WILDFLOWERS

Our spring flowers are blooming now and are just beautiful! Since I have been in a flower painting mode the past six months or so, I have been snapping photos like crazy. I carry my camera in the car and sometimes stop by the side of the road and take pictures. My husband wonders how many pictures I need to take of one flower, but I really take pictures from a dozen different angles and with the light coming from all angles. I might take 20-30 pictures of one flower at different times of day and only one or two will suit me for painting.

The past few days I have been taking pictures of iris. The garden center near us has a whole plot of iris in full bloom and I must have taken a zillion pictures in the late afternoon sun. I suspect that I might do an iris series of paintings next.

Below is a picture of a hibiscus that my neighbor grew last summer and invited me down to take pictures. I just took her the finished painting as a gift.

Even with all the packing, I am planning my next paintings in my mind. And Son #3 has ordered a big sofa-sized painting of the beautiful red sandstone breaks of the Llano Estacado. Now where did I pack those large canvases?

At present I am working on a painting of a white rose--never knew so many colors could be in a "white" flower!

PAINTINGS

I have finished several paintings lately and finally got some great pictures of them. I have a new camera and it takes wonderful pictures of my paintings. I will share a few with you. Most are from my "flower period." I saw some oil paintings of single flowers on a black background in Santa Fe last summer and decided to do my own set. I have completed four. I did the rosebud back in the summer and took that picture with my old camera. The others are more recent. The last one I did was the iris and it is my very favorite.

I also did one of a red hibiscus with a green background. It had fun with it!

In the fall I painted a landscape of Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, NM. I took the picture when we were there last June. Bet it does not look that warm there today!

More recently I discovered water colors and am having a grand time exploring the possibilities with that medium. I have not figured out how to achieve the detail with water color that I like, but I am looking forward to seeing what I can learn once the holidays are over. Right now I am up to my ears in creating Christmas gifts, baking, wrapping, decorating.

A Blessed Easter Greeting

Happy Easter!

This morning I went outside and found that my bed of purple iris had an Easter surprise for me. In the flower bed that has always had all purple flowers was a white iris that had bloomed overnight. I was thrilled to find that I had a white Easter iris! My hubby said that it really was an Easter lily, but it surely looks like an iris to me! See what you think:

And I hope that you have a blessed Easter today.