My local art association is having a fundraiser. I agreed to make some artwork on six-by-six canvases that will be sold for $66 each at the event.
Because of the small size of the canvas, I decided that I would paint only small creatures. This choice allows me to make them life size. Last month I completed a butterfly and a nest full of sparrows. This weekend I am painting a hummingbird. I was inspired to paint one in a hand when a woman at our farmer’s market presented me with a hummingbird she had found on the ground. The bird was alive, but stunned. She wondered what to do with it. I suggested she find a place in the shade of a tree where the bird could recover safely.
The image of that tiny, but alive bird in her hand lingered in my memory. Today I finished a six by six painting that depicts the event.
SHE OFFERED ME A HUMMINGBIRD
The hand model was me.
I used a photo on Unsplash taken by Osvaldo Pompa for the hummingbird reference.
For my final submission to the fundraiser, I cut down a painting that I completed in 2020 and attached it to the six-by-six canvas.
LITTLE GREEN BUG
This cute beetle was crawling around on the brick planter in front of my house. I snapped some photos and did the painting. While I loved rendering the bug, the real challenge for me was painting brick, mortar and shadows. I’m pleased that after four years I still like this painting. It’s on cheap watercolor paper with student-grade paints. A few lines with an ultra-fine sharpie did well for the legs and antennae.
I’ll turn these in next week. Hopefully someone will be willing to buy them for $66.
Sometimes Life sends you a gift. Late last week, my husband and I decided it was time to go camping. We needed the therapy of the great outdoors. He checked online and discovered that the fishing lakes in Kansas are still open to the public. After reviewing the weather forecast, we chose Tuesday, April 7 for our outing. The weather would be dry and the temperatures mild.
He is an avid fly fisherman and hadn’t dropped a fly in the water for ten months. I don’t care for fishing, preferring to sit at the lake’s edge and enjoy more passive activities. I brought a book, my sketching supplies and a pile of tangled yarn to straighten out.
We arrived around eleven a.m. at our favorite Kansas lake. At that time, there was almost no one else there. It was glorious – the sun glinting on the water, the fresh breeze blowing off the water and the trees just barely showing leaves. He was off like a shot in his float tube and I got out my sketch book.
Willow at Lake Montgomery April 2020Sycamore tree at water’s edgeBluebirds nesting in hollow branch
This is the first outdoor sketching I have done since getting interested in drawing last year. I found the experience very relaxing. The goal of the plein-air sketch is just to capture some basic information about what you see. It’s after you bring the sketches back to your studio that you can turn them into more detailed drawings. These bluebirds intrigued me. I had never seen a pair as such close range, and never seen them nesting in nature.
Here’s the yarn I untangled. It used to be a cabled glove in process. I decided to abandon the project completely and start over with the green wool.
After cooking and eating dinner, the sun was beginning to set. Eager to see it up close we strolled along the lakeshore toward the western part of the lake. Bill took still images and made a few videos of the gorgeous sky and its reflection in the water. Once the show was over, we turned and proceeded back along the shore, now looking east.
We were astonished at what happened next. The full moon, now rising just below tree tops, sliding up through the gathering mist of the lake, and soon in full view, was huge. With the fading of the sun, the sky turned from blue to indigo to deep purple. The moon changed from pink to orange to gold, and then paled out to white.
What a lucky surprise, we said to each other. We hadn’t been expecting a full moon, and certainly not one of such beauty. Returning to the campsite, he built up the fire and we sat quietly waiting for night to fall. By around nine o’clock, the light of the moon was so intense we could still discern colors. The moon shadows of not only our bodies but also of everything around us were crisply outlined on the ground.
We retired to bed. The moonlight’s glow penetrated the tent walls. It never did get dark that night. And it certainly never got quiet. It seems that the full moon in April is the time specified by Nature for every frog in the county to go a-courting. I have never heard such a raucous sound coming from the lake. It out-shouted the cattle lowing, the coyotes barking and the owls whooing. I called them laughing frogs, but really it sounded more like the din of a sports bar during the biggest game of the year.
Despite the noise, we slept. We woke just in time to see the sun rise over the still, glassy lake. Another moment that will be etched deeply into our collective memories.
Stellar weather today. The temperatures are in the mid 50s, with sunshine and no wind. It was a perfect afternoon for walking. We went to the Pathfinder, which winds its way through the floodplain along the river. I brought my Canon camera and got a few shots that could serve as reference photos for future drawings.
Over the river. Beautiful lines, shadows and colors.Interesting perspectiveGreat reflections on the pond and fine color contrast between banks and water. The trees in the foreground frame the shot.Really lovely bark texture and brilliant green moss.
Back home for a cup of tea with biscuits (also known as cookies to those of us who live in the States.) The number of days with gorgeous weather this year is about over.
Daily Fiber 