Day After the Storm

Several inches of snow fell on Cedar Rapids last night. I had been looking forward to this snow storm for several days now. It didn't disappoint, however most of the snow fell at night which is always a bit sad for me because I love to watch it fall. However, it is nice to wake up to a fresh layer of clean white snow. The kids were chomping at the bit to get outside and jump in it, so we suited up and headed out shortly after breakfast. I took my camera with me to take some pictures of the kids, but ended up spending quite a bit of time on dormant plants. Fall colors are my favorite, and while almost everything is coated in a layer of white, there are still some vibrant colors to be found.

Before the snow came we had an ice storm. Again, most of the precipitation fell at night and the next day we were left with frozen streets and sunshine. 

We didn't get enough snow to cover my over grown lemon balm.

Remnants of my marigold plant. I love the shiny ice coating.

The remnants of my sugar snap peas. 

And I managed to snap two pictures of two of my children . . . that were in focus. They never stop moving!

Still forging ahead on three different paintings, none of which are finished yet . . .

I Have Been Working

It's been months since I have been able to post a new painting, but I swear I have been working . . .

This summer was busy of course - entertaining and caring for the kids, working in my garden, preserving the harvest, carving out time for my husband. I did try to get in a little time for drawing though. I have started doing study drawings because I want to work a little larger and instead of diving right in to painting my subject right on the substrate that I usually spend a few hours preparing in itself, I wanted to do a drawing first to be sure I was happy with the composition in it's larger scale. The drawings are not complete, but I took them to a level where I felt I could make a decision as to whether I wanted to go forward with putting them on a larger substrate. So far I'm happy with the two sweet peas on the left, but not so much with the blue corn on the right.

I have also been working on two smaller oil pastels. One, on a small board, is almost complete. The other, a grain of bloody butcher corn on a slate roofing tile is close as well, but it is lacking that certain quality that makes it feel complete. It rests on my mantel where I can look at through out the day and ruminate. I love the way the kernel of corn looks on the slate, but the composition is just a little boring. It is meant to be portrait-like, but even so . . . it just isn't quite working for me. So I will continue to contemplate what can be done to make it more digestible for a while longer before posting. 

The third study drawing is now in the beginning of being transferred to a larger format. It took a while to plane all the wood and get it together, but I love it. I love working over the wood grain and seeing it peak through the pastels. I can't wait to see how it progresses.