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.

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.

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.

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.

Day 3 . . .

Day 3 : watercolor study snowy field

Doing these quick little studies is a big confidence builder and seeing them on a computer screen lets me see where I have room to improve.

Unless and until my style of watercolor changes, these will probably lean toward the wash with fat detail. Broad strokes of suggested shapes.

The tiny brush I am using for these 2x4 paintings in my little watercolor Moleskine won't allow for much detail that isn't broad. Yes, I have lots of other brushes, tubes of paint and papers but I'm sticking with this little kit for now with its 12 hard cakes of paint. It challenges me to mix cake paint and water to achieve the color and tone I need.
The end.

Snowy cornfield study . . .

A quick watercolor study out the back window. This snowy field took all of 20 minutes. I can see using this as a reference study for other, bigger paintings. Not much detail but just enough of a suggestion to know there is a slight rise in the field and cedars in the hedgerow. This little guy could easily morph into Spring - if that ever comes.

Late Winter . . .

Late Winter

Another one hour (more or less) painting I did last night.  I had a strip of watercolor paper that was going to be used as a test strip, something I keep at hand when painting so I can see value and color on paper before I apply what I've mixed on my brush.  But I loved the size (3ish by 8ish) so I taped it to my board and dug into my photos to see what worked.

I'm hooked on Nebraska and South Dakota landscapes right now after our little trip over Mother's Day weekend to the Black Hills by way of the Nebraska Sandhills.  I wish I knew how far we could see into the distance as the low hills and bluffs faded away into grey and pale blue sky.  Twenty miles?  Thirty miles?  More?  The expanse gave us a sense of how small we really are in comparison, you know, and I could not quit taking pictures of it all.  For me, the mountains just got in the way of the view and almost all of my photos are of the broad expanses of grasslands and skies.

This particular scene is no more than 50yds from my front door, however, Big Traveler that I am.  A late winter snow was coming in from the west and I put on my parka and ventured out the drive to the middle of the gravel road and took this photo.  The sky was lowering and grey and in the distance the snow was starting to blur the horizon, not yet blanketing the fields and cedars.  Love playing with skies and atmosphere and remembering that a sky doesn't have to be blue to be expressive.

And this . . .

#3

From a picture I took last winter when we actually had snow on the ground.  
Eddie giving rides off the farm strip in the Cub. 

Watercolor #3 and having a ball

Old dog - new tricks

Trial and error. 

Surprise . . .

SURPRISE!

Yeah, this was supposed to be 37 degrees and light rain mixed with snow.  Blizzard warning west of here 100 miles or so and this is what we got.  

8"-10" of heavy white stuff and 45mph winds.

Blizzard stuff.

We were so dumbfounded that we didn't even put our cars into the garage.  That's right, the garage is completely empty of cars and our cars are somewhere in the drifts.  There's my poor ol' TransAm in a bowl of a drift in front of an empty garage.

Plans for the day?  Dig a path to the hot tub.  'Cause we're gonna need it.

And it's predicted to be in the 70's by Friday.
 Suuuure it is . . .

Crazy Snow . . .

 Crazy.  We don't usually get this kind of snow until January or February.

Eddie is all snug in his shop getting the BobKitty ready to push snow for us and our surrounding neighbors.

 The farmette - snow was just starting late in the afternoon.

My front porch!  There is an equal amount of snow on all four of the porches of this house, the wind is blowing so hard! Usually one side gets it all but this time, the snow is equal opportunity.

Yeah.  I need to shovel off the hot tub first, for sure.  I have a feeling it will come in handy by the end of day. 

Oh I really should not have opened that door . . . 

What we do on Snow Days in Nebraska

Eddie making a low pass

Okay, we don't do this EVERY time it snows but when the snow is right and the day is right and the Cub is on skis . . . yep.  Can't hold 'em back.

Over the barn

Seriously perfect snow!

And back to the farm

Snow day . . .

 This winter just never got off the ground here in Davey, Nebraska so we really got what we deserved today.  Yep, temps hit 70 earlier in the week and now we have wet, heavy snow with the threat of 8" additional.

At least I won't have to water.

 Finches sing my praises.

Today I am their Queen.

Their seed bearing Queen.

Spring turkeys . . .

We looked up from the dining room table this quiet Sunday morning and here they all came, marching up from the field and into the backyard, politely single file, gobbling and carrying on like they had important things to say and do.  Hilarious! 

You should hear them all talking to themselves and scaring the barn cats half to death.  Sort of a fun (and giggly!) way to start Sunday, no?

Every mouse deserves a chance . . .

I'm a softie.  I keep heated bowls of water on the front porch, the back porch and in the barn but I'll be the first to say these are really for the cats - ours and an occasional raccoon or opossum.  

However.  As I was sweeping the snow off the front porch this morning (yes, it was not yet zero degrees), I notice the tiny footprints leading up to and around the water bowl.  Mouse prints.  Darling little mouse prints.  Now I feel like I should provide a tiny ladder and a rock in case someone slips and falls in.

Yep.  Big time sucker.

Ya gotta believe it when the sign says . . .

Yes, the sign says ROAD CLOSED and yes, that is a truck at the top of the hill but this guy thought he was smarter than the sign. m.m.m.m.m.m - nope, he isn't.

On a brighter note, temps are going to be in the mid-30s this week. Ah . . .

Wordless Wednesday . . .