Spring Break 2013

This is the painting that I did out at the Fort Worth Nature Center, in progress.
 

This week was spring break. We were blessed with beautiful weather, and I had many opportunities to work on sculpture and plein air painting, as well as some yard and gardening work. Eight of us went to the Fort Worth Nature Center to paint on Wednesday. We had a beautiful day of it.

This is the view I chose to paint.
 

    I chose to paint part of a trail as it wound up a hill. I'm not finished, and I used a lot of artistic licence and editing, but I am enjoying it. I thought the composition was interesting. Some people did two paintings, one before lunch and one after. But, I came back after we took a break for lunch and continued working on the same painting. 

Some of the marsh grasses and ducks near the causeway to the island.

  There are still many ducks, pelicans, and other waterfowl residing in the wetlands at the nature center. Most of our group chose to paint  the water and grasses or shoreline.

Some of our group already left, but here I am with Janice, Trish, TK, and Olivette ready to have lunch.

    On Thursday some of our friends went to Weatherford to paint at Chandor Garden. We had a glorious day of it. The garden was looking very nice as a lot of work and painting has gone on during the winter. We ordered lunch (chicken salad sandwiches, iced tea, chips, and brownies) delivered from Yesterday's Sandwich Shop.



The scene I started painting.

   I chose to paint the stream, bridge, and fountain. It is a beautiful location to look at as well as to listen to the bubbling of the water.


The flower bed across the back of my yard.

   Spring is in full swing. Every morning I go out and see new plants in bloom and hear more birds singing. I love the colors of fall best, but the promise of spring is my favorite time of year.  I spent a great deal of time working in my gardens. I also worked in the vegetable garden planting asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, and raspberry plants. I already have peas and potatoes planted. 

Some of my daffodils in bloom.

Plein Air North Texas

 Today I helped install an art show at DFW Airport featuring almost 80 paintings by  20 artists from all across North Texas, including Fort Worth, Dallas, Granbury, Keller, Aledo, Mansfield,  Weatherford, Waxahachie, and Colleyville. These artists are Darnell Jones, Beatriz Welch, Cecilia Robertson, Blair Currin, Tina Bohlman, Olivette Hubler, Cecy Turner, Sheri Jones, Margie Whittington, Sabine Higgins, Jan Bateman, Claudia Davis, Leslie Talty, Maryann Brummer, Sara Ward, Carol Ivey, Linda Reedy, Linda Popple, Ann Hardy, and myself. The majority of us are members of the Outdoor Painters Society. I have known all of these artists for many years and have had the pleasure of painting with them across North Texas at informal paint outs at areas like the Fort Worth Stock Yards, Dallas Arboretum, Lake Granbury, the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, and back roads across the entire area and plein air events like Prairie Fest, Paint Historic Waxahachie, and the Outdoor Painters Society's paint outs. All work is for sale and may be purchased by contacting the artist.

I want to give special thanks to my friend Guy Bruggeman who spent his day off hanging the show. He is the curator of DFW's art collection. The show will hang until March 2nd. It is located in the car rental facility at the south entrance to the airport on the second floor. I will be going back several times to look at the work when I have time to really study it. It is a pleasure seeing every one's work hanging together and seeing how different artists interpret the same region.

Paintings by Sara Ward and Beatriz Welch

One of my paintings and two of Olivette Hubler's paintings.

Paintings by Sara Ward and Cecy Turner

Paintings by Sabine Higgins and Maryann Brummer

Paintings by Linda Reedy and Sheri Jones.

Painting by Darnell Jones

Paintings by me and Claudia Davis.

Painting by Ann Hardy.

One of my paintings.

One of my paintings.

Paintings by Claudia Davis and Jan Bateman.

