Day three working on garden painting.  Felt much better about the painting today. I have been waiting a couple of days in between  to let the paint set up.  Today I was able to get it to look fresh.  My idea was to paint a strong woman figure gardening.  I want the garden to become a jungle.  

Continued to work on the Dalia Garden Painting and managed to mess up on her face today.  I have been enjoying the abstract quality of the background and am tying to weave in and out with layering.

Prepared the background the other day by using up leftover paint.  I have been wanting to start a garden series for months and was very grateful when my neighbor said yes to posing.  I did a very rudimentary grid which you can still see a little of.  Normally I do not grid but because of the size I needed to make sure I did keep the proportions from getting skewed. Having just returned from a trip to Victoria where I visited the Butchart Gardens, I am hoping to catch that energy you feel when there is such an amazing abundance of life and color surrounding you.

Midpoint Blues

"Ahhhhh...  I see the problem.." came the quiet musical voice of my grad school painting professor.  He stood with a disconcerting expression on his face as he examined the painting I just turned in.  He continued, "You like everything!".  Crimson flushed across my face as I rewound those words in my brain.  Grad School was not for the weak of heart I reminded myself and  I was there to learn.
  This critique happened somewhere around midpoint.  I had felt shame at that moment but looking back it did make me respond by pushing myself beyond the limits of my past work.  At the end of the semester the teacher said it was an "honor to have had me in his class".  I am unsure if this was just a kind compliment given regularly but I also appreciated it. This was my final painting for his class of my son.

Here is another painting I started back in June and recently completed and turned into a competition but forgot to take the final completed picture.   It is a good thing my head is attached!

Morning in Progress

 This is very close to completion with a few hard edges but I thought I would share some of the steps since it went through a lot of transitions.

Just returned from a trip to Canada.   Drove up with a friend and got to explore Victoria.   This was painted at the houseboats at the main harbor.  The little front houseboat was oldest remaining boat in their harbor.  The bridge in the upper right is Johnson's Bridge which will be torn down in the near future and replaced.  It was designed by the same man as the Golden Gate bridge.  This trip was just what I needed to get some more inspiration.  I have so many pictures I want to paint!

Spring Sings

Every year at this time, my heart soars as I drive out to my studio which sits on my family's ranch.  The hills are breathtaking covered in velvet grass and the fields of mustard flowers glow. I am so fortunate to live in this amazing part of the world.  I am in the process of working of a scene from across the street from the ranch.  The seasonal creek weaving its way into the golden fields just called to be painted.   I started with this small study and am working on a larger painting 30" x 40".