A Garden Jumble

14x11 on Richeson board - $145.00

I've had a bad cold for a week now and I've been home, trying to paint, taking it easy and hoping I'll feel better soon.  The weather hasn't cooperated at all.  It snows, then rains, then gets warm, the snow melts, the roads get icy and I don't want to move!  I went through my stash of photos and found some of the garden at my mom's complex in Mission Viejo, California.  Flowers......I haven't seen fresh flowers since the summer.  I painted this riot of flowers in the garden.  Made me feel good.  I'd love to find some flowers and paint fresh ones.  Wonder where I might get my hands on some?

River at Balsam Road

 12x15.5 - $125.00

A few weeks ago, Bill and I walked our dogs to this remote little spot not far from our house.  We don't have much snow this year - we seem to get it and then it rains and disappears.  The day we walked to this river, which wanders to our lake another mile away, the snow was a few inches thick.  Our dogs loved this spot as much as we did.  When taking pictures of the snow in the winter, most of the photos end up black and white.  Not this one, as the colors in the sky reflected beautifully in the water, and the scrub around the river was rust and light orange.  Absolutely wonderful!

Admiring Degas

 12x9   $95.00

During the Christmas season, Bill and I spent the day in New York City.  It turned out to be a rainy day, but we spent a good part of it at the Met, on the second floor, admiring all the impressionists.  The museum had almost three rooms of Degas, alone.  I happened into one room and saw these two talking between themselves, in front of two Degas paintings.  She just made me think of all the women in his paintings - long dresses and hair styled just right, holding a glove in one hand........

The Catch is In

 16x20 Pastel on Richeson board
  $225.00

Another view of the fishing boats, docked in the early evening, in Provincetown, MA.  I find it very difficult to paint all the lines that are an integral part of the boat, and try  to simplify whenever possible. I only painted three of the ten seagulls surrounding these boats - I think they hadn't been in dock very long, so the gulls were out in force.  I just wanted to give the viewer a "feel" of the gulls.

Winter Sprint

 12x15 1/2 - $175.00

Last year, in February, the women from our quilting group spent a weekend at a resort.  They all quilted, but I just wanted to have an entire two days to paint.  I brought lots of my photos and was so happy to spend the entire weekend just painting - no cooking, cleaning, laundry - just pastels.  On Saturday evening, before it got dark, I took a walk by myself, and took lots more photos.  Came across about five deer all together, in the snow.  They saw me right away, but decided I wasn't a threat and so I was able to take a bunch of pictures.  Finally one sprinted away and I got a shot of it near a shed just running.  It made me smile to see how fast it was going.  Anyway, here's my version of it, in pastel.

Down Parkerville Road

 11x14 - $165.00

I take this road every day to get to the main route to town, or out of town.   Since a flood last March, this is the ONLY way out of our neighborhood, which is a bit scary, as it goes over a brook.  Every day the sky and mountains have a new look and it's always beautiful. 

After the Catch

Well, haven't been painting lately - I found another passion while up here in the Adirondacks of New York State.  It's quilting!  Oh boy, never thought that would be me, but I'm actually enjoying using patterns and coming up with my own color scheme and putting them together.  It's almost like painting,  and learning to actually quilt is no easy thing!  Once I send it off to my grand daughter, I'll post the quilt here. 

 16x20 $225.00

Anyway,  after finishing my granddaughter's quilt the other day, I painted this from a picture I took this past November on our trip to Cape Cod.  I've missed picking up those pastels and now I'm on to another painting.  We went to NYC a couple of weeks ago and I have some great pictures of the city.   We also ended up at the Met and spend a few hours in heaven, looking at all the impressionist paintings on display there.  The museum had two rooms filled with pastel paintings of Degas.  Unfortunately, they had the lights turned so low, they were hard to see, but still - what a treat!