24th Painting - Frosty Boy

Frosty Boy is a local legend. The communitee counts down the days till Spring watching the sign for the "opening ..." After its opened for the season the sign of summer says " ice cream ..." The sign also heralds in the fall season when the sign changes yet again to " closing..." and on to winter with the signage posts as " closed for the season".





The teenagers go "hangout" at Frosty Boy, the adults meet up at Frosty Boy and the elderly give directions with "just past Frosty Boy" in there somewhere.





So when our plein air group decided to paint in my home town, I knew exactly what I wanted to paint! Most of the group (not from there) thought I was crazy when I insisted that although yes, there were tons of great old buildings and landmarks in New Palestine, this was the most famous, and should be painted. Mostly the group conceded and joined me in painting this wonderful place.





It was a beautiful early fall day and we painted well into the afternoon. Usually our plein air group goes virtually unnoticed, not when we were painting Frosty Boy. I think everyone who walked, biked, or drove by us stopped, looked and commented. Adding more and more stories about Frosty Boy. I believe by the end of the day the rest of the plein air group understood why I felt this one was so important to paint.

Btw, incase you noticed the background, in November, a local gallery showed all of the plein air group's paintings in a month long show. It was pretty cool my first show of sorts.

23rd Painting - Thanksgiving-ish

The plein air group I paint with did an inside painting session because the outside weather was not great the last day we were to paint out for 2009 (November). Some of the members brought in some items for a still life and we set up to paint. The only drape we had available was a purple cloth. This was very striking against the bright orange pumpkins. I just couldn't live with it, so I changed the color to a greenish color.

22nd Painting - The light

Landscapes have not been my thing. I like them. Love them even, but I've not done a much with them except as a backdrop for something else. Number 22 changes this. I love it. Love the way the light shines through the trees. It's also a larger one, so that was new too. I've already started another one simular to it. This is one of the many numberous times I wish I took better photos. It, like most of the others look so much better in person.

Riley Days Awards !!!

So I ended up entering 4 paintings this year. Mostly because I couldn'ts decide which one to enter....

I ended up entering #15 (chipmunk), #19 (portrait for the daughterinlaw), #20 (butterfly) and of course #21 (what a view - for the theme of the contest).

So the chipmunk, the earliest work in the bunch, won 1st place and the portrait (#19) won honorable mention.

21st Painting - What a view

Once a year the country seat holds a festival to celbrate the life of James Whitcom Riley. He was a famous not only hoosier poet, but from Greenfield, the county seat. During this yearly festival they hold an art show/contest. (If you've read my posts from last year, you've seen I entered two last year and one 3rd and honerable mention. ) There is a theme each year and they all come from titles of poems that Riley wrote. This year's theme was " from a balloon". The theme is how I came up with this painting.

Reference photo:

And the painting:

20th Painting Butterfly on Coneflower

Ok, I know, months without an update and now 2 in one day, all I can say is I was busy painting... Priorities an all...

My 20th painting is one that I just had to paint. I love butterflies . I love flowers. This reference photo had both. (My thanks to whoever posted it in the wetcanvas reference library)

It's not a large painting, but it still took a bit of time. I was striving for a translucent looks to the wings. I'm not sure I accomplished it, but I do like it a lot anyway.

8" x 10"

19th Painting

The only thing my daughter-in-law asked for for her birthday is a family photo be painted.

This is the result.

It took several months but she is very happy with the result and so am I.