When life gives you lemons, draw them, 11 x 14 inches dry pastels, graphite on paper

"When life gives you lemons, draw them." (Nikki)

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language." (Paul Gauguin)

Archive for November, 2007

Cool Cricket

Thursday, November 29th, 2007


 
Cool Cricket, Lewisville, Texas

One of the things I love about living in Texas is that we still hear crickets in the evening during November. This one is a survivor with one leg half there and part of one antennae missing. Those big eyes followed every movement.

Art everywhere

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007


 
Impatience - Croton plant roots; whimsical garden sculpture, Bearded Iris
While tidying up the garden and shaking out the soil from dead plants I was marveling at the root systems and couldn’t bring myself to throw this one away, it’s so interesting. This one is from a dead Croton plant, stuck into the ground upside down makes a unique garden sculpture.
Below: Croton, 1992 36 x 24 inches acrylics on canvas (private collection, Scotland).

Croton, 1992 36H x 24W inches acrylics on canvas

Anoles in the sun

Monday, November 19th, 2007


 

Anole under the rug, and eating fire ants

 

Anole, Lewisville, TX Anole, Lewisville, TX

Today there were three anoles playing in a warm sunny area by the back door, changing shades of brown and green. There was a lot of rain earlier in the year, so that must be why there seems to be more this year than in the five years we’ve lived here.

September rain

Friday, November 16th, 2007


 
Rain, September 2007, Lewisville, TX

Caterpillar Art

Thursday, November 15th, 2007


 

Caterpillar Art - avacado plant

It’s still warm and sunny in Texas, and caterpillars are making art in the garden!

Seasonal treasures

Sunday, November 11th, 2007


 

Filigree #1

Filigree #2

While photographing the filigree on many of the decaying oak leaves in a park forest, leaning backwards with my head in the branches, a little green snake struck out at me, the delicate body about 8″ long and no wider than a baby finger. I wrote to the Biology Dept. at Texas University, and they identified it as a Rough Green Snake – Opheodrys aestivus – it’s non-venomous.

Rough green snake - Opheodrys aestivus - nonvenomous, Coppell, Texas

Walking back home completely happy to have chosen that path, expecting no more treasure for the day, a leaf twirled in the breeze, hanging from a spider web strand.

Magical twirling leaf

Gold In The Mountains 01

Sunday, November 4th, 2007


 

Gold In The Mountains 01, 20H x 16W inches acrylics on canvas, antique frame 28H x 24W inches total

Gold In The Mountains 01, finished – 20H x 16W inches acrylics on canvas. Has 28H x 24W inches dark-stained antique frame with gold trim

Started late in 2005, Gold In The Mountains 01 has evolved through many changes to achieve the finished painting above. The first thumbnail shows the painting at a stage where I thought it finished so entered it into Artjury.com’s 2006 Spring/Summer online exhibition. It was accepted, and at the time I liked the larger areas of flat orange-gold, but about six months later I thought the work needed more depth, and the dark branch across the upper portion stood out, so I began a long process of scrubbing off, building back up, scraping and layering paint, repainting, etc. The piece reached a few different stages where it could have been called finished, but I was not entirely pleased, so kept searching. Here are a few stages in the transformation of Gold In The Mountains 01:

  Gold In The Mountains 01, Phase 1 - as it was when accepted in the American Juried Art Salon’s Spring/Summer online exhibition, 20 x 16 inches Acrylics on stretched canvas.   Gold In The Mountains 01, Phase 2 - During May 2006 I started the risky process of reworking the entire painting.   Gold In The Mountains 01, Phase 3 - portions were scrubbed off then rebuilt; explored a lot of different styles.
  Gold In The Mountains #1, Phase 3 - portions were repainted, scrubbed off and rebuilt.   Risking the ruin of a piece is always worth the effort; when I’m not happy with work, it is already inadequate, the best thing is to try and try again until it IS adequate enough to be called finished.   Gold In The Mountains 01, finished - 20 x 16 inches acrylics on canvas, in progress


Gold In The Mountains 01 with antique frame

Polypore Fungi finished

Thursday, November 1st, 2007


 

Polypore Fungi, 58H x 41W x 2D inches acryilcs, modeling paste on canvas, wrapped sides painted, narrow frame

Polypore Fungi  finished – 58H x 41W x 1.5D inches, acrylics, modeling paste, plaster on canvas, wrapped sides painted, narrow frame

One of the goals for this painting was to see if a composition could remain balanced with the main subject offset to the right. With Petra’s suggestion there is more contrast, also scrubbed some paint away for more background to show through.
Mushrooms, bacteria, molds, lichen and other non-flowering plants are lesser appreciated life forms that help maintain the healthy life cycles of forests by aiding the decay and conversion of plant and animal matter into nutrient-rich soil.

Polypore Fungi, detail #1 - fungi are carved modeling paste, plaster

Polypore Fungi, detail #2 - fungi are carved modeling paste, plaster