April 26 - Skies Over Sylvan Meadows, 12 x 9 Oil

The second of the two paintings done on location on Wednesday--found out that there were others there painting, but we didn't get in contact/phone numbers in time, so Betty and I just painted our brushes off and then went to dinner. This one happened later in the afternoon, when the "mare's tails" of clouds were coming in to indicate a change of weather. Wonderful skies, and Betty is such a sky painter, that it was fun to do one while she was nearby.

Today I said goodbye, as she left for parts north on her way home to Idaho. I'll miss her, but we both benefited greatly from the time together, and she stored about 25 of her paintings here for the show this September! They'll continue to inspire me.

One of my little paintings from 2006 is going to be in an 8th grade English literature textbook to be published next fall. Funny how stuff happens. I paint a pair of socks because I run out of new ideas for subjects to paint, and THAT painting is selected for publication! Amazing who is coming through my web sites, isn't it? It's going to be tied to a poem about socks. It's from the month of August 2006 (opens new page), created on the 25th of that month, so scroll down.
I'm getting ready to start the big paintings after I finish up one commission, and I'll do those as lesson pieces for your enjoyment.

For some reason several of you haven't been receiving "the dailies" and I haven't been able to figure out what's going on. I hope that the glitch in the 'net is open again. I would always check the blog if I've missed a day. The link is below.

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April 25 - Sylvan Meadows Water Trough, Oil

On location this afternoon painting with Betty Billups, who will be leaving after a grand visit with me for the past month. I'll miss her humor and good friendship. We went up to my favorite places to paint, the Santa Rosa Ecological Preserve near Murrieta, hoping to meet up with other Plein Air Artists of Riverside (PAAR). A horseback rider said she'd seen one other, but we didn't find her. Now I've brought Raindance up here to ride myself, and know the area well. Thus I decided to paint the water trough where well water comes in and over flows to water the thirsty horses. This is a 10 x 8 oil, and will be up on my ebay store in a couple of days.
Interesting that using a new tripod had me standing to paint, and I can see the difference in my horizon lines in this piece. The horizon line is well up above the mid-point of the painting. (This is good.)
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