Apples, peaches, pears, plums...

North Texas Blue
11 x 14
oil on canvas

    Spring is a busy time in the  gardener  and the outdoor painter. There is never enough time to do everything. But I have always remembered the words of a preacher that I saw on television. He said that we always have time for what we put first. I try to follow this and group my priorities where they should be . One of the things I always give time to in the spring is painting the bluebonnets. The smell alone is worth going out to a big field to experience. But the pleasure of being outdoors painting with friends in great weather (or even not) is the best part of it. This spring we have painted in the Corp of Engineers Parks around Benbrook Lake on weekends and after work.

Scout in front of one of the rose bushes.

     The other demand of my time, this time of year, is my yard and garden.  We had a hard winter and some of my shrubbery is still looking very grim, but the roses have been incredible. I have so many colors and different sizes and they have all put on a show. The peonies were really nice also.

Roses and peonies in the background.

    Every spring my garden tempts me to get out and paint in it but the pull of the country and the wild flowers always wins out. I do take plenty of photos for later use.


A bloom on one of my yellow roses.

    We had some VERY late freezes and frosts this year. They took there toll on the plums. But, the apples, peaches, and pears are covered with fruit as are the grapes and raspberries. The trick will be to keep the squirrels and birds away later in the spring.

Apples on one of my two apple trees.

     I don't think of apples as doing really well around here but my great grandmother had a tree that produced large crops of green apples. So with that in mind two years ago I purchased two trees and they have grown well. This year they have lots of apples on them.



Belle Of Georgia Peaches

     The peach trees, I have two, are Belle of Georgias. They are covered with peaches this year. This is a white peach and one of the varieties my grandmother grew. They are covered with peaches.

One of the pears on my tree.

 

      I have one pear tree. It was planted two years ago and has several pears on it. There are three plum trees but they have  no plums left on them.


Part of my vegetable garden - tomatoes, peppers, beans , squash, pumpkins, and raspberries

   Besides the fruit trees, I have vegetables and herbs planted in a couple of different places. It takes a lot of watering and weeding to keep it all going.

Happy Easter!

Texas Blues
8 x 10
oil on canvas
SOLD

     Today was Easter and a very beautiful day. I woke up early and went out to Dutch Branch Park to paint the bluebonnets. I didn't see any turkeys this morning but I did see lots of deer, ducks, buzzards, and song birds. The bluebonnets are Getting prettier every day and the other flowers are coming along too. I finished this painting and worked on two others. I didn't paint long but I enjoyed it.



Bluebonnets (and light bluebonnets)

      I worked in my yard and then went over to my sister's for Easter lunch with our family. We had a very good dinner, played some games and watched some sports. Then I came back home and did a bit more in my garden before the rains started.

Caught up as of today!

Mustang Spirit
bronze on granite

    March 7th was the Texas Masters Show at the Insight Gallery in Fredericksburg. As always it is a tremendous honor to be part of the show. This show features some of the very finest representational artists working in Texas. This year my newest sculpture in the show is a running mustang called Mustang Pride.
     One of the most enjoyable things about this time of the year has been the Sorolla exhibit at the Meadows museum in Dallas. This has to be my favorite show of any artist''s work I have seen. It really gives a complete view of the artist, his process, and his work. By the time the show ended this weekend I had seen it six times. Each time I went it was with  different groups of friends and each time I saw different things and in different ways. Some of the pieces were from private collections and so there was a certain feeling of sadness in thinking that I would never see some of them again.



Bison in Spring
8 x 10
oil on canvas

    I had two big events on March 29th. The first was a paintout with ten of my friends at the Fort Worth Nature Center .I painted one of the bison. These paintings will be auctioned off at a dinner and fundraiser on April 26th at the Nature Center. The show may be viewed online on their website.



Spring in Texas
8 x 10
oil on canvas

      The second event of the day was the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association's Spring Gallery Night.I had paintings and sculptures at a place called Portfolio on Camp Bowie. My friend Margaret did a sculpture demo and I did a painting Demo. I did a painting of bluebonnets and cattle. This one was started from photos and finished in plein air.



