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Sunflowers 12"x9" Acrylic Sunflowers, they never fair to provide a pick me up and make you smile.  I have a couple of sunflower-like flowers growing under the feeder and they are just the cutest little guys.  Right now the gold finches are hoping there will be some seed for them to pick.  This little picture was a study i finding textures. Hope this give you a bit of a smile today.  Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look.

All Out Acrylic 24"x18" Think this is completed, All Out is a combination of two photos from Ian Quigley, a photographer from PMP.  I needed to go back and put these guys in more traditional Mongolian outer wear, since I didn't think hoodies would tell the story quite as well.  I am always amazed at how all parts of the world have access to and wear Western clothing. The challenge here was to get a softer blended background that looked like dust was roiling around.  I also wanted to see if I could get suggestions of dust over solid bodies and make it transparent enough to see the solid form behind.   I got that effect by first spraying the paper, adding my dobs of paint mixtures, respraying with water and then using a soft cosmetic brush to light swirl the paint around and move it as well as soften the edges.  I think if I had actually been using canvas instead of paper that it would have moved even better. The quality of the photos was quite dark, so there

In The Garden II Acrylic Well, wanted to see if I could do a sequel to the first impressionistic painting I did.  This is another lady in vintage clothing.  I really worked harder on this one, actually painted over her several times.  Had a sky that I changed up to make a rock wall.  I felt it was way too dark so had sever goes at getting it lighter.  Also really had to fight the urge to tighten up.  But I think I got there in the end and hoping that after I do a few more of these I will more naturally get looser.   Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.

The Flower Garden Acrylic 8"x10" It is always interesting to me how I get sidetracked so frequently,  but I guess that is the fun of it.  The discipline has gone far, far away and now I am ruled by "what I want tos" instead.  The is a fun piece I tried in a more impressionistic way.  Loosely based off an original painting done in 1912 by Frederic Frieseke.  However the girl, hat and the dress are my additions.  I really love the drape of the fabric in this piece and how it adds a sense of movement.   Thanks much for stopping by.

Stream Bed Watercolor Well, not sure but I think that this watercolor attempt is complete and about as good as I am capable of doing it.  I guess one of the appeals of the watercolor is that it tends to be very light.  This has had quite a few layers on it and still is light.   However, it is difficult for me to determine just what color water is, if you don't want it muddy, but clear like you would find in an undisturbed mountain stream.   No, those aren't fish swimming around in there, but leaves floating on the surface with the shadow below.  Not exactly sure I got that technique down or just how dark the shadows really should be.  Was quite difficult to find a reference that showed rocks in something other than a dry bed and nothing with something floating on the surface, actually looking down into the water.  I do know that the farther away the shadow is from the leaf makes the water look deeper. Not sure I will keep trying the watercolor as I don't think it

Well a couple more days worth of work on this guy.  I decided to respell mesmerized, hope I don't get any "F's on my spelling test.   Anyway, I pretty much have most of the block in done.  I still have more graphite an color to put on the right-hand size, but the way the light is that side is much lighter.  I spent quite a bit of time on the butterfly and the eye trying to get that put in.  Since working with the toilet paper and thin layers of graphite is pretty tedious, I think after I lower the shelves in the kitchen cabinets I will switch and work one of the other projects. Let me tell you about the kitchen cabinets, you would think it would be quick and simple, but alas, that is not the case.   Got to drag out the ladder, which means you are up in the air and not on solid ground.   Then you have to be coordinated enough to lift, tilt, angle and lower the shelf, then once you pried out those stubborn pegs - without breaking them of course - you got to do the lift,