figure painting, Emily, acrylic on museum board, 14x16 ish

I went to the drop in session up at North River Arts Society last night- it's the last one till mid June- so I am  glad I went! Music is great- people are amazing accomplished painters and our model looked like she stepped out of a renaissance painting( although I don't think I really captured that) but I like this .

success!

                        The kids were great- we managed to get it done and all 87 kids had a turn...

It was so gratifying to hear them say- "I love this!

I want to do this again!"

I have a few more pieces to fill in- then I will grout it.

Artist in Residence

Today I get to make a mosaic with 87  fifth grade kids in one day.
I havent actually done this before- not in one day! But I said"I can do that!"
  I made up the design, a simple theme of trees flowers, sky, birds and a butterfly.

I have all the glass cut and ready to go.

The kids will work in groups of five and will have 15 minuted to finish a square together-there are 18 squares total.

I am excited and pray it works!

I will post the results ( ungrouted) tomorrow.

Easter tea. 8 "x8" watercolor on paper

My husband is one 6 siblings- holidays are always fun. His sister Ria has been hosting lately in her newly expanded home- she has a real flair for decorating and is a fabulous cook.

She has an eye for vintage- these pieces are from a thrift store find.

We really enjoyed a happy sunny Easter- hope you did too!

rainy day alstromeria 18"x18" acrylic on canvas

What is  better than painting on a rainy spring day?

Happy Easter to all!

lovely bunch (work in progress)18"x18" acrylic on canvs

I love tulips so much- these were from Trader Joes and I bought them for my class to paint ( they did great paintings!)

This morning when I woke up Page Railsback's BEAUTIFUL tulip painting was waiting for me in my inbox- and it really inspired me to get out and paint mine!

The background is a funky roll of wallpaper with silver retro starbursts from the Marshfield "swap shop" (dump)

the canvas is from the dump too!

It had some sort of wall art printed on it- probably from home goods.

I love my dump! I gessoed it black and it was good to go.

Still more to go on this one...

oh! and the wine is from a student in my class - Im shocked that it is still unopened!

My oh my- strawberry pie!

I actually made this pie last night- was inspired to bake . That is a rare occurrence!
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to paint... so this is my entry into the color challenge on the daily paintworks site. I found out that cool whip is really  hard to paint!

My friend Kelley MacDonald stopped in for a cup of tea with her adorable son Paco.

It was fun to have a visitor while I was painting , but she didn't get any pie- how rude!

Paco tried to eat a pom pom.

Oh the Darling Daffys! 14"x18" acrylic on canvas

I love the daffodils - little trumpets announcing yet another return to spring!

Spring Hens from Hawaii

This is my submission for the Chicken Challenge on the Daily Paintworks site- it was fun and I tried out my new "interactive " acrylics.
Painting this reminded me of a time when my daughter Markie was about 11- our next door neighbors had hatched  baby chicks and she fell in love with one she named Mack.
She was never an early riser, but for about a week she would wake up early , wolf down her breakfast , and dash over to visit her friend Mack before the bus came.
I felt like she had become Fern in Charlottes Web that spring. I love how painting brings back these sweet memories.

Scituate lighthouse

 

This is about 15 years old but I felt like putting it up for some reason.

Watercolor and gouache.

German landscape

Acrylic- 6"x6"
Another one of daily paintworks challenges.

Garden Party Art

I've been working on an invite for an event for the North River Arts Society- its a Garden Party that will be June 26. It will be lots of fun- you can contact them if you want an invite sent to you...

I have been fiddling with this for a while-top is the first go at it- but they wanted a more evening feel and for it to suggest a party so I'm hoping the lower will be ok.
I've been working on it so long I can't even see it anymore !

I am sorry for all the typos in the last post... I am trying to be better at proofing my work .

Animals

After Charleston we went to Oak Island in NC to visit the amazing Jane Filer- she creates large paper mache heads out of old bicycle helmets-people dress up in costumes and wear them and dances around to the live drumming for her openings.I hope to go to one of THOSE openings someday!
I was dying to learn, and happened to have a helmet in the car- so Jane showed me!

It starts like this...

 Jane making her head

.

Mine is a bear and you see out of the mouth...

Then we painted them and made a little movie

Here's my almost finished head- I need to add some more shoulder action...

And still on the animal theme- here's Maddie- she was working at the big Cooper Bridge race in Charleston- not sure why there was a parrot there!

Painting Challenge and more from Charleston

My submission to the Daily Paintwork challenge- Carol Marine posted this photo from one  of her trips to Germany. I was there in the 80's and I loved it- especially the southern town of Künzelsau. I met a great gal there and stayed with her family.
They were involved in World War 2 and had helped Jews hide from the Nazi's.
See all the paintings here-I loved doing this!I primed the panel hot pink then used a limited palette of acrylics. Took me about 30 minutes- it is 6x8inches.

 The gardens and yards of Charleston are so sweet- I could see painting some plein Air paintings there someday!
These shots are from "south of Broad" -a very good place to live...

Road Trip!

 Al and I drove down last week to see our daughter Maddie at the College of Charleston- man is she happy there! We enjoyed one night on Kiawah Island...the painting above is for the Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge- (THREE is the theme- mine is 3 views from the road)

 Maddie and Me and below- Al and me!

 Next day we had a little nap in the sun at Folly Beach. I painted this one there....

I will post more from the road trip soon- it was a total blast-but as in all trips it is SO good to be home!