Celebrate Four

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for here at our home.  We are counting our blessings, what about you?  Celebrate, for life is good!

Celebrate Three

Hello from Florida,

I know, this doesn't look like a painting of Florida does it?  You would be right!  I painted this in Northern Wisconsin on a painting trip in late October.  I was with two great outdoor painting buddies, Lynn Rix and Lori Beringer.  It was cool and breezy but the day was warmed by our friendship and love of painting.  So today I am celebrating painting the beauty of autumn with dear friends.

Copper Kettle

Yesterday, we ordered the Thanksgiving Turkey and I am certainly thinking about that up coming celebration of thankfulness.
I entered this painting, "Copper Kettle" into the current painting challenge to paint a painting about texture at www.dailypaintworks.com.
Yours in art,
Pamela

Ten Pounds

I love to paint but my other passion is gardening.  Not only do I enjoy being in the garden and eating the results, but I am always reading about new ways to increase my harvest.
While looking at an article about cabbages, I learned that the worlds largest cabbage weighed in at 138 LBS.  This heavyweight broke to 2009 record by 10 LBS.

Ornamental Gourds

Being able to paint on a farmers property is really a privilege and I try to keep my easel out of their way, as they go about their very busy day completing their many chores.  Barb had just picked these ornamental gourds from the field and placed them by the outbuilding, when I asked her if I could paint them right where they were.  I set to work; but painting the gourds was a lot easier then planting, weeding, watering and picking that Barb had done before putting the gourds in the baskets.  

On Sunday Smell the Roses

This painting is entered into the DPW Challenge on Composition.  It was fun to use two (I have a whole collection of women's needlecraft) of my tea towels and the red climbing roses, from the arbor outside the studio, in this still life set-up.  

NASTURTIUM

These nasturtium were a riot of color in my window box and it was an exciting challenge to capture their colors in paint for this still life.  Not only were these colorful flowers beautiful cascading down the window box, but as an added bonus, the flowers and leaves are edible. 

Baby Rubber Duckie Dancing

After painting this little (5" x 7") gouache painting I decided to donate it to the Oklahoma Tornado Fundraiser auction through my sales site at www.dailypaintworks.com.  100% of all of the proceeds from the sale of this painting will go to the Red Cross to help the victims of the Oklahoma Tornado.  

Diva Duckie

This weeks Daily Paint Works challenge was to paint a composition that was mostly warm or mostly cool with the remaining portion the opposite of the majority temperature.  This sounded very interesting to me and I started gathering my still life items to paint for the challenge.  As you can see I have created a mostly warm painting with a smaller portion of cool temperature pigments completing the painting.

Diamonds may be a girls best friend but it appears that rubber duckies (at least Diva Duckies) prefer pearls. 

Spring Bouquet

My good friend, Lori, sent me this lovely vase from Wisconsin.  The vase has been here for several weeks and I have been wanting to paint the dainty vase, but didn't have the right flowers to fill it.  Today I discovered wildflowers growing beside our road and knew they belonged in the peach glass vase.
Wisconsin has had a long winter so I painted a 'Spring Bouquet' for Lori and all who are still waiting for spring to arrive.  

Even the Traveling Chicken is Irish Today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  May your home always be too small to hold all your family and friends.

European Turnips

My neighbor gave me these turnips because she knew I would want to paint them.  How special is that a gardener/friend/neighbor who gives me her hard earned, labor intensive vegetables to paint that may spoil before I even get to eat them.  I finished this painting a week ago and forgot to post it (after all my work at the easel).  So I decided I would post it today, since I am 'wall' painting at our sons and I am not at the easel for many days.
Yours in art,
Pamela 

Dana's Gift

This turnip was a gift from, Dana, at the garden center, which he gave me after pulling it out of the soil.  He wanted me to 'eat' this gorgeous turnip to show me that the fertilizer and compost he sells really helps to grow delicious vegetables.  He washed it off and handed it back to me, but Dana was surprised when I told him I wanted to 'paint' the turnip.  Once I explained I was and artist and would put the turnip in a still life to paint it before eating it, he understood.  By the way it was the best tasting turnip I have ever eaten!  And I love turnips! 

