The view I will never tire of . . .

I have painted this scene across the road from us a dozen or more times.

Each time, it will sell at the next art show. Go figure.

It's the view outside my shop window and it changes weekly.

This week the dried blonde distant field is slowly greening while the rusty Bluestem is remaining red. Last Spring this field was burned to clear out the weeds and it came back beautifully.

Waiting for the grass to lie down and the green grass to overtake it again.

I cannot get enough of this view.

 And time to start on a few flower watercolors - out of my element kind of.

I tend to stick with landscapes and buildings that allow me more looseness.

The flowers seem to tighten my hand and it will be good to make myself loosen up and let the water do the work.

Mums in a vase. Reference photo from the new Pottery Barn catalogue.

Below - iris stems. I'll try this one again in more iris colors. These are a little too rose-y.

Too critical?

Daily inspiration . . .

I get inspiration from all places if I pay attention but one of my favorite places
is a daily post on Facebook by one of my friends, Katherine Endacott.

She posts a daily photo of her surroundings and calls it Good morning, Pleasant Dale.
Usually a photo of the fields around her home or of a drive into town, she uses her iPhone
as her instrument and takes the most beautiful shots
of whatever inspires her. 

Yesterday was such a day that she inspired me to paint this foggy, snowy, grey field
with a few cows sprinkled in for Nebraska-ish elements. 

I'll be doing this scene a number of times as it is stuck to me like glue.

Cashing in on Christmas . . .

"Ed's Road"

You guys.

I got the best thing for Christmas.

Well, every Christmas.

I ask for a gift certificate to a locally-owned art shop and I always get what I ask for.

This year I took my $50 and bought the big set of Derwent watercolor pencils and I'm so excited!

That $50 put a only small dent in the cost but SO worth it!

So here you go.

New work.

New watercolor techniques.

Detail and wash.

Aquabord.

Exploration.

The last show of the 2016 Holiday Season . . .

The Lincoln Craftacular!

This is the first year I've been able to do this show and what a night!

People came ready to BUY!

I LOVE my little antique table!
And those boxes and advertising memorabilia always make me clutch my pearls.
Mink Chow - love.

If I had had time to take pics of the crowd, I would have but it was busy from the time the opened the doors at 4:00 to those early shoppers to 9:00 when we all began packing.

Over 80 artists and crafters with an incredible array of work.

I think (I think) I was the only watercolor artist there (woohoo!) so for sure I hope to be invited back next year.

Did I mention that the temps outside hovered around 5? These folks were BRAVE!






So much sold tonight including a few that I have really grown attached to.
I'm never sure if people understand the attachment to and the meanings behind these little paintings.
I hope so.
These have found some wonderful homes.

Surprise snow days . . .

The forecast - light rain, maybe a flurry. The end result - 6" of wet snow. But what a great day to warm up the shop and clear the bench for watercolor playtime.

With flakes falling as big as chicken feathers, staying in and watching the cedars change was enough inspiration to experiment with faded greens and foggy distance. Learning how to pale out the snow and fog is more than just adding water - it's greying out a color and learning value differences.

You know how some sketchbook artists can hold up their sketchbook to show you the lovely scene they just painted? Well, apparently that's an acquired skill. Or maybe my scene was too far away. And photographing with your phone in one hand and your painting in the other, all the while trying to bring the background scene into focus so it all makes sense? Harder than it looks. Trust me. You can barely make out the scene across the road. And the Burning Bush at the end of our drive? Pssshh.

I love this old Mulberry.

Twigs and leaves . . .

Why oh why does this remind me of the phrase:

Eats shoots and leaves?

These are quick little studies done after a trip to the yard to see 

what's dropped overnight.

Actually, lots.

I hate to see the leaves go but excited to see what they reveal.

It's hard to see through all of that greenery sometimes

and I'm one who enjoys grey days and leafless trees.

Not always. Only in the late fall.

The droppings for today:

Mulberry Tree

Pin Oak 

Sumac

Elm Tree

Inktober Day 4 . . .

Inktober : Day 4

Prompt : Hungry

I've chosen just a portion of what I used for the 'hungry' prompt.

An empty bowl.

This sketch has the feel of the political cartoons you see on the editorial page, I think.

