Older Painting

I wanted to post something more cheerful than the last post, so I dug around in some of my older paintings and found this watercolor from 2006. The flowers were from my yard at that time.This is painted on Bristol vellum. I really like working on this surface, but you can't get it too wet. It's good for watercolor pencils too. I'm not sure what I'm going to paint next or in what medium. I have so many photos that give me ideas that I don't know where to start. I might just view some of my Artist's Network videos for a while and then decide.

Where did the time go?

Photo at Phipps

Old Sketch at Phipps

I can't believe it's been over two months since I posted on this blog. I guess I've been busy with other things; cleaning up my yard before winter set in, trying to clean my house (losing battle), and getting ready for another trip to Florida for my daughter-in-law's baby shower. That was in the middle of November. It took me a while to recover from that trip--not as young as I used to be. Then there was Thanksgiving (I didn't have to cook much, thank goodness my sister-in-law Dottie has the dinner), and then a wedding at the end of November. After that, my niece from Chicago came to visit my sister and we spent a lot of time running around shopping and visiting. Another excuse for not painting was because I got a little discouraged after the Carnegie Painted show. I wasn't real happy with my painting in acrylic. However, the wedding we went to had the reception at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh and we got to meander around the conservatory before the reception. I think I got some inspiration back. If you live near Pittsburgh or are going to be in town for a visit, I heartily recommend a trip there. It is really beautiful. The winter/Christmas show is there now. It would also be a great place to go for the day and sit and sketch or take pictures for later use. I had been there years ago, but hadn't gone recently. As a matter of fact, I had done a sketch there with a class when I was about seventeen (about f f f f f fifty years ago!). I remember sitting there sketching and a young professionally dressed woman passed by and looked at my sketch and commented that it was good. I wonder who she was. I thought I still had the sketch and went up in the attic to look for it and actually found it. I am attaching a photo of it. It was done on newsprint and is quite yellowed and the graphite is somewhat faded, but you can still see most of what I drew. I am also attaching a photo of one of the rooms at the Phipps. They have some cute things for kids to see and do. They have a room with model trains too--all sizes.