It seems that sheep are a “hit” at Plum Bottom Gallery! Three of my paintings featuring the wild sheep of Donegal have sold in the last six months. So today, I’m enjoying being back at the easel with my favorite sheep again.
This week’s painting, Free Grazers, is a 9” x 9” watercolor painting with two of my favorite subjects – a bold mama ewe and lamb. See all my art available at www.wildriverarts.com
With a creative deadline less than two months away, I’m having a good time working on dramatic skies and creating deep shadows. It’s such an interesting exercise and allows me to experiment with blending a variety of colors in order to retain the lighter tones while laying down the darker shades. My goal is to have 20 paintings ready for the upcoming Earth Arts Spring Tour, scheduled for May 6-8, 2022. So far, I'm about halfway there and so looking forward to wonderful painting days ahead!
This week’s painting, Evening Paddle, 4” x 6” on 300 lb. watercolor paper, captures a solitary kayaker enjoying a late evening paddle.
It seems to be a good time to pause and give thanks. Since launching this blog five years ago, I’ve received amazing opportunities and had such positive experiences through my artwork. It’s been a wonderful journey of building skills, gaining confidence, taking risks, and in the process making new friends and being accepted into a vital art community. I am so grateful.
This afternoon, I got to hold a wee lamb (born this morning) and visit with dear friends at the Tin Cat Studio shop in Amery. What a spectacular treat to “talk lambing” with an expert shepherdess/fiber artist and to consider the serendipitous events that lead us to be in a particular place at this particular time. I don’t believe in coincidences, and it’s clear to be me that God prepares the path before us. Bringing wonderful people into our lives and giving us precious moments of joy. What a gift.
And two more paintings went to new homes – Meadow Home and Free Range Scouts – through sales at the Plum Bottom Gallery, Egg Harbor, Door County. Thank you for all the blessings, Lord.
In spite of the cold weather – and a major storm forecasted for later tomorrow – the sun is gaining strength and the calendar assures us that Spring is on its way. And a stop at one of my favorite garden centers today confirmed this fact with their huge racks of seed packets, display tables with joyous blooming gardens and pots of cyclamen, and pallets filled with bags of potting soil.
It may seem early, but the 2022 Earth Arts Spring Tour is coming soon! Scheduled for the first weekend in May – May 6-8, 2022 – it promises to be a fabulous event. This year, my watercolors will be on display at the artZ Gallery in Amery, WI.
It seems to be a season of “liltie” paintings. These are my 4” x 6” sweet Liltie Series watercolors that my husband Paul frames in lovely black shadowboxes or silver frames. This week’s painting, Moonrise, captures the rising moon reflecting on beautiful Lake Michigan off the Cave Point County Park.
After last week’s painting, the colors of the desert ignited my curiosity. This week, I began researching the blending of colors that are needed in watercolor to create the unique tones and hues of a desert landscape. It’s been an eye-opening experience, and one that’s resulted in developing a totally different palette – one that allows for the blending colors to find the right combination that results in a cactus actually looking like a cactus! And then moving beyond that to determine the appropriate values based on the particular light. It’s been an exciting exercise! I’m continuing to learn but for right now I’m enjoying playing on a whole new level with wonderful paints such as: New Gamboge, Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet, Lavender, Yellow Ochre, and Mineral Violet along with some of my favorite stand-by colors such a Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber and Permanent Rose.
This week’s painting is an experiment in
painting small, Desert Light, 4” x 6” on 300 lb. watercolor paper,
reflects a desert landscape in the evening light.
A few weeks ago, our sweet family in Arizona sent us a photo of one of their favorite activities – going for a short drive at sunset to a nearby park to watch to sun go down over the desert mountains. I admit – my first experience visiting the desert last October was not all that positive. While there are spectacular vistas, it was hard for me to get past the fact that the majority of the landscape can be used as a weapon – to stab, cut or maim! And yet, here was this beautiful photo with wonderful light. I had to paint it!
It seems to be a prevalent theme for me in January – and I’m celebrating February 1 with a fun-to-paint kayak painting. It’s surely the spirit within me that is drawn to this subject at this particular time of year – the endless variety of blues, purples and greens reflected in a freshwater body of water; the deep greens and burnt sienna of a pine forest; and the rose, yellows, purples and deep blues of an evening sky. After a month of lollygagging around, we now seem to have turned a corner with renewed energy and able to embrace new possibilities ahead.
This week’s painting, Catching the Light, 9” x 9” on 300 lb. watercolor paper, reflects that moment when the view in front of the paddler elicits a prayer of thanks – thanks for this day, thanks for this beautiful light, thanks.
