Wild Flowers

Today my husband stopped along side of the road and cut some flowers for me - WAY more than you're seeing here.  He told me he had to drive home with the windows down because there were so many bugs. It won't be long until all the bugs are frozen and the flowers are finished, so I intend to appreciate them until the end. I crammed a fraction of them into a jar and did my final painting. Every day I've at least leaned something about my materials. Today, fore instance, I had to start over after turning my first attempt into a mud pie. Thus my fantasy of wrapping this up early was smashed. Like a bug.

Friendly Flower

I'm not a gardener. Perhaps I will become one in the future because I'm always envious of the flower beds my friends have. I do have these growing though - I think they're called Cosmos. They look much better now that it's almost October than they did all summer long. Very optimistic and cheerful.  I have one more painting and I can tell you that if I have learned one thing this month, it's that if you are too tired to clean your brushes, you can put them in a newspaper bag and freeze them over night ;-)  I've actually leaned a few more things than that.

Water Woman

Today I took a welcome break from still lifes and painted out at a park. I got to meet up with the gals I spent last summer painting with and it was just great. The weather was pleasant and I was in good company.  And I knocked out a painting in a timely manner. 

Stir Fry

I have been consistent at starting these late in the day.  I guess that means I'm a night owl by nature, but it doesn't leave much wiggle room. I have a time limit, then it's off to dreamland.

Pepper Pals

Three very robust peppers from Saturday's market.  Gotta celebrate this stuff while we have it. Five days left and then Octoberrr! (That also means only 5 more paintings :-)

Keep a Close Watch

It may require patience to be married to an artist. Today Joe was thawing some shrimp for his special salad.  I said, "I'm going to paint these real quick and I'll be done before you need them, I promise." Nope... I was pretty close, but by that time, the shrimps had been out of the fridge for so long that we were both a little nervous about eating them.  There were some more in the freezer, so it wasn't the end of the world, and I had fun painting these weird little guys.

Anniversary Flowers

I ran to the farmer's market this morning because I wanted some gladiolus. There weren't any - maybe they're done? I didn't leave empty handed though. I found this pink and orange combo, snap dragons and something else.  I predict that it won't last very long, but it's dramatic right now. This is our 39th anniversary, by the way. That seems incredible and another good reason for flowers.

Tree Tops

The first day of autumn and it was really hot and windy.  I still wanted to paint outside, rather than set up a still life. I compromised and painted out a window. looking up at the tree tops across the street. Lesson learned - there are interesting things to paint right in front of me.  This was actually fun and it went pretty fast.  It's small, but I could see painting something similar on a large scale...

Veg Out

I'm a big fan of okra.  I grew up with it, but it isn't grown around here a lot.  More bounty from the farmer's market. 

Want Lemon with That?

I still feel duty bound to use my lemons. I poured some tea in this glass because I thought it looked a little ambiguous. Maybe you think it's something more adult, huh? Very hard to get a photo without glare. It's not that bad in real life. 

Lemon Bowl

For some reason, I have a tough time with lemons, more so than with peaches, oranges, grapes... So, I guess it's a good thing that I'm painting them. 

Lemon and Water

I have a bunch of lemons, so I'll be making lemonade and/or paintings for a while.  We're past the halfway mark, so I'm feeling pretty good, at the moment.

Out of the Bag

This turned out to be a challenge with lots of abstract shapes. It was fun to paint, but I need to stop looking at it for a while.

Ripening

Nothing better than home grown tomatoes. I love a tomato sandwich, toasted with mayo and some lettuce.  Maybe some avocado, if I have one, or bell pepper.  I'm loving these hot days in September.  We'll be missing them before we know it. Our power was off for several hours today and it got a little warm in the house, but I don't care.

And Then there was One

My bouquet is showing it's age but I found one elegant flower that wanted to be painted. Thank you flower. ( The colors in this photo are a little off.  The background is greener and the bud is not as yellow. Hmm.)

Cicada

A few days ago I painted the shell of a cicada. My super helpful husband found me an emerged version.  Trouble was, it was still alive and I wouldn't kill it.  Thankfully, it obliged and passed away on it's own.  I'm not sure what the cause was, but thank you Mr. Bug.

Flower Bomb

The flowers I bought at the farmer's market on Saturday just keeping getting bigger and bigger!  I think I can get a few more paintings from them, which solves my daily drama of what to paint. So fun to have a reason for this kind of color.

Go Ask Alice

Every time I take on one of these challenges, there is a daily drama called, "What am I doing to paint!?" My helpful husband saw this in the yard and it seemed like a good idea.  Really hard to avoid the glare in the photo though.

Flowers from the Farmer's Market

The farmer's market is at it's peek and today was a beautiful day. I spotted this very robust bouquet that I think will give me some good practice with flowers.  It was fun be use so much bright color.  I'll put them in the garage for the night and go at it again tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

Triple Chocolate with Almonds

A free cookie has been offered to me by Panera since my birthday in mid July. Can you believe I only now went in to get it and my motivation was something to paint!  Am I nuts? I'll ponder that while I nibble the cookie :-)

Just Add Pasta

I discovered today that my tomato plant has 1000 tomatoes. I had kind of lost interest in it, but now it will be a tomato with every meal. This is actually my second painting today. The first one was a disaster and got scraped.  Happens frequently.

I'll have what she's having!

It's just a glass of water. Did my alter ego paint this? It was like working a puzzle and I wanted something other than water when I was done.

Just Peachy

I wish I was a morning person, but I'm just not.  I seem to need to wait until the world has quieted down before I can  paint.  Nevertheless, I'm fairly happy with this one, and now I get to eat the peach.

Salad

This is Day 3 and it was a struggle.  I wanted to paint plein air, so painted some flowers in my backyard three times - scrapped each one off - and then did this.  I put the "paint" in paint today ;-)

Cicada Shell

The sound of the cicadas always makes me feel a little melancholy. Yup, we know what it means. On the other hand, finding the abandoned husks is always a little fascinating.

Little Tree

I'm at it again. It's hard to commit to painting every day for 30 days and, historically, I haven't done well in September. (Can't believe it's September!) But, I will end up painting more than I would otherwise and that means I might figure some things out and get better.  I'm having a struggle with myself at the moment, so we'll see which side wins. This is a little tree across the street from where I live. I've always had empathy for it.  When it was a baby, I saw a little girl try to break it. That is why it's slanted to this day.  Trees are like people in so many ways.