Merry Christmas

Me and Scout (my chocolate lab) on my front porch

 I want to wish all of my art blog friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As this year comes to a close I can not help but think how blessed I am and wish that all my friends can feel as blessed. We are having some cool weather and I really appreciate it this time of year, of course after December 26th I am ready for spring weather again, and of course a lot of the time we get it here in Fort Worth,

My house lit up for the Holidays

 But despite the cool weather we have been having I have managed to go out and paint a bit and although it is getting quite late in the season there is still a lot of fall color out there waiting to be painted. The painting below is actually one I began around Thanksgiving as I was getting over Pneumonia. I'd seen this tree in the botanical gardens and it was so beautiful. I knew it wouldn't wait for me. So the first time I felt at all up to it I headed out and got an hour's painting in and a photo  so I could finish it later, which I did  last week.



Autumn Gold
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175



Five for the Small Works Show at the FWCAC

Garden House
8 x 10
oil on panel

Last Tuesday I wasn't feeling very well. I found out I have walking pneumonia. I'm slowly (very slowly)  starting to feel better. One of the worse things though is that I haven't felt like creating any art at all. I don't have a lot of good things to say about daytime television either!

Camping at Lake Granbury
8 x 10
oil on panel

 However, even though I have been missing out on this great fall weather and color, I haven't been totally idle. I did get these five 8 x 10s in the Small Works Show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. This is a fun show featuring all kinds of art, 9 x 12 or smaller and unframed. It is a great place to add to your art collection or buy Christmas presents.

Bad Hair Day
8 x 10
oil on panel

The stipulation of this show is that the work not be framed and must fit in a 9 x 12 mailing envelope.So the paintings I selected had to be on flat panels. Many of my friends put paintings in this show as well. Over the years I've purchased several paintings there myself. I'm looking forward to seeing the show once it is hung and maybe adding to my art collection.

The Road Home
8 x 10
oil on panel

Two For My Tea
8 x 10
oil on panel

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.

The Green Garden

The Green garden
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175

I haven't posted a finished painting in a while and I have completed several. This is the newest one. I finished painting it last week when I went back to the botanical gardens with Cecilia Robertson. It turned into a hot day but the morning was grand. I loved this scene because of all the cool shady greens, the willow and the park bench. After painting I finished up two sculptures the, crucifix and the longhorn steer and took them to the foundry. I was glad to get them out of my sculpture studio and am very much looking forward to seeing them in bronze.

Stop and Smell the Roses



Stop and Smell the Roses
8 x 10
oil on panel
$150

    I began this painting several weeks ago when I was painting in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens with a group of friends and fellow artists including Cecelia Robrtson, Cece Turner, Olivet Hubler, and Linda Reedy.
We got to the gardens early and enjoyed wonderful weather as we painted. The roses were especially thick and beautiful that week. We broke for lunch and ate at the Gardens Restaurant.The food was good but I have to say the service was slow. However, there was lots of interesting conversation related to art. After we painted some of my friends came back to my house for dessert.
   I'll still work  on this painting a bit more, but I was interested in capturing the big shapes and colors and minimizing or omiting the details.

Early Morning in the Garden

Early Morning in the Garden
8 x 10
oil on linen panel
$175

Yesterday, I had a great morning painting. I went to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens at 7:00 to find a place to paint. There were blooms everywhere, it was as pretty as it was earlier in the spring. Finally I selected this location, I  liked the composition and I liked the shade that lasted all morning. I was joined by my friends Olivette Hubler, Leslie Talty, Audette Asher, and Sheri Jones. It was a perfect morning for painting and everyone produced a painting except Olivette, who produced two. At lunch time we went to the Kimbell Art Museum for lunch. Then we went to the Amon Carter museum to see the Hudson River School Exhibit and then to the Fort Worth Community Art Center to see Exhibits by our friends Ann Hardy, Claudia Davis, Jan Bateman and Shirley Kinworthy.

Fountain With Reds and Greens



Fountain With Reds and Greens
8 x 10
oil on canvas
SOLD



          Today I painted down in Waxahachie at the Paint Historic Waxahachie Paintout with my friend Debob Jacob. I added a few highlights to this painting that I had begun on Monday and turned it in. Then we went and painted a neat old Texaco building. She finished hers but

I didn't.   However , I was  really happy with the start I made on mine. It was a great day.