I really love the light on this one! Isn't it great? And front porches are so friendly, especially open ones like this, where you can sit and swing your legs free...
This is a great time of year to see houses looking kinda like this, with the sun setting earlier and earlier and the windows lit up warm and cosy.
We went for a walk here on Sunday afternoon. It was just too nice of a day to not do that. And now there is about 4 inches of snow out on our back deck... hmm. This is a Minnesota Fall, isn't it?
I love the Minnesota River Valley- it's wide, open, wet, marshy... there's birds and beavers and rushes and air. Feels like home.
This one is another auction!
I love this photo. Maryanna sent me a couple others, and maybe it's because I saw this one first, but there's something about that bench to the far left, looking out over the view, and the door with the rake and brooms, and being able to see through the windows to the far side, and those pines filling the sky with air~
I love this place and I've never been there!
Well, I didn't ever think I'd want to paint the White House.
Somehow, my feelings about it have changed... and I like this view. Yes, things can change. Whew!
I have really hated not feeling connected to my leaders, and I've hated feeling embarrassed and ashamed of my country because of the actions of my leaders.
I'm feeling a bit better now!
Okay, I got a bit distracted yesterday and I DID paint this in the morning with my glorious painting crew out back in our driveway where we heard the news and were totally distracted and full and happy and teary and vibrating and feeling ourselves moving in new and freer ways, and then we had a super fun Open Air Art Fair and said hi to many people walking and biking and driving in our neighborhood and then we had family over for a backyard pizza supper and that was great and then it was late and we were worn out and it was time to go to bed and I didn't get Laura's painting posted!
She said she really loves her pine tree behind the garage there, so I hope it worked!
As soon as I saw this photo I was reminded of Andrew Wyeth's painting, "Christina's World" from 1948. And I wanted to see if I could play with the composition and get the same feeling going~ and I like it! That grass expanse with Naldo's attention focussed across to the flutter of the gazebo curtains gives just the right depth...
I'll be making this one an auction too!
Isn't this the sweetest house? Its one of those ones I couldn't resist wanting to paint! I mean really, cute little pink house, lovely green trees, those chunky soft bricks, and the wide variety of growing things! YES!
Thank you for sending it to me, Susan!
I actually know a number of people who live in the Sears building, and I know I was actually in the store way back when it was actually a Sears. And I love the market in there, and have tons of great memories of events there- we had a fabulous art car parade one year when Harrod Blank was in town with the Camera Van, and we had a sew-a-thon fundraising thing one year where each team was given a bunch of recycling and some old clothes and had a few hours to create an ensemble... I think I still have part of it in my closet! And we had several Barebones Parties up there too- such a great building! Mina sent me the photo and said that Harry Waters Jr lives in the apartment with the giant red A... can you see it?
I love Minneapolis! Oh and if you missed Barebones Halloween Extravaganza this year (because it didn't happen) you can visit any of the sites listed on the page here through this Saturday, Nov 7~
Wendy sent this photo in for me to paint for her friend- I am in love with this cabin! Isn't it the cutest? If any of you have a cabin you'd like to sell me, let me know! I'm looking! Here's Wendy's story~
"So my fellow quilting BFF Cheri has owned her cabin for over 30 years. Originally it was to be a part ownership between her and her sisters, but the sisters backed out, and Cheri decided to go for it on her own and has never looked back. It’s such a cute, tiny cabin, with 3 tiny bedrooms, one of which she turned into her up north quilt studio (note the “barn quilt” at the peak). And it’s bare-bones up there. No internet, no TV. It’s such a big part of the allure, to be away from all the media madness. And I have been lucky enough to spend several weekends in this little gem over the years. Thank you Cheri💜"
So my friend Kris lives up in Cook County on a lake and sent me a lovely pile of incredible photos that made me supremely envious and drooling... and I picked this one for today. I think that may be a paddle board? and I can't quite tell if it is sunset or sunrise, but I'm making this one an AUCTION! and we'll start it at $45 for a starting bid, and you can bid on it for a week!
How exciting! I haven't had an auction in a while!
Wahoo!
