May and June

It's been so long since I last wrote that I thought I'd break things up into months to let you know what we've been up to!

May was all about the end of the school year for Daniel and me working on commissions, some of which I can't show yet. 

However, Lola growing up was a big part of our summer. We all graduated from puppy school (and by now have forgotten much of what we learned). Lola is such a good dog - she loves to play with her toys, she doesn't chew on anything she isn't supposed to and she is the snuggliest dog we've ever had.

By now, she and Winslow are best buddies and love to hang out together. We have to make sure she doesn't get too wild with old Winslow, but other than that they get along wonderfully!

Other than that, May was all about the garden being at its most beautiful! 

Our fruit trees were coming along nicely as well. The kumquat tree has been blooming all summer and is full of fruit that will be ripe in the winter. 

Our quince tree, which had two quince last year, is full of slowly ripening fruit. We are looking forward to the winter when we can hopefully make a good bit of quince jam.

Which brings me to our fig tree and the month of June. 

In June, the figs started to ripen and we picked several pounds of figs every day, which had to be processed immediately. Luckily, they don't all get ripe at once!

We dried many pounds of them and made jam to last all year. My favorite jam from this batch was with added orange blossom water. So good! The dried figs we use in Muesli and a rye sourdough bread I make that is amazing!

We also gave many figs to friends and I baked a few of these gorgeous fig frangipani tarts. By the end of the month - and about 90 pounds of figs later - we were glad it would be a whole year before the next harvest!

And of course, there has to be some art in my post. These were two commissioned paintings I finished and sent off to France at the end of June.

I'm working on one more large one for this client, which should be done in the next few days. 

I hope you have all been well this summer and have enjoyed a slower pace, the joys of longer days and maybe a vacation. I visited Germany in July and will tell you all about that in my next post!

❧ Silke

Three Paintings in the Works

I'm always working on more than one painting at a time. Actually that goes for anything, really: knitting, crocheting, reading, etc.

The following painting is one I started a while ago. It's rather large and it has been sitting on my easel waiting for me to finish it. Sometimes I get intimidated at this stage in the painting when it's clear what I want to paint and I don't want to mess it up. One of these days, I'll get going again!

Yesterday, I played with more molding paste applied through a stencil, which turned out so beautifully. I am not quite sure where to go from here, but maybe today that'll become clear.

And here is the third piece in progress. Here I applied light molding paste, which has a more porous quality than the regular molding paste. Again, I'm not sure where this is going to go. Abstract pieces are so much harder than anything representational. At least for me. But also lots of fun because there are no rules.

I hope you will have a beautiful Tuesday!

❧ Silke

Acrylics, Watercolors and a Commission

Today's post has a hodgepodge of my art, all of them animals but some are rendered in acrylics and two of them in watercolor, which is a fairly new medium for me.

The next two are the watercolor paintings, which are similar to my acrylics and at the same time much more delicate.

And this last painting is a commission that I painted for my client's sister of her four pets. I sure had fun with this one!

I still have a charcoal drawing to show you and also some of my latest abstract art. Sometimes I feel the need to just experiment with colors, shapes and different mediums.

In the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday!

❧ Silke

So much is happening...

I haven't posted in a while, not because I have nothing to show, but because there is too much going on. Just the thought about writing it all down, finding the photos, getting it all organized seems overwhelming. But here I am!

I've been painting a lot. These are just some of the paintings of the last month. I'm finishing a medium-sized commissioned painting, which is looking really fun. I can't wait to be able to share it with you.

These are all small paintings, which I love to do. I'm also working on three larger ones and I'm sure I'll get more in the works. The ideas just keep coming!

I've also been reading a lot, taking a bunch of online classes, knitting, crocheting, cooking and baking. My life is so full at the moment that I don't find the peace of mind to write it all down. I hope that'll change soon...

I will need to do a separate post for the crocheting and knitting projects I'm working on and have finished lately. They are so much fun!

I want to show you what's growing in our yard - spring has sprung in a big way in Savannah. I want to tell you about some books I've been reading and classes I've been taking.

I need to do a post about a beautiful charcoal drawing I did. As an aside - as much as I love color (and you can tell I do), my other serious love is charcoal. In a big way!  

I'm also always experimenting. Here with high-flow acrylics on watercolor paper.

And here I was playing with watercolor. It's so much softer than the acrylics. I'm not very good at it yet, but I love it!

Lately, I've also felt the nudge to try my hand at oils again. It's been a few years and I had such a good time with them!

In other words I feel so inspired at the moment! Everything seems to open up a new world for me, weather it's looking at a flower in the garden, crocheting a blanket one stitch at a time, reading a great book, baking bread, getting my hands black with charcoal or allowing color to permeate everything.

Life is so good! And I sincerely hope for you as well!!

With love and gratitude,

❧ Silke

Video & Lots of Art

Well, it's been awhile but I'm back with another video and a lot of art! In the video I'll show you a couple of my paintings and also tell you about a class I'm taking and a book I'm reading. So it's not strictly show & tell. If you just want to see my art, I'm showing it all below.

Since my last post, I've finished six little paintings. A chicken,

 a camel (just look at those eye lashes!),

 an otter (I was stunned by the number of whiskers),

 a hedgehog (the cutest!),

a rooster (Happy Chinese New Year),

and a young leopard.

The stag on the other hand is a large painting (24 x 30 inches), which took a while to finish. There's so much to see in all the layers that went into this painting. It looks like worlds within worlds...

In the video I'm talking about a class I'm taking with Jeanne Oliver, called Wild Awakening: Painting Big with Expressive Freedom. It's wonderful!! In one video she suggested we go out in nature to find alternative brushes like branches, leaves and in my case pine needles and cones.

I used them all for mark making and had the best time!

Just look at some of this gorgeous texture!

The result was a stunning and large (12 x 36 inches) emperor penguin!  Just look at that intense expression! They are magnificent creatures!!

I hope you have all been doing well. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been up to these last few weeks!

I'm linking to Paint Party Friday where inspiration always abounds!

❧ Silke
P.S. The book Jeanne Oliver recommended, that I'm talking about in the video is called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.