Dutch Branch Park

       The last two weeks I have discovered a new place to paint, Dutch Branch Park at Benbrook Lake only a couple of minutes from my house .It is a beautiful place with wildlife, hiking trails, horse trails, and nice views. ( I used to take my Labradors here to practice their retrieving in the lake.) Last Saturday a group of seven of us went out around sunrise and painted there. I started two paintings there and also worked on my painting from Gallery Night. I had to leave early to take some sculptures to David Dike Fine Art to replace several that had recently  sold there. Then I went back to the Meadows Museum to see Sorolla for one last time with some more friends. I ran into several other fellow artists there. I think almost every artist I know who saw it went more than once.
      Today I met my friend Linnea back at Dutch Branch Park to paint again. It was a beautiful day, not nearly as windy as last Saturday. We saw a flock of six wild turkeys and several deer. I worked on my two paintings from last Saturday, started a new one, and finished the one from Gallery Night. I would have liked to have painted longer but my nephews had baseball games today. In the evening I worked on several sculptures and watched a movie on Theo and Vincent Van Gogh.

Red Dots, Painting, and More Painting

My Historic Stock Yards paintings, 5 red dots.

I haven't posted in a while but I haven't neglected art. Saturday will be the final day of two shows at the Fort Worth Community Art Center that I participated in. The first show is one I put together for my friends and I called Worth Painting, Plein Air Paintings of Fort Worth.   This is a show of about 15 artists and around 50 paintings. I sold 6 paintings in this show including the five pictured above from the Fort Worth Stock Yards.

Me at the Preservation Show with five of my small paintings, two with red dots.

 The second show is the Preservation is the Art of the City Show which benefits Historic Fort Worth. This is always a great show. I sold two paintings in this show, One of a horned toad and a small bluebonnet painting.

My good friend Kent Brewer with 5 of his paintings.

 Several of my friends were in this show including Kent Brewer who was one of the top sellers, T.K. Riddle who won one of the awards, and other top artists including Beatriz Welch, Carol Ivey, Steve Miller and Dan Spangler. This was a really diverse show although most of our group showed landscapes.

Round Bales, Round Buildings
8 x 10 oil on canvas
$150

 Then last week was the Outdoor Painters Society's paintout in Glen Rose. About 12 of us painted there and enjoyed a great lunch at the Green Pickle, I painted near the old feed store.

Old Bales and New
8 x 10 oil on canvas
$150

 I painted two paintings of the bales of hay and two round tin buildings. Five of us painted in that area. This was a really great day for painting out, there was a real feeling of fall in the air which in Texas is always appreciated after a hot summer.

Waxahachie Morning
8 x 10, oil on panel
$100

 Something new I have started  is painting a thirty minute painting each day. I got this idea from my friend Travis who has been doing it. I have been going through my photo albums to select my subjects.

Wheeler Peak Rains
8 x 10, oil on panel
$100

 I  am painting 8 x 10s. I'm trying to paint them like they are plein airs. I'm using brushes larger than I usually do and obviously working faster.

Arizona Desert
8 x 10, oil on panel
$100

 I have thousands of vacation photos from all over the western United States. Many of them are from the National Parks and a lot of them have wildlife in them. I really feel like I am learning so much from these. I plan on doing these for quite a while. I am finding it really energizing to do one each day; knowing that I have only 30 minutes frees me to work fast and loose.

Rocky Mountain Elk
8 x 10, oil on panel
$100

Painting In Heritage Village in Dallas

The Renner School House
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175

 This morning I went to Heritage Village in Dallas to paint with my friends T.K., Kent, Olivette, and  Jeff. We got there early and had the park to ourselves as well as super temperatures, and plenty of shade.

The Renner School House

 I chose to paint the old Renner school building. This is a two story building, The younger children were taught on the lower floor and the older students were taught on the second floor. I liked the combination of the old building with the Dallas skyline in the background.

Kent painting

 Kent and Jeff both painted the same building. T.K. painted a vegetable garden . Olivette painted two very nice paintings. One was of a house with a buckboard wagon. The other was an old church.

The Millermore Plantation

 There are many really interesting buildings in the park. One of the neatest ones is the Millermore plantation home. It was built in 1855 by the Miller family and their slaves. (The chairs are set up in front of it for a wedding later in the evening.)

The Parlor at Millermore

  This house was fully furnished. It also had its barn, outhouse and other out buildings as well as a herb garden.

