Art and Much More

Another week has passed and it's been a busy one. It's also been a week where spring has arrived complete with sunshine, warm air - a few days felt downright summery - and tree pollen, which is giving everything a thick dusting of light green and making many people sneeze.

I've been busy painting. Small paintings like this horse. Can you see it in the background photo below?

Another small painting - a fun bird!

I saw him right away in the shapes of the background below.

This was the final small painting of this last week. Love the closeup of the owl face. The horse and the owl have already flown off to their new homes. This little paintings don't stick around for long. I'm grateful!  

Now here finally is the finished large painting of the alligator and his friend, the kingfisher. This is such a fun canvas size - 12 x 36 inches (31 x 91 cm).

I loved painting this keeping my palette to three colors plus white: Naphthol Red, Payne's Grey and Phthalo Green (blue shade). 

The funny thing is that I started the background with the red and blue because I still had a lot on my palette from another painting and didn't want to waste it.
Then I liked it so much that I only added the green for the gator and left it at that. I like both challenges - using many colors and making it work or using only two or three.

This was a very quick sketch for a larger painting I want to do soon.  I liked her pose.

Aside from making art, I went to the beach one morning just for a long walk. It was so beautiful. 

 The sun was shining and it was warm. Even warm enough to walk barefoot and put my feet in the (still cold) water.

Then, one evening I met Daniel in town after he was done teaching and we spent some time at our favorite rooftop restaurant/bar on the Savannah River.

We were in luck in that two big container ships made their way past us.

A perfect evening!

Of course with the warmer weather nature is exploding and with that our garden. Even the frogs are coming out of hibernation... 

And our fig tree, which last week was still completely bare, now is full of leaves and already has little figs growing. How amazing is that?!

I'm linking - as usual - to the fun and always inspiring Paint Party Friday. It's always an inspiration to visit everyone's beautiful art blogs!

And to you all a beautiful, warm, sunny and creative week!!

With love and joy,

❧ Silke

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

Bits and Pieces

Happy Friday to you all! I cannot believe how fast a week goes by! Today I have a few things to share with you in addition to some art.

1. The flowers and plants in our garden are finally starting to come alive again. I took some pictures after a rain (which seems to happen daily at the moment - a very wet spring for us), that were just too pretty not to share.

2. Daniel found this amazing little abandoned wasp nest in our garden the other day. Isn't it perfect?

It now lives with the two huge dead bugs on our piano.

In good company!

3. Here is the progression of a pet portrait I worked on as a commission. As usual, I just started with some colors and shapes. These were so pretty!  

Then I did a very rudimentary sketch and started with the eyes. I always start with the eyes.

Then some more color and definition.

And finally, after all the shading, adding more color and some detail, Zachy was finished.

Zachy is Winslow's best buddy and he has a sweetness about him that I tried to capture in the painting. Winslow and Zachy thought I did a good job...

If you would like me to paint your pet, just send me an email (the link is in my profile) for the details.

4. It's actually been warm enough on a couple of days to go take a walk on the beach. Barefoot!

 It was glorious! Although the cold water made me jump when I put my feet in.

Not Daniel. He loves walking through the water, no matter what temperature.

5. The newest member of our family. He came to us from the storm drain on our street, wet during a rain storm, with a wound on his cheek and bad ear mites. We kept him outside at first and checked around if someone was missing him. He is quite young and very sweet. When the nights got very cold, we took him inside (he wouldn't go into the garage with our two outdoor cats) and discovered that he loves both Winslow and Ramses. It seems it was meant to be. The vet thought that someone probably moved and didn't take him, something that's inconceivable to me.

Meet Peabody!

And with that I wish you a beautiful weekend, an even better week ahead and as much joy in your life as you can stand!

I'm linking this to the amazing folks at Paint Party Friday and at I Heart Macro.

With lots of love and appreciation for you all,

❧ Silke