And Now For Something Completely Different…

The Virtual Paintout is back after a long hiatus this year.

(Check out the link in my blog roll on the right of the page.)

Each month Bill Guffey, the wonderful artist who runs the whole shebang, picks a spot somewhere on the planet for artists of all stripes to convene and travel the streets via Google Street View and then submit their artwork of the spots they find interesting.

The choice this last month was the U.S. Virgin Islands.

My husband of 42 years passed away in June. He always encouraged me in my artwork and had been after me to get back into it, but his months long illness and radiation treatments took their toll on both of us and I just didn’t have the will to do that.

So when Bill started up his website again in August, I thought I’d give it a go. I didn’t have quite yet what it takes to do a full blown painting, so I found this rooster strutting his stuff in front of a house and did a quick sketch using color markers. And here it is.

I call this one “Funky chicken.”

It’s a Van Gogh! (Sam Van Gogh)

My daughter really loves Vincent Van Gogh’s art, as do I. Recently she asked me if I would paint three acrylic copies of his work for her birthday. She gave me a book of some of his paintings and marked the pages of the ones she particularly liked. This is one of them. Only two more to go. Oy.

I’m reminded of the episode of “The Addams Family” where they think Morticia is getting art lessons from Picasso.

Turns out it was Sam Picasso.

That’s me, Sam Van Gogh.

Headstones and Queen’s Crowns

Here’s another little painting I did of a place across the street from our library that creates granite memorial headstones. Some are the usual gray and some are the polished pink granite that we see a lot of around here, mainly in WPA era buildings like our courthouse.

I like this site mainly because of the vine growing unchecked up the telephone pole in front. The locals call this vine “Queen’s Crown.” Here’s what I found when I Googled it:

Queen’s wreath (Antigonon leptopus), a buckwheat-family member also known as coral vine and queen’s crown, is a fast-growing Mexican plant that has become a prominent Lone Star resident. This tuberous perennial bears delicate heart-shaped leaves and copious lacey clusters of hanging radiant pink or white flowers throughout summer and autumn. Virtually pest-free, except for enthralled bees, it thrives in heat and withstands droughts in zones 8-9. In fact, too much water will impede blooming. Perfect for sunny fences or arbors in well-drained sites, this easily-grown tendriled tropical can reach up to 30 feet and can become territorially aggressive.

This one has definitely claimed its territory.  More power to it, I say!

 

 

In a Last Minute Fashion

I thought I’d post some fashion sketches I did yesterday for my daughter, the furniture designer.  She’s going to the big furniture market in N. Carolina on Sunday and she asked me (kind of at the last minute…ahem) if I would do some sketches from fashion magazine photos that were her inspiration for several of the pieces in her current furniture line. 

Kind of reminds me of when I used to hear “Mom, I need a diorama of the solar system for Mrs. Krabopple’s class today” as the kids were getting ready for school.

So, like the wonderful mommy that I am, here they are:

Sayonara to S.F. Paintout

I felt I had to squeeze one last painting in to the Virtual Paintout for February.  The location this month was San Francisco, with a plethora of possibilities to choose from for painting sites.

While cruising around Golden Gate Park, I came across the Hagiwara Tea Garden, a very lovely spot.  This doesn’t do it justice but I think it gives the feeling of a peaceful Japanese setting.

Art on the Laundry Room Door

I love French advertising posters, and the art of T. Steinlen in particular.  I did this painting (with apologies to Steinlen) on the door leading out of the laundry room in the little 1870’s limestone house where we lived here in Texas until a year ago.  This is an ad for the Clinique Cheron veterinary hospital.  The really funny thing is after I did the painting, we had cats come into our lives that looked just like the ones pictured here.  Coincidence?  I think not. 

This painting was done with craft paint and took me the better part of a month because the light was only good for about four hours a day in that room.  Artificial light just made it too glary to work.  (Is glary even a word?)  I liked this ad because we have practically run our own veterinary hospital over the years, what with all the stray dogs and cats we’ve taken in.  At one point we had seven dogs and one cat.  Now we have six cats and one dog.  Go figure….