I love spring! Well not the bad weather that we can get here in North Texas, but I do love the flowers and butterflies. Thought I would share a few of my favorite photos, all taken this spring. There are just so many flowers and butterflies to paint! I’m pretty sure you will see my vision of some of these on a canvas coming to you in the near future.
I am working away on my pages in my Common Ground Art Journal. These are not only fun to draw and paint, but I am leaning so much about organic gardening, bugs, worms, and butterflies OH MY! The Red Wiggler Earthworms are great for using in a worm farm, they create the worm casting (worm poop to some of us) that is so fantastic on gardens, providing a much needed source of organic fertilizer for those growing veggies. I also took the small watercolors of the Painted Lady and the Gulf Fritillary butterflies I did a couple of weeks ago and put them each on a page. I then sketched and painted in watercolors, some of their caterpillar plant favorites. To attract the Painted Lady butterfly, plant mallow and thistle in a container. To attract the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, plant a passion vine. These plants will attract the butterflies, who will in turn lay their eggs on them; then the caterpillars will have a much loved food source to munch on as they grow. I’m just “sayin” in gardening combined with art, the information is endless, the drawing and painting opportunities abound!
I had a great time painting at the source at Fellowship Church, Saturday night and Sunday morning. It is always so inspirational to be around such creative people. The paint out of the large box was to let people know about the creative nights at Fellowship. This is a large group of creative people, photographers, artists, sculptures, singers, musicians, and digital media artist, just to name a few, that meet about once a month, for an inspirational message and to brain storm ways to use God’s gifts to bring people the message of Christ.
We could paint whatever we wanted to, I of coarse chose to paint flowers and butterflies, one of the other artists painted a fairy and a daisy and inside the box the artists painted peoples faces and some abstract work, it was really interesting to watch the creative flow. As the weeks go by different framed spaces will be added to the box and other artists will add their own unique visions. I can’t wait to see the evolution of the box, I’ll keep you posted.
Buon Giorno Wall
The Funky Finds Experience this past weekend was definetly a different venue. Enjoyed meeting all the different creative people and seeing their wonderful creations. It is so inspiring to see so many folks using their gifts to create. Monday afternoon I took a few paintings and giclees over to the Buon Giorno Coffeehouse to hang on their Gallery Wall through November. Such a nice cozy venue. Drop by, have a cup of coffee and enjoy the artwork.
http://www.buongiornocoffee.net/
The Painted Lady
What a fantastic run. I can not say enough thank you’s to the Gallery at the Discovery Gardens in Fair Park for asking me to exhibit my Paintings at the Discovery Gallery. It was a perfect venue for my pieces; I feel so blessed to have had so many people enjoy my work. It was a very successful show, however bitter sweet to see a few of my pieces go to their new homes. I hope each of those pieces will bring many smiles to their new owners. The following is a portion of an email I received from the folks that made “The Painted Lady” and “Zinnias” theirs:
“we couldn’t leave without not only the Painted Lady ( that I was hoping for) but also the Zinnias . They are now making us smile in my favorite room in the house, my sun room. They are perfect.. fit, subject, style, artistry, and soul. My husband even said, given what you wrote about why you paint , that purchasing them and sharing them with our family and friends is an act of worship. I wanted you to know that they are in good hands and have touched us deeply.”
I feel so blessed that they are going to be enjoyed for many years by such wonderful people. Thank you to all who viewed my work, it was such a pleasure to share my gift with you all.
This is a commissioned piece I just completed for a client. My client, who is the owner of Summer I, incurred some damage to that painting and wanted me to repaint the piece for them. I changed it up a bit and added some new elements. The bold red geraniums and the sun touched sunflowers are still present, but sitting amongst them is a delicate Cloudless Sulphur butterfly, perched atop a geranium; just taking in a few rays. This piece is 48″ x 48″, acrylic on 1 1/2 inch gallery wrapped canvas.
Organic in the City
I am beginning a new painting called “Zebra Longwings” which I will be donating to the Texas Discovery Gardens for their Charity event Organic in the City Fashion Show and Auction. This event is one of the major fund raisers for the Texas Discovery Gardens. Texas Discovery Gardens is an educational organic garden facility in North Central Texas, that advances the knowledge and skill set of the community to restore, conserve and preserve nature in the urban environment. They accomplish this using their conservatory, greenhouse and 7.5 acre outdoor gardens in urban Dallas along with a full array of teaching programs developed for children and adults. Their reach begins with small children and adults new to gardening and continues up to and through the Master Gardener level. Texas Discovery Gardens serves thousands of inner-city students each year. With the opening of the new Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium and the new indoor children’s classroom, Texas Discovery Gardens is now able to offer its EarthKeeper’s® Children’s Education Programs year round. These programs are educational and fun and they promote excitement and interest in learning math and science via the natural world, they expand student knowledge and understanding of living sustainably, and help youth appreciate and embrace nature. The Organic in the City Fashion Show and Auction is an exciting, fun event eagerly anticipated by fashion, gardening and green living advocates. Through this event Texas Discovery Gardens will raise thousands of dollars for the expansion of the children’s EarthKeeper’s programs and to bring Butterfly Gardens to schools across Dallas. For more information on Texas Discovery Gardens and this event, click on the link below.
http://www.texasdiscoverygardens.org
The beginning of Zebra Longwings
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