A Lot of Snow and What I am Working On

I am sitting here on a cold day recovering from some oral surgery I put off way too long.  I am full of pain medications, so I hope whatever I write here makes good sense.

We have had so much snow here in Colorado and the locals tell me it is just getting started.  Most of it occurs in February and March.  I love snow, but the late ones take some getting used to for me because in Kansas it starts to feel like spring in those months.  The birds are starting to show up, the days are longer and warmer and the air smells like spring.  Not that Kansas never gets snow in those months, but the usual is what I just said.  I am pretty sure I will adjust just fine.  It is lovely here.

I am working on a painting containing geese and another surprise in the composition.  The surprise is the fun part and I don't want to give it away.  It's taken a long time because I have been layering the oil paints and glazing quite a bit, so it all needs to dry between the layers otherwise it becomes a muddy mess.

In the meantime, I've been sketching a lot with acrylic paint in my hardback sketchbooks.  The above was done after a neighborhood walk.  The one below was done while cooking dinner.  I love olives and munch on a few while I cook...along with a glass of wine-yum!  The olives on the left were painted with care and the ones on the right were blobbed on with my fingertip.  I think I like the one on the right best.  Friends on my Instagram said the same thing.

I have enjoyed sketching these so much, I decided to try to do this more regularly.  It feels more free to paint in a sketchbook where you know it will not hang in a show or sell online.  

The above photo was taken last year and I just came across it.  The painting is one I did called They Have Come to Bring Us Spring and it's going to be shown at the Art on the Mesa show at Gold Hills Mesa Community Center in Colorado Springs.  The opening reception is February 7,  5-7 pm and the show will be up through May 1st.  This will be my first Colorado show so I am very excited to be participating with two wonderful artists:  Lelia Davis and Phyllis Davis.  I met Phyllis at Julie Ford Oliver's workshop years ago and it was Julie who helped reconnect me to Phyllis so that I could be a part of this.  I am so grateful!  I will share photos of the show after it happens.

This is a view from our backyard deck.  Snow snow snow!

But isn't it beauitful when the sun is shining?  This is a scene on a neighborhood path I take during my daily walks.  Sometimes I just can't believe what I am seeing.  The mountains have such a presence.  So quiet, yet so rugged and wild at the same time.  I am enjoying leaving footprints everywhere I go here. :)

I hope you are having a good month of January.  I am going to close for now and take a nap!  

Until next time!

♥ Lisa

Kitchen With Ocean View

Kitchen With Ocean View
oil on canvas 11 x 14 inch

This is the third in my series inspired by Cape Cod.  It was my first time painting lobster and crab as my son pointed out.  :)

I have two more I will post soon and then I think I will be finished with this series.  For now anyways. 

Until then...

♥ Lisa

They Have Come to Bring Us Spring

They Have Come to Bring Us Spring
oil on 30 x 24 inch canvas
available here

Hello friends, and Happy New Year!  It has been a while!  A busy life keeps me away from blogging these days.   However, we can connect on Facebook and Instagram if you are there too.  Sometimes I miss the lazy days of blogging and reading blogs, but then life was going at a different pace then.

This painting began last fall and was finished a couple of weeks ago.  Long ago my mother in-law and father in-law happily dropped off this large canvas they had found at a garage sale.  It had a painting of a teddy bear on it with a blue blue background.  They asked if I could use it for my art, and I said of course!  

When finally getting around to painting on it, all I knew was I wanted to paint multiple figures wearing green dresses.  So it began with one figure in the middle-ish area and went forward from there.  There were six women originally, but it looked unbalanced.  Adding the seventh figure on the far right seemed to correct it.

The wooded scene evolved from there becoming obvious to me that the dresses represented the green that was to come on the trees.  

One serendipitous quality of this piece is that the figures and trees sort of glow in a dark room.

Here are some close-ups.  You can see the lines of texture from the underpainting.

Until next time!

♥ Lisa

PS:  I have created a site for The Finding Faith series.  The tab at the top of my blog will link you there.  This will be where you can view all the paintings, photographs and videos in the entire series.