Art for sale to benefit Storm Sandy Victims

You will find these four (10" x 10" original gouache paintings) at www.dailypaintworks.com.  (The paintings are from my Chinese Character Garden Series)  The proceeds from the sales will be donated to The Salvation Army to help the victims of Storm Sandy. Over 100 artists have donated paintings for this cause. 

Dessert

This week I was excited to visit my artist friend, Lori, and paint the fantastic fall colors here in northern Wisconsin.  I live three hours north of her and our trees are bare here, but in her area the leaf colors are at their peak.  Driving in the rain hid natures colors from me as I sped down the freeway, but I knew from Lori's report that the vivid yellow and orange colors were there waiting for my paint brush.  When I arrived it was still raining and our painting time outdoors didn't look promising.  So on our first day together we painted in her studio instead of venturing into the landscape.  This bowl with ripe luscious pears was sitting on the kitchen table and became my still life set up.  We had the pears for dessert.  Delicious! 

Green with Envy

This weeks Daily Paint Works Challenge is to paint an emotion.  Wow!  I have never painted an emotion before and was excited to get started.  Except what emotion would I paint?  How would I paint it once I decided on my choice?  Many choices came to mind but were quickly dismissed.  Then I looked in my kitchen for a snack to fuel my tired brain and there was my subject, my just picked garden tomatoes. (While I was out of town, Jane, my neighbor had saved them from the frost, by picking every tomato still on my plants. - Thank you, Jane.)   A few of the tomatoes were ripe, red and perfect.  Most of the tomatoes were green, blemished and pretty un-tomato looking.  These green tomatoes looked like they were envious of the red tomatoes maturity, ripeness and beauty to me.  So I set up my tomato still life and painted the emotion 'envy' thanks to these tomatoes.
PS  To all those green tomatoes out there - you can ripen up if you are put in a paper bag with a few green friends and placed on top of the refrigerator for a few days.  Or you can be turned into fried green tomatoes!

SUNFLOWER LABYRINTH

This sunflower was covered with bees when I first stepped into the garden.  Most flew off leaving only one to enjoy the pollen and nectar from the flowers on the tips of the sunflower seeds.  The lone bee seemed to be walking around the seeds from the outside to the inside in ever tighter circles.  It reminded me of walking a labyrinth.   

I love the sound of waterfalls.  Their water song cadence changes as their headwaters increase or decrease.  This summer day waterfall music was like a waltz and was very peaceful.  As summer turns into fall and a busier time for all of us, I hope you can find a waterfall to sit by and find a little peaceful tune.

EGG HUT

To be invited onto someones property to paint is such an honor.  My fellow artist friend, Pamela Ruschman, had permission for us to paint at this farm.  The chickens, cats, ducks, sheep, rabbits and children kept us entertained as we painted.  This young farm couple raises most of their families food themselves and sell eggs to the buying public.  This painting features one of their (loud - he wanted my attention so I put him in the painting) roosters, quiet ducks, and the Egg Hut.  Many times I had to pause while painting when an egg buyer drove up, put their money in the jar (the honor system at it's finest) opened the refrigerator and took out the eggs they wanted to buy.  I am glad the process was fast since their car would block my view as they 'gathered' their eggs. 

DANCING WATER

IT IS RAINING, AGAIN!  This is wonderful since we haven't had rain for a week and the temperatures have soared into the high 90s everyday.  Most summers we are blessed with mild temperatures of mid-70s and low 80's.  The air conditioners (if our homes even have them) are rarely turned on during a 'normal' northeastern Wisconsin summer.  I am so relieved to have the rain for the moisture it gives to the plants in my gardens and the more normal temperatures it will bring.  The waterfalls will be rushing and dancing once again and the trout will be swimming in larger pools of water than have been available to them for a few weeks.