Bee Yourself

"Bee Yourself"
7.5" x 7.5"
Pastel on paper

I saw this bee and knew I would have to try to paint him. I liked his furry thorax, the glint in his eye, the translucent shadow he cast on the petals, and his leaded glass wings.  Yup, this was a challenge I'd rise to, with thick pieces of chalky pastel. 

This is my offering for the weekly Challenge on Dailypaintworks.

Carol

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Snowed In

"Snowed In"
24" x 36"
Acrylic on canvas

The cabin was tucked into a cranny  on the edge of a pine forest. The lane had been plowed several times, but was about to succumb to erasure via snowdrift. 

This is an acrylic painting I did a few years ago while watching snowflakes blanket my zip code here in Illinois.  It's a colorful snow scene.

Carol

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Ms Scarecrow

"Ms Scarecrow"
16" x 20"
Watercolor on paper

Once the crops were harvested and she no longer had to keep the pesky birds at bay, Ms Scarecrow stood and waited. She waited patiently, albeit, propped, day after day, for someone to come along to stimulate and entertain her, to make her smile, at least make her think of smiling, since she never really had a face to begin with.  

Here's a watercolor from a few years ago. When I taught watercolor, these were the things I liked to demonstrate; weathered wood, rusted metal, crinkled leaves, snowy fields and fabric.  I loved to tell stories with those items.

Carol

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Sunbeams

"Sunbeams"
7.5" x 10.5"
Pastel on paper

My path through the hazy pine forest was lit by a swath of sunlight. The sunbeams streaked between trunks and boughs to entice me to a particular spot, right over ... there.  

Pastels were my medium of choice today as I looked at subject matter from a recent trip. 

Carol 

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Duck, Feet

 "Duck, Feet"
20" x 14"
Watercolor on paper

It was the seventies, the wall was avocado, and so was the shower curtain. It was a rental unit, so I couldn't change it, except in my mind.  I never was much for subtleties or understatement.   

Here is another of the paintings I became reacquainted with over the weekend. I painted this one in 1978 when I was single and could loll in the tub.  It hangs in a prominent place in Wisconsin where it raises lots of questions.

Carol

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Passionate

"Passionate"
8" x 10"
Oil on hardboard

The sky was filled with a glorious light that burnished every surface with a golden patina. I love this quiet time of day when nature exhibits her version of how passion looks. 

No matter how I adjusted it, I couldn't get the sky color here to match that in the painting, where it's a drabbed periwinkle, not cobalt blue. The rest of it is reasonably close, however.

Carol

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My Secret Garden

"My Secret Garden"
22" x 30"
Watercolor on paper

Gardens exist where there is no soil, no seeds, no toil, no weeds. Gardens flourish without season, or reason in the greenhouse of my mind. 

This was an exercise in painting soft, hard, lost and found edges.  Flowers floated in and out of focus in my mind as I committed this piece to paper.

Carol

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