A Spirit of Thanks

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. 

Spring is on the Way! Well maybe . .

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.

 

Desert Palette

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.

Desert Glow

 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!

This week’s painting, Desert Glow, 9” x 12” captures the view of two littles and their favorite companion taking in the sights and basking in the last light of a day.

On The River . . . continued!

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.

Pure Bliss

With the January cold also comes my birthday. An Aquarian born in an army base hospital in Monterey, California, the rest of my life has been in the North Country – far from warm sea breezes. Occasionally, the day would fall on SuperBowl Sunday, but more often we celebrated with a good old-fashioned winter blizzard! This year was marked with record low temperatures, but we are feeling so much better and have renewed energy to get back to tasks – Paul workng with charter schools and me busy with painting. I’m having such a good time working on paintings with dynamic skies and open water – as compared to the frozen lake out our front door!  

This week’s painting is another Liltie’s Series, 4” x 6” watercolor, Pure Bliss captures a solitary kayaker experiencing the quiet of a beautiful northern lake.  

 

The Colors of January

This year, I’m having a difficult time with January. We have had bad colds for most of the month, and that has totally impacted my enjoyment of this deep cold time of the year. In spite of this, though, there have been great happenings – right outside our door! When we moved here 8 years ago, we had very few birds visiting our feeders. However, after faithfully filling the feeders, we have been blessed with a fantastic display of birds (and squirrels) at the feeders this winter. And there is such variety – Blue Jays, Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, Pileated Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, Nuthatches, Chickadees, a lovely pair of Cardinals, and last week, the Redpolls made their annual appearance. Although it seems like it’s a feeding frenzy out there sometimes, each of the groups seems to have a distinctive pattern of coming in to feed. My Dad and Mom fed birds for many years at their home on the St. Croix River and it’s such a gift and given us so much enjoyment to be able to continue their tradition.

This week’s painting reflects where my thoughts are this month! Sunset Colors, a 4” x 6” Lilties Series watercolor painting, captures the glorious colors of a summer sunset.