Log Cabin

 There were also several log cabins on the property. This one had two rooms downstairs and a loft upstairs. It had only one window.

Interior of the log cabin.

 Inside the cabin it was fairly dark with very little in the way of furniture.

One of the docents with the two donkeys Nip and Tuck

 One of the docents washed the parks two donkeys Nip and Tuck so they could pull the carriage for the wedding party in the evening. The donkeys were half  brothers, around 14 years old, and very gentle.


Dog Trot Cabin

Another neat building was the dog trot cabin. It had a lot of out buildings, a vegetable garden, and also a blacksmith's shop.

Sheep behind the dog trot cabin.
 

There were sheep behind the dog trot as well as chickens. Several of the houses had hen houses behind them with chickens. In fact the morning was filled with the crowing of roosters and the braying of the donkeys.

The old train station.

 Besides the houses and their outbuildings there is an old town with brick streets.

The old bank.

 The bank is one of the  nicest looking buildings in the park. There are several other old buildings on the main street of town including a general store. There was also a  livery stable, church , and the Worth Hotel.

The Worth Hotel

After we painted we went to  eat lunch  at the Angry Dog in Deep Ellum and then went to the Dallas Farmers' Market. I bought two cacti for  my garden there

Stir Crazy

Texas Jack
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175

   Last Thursday I had a minor surgery to reattach the muscles in my eyes to the upper eyelids. (To fix a hereditary condition.) The surgery went smoothly but I've had to spend the last several days applying ice packs to my eyes every 40 minutes or less. Therefore I've not had a lot of time or inclination to create art. Well that isn't really true, I have had the inclination, but maybe motivation or ability is what I lacked. My vision is not very clear even with my glasses, which I am not used to wearing and I can't wear my contacts yet.
   I have been blessed to have my family and friends, visit, call, text, email, send cards, and bring me delicious meals and desserts. So, I have a tremendous amount to be thankful for.

Bison Family
Work in progress
Oil based clay

   But despite all that, I've been sticking very close to home and getting rather bored with that. Today, some of my friends went to another friend's ranch to take photos of the ranch work and I had to miss out on that. However, I did a bit of painting here at home. I started a couple and am pretty happy with the jackrabbit. I also worked on the bison family sculpture I've been working on. I am done with the ice packs and hope to have plenty of time to create paintings and sculptures for the rest of the summer as I get back to feeling like myself.

Paint Historic Waxahachie 2013

Memorial Day
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$100

    This week was one of my favorite events of the year and one of the last big events before the heat of summer sets in. Last Saturday, May 25th, I painted in Waxahachie with several of my friends including Kent Brewer, David Tripp, Chris Toplyn, and Nancy Bozeman. We all started out near the square. It was fairly cloudy. I painted the statue of the Confederate soldier on the courthouse square.

Ellis County Courthouse, Waxahachie, Texas

    The court house is amazing to look at but I've never attempted more than a bit or piece of it in any one painting. Kent painted a super painting of a street scene. When I saw It, I told him it would be the winner of the show, and it was by the way. We had lunch at Leons barbeque, a block from the square. It was very good and a huge sandwich.


Indian Blankets and Bales
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$150

    Then we went to go paint near the bike trail behind the cemetery. There was a large field of Indian blanket flowers with round bales of hay in it. We started painting and it was going very well. As we painted the clouds rolled in.

Indian Blankets and Round Bales
11 x 14
oil on canvas
$250

 

    The thunder started and then the rain. I moved under the trees and Kent put up his umbrella. It wasn't long before my trees were leaking water as much as if I was standing in the rain and my paint box was filling with water. So I moved to my car to wait out the rain.

 

Kent painting in the rain.

 

    The rain stopped so I got out to paint more. My canvas was soaked so I began a second painting. I got a second start and things were going well when the rain began again. I put up my umbrella and continued to paint until the thunder got too close. I went back to my car and Kent kept painting. When the rain stopped I painted a bit more and then called it a day and went home.

After the Rain
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$150

   On Sunday I went back down and painted on the square again where I ran into Kent and George De Chiaro.  I worked on my Confederate painting and then met Kent and George at the County Catfish restaurant in the old Rogers Hotel. Then George and I went to paint where Kent and I had painted. I finished the two I had started and did a third.

