Onions in colored pencil

Another colored pencil drawing of some onions.

Flower Garden

Another quick loosely painted watercolor of a flower garden.

Quick loosely painted flowers...

Broccoli in Colored Pencil

Here's one of my drawings in colored pencil.

Yellow Clover

I've been walking around my yard today...looking for new things to paint. My yard is full of little wildflowers...and I used to call them weeds...but now that I know they have names, I think they deserve better than just being called "weeds". I found this one and I've been trying to find it's name. I've looked online and then decided to put it on my blog and see if anyone could tell me what it is...and when I started describing it with the "heart shaped leaves"...I realized that it looked similar to clover...but with yellow flowers. Then I changed my "search" and found out that it is called "yellow clover"...and it grows abundantly around here in NC.

Colored Pencil Drawing #1

I've been looking at some of the colored pencil drawings and decided to post my rose.

Meeting in the dark...

I was just reading the blog of a friend, Scribbles From Rabbit Hop, and it reminded me of something funny that happened to me years ago. When you have pets, you can expect the unexpected...and there's always a laugh with them.

Years ago, we lived out in the country next door to my husband's cousin and her family. We all had dogs...ours was a male...theirs was one female and one male...and their female was not spayed. When their little dog would go into heat, they'd put her in a wire pen about three to four feet off the ground...so that ALL of the numerous male dogs in the neighborhood could not get to her...but they could all stand around underneath the pen and "sniff and growl and fight".

At night, we would bring our dog inside...but one particular night, he kept whining, moaning, and barking...and we could not sleep. Finally, in desperation, I let him out thinking we would have some peace and quiet and would be able to SLEEP! Well...forget that! As soon as I opened the door, he nearly knocked me down getting through the door. Across the yard he dashed...and I went back to bed, thinking "sleep at last". I had hardly closed my eyes when the "fight was on". There was the loudest growling, snarling...and barking that I had ever heard. I put the pillow over my head to no avail. My husband finally declared to me..."you put him out...you go get him!!!!!" Oh me!!!

With me in my nightie and short at that, I put on my slippers...grabbed the broom and across the yard I stormed. I had no light...but they had a large overhead outdoor light that lit up their entire yard...and part of mine, too. Well...as I got closer, but thankfully still in a darkened area of the yard, I saw my neighbor out there in his "briefs"...hollering and chasing those dogs with his broom. Well...I nearly fell over on the ground laughing so hard...but I stiffled it as much as possible...not wanting him to see me in my nightie...but what a sight! Too bad we could not laugh over this later on...he was so quiet and reserved...and probably would never have been able to face me again.

Stepping Out of my Comfort Zone!

In trying to step out of my comfort zone, I had lots of problems with this one. I definitely need to do some more on it...right now, I just can't figure out WHAT it is that I want to do. I'll keep looking at it for a few days and see how I feel about it then.

P.S. After brightening the colors a bit and rescanning...it now looks better.

A weed from my yard...

I had a chance to do some painting this afternoon. I sat out in the yard and painted a weed with a yellow flower...hmmm, wonder what makes a weed a weed...and a flower a flower...

Note:
Thanks to Spinnerta, I learned this is a wildflower called Yellow Avens.

A walk around my yard...

I was so busy a couple of days this week, I was unable to find even a few minutes to paint because I know once I get started painting, I can't stop. Yesterday morning, I took a walk around yard just to look at all the new growth and plants that are beginning to blossom. I took my camera with me and took loads of photos hoping to have some from which to paint. Although I'd rather paint from the plant itself, I knew some things wouldn't stay the same...probably not even an entire day. Here are just a few photos of things that really caught my eye.

Dogwood Blossoms

I finally finished my painting of the dogwoods. I painted the background three times before I was satisfied. I would paint a while...then leave it and let it dry before working on it again. By the time I finished, the edges of my flowers were turning brown.

Sunday doodling...

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to watch all of the 2009 Nora Roberts movies on Lifetime...and by the time the last one came on, I was getting sleepy. To stay awake, I knew I had to do something...so I grabbed my small Moleskine and my 001 ink pen and started doodling...not even sure what the end results would be. I looked up and saw one of my watercolors laying there...and I started drawing leaves...so I kept on...until the entire page was filled. I still had a little bit of time left before the movie was over...so I began filling in around the leaves...trying to add a bit of contrast. Here's the results of my doodling last night.

White Azalea

Today is Easter...
a beautiful sunny day...
a day to enjoy the beauty of God's world around us.

For this painting, I used a masking fluid to mask
out the entire flower. Then I painted the
background with a wet-into-wet technique.
Removing the mask can sometimes be a daunting task,
but it's always nice to see the clean white area
of the paper to begin painting
the flower.
Also, sometimes it's difficult to paint the white
flower without using any white paint.

Red azaleas

My red azaleas are blooming now. They're smaller and after closely observing them, I realize each flower is double layered...like one flower inside the other flower. I believe the name of it is the Red Ruffled Azalea.

Can't stop painting them...

They're so beautiful and the yard is full of blooms.
It's hard not to paint them while they're here.

Another Azalea Watercolor Painting

Here is today's watercolor painting of an azalea. My bushes are really filling out with color. They are so pretty. I'm from Wilmington NC where they have the annual azalea festival. It was held last weekend but I was unable to go.

Azalea in watercolor...

More azaleas blooming!

After adding the background, I think I like the white or lighter backgrounds better.
That's fine with me, because when I paint backgrounds,
I never seem to get it painted so that I like it.

Azaleas are blooming!

I have a lot of trouble painting tubular flowers...showing depth into the center of the flower. My azaleas are now blooming, so I'm going to be painting them in watercolor for a few days to see if I can improve my techniques.