Art in April

Some of my art at Chandor Gardens

    Spring is here and a very busy time it is for me. Last weekend I participated in the Spring Fling at Chandor Gardens. it is a smallish event but growing and in a beautiful setting. I painted a few paintings while I was there and had a very enjoyable two days.


Little Range Rover
8 x 10
oil on canvas
SOLD

 

 Several of my artist friends participated including Sheri Jones, Jill Randal, Dan Spangler and Olivette Hubler. My friend Tosca bought the armadillo painting above that I recently finished. The garden is always beautiful but it was filled with song on Sunday.( The song of mating toads.) The fountains were full of courting toads.


One of the fountains full of toads in Chandor Gardens.

 I placed an add in the April edition of Western Art Collector and it really paid off this time. I sold one sculpture last week and three this week so my thanks go out to the good people at Western Art collector.


Glen Rose Goats

 Today, Saturday,  a group of us went down to Glen Rose to paint bluebonnets. It was a beautiful morning. We were going to meet at the back entrance of Fossil Rim, the wildlife park. I got down early to look for a place to paint. The area around Glen Rose is a very hilly region and famous for its dinosaur tracks, hence the name Fossil Rim.


A friendly donkey near Glen Rose

The area abounds in wildlife as well as farm animals of all kinds. I saw lots goats, sheep, horses, donkeys, longhorns and other cattle. Everything is green and lush and there were many fields of livestock that would have made beautiful paintings.


Texas Bluebonnets - in the lupine family.

The one thing that was somewhat lacking were the bluebonnets. However a short distance from the back gate I did find a nice patch of bluebonnets. They were not as thick as usual but beggars can't be choosers.


View from the Overlook.

I went back to Fossil Rim and the overlook to wait for our group. In the photo above from the balcony of the Overlook restaurant you can just make  out part of a herd of giraffes. Fossil Rim is most famous for its conservation of endangered animals especially rhinos, but I didn't see any where I was.


Olivette, Maryann and Sheri painting bluebonnets.

 Our group today consisted of Sheri Jones, Olivette Hubler,Maryann Brummer and Candy Clynch. We parked along the Side of the road and painted the bluebonnets I found. It was a beautiful spot and a beautiful day. We all enjoyed it very much. I painted bluebonnets and cedar trees with a trail going through them. I had to meet my family for a movie so I had to leave before I was really finished. I'm posting it now but I'll do a bit more on it still..


Texas Spring
9 x 12
oil on canvas

Looking ahead,  I'll be painting at Prairie Fest at Tandy Hills in East Fort Worth on April 27th. On Saturday May 11th I'll be doing a sculpture demo at Dutch Art in Dallas where Sheri Jones will be doing a painting demo. The next week I'll be painting at one of the homes in my neighborhood, Ridglea Hills, during the Historic Society's Hidden Gardens Tour. The gardens will be large, one to three acres in size. Finally at the end of the month I'll be painting in paintout in Waxahachie.

Plein Air Weekend

Blue Adobe
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$200

 I had a very fun weekend of painting outdoors last weekend. First on Saturday I went down to Glen Rose to participate in the Paint the Glen paint out. Glen Rose is one of my favorite small towns in Texas. Several of my friends and fellow painters participatedincluding Sheri Jones, Olivette Hubler, Dan Spangler, and Joyce Thomas. the judge was my good friend Debob Jacob. Olivette won first place.

Me painting in Glen Rose

There are lots of  great places to paint including the river, the town square, the old mill,  and the historic old buildings and houses. I t looks like I am in an alley but I am actually painting a small garden on the edge of the town square. It was a nice place to paint, and I had shade most of the time .

Sunlit Fountain
8x10
oil on canvas
sold

 On Sunday I painted in one of the gardens in Historic Fort Worth's Hidden Garden's tour. Four of my friends painted in the other four gardens including Beatriz Welch, Kent Brewer, Carol Ivey, and T.K. Riddel. I was in a very beautiful garden of a large home built in 1918 in Ryan Place. It was a very peaceful and shady  garden, but it was hard to find a good focal point because I couldn't paint anywhere where I would be blocking foot traffic. It was good practice painting all the greens.

