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.

Plein air, and art shows - fall 2013

Autumn Path
8 x 10
oil on canvas

 This has been a beautiful fall here in north Texas. Last weekend a group of us went to paint at the Acton Nature Center near Granbury. We painted in the morning and early afternoon. Then we went to lunch down the road at Maryann's ranch beside the pond.


Morning Light
8 x 10
oil on canvas

 On November 9th, I was invited to participate in the Art on the Paluxy Show. It was neat. Almost all of the invited artists were friends of mine including, Sheri Jones, Nancy Bozeman, Tina Bohlman, and Geni Bosco.

 On November 2nd, I participated in the Artists of Texas Show at the Dutch Art Gallery. This was a nice show. I did a sculpture demo and worked on my deer sculpture. .

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

A Golden Fall

First to Turn
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$75

We have had a very beautiful fall so far, perhaps not as great as we had hoped but much nicer than last year. The yellow golds are brilliant. I have been very busy with shows and events but have been able to get out and paint some too while the color lasts. Today was a super day. We had a large group turn out. Olivette Hubler, Jeff Ott, Linnea McKinney, Dan Spangler, George De Chiaro, Ann Hardy, Debob Jacob, Cecilia Robertson, Claudia Davis, Maryann Brummer, Sara Ward, Janice Weaver, T.K. Riddle and I made up today's group. We met at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. It started out pretty chilly but did warm up. Some artists painted the roses which are really nice, but most chose to paint the foliage.

The Pecan Pickers
11 x 14
oil on canvas
$200

 We went to lunch at the Kimble Art Museum. It is always a great place to eat. Then we went to see the new show at the Amon Carter Museum. We had a docent led tour of this exhibit which is from the Phillips collection. Wow, it was really great! Paintings by Whistler, Homer, Eakins, and many other great American artists but I have to say one of my favorites was a painting by Grandma Moses. It was the first painting I ever saw of hers in person. It was a very pleasant  painting, a snow scene.

November Path
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$75

   That was today. Earlier in the week I painted out as well and last weekend too. Some other things I have done recently were participating in Campfire's an Artists' Christmas where my donation was one of the three top selling pieces of art in the silent auction. I also participated in the creation of a video for the Sid Richardson Museum in which I am working on a sculpture and talking about a painting with one of my former students. It should be on their website later this month. I had a small piece in the small works section of the November Issue of the Western Art Collector magazine. I've got several shows coming up in December but more about those later.