" painting.

That painting won the top award

 at the Fort Madison Art Center Member's Show in 2012.

More on that in a future post.

These paintings have been fun to do with the palette knife.

I tried to paint this one a little brighter and higher key than the others.

Moon-ish River

I took a picture of the moon rising over the 

Des Moines River this winter.

I played around with it in watercolor this week at art class.

Bill Teeple kept encouraging me to simplify.

This is always hard for me.

I'm a wordy/detail kinda gal.

I did various versions and struggled with my usual inability to take

the image dark enough without losing luminosity.

I like this one best although it has more color than I intended.

Bill thought that the backlighting from the iPad

 helped to enhance the glow.

A runny one.

Now if I can do one that is runny/watery and dark?

Next time.

Isn't this one great?

It is..... the PHOTO!

I really should try this in oil but love the challenge of watercolor.

Redbuds

I realized yesterday when I was taking down my show 

at the Keokuk Art Center

 that I had never posted some of the larger

 non - "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge" paintings.

Arbor Dance  

12 x 20 - oil on panel

I did a pastel of these redbuds at a Doug Dawson workshop in St. Louis

a number of years ago.  

I have shown that painting but have never offered it for sale. 

It was a "mile marker " of a sort and I have kept it

 as a reminder of the benefits of simplification.

I have always wanted to see if I could reproduce the freshness 

of that pastel in oil paint.

It is similar but altogether a different beast.

The colors are more powerful in oil, 

the pastel has a more ephemeral quality.

These little redbuds are now in the gallery 

at the Fort Madison Art Center

where I hope they will inspire spring to come a little more quickly.

Cedar Snow

I love the way the heavy snow weighs down the branches

 on the cedar trees outside my studio.

Cedar Snow

Watercolor - 6 x 8

I did this last week at my Art Class with Bill Teeple

at ICON Gallery in Fairfield.

I am only allowed to do watercolor under supervision.

This is the second version.

The first one was fussier and Bill encouraged me to simplify 

and then told me to STOP.

Which is always helpful advice and he was right.

This one is another contender for our 2013 Christmas card.

30 in 30 - One Week After

It has been one week since the end of the 

30 Paintings in 30 Days experiment.

My show at the Keokuk Art Center with my friend 

Carlene Dingman Atwater 

opened last Friday and runs through the end of February.

Don't I look happy?

I finished 30 paintings in 30 days and had more than enough paintings for the show.

Many thanks to Ken Burns at Burns Gallery and Tea Emporium

 in Bonaparte, Iowa for finishing the framing in time.

I spent the rest of the week catching up on everything that I had ignored in January.

Bentonsport Gazebo

6" x 12" Watercolor on paper

The little watercolor above will be included

 in the Keosauqua Lions Club Soup Supper and auction tonight.

I usually donate an oil painting

but decided to give my friends something different this year.