JUMPING THRU HOOPS

                                                        

    JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS

            Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

                    Just having fun today. This  painting is absolutely about nothing, I love the colors 

                        and I just played layering color over color. I have so many ideas running through my

                         mind but I just decided to forget all that and play with something totally different. 

                          I wish I understood this computer as much as I do painting.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

paintings on display at bedford library

These are the paintings currently on display at the Bedford Library This photo is courtesy of my daughter Cynthia.

TRAVELING ART SHOW

I have been preparing 3 paintings to place in the Bedford Library, Bedford Texas. They are now on view with several other artists works.,  all members of the Trinity  Art Guild. The library in Bedford is a beautiful new facility. The building in itself is treat to visit.

                                                    ALLELUIA ! ! ! ALLELUIA ! ! !

Whenever I am feeling happy about something I go to this little bird and post him  as to me he is happy and  praising God. I have completed the illustrations for book 3 of Deneen Kirsch Gambrell's book "King Rob and the Musical Mousetronauts" It has been a fun filled journey for me using my imagination as the musical mice enter a space ship and fly to the moon. Next step is to get the illustrations to Deneen and she will deliver them to the publisher. The book should be available  sometime in October.

ANTHURIUMS

 On My Easel

Well another busy day with appointments and getting ready for them. Painted a little on my illustrations but not enough. Tomorrow is another day, perhaps a slow one. I drew these anthuriums years ago when we had a lot of them left over from my daughter's wedding. This is the flower she chose for the bouquets and Church altar flowers. The pottery with the painted fish we found in an Oklahoma flea market. For some reason I thought the flowers and pottery look pretty good together.After so many years I finally got around to putting the flowers and pottery together and painting them.And for a little quirkiness I added a picture which I cut out of a magazine. of a guy playing a saxophone. . Why? I don't know! It was just a last minute idea as I was looking through a  magazine..

                                               Long Horns in Stockyard

I have been posting photos of paintings I have done in the past. Hopefully you enjoy seeing them as I do not have current paintings due to my work on illustrating children's books. This is a painting of long horn cattle in the historic Ft. Worth Stockyards. I was working in a studio gallery located in Rodeo Plaza in the heart of the stockyards. Every day to the delight of the tourists there was a long horn cattle drive down Exchange St. I didn't like to be out there when the cattle walked by. I guess being a city girl I was a little frightened of them. The men  in charge of the drive seemed to have the animals under control and I managed to stay out  there after I got use to this everyday occurrence .. It must seem strange that someone like me who had been in mobs of people at Mardi Gras parades should be afraid of being in the presence of these animals that appeared so  docile.

                                                     Girl in Garden


This is a painting I did as part of a series of women in gardens, I was inspired by the verses in The Song of Solomon in the Old Testament of the Bible. "for behold the winter is past; the rain is over and gone : the flowers appear on the earth the time of singing has come and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. Chapter 2, verse 11, 12 .I think these are beautiful verses and in the Spring when I see all the new flowers bursting forth from the earth these verses come to my mind.

                                                   Wild Sunflowers

         This is the time of year when these wild sunflowers are blooming in large fields along the highways. They suffer through the heat and drought but always come back looking as beautiful as God planted them to be. I love to paint them as they appear swaying in the breeze, some buds, some of the blooms deteriorating but always celebrating their life glorifying God in their humble existence.But recently I noticed  that a field of sunflowers I always looked forward to seeing  has been replaced by a multitude of houses.  The highway has been replanted with a formal landscape of cedar trees and plantings from a nursery. It is beautiful and very clean looking but I am still looking around  in other locations for my wild sunflowers.

As I am trying to conclude the work on my third book for Deneen I haven't had much new  art work to post. This insert is a picture of the cover on the 2nd book, titled "The Musical Mice and their Great Adventure". I thought I would use this week end to finish up on the third book but I was tempted to leave the studio on Saturday  and have lunch at the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth. It was a much needed escape for me and I certainly enjoyed the time away. The Kimbell is preparing for a big show from the Art Institute of Chicago. It is a great show to look forward to as there will be nearly 100 works of art from Picasso, Matisse and other art masters. Well tomorrow is another day and I hope to work the whole day, perhaps concluding the third book. No promises!

Zinnias

Zinnias grow well in Texas in spite of the dry hot weather we are having. This is a simple little painting 8" x 10" in oil on stretched canvas. The blooms are very simple yet colorful and sturdy.

Ball and Jacks

As a child I would play jacks with my friends. Thinking about these fun  times I  recently  came up with the idea of doing a series of paintings with the  theme of ball and jacks. I listed several ideas in my sketchbook and came up with Jack of Hearts, Jack of all trades. Jack in the Box, etc. Below are images of  2 of the paintings, done in an abstract way.

Ft. Worth Nature Center

It is always fun to go to the nature center, an outdoor wild life area. I particularly like to observe the buffalo or bison roaming around a large area looking  for food. There are areas where they are fed. The area is so large sometimes you do not see an animal.The buffalo is such a majestic looking animal.  There is also a pond in that area where I have seen deer drinking water. There are trails to hike on, a boardwalk to walk on near water, birds and wild flowers. I have sketched  the buffalo and painted water lilies. One of my paintings of the buffalo is shown below.

I was noticing shoes my daughter wore on different occasions and thought they would make a great series. I called them "Shoes I kidnapped from Cynthia's closet". It was fun painting her shoes and putting  imitation gem stones, ribbons and anything I thought would make a good composition. I ended up with 7 paintings of shoes.

for behold the winter is past; the rain is over and gone;  the flowers appear on the earth , and the time for singing has come.  - The Song of Solomon - 2:11-12

I always loved these verses from the book of Solomon and several years ago I was inspired by theses verses  to paint a series  of women in gardens.. Some of the paintings were women with children. They were done in an impressionistic style. This painting  was sold.

Today I started on the last page of the current children's book I am illustrating. Soon I will be able to go back through the pages to see if they need corrections or maybe additions.

                                                   Kyrie Eleison

I love to feed the cardinals and doves that come into the courtyard. So I throw a little bird seed out the door every day and I can watch  them as I am in my studio painting. The busy little chattering wrens scurry through the ferns and plants to find a bug or two. I have watched parent birds building nests in my ferns.. Usually in the Spring I get to see little ones learning  to fly. The painting above came from my imagination as I could see the birds flying into the ferns with twigs and leaves building their nest, then gradually bringing insects and food to the little ones. Yet I could never see the little ones until they came out of the nest to fly. I have printed note cards of the painting and the following is the explanation on the back of the card.

"Outside the artist's window was a mother bird going in and out of a hanging fern basket. Apparently she was feeding little ones. Inspired by this sight, Kyrie Eleison evolved on the artist's canvas. The little birds seem to be crying out to be fed. "Kyrie Eleison" or "Lord have mercy," a refrain of an ancient litany."

Grackle Antics

It is that time of year when these birds are seen everywhere in our town. There are hundreds of them in open fields, parking lots and on electric wires along the highways. I enjoy observing them in the parking lot at the high school while waiting for my Grandson at school closing time. They are a nuisance to business owners but I love  watching them as they beg for food near parked cars, splash in puddles of water after a rain and how they interact with each other.Yes they are a nuisance and  nasty
yet fun to watch and inspire  me to paint them.