Summers last breath

Walking out in my backyard I saw this looming over my neighbors fence. Only one, but what a gorgeous sunflower. I have always wanted a row of these strange giants, but I heard from another neighbor the chipmunks were also very fond of these.

I photographed and painted this in a very different style for me. I m trying to go a little more on the abstract, but not quite there. I wanted to stretch my watercolors, making them more vivid than I usually paint.

The back to school rush almost over, some already back. This means one thing, summer is a heartbeat from becoming a memory.

Complementary Challenge

This is probably the most difficult challenge. I did what I thought it was asking. If not, no worries, paint over. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago of my neighbors front garden. I know it was the complementary colors that made this garden pop. The challenge was to take one of the complementary colors, I chose red, and used yellow red for one aspect, and dark red for the other side. Green was the complement, combined they made the greys in the background. Yellows and purple were added, and we're used for more greys.

Still learning

Well, my tomato plants bombed. I got a couple paintable, but very tiny.

The Dinor

This is a painting of a little Dinor, yes, that is how it is spelled. Located on Main Street in Lawrence Park, Pennsylvania. It has been around so long it is on the National Historic List, rumor has it.


Today's challenge for DPW was to paint Streetwise. A treasure right in my own backyard, I have been wanting to paint this for quite sometime. You know when you see something everyday, you don't really see it. Today was perfect, after an all morning downpour, the sky and clouds reminded me that Fall is just around the corner.

My crop of tomatoes this season. Pretty special since last years crop had zero yield. My hats off to all you green thumbs out there. These are mini tomatoes from a container garden. They were not suppose to be so tiny. Next year I will have a long conversation with the green thumbs in my family.




Still, tomatoes are lovely on a sunny window sill.

Location:Gardening 101

Uncertainty

I live within walking distance of the beautiful beast known as Lake Erie. In the past, often joked about, and some of the jokes were based on truth. When I was young, my friends and I would climb down the cliffs to skim rocks and look for shells. This was a forbidden form of entertainment by my parents, punishable with a bed sentence. What we found more often than beautiful shells, dead fish. A lot of dead fish. If you have seen the IMAX movie, The Great Lakes, you will not believe the comeback kid, Lake Erie. It is truly, stunning! The joy of a colorful, summer sunset,the harsh, cold, crisp winter terrain. My favorite mood of the Lake is the turbulent, grey, overcast with lots of movement in the sky and water.

Trucks and Days Gone By

This red truck challenge really struck a chord within me. The challenger, found this red truck while on a walk around Eugene, Oregon. She photographed and challenged us to paint this old, red beauty. It immediately brought a smile to my face and memories of my Grandfather, Bomp. A sign painter by trade, he painted advertisements on the side of trucks for business owners. He kept photos of all the lettering and signs in a small photo album. Recently my family put these delicate photos on a DVD. Bomp has been gone a long time, but I treasure these photos and not so long ago painted a similar red truck.