Only this portion pleased me - the handle.

The rest was just a bowl.

So now I'm only a day behind. Or two since today is 6 October.

Inktober . . .

October = Inktober

New month, new challenge. 

A pen and ink drawing every day for 30 days (yeah, right) 

and a list of prompts to help spur me on.

Still, once in a while something like this comes along that artists like me are inspired to participate in just to get creative juices flowing.

 Day 1 : Fields here in the Great Plains are being harvested. The cut corn looks sheared like carpet. Little piles of corn that missed the grain trucks are on the sides of the gravel roads. Grain trucks lined up at the elevators in queues a mile long. Here on the prairie is where the work of providing food for the world is done.

Day 2 : The prompt word is 'noise' and leaves constantly dropping all around is the inspiration. On a dry patch of what used to be mud but is now cracked earth is a single leaf from an old mulberry tree. Leaves crackle as they blow across the rough dirt. In short order, the trees will be nearly bare and the ground covered with mulberry, maple, oak, and leaves from all of the shrubs and plum thickets.

Day 3 : The prompt word is 'collect' so I arranged three of my little collection of lustreware bird toothpick holders. I can't resist buying one of these guys whenever I find one (rarely) and I do think they're pretty cute.

Each of these three drawings has reminded me of the lessons in composition, value, and sensitivity in line. Lots more to learn but these challenges are so valuable in the process of art.

Across the gravel road . . .

The beautiful, ever-changing view across the gravel road from our farmette.

This scene moves easily from full on snow in January and February to patchy snow in late winter, pale greens in the spring, tall Big Bluestem in summer months, and the eventual blonding heads turning rusty red when summer's over.

I love every month and season of this view and have been thankful for every year we have lived here that the land is protected CRP, never having been broken.

To think that this is the same field that was burned off in the spring to eradicate weeds and was so soon green again is wonderful to have witnessed.

I will be painting this same scene again with the fall colors and quite possibly a few of the blackened earth during the spring burn.

The little green bungalow . . .

Such a sweet little house.

I shouldn't call it 'small' since I've never been inside and it isn't mine,

but I know the neighborhood and the homes are darling.

Quaint, cozy, perfect.

This bungalow belongs to a friend who asked me to paint it in watercolor when I had time.

I finally had time.

I have two photos of it - one winter and one summer.

The summer house has 4th of July bunting and is beautiful and lush.

But there was something still about the home after a snowfall.

Tight and grounded. Clean and composed.

I love this setting with the pretty green against the grey skies, the hinted-at shapes 

of the trees and foliage.

She loves it and I can't wait to see it framed and in her home.

Love.

Lazy . . .

So.

Tell the truth.

Is it lazy to spend a summer morning indoors deep in watercolor?

Summer gauze . . .

I saw the word 'gauze' used to describe the early morning haze in their photograph this morning and it gave me pause.

That's exactly what summer days are - layered in gauze.

From early morning through the humid summer heat - all shrouded in gauze.

Yesterday I took up the brush and sprayed my palette and made the decision to use a different color than the typical cobalt or indigo for summer sky.

The sultry heated haze was pale yellow making the distant trees golden.

Even the greens are muted when clouded with heat shimmer.

*

June . . .

A new month - a renewed beginning.

I am finally organizing my work so I can post new work on my BigCartel shop site.

This is the hardest thing for an artist, I believe.

To take time every day to photograph and market their work.

How will the world ever see these sweet little works if I don't make time?

New month - new attitude.

It's all out there.

Soldered glass watercolor pendants . . .

All ready for one of my favorite shows this Sunday.

Art & Soup benefit for the Visiting Nurse Association in Omaha.

I have packed 50+ watercolors and 20+ oil paintings and these.

I had so many little pieces  of watercolor paper left from cutting paper to the right sizes for bigger works that I hated throwing them away.

I started painting these little paintings - 1" square to 3/4"x2" - and suddenly I had a pile.

What to do?

My darling friend Rachel Two Dog Pond gave me a one on one lesson.

Lucky me!

So $200 later for equipment and gorgeous rolo chain, here we are.

Ready for their first showing tomorrow.

Good luck to me!

Before the snow goes away . . .