So today is the start of November, and also of my HOMEvember project for 2020. I'm needing a space for my head and painting is that for me, and I also love the idea of raising money for a good cause, so all these house paintings are raising money for Simpson Housing Services here in Minneapolis. There are a lot of people needing some help these days, and Simpsons does really good stuff.
SO this is the first house! It is a surprise, I think, for Deb's son, and I'm hoping to keep it that way! I hadn't actually planned a show of these paintings for later this month, so I suppose I can send them to the new owners right away too! Hmmm!
Yes, I feel a little less organized with this project this year than in previous years~ but ah well! We are all doing our best these days, aren't we? And it may not be the best we were able to do a year ago, but we're still doing it!
Be good to yourself!
You can't have just one Axolotl, I imagine. They seem such cheerful little fellows that it would be sad to make one live alone~ I'll have to ask Rachel more about how well they get along! And painting these two is making me think about getting a couple for my classroom, once we're all back in school... maybe I should ask for them for Christmas!
Oh and I just did a google search, and no you shouldn't have two unless they are older because they can be cannibalistic towards younger axolotls. And you shouldn't handle them because that could damage their skin, but dang! They are seriously cuter than a wombat! And that's saying a lot!
This is Bean!
I loved playing with that nearly transparent skin... ain't she CUTE?!
And now, for something completely different!
So my friend Rachel lives in Wisconsin with her husband and a few wonderful dogs and a pair of enchanting axolotls named Sharkey and Bean, and I've been watching this pair on Instagram for a while now, wanting to paint them, and NOW is the time. Aren't they incredible? This is Sharkey, and I am just enamored with his smile~ they have such huge mouths and those sweet eyes are so far apart on that wide forehead with those delicate little hands and that crazy gill mane thing!
Too fun!
Yes, very clever name, I know...
This was my landscape demo on Saturday for my Paint Love class, and I didn't have to fix it too much... I enjoyed painting the light on the water, and playing with the sky~
Now, this could qualify as part of my HOMEvember project, couldn't it? It's a place, it could be home, and feel like the place that is the most home-like for you~ yes! Send me your photos!
Wahoo!
We are going to the MN zoo on Sunday afternoon and I am hoping that the otters will be active. This photo is from a few years ago, and I am really hankering for some otters to paint! I'm also embarking on this year's HOMEvember project (more info HERE) and will be gearing up to paint YOUR Home photos!
As for this critter, it's one of those paintings that I had to make myself STOP dabbing at- I couldn't tell if I'd managed to get the face correct until I stood WAY back and looked, and then I was like "Wow! it WORKED!" which is one of the best places to get as a painter.
Hope you had a chance to enjoy the sunshine this afternoon!
Here's a pup I've been working on last week~ sweet face! Huge eyes! Which reminds me to let you know that I am always happy to help you with a personal painting of your beloved four-legged friend too~
Just send me an image and check out my sizes and prices on my list here~
Wahoo!
Okay, not the greatest title ever, but I thought this one kinda looked like a potato, and I'm not sure that Otter Tater would work.... though maybe Tater Otter?
Hmmm....
I had a much more mentally pleasant day today. I wasn't terrified about the drive home for one thing, since it seemed to be much more seasonal and not the freezing rain we usually have in March which makes stopping not so much of a sure thing as a wish~ so I was able to get home safely and then walk the dogs and paint and make a giant snowball in the front yard with the kid and other neighbors~
Lovely!
I haven't painted the otters in a while, and the last time we went to the zoo they were napping. I guess it's time to take another trip there! I've painted from this photo before, but its interesting to do it again because you see different things each time. It's like that saying, you never step in the same river twice. I've had clients ask me to repaint a sold painting and it always turns out slightly different each time. I'm not a photocopier, thank goodness!
And I just needed a little otter-ness today~ I do love snow, the light of it, the change in the landscape. But I wasn't expecting it until closer to Thanksgiving, to be honest, and it feels like a bit of a time warp to have it now. We haven't raked our leaves yet. They aren't done falling off the trees.
