Art and More

I'm late with this week's post, but I have a good excuse. Sunshine! And warm temperatures. It's been gorgeous this weekend and I have spent much time outside. I'll have some outdoor photos later in my post, but first this week's art!

This mountain lion just wouldn't come together, so I just kept working at it and adding more layers and wiping them off and adding another. And suddenly, there it was! Beautiful and intense.

The swans are somewhat unusual. They look like they are floating under disco lights. Strangely enough, I painted them around Valentine's day. Totally unintentional and very heart-shaped!

The gorilla took a little while, plus one revision after I thought it was done. I had to lighten the background to make the face stand out a little more. I had fun with this one and the swan painting using my stencils. I used them to apply paint and also wiped off layers of paint with rubbing alcohol through the stencil and got some great texture that way.

I love this snake! It looks as intense as it probably is. I'm happy I don't see them in the wild too often. In fact, having lived in areas heavily populated by poisonous snakes, I have only ever seen three in nature. And none of those times was I in any danger. I'm very glad!

The following four photos are of the backgrounds I prepared for this next week's small paintings. All of them have two layers of high-flow acrylic paint.  I'm hoping they will be just as beautiful when they are all finished.

This next photo just makes me laugh. One of my dear friends from childhood sent us two espresso cups from Germany. One smiles and the other one sports this sad, sad face. I was sitting at the table and noticed the ceramic woman a friend brought back for us from Santiago de Compostela in Spain last year. She, too, looks so very sad. It had quite the opposite effect on me and had me giggling and reaching for my camera.

Daniel has been beyond busy with work and this weekend I made him drive to Tybee Island with me and go for a walk on the beach. He was brave and walked in the water even though the ocean is still very cold. It looks like we were the only ones there, but the beach was full of people who had the same idea. It was wonderful and somehow makes us feel more relaxed instantly!

The artist in me always notices things in nature that I would have overlooked before getting into art.

Here I was totally enamored by these tree forms the waves left in the sand. Aren't they pretty?

Speaking of nice weather, we've put a bit of time into our yard this weekend and planted several kinds of lettuce, parsley, cilantro, kale, zinnias and poppies. The poppies never come up, yet we put out seeds every year in hopes that maybe this year will be different. We'll see. The zinnias always do exceptionally well and give us cut flowers for the house all summer long. Can't wait!!

I took these photos this morning in our yard. The daffodils are blooming, the kumquats are ready to be eaten, the yarrow is starting to flower and a few azalea buds are getting ready to open. They won't really bloom until mid-March, but they are announcing that spring is coming!

On that note, I hope you are seeing sings of spring where you are. I know that the weather hasn't been great in northern Europe where many of my family and friends live. I wish I could bottle up some sunshine and warmth for you who live there...

I wish you sunny days, a happy heart and flowers to bring you joy! Until next week...

❧ Silke