One last chance to play in the snow before it all goes away.

The Cub on skis

Ed finds the Honda 50 and snow irresistible.
But unmanageable.









Which reminds me of this little beauty from two years ago.

Mini.masterpieces . . .

Are these the sweeting little things?

I have a pile of clipped edges from earlier works where I needed something

to fit into a particular size.

You know. Tailings.

Pieces that I usually use for testing colors and strokes when I paint.

So as if my work could not get any smaller,

I decided to paint some tiny scenes.

Cool.

What to do with them?

I asked my darling friend Rachel 'Two Dog Pond' to teach me

how to tin with solder and darling friend that she is, she did.

Now I can add truly 'wearable art' to my collection!

I am preparing for Art & Soup in Omaha in February and these should be a

wonderful addition to my landscape watercolors and oils.

Affordable and totally wearable.

On another note, it's time to update my etsy shop with my paintings.

I have decided that I would not set up another shop there

but add these paintings to it.

Others have been successful in blending two different media or more into one 

and I'm ready to give it a shot.

Mostly, I just need to get it all out there.

I've tried a couple of shows and it's going well so this is the time to get it really out there.

Time.

Project Next . . .

Project Next : Miniature watercolor on teabags

Yeah, I know.

You're saying, 'lynn, you haven't completed your 30 paintings in 30 days, yet'.

True, I have not.

But this is prep work for the next challenge.

Drinking a lot (and I mean a LOT) of tea lately.

I'm saving the bags and drying them on the back of the sink.

So attractive in the kitchen.

Who cares.

It's an art sacrifice.

Once dry, I cut the top of the backside where the staple is,

shake out the used tea and glue stick the top back together.

With a dried paper empty teabag, I will paint miniature watercolors.

Objects, landscapes, patterns and designs.

I was hoping to put these all into a little notebook.
A Moleskine.

Maybe framable as little works of art?

I have a friend who is a framer in a small shop and it will take his eye to help out here but I'm thinking they could turn out kinda cool.

We'll see.

Until then : Merry Christmas, kids! 

Love, the Locals Show . . .

 This little show was a sweet surprise!

Organized by a group of four crafty friends and carefully curated to include

the freshest, hippest work out there,

it attracted young modern people who appreciate

well done work and things that they would love to have in their homes.

I was beyond impressed that Lincoln was home to any of these folks!

Lots of young families

(I've never seen so many little ones and pregnant moms!)

and it was just exciting to see.

The venue? Gorgeous!
It was held in the restored Wyuka Cemetery Stables. Brick courtyard with inward-facing stable doors (garage doors now) so you had an open center breezeway with huge stable doors opening into the courtyard. There were two big rooms on either side that held 23 artist spaces.

Beautiful. I want to move in.












I'll bet that next year they find bigger digs. 


There were over 1000 people in attendance and with the popularity of this show, they'll need it!

My work fit in (altho' I think I was the oldest artist there - freaky) and keeping it fresh and light will be key


Exactly my style.

In the Nick of Time . . .

In the Nick of Time

I'll just leave this here and come back later for details.

I'm back! Details.
I'm not sure where my reference photo came from but I loved the fresh cut wheat in rows.
The little town in the distance is from a photo I took while driving
back from Brainerd, Minnesota last month.
So iconic here on the Great Plains.
The white houses, a few steeples, and
grain elevators.
The storm on the horizon is nothing out of the ordinary for folks
out here in the middle of the country so to add it to
this painting was natural.
Always trying to stay one step ahead of Nature.
And with that, I need to head out to take in the last
of the garden, pull up tomato plants and okra and chop
out the invasive chives.
Who gave me that evil clump of chives, anyway?

Detail : 10"x10"
Oil on canvas

Roadside daylilies . . .

Roadside

Ah, yes.

Practice.

I just can't tweak the foliage any longer.

At some point, I will paint this again.

When my hand gets looser and more confident, I'll try the daylilies one more time.

For now, I still have the essential barns and outbuildings

that I see all day every day.

And that's good.

Figuring out how to release the flowers will be my challenge

for now and in paintings to come.

Still, I like the composition and color.

It's coming. It's coming.

Detail : Oil on canvas

6"x6"