But Otters are just the thing- I need a reminder every so often (which is more often these days) that life is meant to be enjoyed and experienced and relished, all the bits of it you can touch and reach, like the water around an otter. We are in it, like it or not, and this is what we got, so love it while you can! It's worth loving, this life~
Yes, another buck... this one is more velvety~ and I wanted to play with the background a bit too... I'd been reading and thinking about the idea of playing with areas for a bit of spark, trying something a little different. It doesn't actually look that different, I don't think~
I'm also playing with the idea of doing another Daily Painting Project in November for "Homevember", painting people's homes with most of the proceeds for any sales going to the homeless here in Minneapolis. Because there is a huge need... and driving home today through the snow at 4pm, heavy as it was, and slick, and scary, I was worried about the encampments at area lakes, and people attempting to live in tents in this kind of Minnesota weather. We have never had snow this early, in my experience as a living Minnesotan! I think most of us were expecting a little more warm weather. Lots of leaves hidden under the snow...
It is nice to see it though!
Have you ever seen the animated version of Watership Down? And they have that song, Bright Eyes? It's pretty short, and Art Garfunkel sings it in the 1978 version... its one of those songs that yanked my heart into my throat when I first heard it at age 11 in 1978... And this was before Youtube, or Prime Music, or Apple Music, or any of these things where you could find it and hear it over and over. You had to REMEMBER it and listen closely, and then sing it to yourself as often as you could.
Anyway, that song makes me think of this deer... or maybe it's the other way around~
Here's a link to the song for you~
Your welcome!
The water was steaming yesterday as we crossed the bridge over the lake- snow was falling and the water was warmer than the air. I painted this from a photo I took in late August while standing in the lake~ I wasn't sure I could get that repeated pattern feel of the waves, and I believe I managed it!
I'm really pleased with the pink...
I was able to do some plain air painting last weekend, and this is another one from then. I do find that once I'm back inside, I touch up some areas that I wasn't able to get to outside. The time spent out painting goes really fast! And there's also the quality of the light- it's often crazy bright, especially right now in the fall, at that wonderful crazy angle, getting in windows and under canopies! So once I'm back indoors, some of the parts I thought I'd painted really bright aren't showing up that way and so I need to pop them again.
This patch of the creek had tons of fall leaves in it, under and on top of the water. Since I'm more of an impressionist than a realist, I wasn't trying to get the individual leaves but more the sense of the variety of colors and values I was seeing.
I do love the movement in this one!
This is one that I've been wanting to get to for a while... that face and those little nubby bits!
I hope you were able to get out and enjoy the incredible gift that was yesterday! It's not hard to feel good on a day like that- with the sun blasting at such a dramatic low angle and the trees tossing off fireworks of leaves overhead~ dang! I spent as much of it outside as I could, and my painting crew and I enjoyed the sun angling in under the tent in the backyard during our morning class. SO great!
I had to get out and paint more, so I ran some stuff over to the Goodwill on Nicollet and came back along the parkway, scanning for a likely spot to get close to the water and have some light. There were SOOOO many people out! On bikes and walking dogs and wandering around in the sun, so great!
I found this spot on Minnehaha and 16th Ave which is the bridge I painted here- I've included a shot of my easel. I'm getting really fast at setting that up and taking it down again!
The reflections in the water are just amazing.
And I'm offering this one at half price~
This one is from a few days ago, and I think it is more iconic than realistic. This wolf lives at the MN Zoo, and there was snow on the ground but I chose to make it a bit pinker than it was in reality... I like that face and those eyes~ intent, focussed...
Just like me today, right? Intent, focussed...
Yup.
I'm so glad it's Thursday!
Funny how it can never be so hard that it can't get harder, right?
I suppose it's also true that it can never be so beautiful that it can't get even more gorgeous?
I'm really working to keep my mind on those things I am so grateful for. Smiles and laughter, kindness. An unexpected pile of art magazines and blank panels~ your kid expressing how much he likes spending time with you.
It's that key to shifting your perspective. Dark to light. Heavy to light~ bring it all to the light~
I kinda like this one- they feel a bit more abstract to me, more the way the water felt when I was there painting it~
I'm so lucky!
