House UPdate

The weather has been gorgeous. It's officially Indian Summer weather. We took some time off work and the surge has been on to get the siding project done.

We will complete the east end today and proceed to the upper part of our garage.

I painted nearly 60 planks this week. We usually place the freshly painted planks on the unused section of scaffold - but it is being used for its intended purpose right now. I spent most of the afternoon up there yesterday handing off tools to Hubby as he worked from the ladders on either side of the scaffold. While he was cutting the next boards, I was either touching up paint or sketching!

I got to place a few nails with the air nailer. oo-oo-oo

We put a bowl of candy out front because all the little beggers started coming around while we were still working. Their little "twick or tweat" voices sounded so CUTE!

Canadian geese come honking overhead each evening. I can hear them from so far away & suddenly they are overhead.

I signed on for the Art Every Day project & hope to be posting daily this month.

That's why I added the new link over to the right. Time to get back up on the scaffolding....

Great Egret Acrylic Study

This is a study I did last week which was inspired by a photograph taken by Lowell Washburn who is with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources. Mr. Washburn was gracious in giving me permission to use his photo for a reference.

Other than the egret and the general coloration of the water, the rest of the painting came from my imagination. His image was cropped much closer to the bird and with very limited background. I decided I wanted more space and sense of place. I'd like to do a larger version and maybe use watercolors or my NEW Golden Open Acrylics.

This version evolved from one of my "frugal papers". The previous week I took left-over green and purple paints from my palette and smeared them across this linen textured paper with a palette knife. As I stood at my art table late one evening - wanting to just "play" a bit before going to bed - the reference picture caught my attention. Then I realized the colors on the paper would probably make a good foundation for a study of the egret. I think this was successful. I like the mood created by the purple and green.

Christmas Visitors

We made our annual trip to Eastern Iowa where we celebrated Christmas with some of my husband's family on the acreage where he grew up. The birds who come to the feeder are always entertaining, but we had a special treat this year. A group of wild turkeys came for Christmas dinner.

Several Mourning Doves were perched in a nearby tree.

These are some of the shots I took through the deck window since I didn't want to frighten the birds away. I wish I could have captured the beauty of the turkeys' plummage.