The Flowers are Starting to Open

After days of heavy rains, the sky's cleared and the flowers stood up and opened. Last Saturday, I went on my annual garden walk with my garden club. My garden was included in the walk, but most of my flowers are still not open. My yard had a show of Iris, but are now gone. I took this photo of a group of flowers, not sure what kind they were, but they were blowing in the wind and where so full of color that I couldn't resist their beauty.

This one I painted last night on 300 lb Arches, size 6 x 8. Used watercolor and a little white gouache. Doing paintings in yellow are definitely a challenge!

Love doing the Landscapes

This one I took off a photo that I took back in the spring at a plein air session. It's called "Spring Breaking Through" I painted it on Watercor, Cold Press, Arches 300 lb paper, which I love! It is 6 x 8 in size. Fun doing this one.

Limited Palette

Took this challenge on Artist Network Forum last week for a chance to win $50 gift card to North Light Books. The challenge was "using a limited palette". So, I was pondering it for a few weeks to see what I would do and came up with this painting. It's a watercolor. I used only Orange (Reeves) and Prussian Blue (Grumbacher) and a little bit of Zinc White (Schmincke) gouache. This was a fun task and I did it in about an hour.

Saturday was a long but interesting day. I went down to the University of Chicago early in the morning with my partner Debbie for her graduation from the Graham School of General Studies, Basic Program. This was a four year commitment reading the Great Books. Her last class was that morning, so I went down with my watercolors and was working plein air for a few hours in the rain. It's not a good idea to paint watercolors in the rain-I got very little accomplished, but it was a challenging idea. I spent most of the time taking pictures of the beautiful buildings and the green ivy that was growing all over them.

I took this shot of a young man who was watching the regular University of Chicago graduation ceremonies, which were outside. The color of his rain coat intrigued me and the flowers were so beautiful in that part of the square.

I will attempt to paint some of the buildings when I have time to concentrate on perspectives. Getting that right is very important for the painting to look real.

Anyway after I attempted to plein air, we all met for lunch and then went to the Smart Museum and we saw a wonderful artist on exhibit, H. C. Westermann. That was really interesting and fun. Then we went over to the Ida Noyes building clear across campus to participate in Debbie's graduation and acceptance of her certificate with a cocktail and appetizer finale'. That was a very exhausting day!

For those who know my dog Nemo and read my last few entries here, he is doing better. He has not had a seizure since that first night and has adjusted to the medication. I just hope we have him for a lot longer! He is very sweet and loving and when I think of losing him, it really gets me weepy eyed.

Getting my mind off MY NEMO!

Yesterday I went to my plein air session over in Zion. We all met around 9:00 am at Illinois State Beach Park at the old Camp Logan National Guard Rifle Range. There we were able to draw and paint many structures that are still standing but in very deteriorating condition. I photographed many of the buildings and there were some beautiful old pine trees soring above the one structure.

Here is the painting I did. Also I have attached my recent watercolor of a Chicago city street scene. Still working on perspectives and starting to really get the hang of the diverse subjects to paint.

I am so sad............feeling down about my dog.

I want to share with you the sad experience I had this weekend. My sweet 13 year old Jack Russell, Nemo, had three grand mal seizures. I was devastated. He is the best dog in the world. After several trips to the vets, they put him on some phenobarbital. I am so afraid for him! The blood work showed an elevated enzyme in the liver, pointing toward Cushings disease. He will get a test next week to see if indeed he has Cushings. He had been tested several years ago for the disease, but the tests didn't show signs of it. So hopefully this is something that can be treated. The other possibility is brain tumors that could be causing the seizures. I just hope he can live the rest of his life comfortable and not suffer too much pain.
Nemo is a very bright dog. So bright, he watched tv when he could see well. He even could distinguish a rat or possum on the screen. When the scene changed, he would go around to the back of the tv looking for the prey.
Well enough of this sad news, it's making me cry!