I did head back to Moir Park, but I was really late today and didn't get to do any painting. This is from last week, and I just had a little bit more I wanted to do to it. So it is done now.
It was lovely to be there, even briefly. Last Monday I had about 40 minutes to paint, and I plopped myself down as close to the creek as possible, scrambling down a bank to set up the easel. And it was a wonderful fall day, with wind and intermittent showers, clouds and sunshine. Love it!
I needed to paint some more water and am revisiting this series of photos from Duane and Max's trip to Grand Marais this spring. I was hoping we might take a trip next week over MEA, but I can't find anywhere to stay up north... I think more people are staying close to home instead of flying for this break. And we really need a break too.
Whew!
So here is a bit of a mental break for you, water and rocks and sky~
I took this photo a month or so ago, while swimming just off the dock on the north end of Lake Nokomis with my family and our lovely neighbors- I think I want to try more versions of it because I am entranced by the shapes in the water and how to properly suggest them... so liquid!
It was an overcast day and the water was warmer than the air- can you tell?
This painting will be at our Pop-Up Art Sale this Saturday, Oct 3 from 1-5! Come on by and pick it up!
Love to see you there!
I love the shapes of animals.
Those angles and bends, the curves and shifts from ear to head to shoulder. And the way light hits and reflects and shows near and far...
And the color!
This is a tiny island just past Grand Marais on a little road, Croftville Road, maybe- I think it was Elsie's cabins... and there's a little cabin just in front of this place. It is seriously a giant rock with a rickety wood bridge from just behind the cabin, and I felt like I was in a magical place when I stood there in the rain. Grey days can do that.
And the colors of fall always look more intense against the grey. That is part of why I love painting on black, because it just sets the colors off more. There's more power in the color because of having to contend against the dark.
Hmmm...
I've been teaching in my alley driveway for this fall's session of Paint Love, and I am so glad I decided to give it a go. I need to have these mature, creative, fun-loving, kind and generous adults to hang out with and talk art with at least once a week. And all the struggles to figure out technology to include my Zoom people is hard and brain-busting, but their patience and their paintings are so rewarding. I look forward to our classes all week!
Today we painted tomatoes because there were some lovely ripe ones in the garden, and we talked about and practiced the concept of One-Color-Per-Stroke, which is a way to make sure you are looking closely at what you are doing, paying attention to every stroke and how you are placing it onto the panel.
This was NOT my demo, because I don't like that one. I did this one later as everyone else was working and I like it!
This is another photo from Gina Easley in Oregon (https://www.instagram.com/ginaeasleyphoto/?hl=en) who has an incredible eye and has kindly given me permission to paint her deer! This young buck has velvet on his new antlers, and I hoped to paint them so they look velvety and soft...
Somehow, Gina's photos look magical and like a fairy-land, though the smoke from the wildfires caused a lot of darkness. I do wonder how the animals make it through such an experience...
I just needed a little deer today~
Another painting from my adventure yesterday~ yes, that water is so necessary!
I couldn't get to Moir Park tonight, and it was a brain busting kind of day (having a lot of those lately) and I needed to sit by some water so I ran to Minnehaha Creek and sat painting for about an hour.
I'm much better now.
Whew. Thank goodness for painting!
I'm loving this fawn. Standing in that sweet grass~ just glancing back, who's there?
Eyes are everything.
Those eyes- I was on Facebook and looking at a friend of a friend's photos from up north and spotted this one and immediately wanted to paint it! I'm sure you can see why...
This one is 9x12- I want to do another on a 6x12- that leaning posture, those knobby knees! SO much to love!
Thought I'd toss another bear into the mix... I love figuring out the black and light color contrast to get the bear to read true. And I love bear's faces. Look at that lip! This is from the Minnesota zoo over Labor Day weekend~ critters are fun to paint, and it helps to understand the way their forms work too.
Here's another one from yesterday- the mosquitos were getting pretty bad... Duane had suggested I not wear shorts and so I was thankful for my jeans, but nevertheless, this was a quicker painting than I'd anticipated!