Oma's Jiffy Burger
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$95

    On Monday I painted at Oma's Jiffy Burger. I also finished the other painting from the field with hay bales. As I finished the painting the hay was being hauled off. After painting  I went and had dinner  with my friend Kent and his wife and son at a new Mexican food restaurant.

After the quick draw.

   On Thursday I came down and painted some paintings of the roosters at the feed store. It was a fairly hot day.  This was the day of the quick draw. In the evening the artists assembled at the College Street Pub. We had an hour and a half  to create a painting.

My Favorite Boots
8 X 10
oil on canvas
SOLD

    I was not inspired by the views so I pulled off my boots and placed them next to a building and painted in my socks. This was actually a fun painting to paint and one I will do again some time. After the time was up we set our easels up on the street with our paintings on them for a silent auction.

Rose Comb Rooster
8 x 10
oil on canvas
SOLD

    I was very pleased because my friend Olivette Hubler purchased mine. Other than artists buying paintings from other artists the sales were few indeed. At 8:00 after the sale was over we were hot, thirsty and hungry. Most of us went to the Pub for dinner and drinks. A band was playing inside so we had to sit outside on the patio under the ceiling fans. It wasn't too hot there. I had several iced teas and the fish and chips, which are a favorite of mine. I made it home  a bit after 10:00


Country Alarm Clock
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$95

   Friday, at the  I went down to the dinner and awards ceremony at the Chatauqua  Auditorium at Getzendaner Park. My friends did very well and I was so pleased for them. Kent, as I predicted won best of show, Ted Clemens won 1st, George De Chiaro won 2nd prize, Sheri Jones won 3rd. Olivette, Nancy, Debob, and David were some of the artists who won honorable mentions. There was a delicious barbeque dinner and a slide show of photos from previous years. It was a very nice evening.




Spring Chicken
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$95

   On Saturday morning I drove down early and stopped off at the Farmers Market. I bought a bag of plums and several baked goods from a group of  Mennonites who always have the best items, I left with a loaf of jalapeno cheese bread, a small loaf of pumpkin bread, peanut butter cookies, and pumpkin bread whoopee pies. I went back to the feed store and finished this rooster painting and painted two roses at the train depot across from the feed store. It was a nice morning I framed these and dropped them off . This made 11 paintings so far. I had lunch from Oma's .

Some of my paintings at the Chataqua.

   I hung around at the Chataqua. I sold one of my rooster paintings. In the evening I went to dinner with Kent and his family at the Catfish Plantation, the most haunted restaurant in America, according to cable tv. Several deaths occurred there in the past and according to the guest book several soap dishes falling off the bathroom sinks in the present time confirm the hauntings. Anyway the food was very good and the servers are terribly enthusiastic.
After dinner we returned to the Chataqua where they were showing Places in the Heart. This movie starring Sally Field and Danny Glover was filmed in Waxahachie and based on a true story there. The movie is full of scenes from town and local people. I really enjoyed it. The Chataqua is a neat place to see a movie, no air conditioning, but the doors raised up and ceiling fans and the Lions Club selling concessions.

The house where I painted on West Marvin

    Sunday morning I headed back down to Waxahachie. The Ginger Bread Tour was going on and I met Kent at one of the homes to paint in the garden, It was an amazing home. The man of the house had several antique Packard automobiles and the lady had beautiful gardens. The house was very interesting and full of art and antiques.

The tool shed in the garden.

    The gardens were very well taken care of . I decided to paint a sculpture of a chef pig in one of the herb gardens. It was a fun painting to do. This garden had many interesting things in it and many artists painted there including Sheri and Debob.

Me painting in the garden on West Marvin Street.

    After I finished my painting. I dropped it on the way back to my car and had to fix a few things after that. I went to the Chataqua and dropped it off. I hung around there for a while and then went and helped out at the Ellis County Art Associations booth in the park where children were invited to paint in Plein Air. This was a very  popular booth in the fair grounds.

 

The Garden Pig
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$95

 

   After 3:00 my friends all started showing up to pick up their paintings. It was great seeing everyone one last time at this event. It has been a super week, I painted 12 paintings.  I'm exhausted and it feels a bit like Christmas is over, but there will be  new events and activities to come.