Green Corner
8x10
oil on canvas
sold

Outdoor Painters Society Paintout in Glen Rose



Fall in Glen Rose
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$150

       This weekend the Outdoor Painters Society held a paint out in Glen Rose on Friday and Saturday. I had to work on Friday but I drove down to Dina Gregory's for the barbecue dinner after work. Dina lives just out of Glen Rose in a little place called Eulogy. On the way down we had a pouring rain. It was almost hard to drive in all the rain. Dina has a beautiful log cabin type home in the country . She has huge porches on her house with great views, so many of us chose to eat outdoors and enjoy the rain and cooler temperatures. There were many people there that I didn't know but several that I did including, Sheri Jones, Sabine Higgins, Randy Saffle, David Schultz, Joyce Thomas, Debob Jacob, Tina Bohlman and others. I left quickly after we ate since I didn't want to try to find my way home in the dark in pouring rain.

Me, painting along the Paluxy River.

I drove back on Saturday morning with Cecilia Robertson to paint. We set up along the Paluxy River by the old stone mill, which is the oldest building  north of Waco in Texas. There was a bit of color along the river, as well as some water in it thanks to the rains. Several other artists painted here including Sheri, Sabine, Debob, Olivette Hubler, Carolyn  Cobb, and Christy Kidwell. I saw some great art being painted today.

Me painting along the Paluxy River.

Around lunch time many of the artists went to lunch at the Green Pickle. Cecilia, Debob, and I ate with David Schultz, Linda Schindler, and a lady I didn't know. There were several other tables of artists in the restaurant. I think we all got burgers, they were great. For dessert we all shared the last piece of coconut pie in the restaurant. It was really good, the waitress's "granny" had made it that morning. After lunch, Cecelia and I drove back to Fort Worth. Some of the others continued painting and others went home too. It was a really nice day.

Sabine Higgins packing up as Olivette Hubler paints.

Water Garden

Water Garden
5 x 7
oil on canvas panel
$75

    This is a small painting that I started last weekend at the Dallas Arboretum. It was actually the first water lily painting that I did. It isn't as painterly (loose) as I'm going to try to be doing but I went ahead and finished it in the style I began it.
    We didn't reach 100 today so I enjoyed working on it on my patio. We actually are expecting some days to only be in the 80s next week. That will be great. We have water restrictions now. It has been a real struggle to keep things green. Hopefully we will get some rain in the near future. Right now about the only color in my gardens is from my crape myrtles and roses. My favorite rose is an old rose I got from my grandmothers garden when she passed a few years ago. It seems like as long as they have some water they don't mind the heat. Based on singing, my birds, domestic and wild, seemed to be enjoying the break in the heat today as much as I was.

                This is the new dove I bought to keep my old dove company. At first they didn't care for each other
                         much but as I was out painting today I noticed that It seems now like they are getting along much           
        better. I really enjoy hearing their cooing in the morning . It is a cool and relaxing sound to me.

This is one of two antique roses that I brought from my grandmother's garden. It has small pale pink blooms. She often kept them in a vase on her kitchen table.   The other rose I got from her garden has small red blooms, however it isn't in bloom  right now,    One of the things I love about these old roses is that they are so hardy and disease resistant.

Somervell County Courthouse

Somervell County Courthouse
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$100

This Saturday I participated in a paintout in Glen Rose. It was a very foggy morning on the drive down but it turned out to be a great day for painting. Many  of my friends participated including Sheri Jones, Maryann Brummer, Sabine Higgins, Janice Weaver, Debob Jacob, Steve Miller, Chase Almond, Vickie Guthrie, and many others. We painted in an area around the square and along the river. Debob won first place, Chase won second, and Steve won third. Sheri sold two paintings. Glen Rose has so many painting opportunities and I really look forward to returning to paint there in the future.