I got to paint outside again this evening! Aside from the mosquitos, it was a perfect 40 minute experience. I highly recommend it! And I'll very likely be back there again next Monday as well- Moir Park and Nine Mile Creek! let me know if you want to join me and I'll let you know where I'll be!
In this one, I was intrigued by the reflections of this weed in the moving water below~ I'm not sure if it even reads that way to anyone else, but I'm pretty happy with the movement of the water, and the many colors I see in there.
This is the big one I painted last Monday at Nine Mile Creek, in the rain. I just had to touch it up and fix some spots that got a bit blurry from precipitation... I'm pretty pleased! It is a trick to stop your brain from saying "water is blue" and to see those beautiful grays and browns, pinks and mauves in there...
It was fun trying to get that color of the water, the feel of the depth of it, the movement and sound~
I was truly amazed at how calming it was, just to be by a moving body of water. I've included a video for you too!
Max and I went to the MN Zoo last Sunday, really quickly, at the end of the day from 3-4, which is when the zoo closes anyway. They had it roped into sections for you to walk in certain directions, with lots of social distancing notes and hand sanitizer all over. It was actually pretty great to get out and go somewhere, and I was happy to see that there were plenty of visitors but it didn't feel crowded. I didn't feel too tight anywhere.
We went through the Minnesota Wing, of course, looking for the otters, but they were sleeping. I was happy to see one of the black bears wandering around, sniffing the air and waving her lip around.
I love bears.
I haven't painted one in a while!
Here's the second painting I did in the rain on Monday afternoon~ I was a little concerned about not having enough light reflecting on the water because of the overcast day, but I was also amazed at the amount of color I could see through the water. There were deep parts, shallow parts, sandy bits and rapids. It was mediative to concentrate on seeing those colors and shapes and lines without thinking about it being actually water.
Pretty crazy! And so fun!
Max had Adventures in Cardboard at Moir park yesterday, from 3 to 6 (there's still openings if you have a kid who likes to run outside with cardboard weapons and play Capture the Flag with other kids!) and it is such a beautiful park and even tho it was raining, it is the only Monday that I can go because I have school the rest of the Mondays so we all went and Duane helped me set up my easel at the little peninsula and I painted in the rain for two hours, getting thoroughly wet and enjoying the sounds of the creek as it wound around me...
I painted three paintings, and this is the last one~
I'm needing to paint some animals lately. Landscapes are a different mental problem entirely, in terms of finding a focal point, allowing areas to recede and bringing others to the front, and mixing the colors I see there. Animals are more about negative space and posture and expression. I haven't really thought about it that much before, but there are specific issues with both subjects.... Hmmm....
I'm looking forward to thinking and talking more about art starting next Saturday with my Fall Paint Love students! And I do have one or two spaces left, if you are interested~ more info here!
I'm a bit busy with other things, so here is a commission from earlier this year~ and if you are interested in joining my Fall Paint Love 10 week workshop, there is more info available here!
It is a fortunate fact of my life that I am an optimist, and tend to try to see the joy in this world. Thanks for being a part of that community!
There are so many colors in water- this is another shot from Nine Mile Creek. That is a seriously magical place... right in the middle of a city. I love that there are so many magical natural spots that feel secret and yet people do know they are there!
I love the middle of this one...
Man.
I got home today, a little early, and had to take a nap.
Being with kids in a regular time (not that there's any such thing, but pre-Covid anyway) is usually pretty tiring, but the mental strain combines with that physical thing and wow. I'm still pooped.
Every fall when I go back into my classroom, I deal with a week or so of a dry cough and a tickle in my throat because of suddenly talking all day when I haven't been doing that all summer. Giving directions and bantering and lecturing about art all day can suck your glands dry, I'm telling ya! So then, combine that with having to talk even louder through three layers of a mask, plus breathing back through that same mask again, and it dries you out even more. I've had at least a quart of water since I got home.
And I touched up this one a bit more... I'm happier with the water now and the greens in the distance feel properly distancy.... it's from last Friday at Max's last day at Adventures in Cardboard for the week!
