After the Rain

I am forever drawn to a glorious skyscape!  I don't often take the time to paint them, because it means dropping everything on a time to capture the sky.  So, today I am making that effort, and hope to do more of this.  There's nothing like practice to improve those skills!  Painting number 3370 in 3370 days. 

Wild Sunflowers

I LOVE finding wild roadside sunflowers blooming profusely!  I try to grow some each year just so I can paint them and bring them in for arrangements. This year, however, a GIANT plant of them - almost 300 blooms - blew over in a storm, snapping the base off low!  These beauties withered and faded before they could really be captured in paint, much to my dispare!  So once again, I am left hunting them up along the road, to paint their beauty before summer is gone!  I think next year I'll cage them - to shield them from the strong wings on this hill!  Painting number 3170 in 3170 days. 

Bee and Bachelor Buttons

SOLD

When asked for another painting just like this for the current Flint Hills show at the Buttonwood Art Space, I searched on my blog for the image for reference.  I try to always get a shot on location, which gives me all the information I need to paint another.  Well, I couldn't find it.  I did not post anything about this painting.  In fact, the only reference I could find was the submission photo for the current show!  I often paint so many more paintings than one a day, and who knows how many I forget to even photograph.  Painting number 2490 in 2490 days. 

Glory in the Sky

I am constantly drawn to the cloud show appearing in the skies above me.  Distracted while driving, weeding, or at any outdoor event - I feel a compulsion to drop everything and capture the beauty in paint!  So often the light is fleeting, so I rush in to mark the colors first, followed by the highlights, and finish with the shadow tones. I find these remain longer than the rest, so I can mark the areas quickly and return as I pull it all together.  Perhaps I should do a painting challenge on the heavens - 100 skies in 100 days?  Maybe then I would be comfortable with  these cloud scenes!  Painting number 2431 in 2431 days.

Flint Hills Sunset

The Kansas terrain is so very different than Missouri - especially a couple hours past the state line.  The air is drier, the colors are also cooler, less green, less yellow, and there are wide open spaces without trees to paint under!  That was probably the most surprising, because I can find shade anywhere I paint, normally!  I love exploring new places with paint, it is truly the best way to immerse myself!  I can look at those paintings years later, and remember everything about that place, right down to the sites, smells and weather.  Funny how deep that connection is!  Painting number 2428 in 2428 days.

August Sunset

The colors of the sunset are fleeting and can be a real challenge to nail down quickly.  Using Richeson oils, I laid down thick strokes of paint to echo what I saw in the sky.  I really like how creamy these paints remain, no matter how long they stay on my palette.  Some of my "worms" of paint have been on there since December, when I first started using their oil paint. They don't seem to oxidize as quickly as some of my others, and I love that.  I put my palette in the freezer every night, and I have yet to scrape skins off any color other than brown. Pretty awesome.  Painting number 2427 in 2427 days.

Bee and Black Eyed Susans

These sunny yellow blooms may just be my favorite to pop up in pasture and prairie!  Their cheerful faces are a welcome sight, and their bloom time is amazing.  These sturdy flowers last forever in a vase, too!  I use both India and Levenger Raven Black ink to sketch the lines.  Laying in the masses with my Watercolor Confections, I return with a little ink where needed.  Sometimes I forget to get that photo in the field, and I'm liable to forget lots of things in the days leading up to Michaela's wedding! Painting number 2426 in 2426 days.

Heavy with Grapes

On this very hot day in the Flint Hills, I was fortunate to have a pop up tent, graciously provided for me by the owner of the winery.  I had planned to set up in the shade for the day's festivities, but this view of the vineyards was only gained from the full sun!  This vine was heavy with white grapes - so fun to paint!  Painting number 2398 in 2398 days.

Vineyard in the Flint Hills

This is the first time I've painted a vineyard with the Flint Hills in the background!  It was 97 degrees with a heat index of 106 - very toasty indeed!  Bob and his Prairie Fire Winery were wonderful hosts - even delivering sangria to us artists!  His pop up tent was a lifesaver for me today - and allowed me to paint in the vineyard with this amazing view!  Painting number 2374 in 2374 days.

A Distant Rain

I love the misty atmosphere that envelops the landscape with an approaching rain.  Up on a hill like this, I can watch that rain for miles as it moves across the prairie.  Every sky is different, and each cloud holds it's own color.  The heaviness is part of that local color, as is the reflected light bouncing up from the ground. This sky has layers of clouds - and even a lovely warm blue behind the cloud show.  Clouds are challenging, ever changing, and the struggle is to capture their color before they are gone.  I think I could paint the sky every day of my life.  Painting number 2036 in 2036 days.

Clouds Over the Flint Hills

I seldom work from color studies, but I do so now.  After so much time in the field, I find it limiting.  Though I've been there, sketched and painted a small panel, I long to paint the whole thing in the field!  Surely, this is a wonderful way to expand and learn, but it feels more like homework.  Perhaps I am just too spoiled with the wind in my hair, sun at my back, surrounded by the beauty of nature, breathing it, feeling it, immersed in it.  How can I return when the sky will never be as it was on that day?  You can be sure that I now keep larger panels in my car as well.  I will not find myself without one again. Painting number 2024 in 2024 days.

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Crown Vetch and Bee

The prairie is brimming with wildflowers, nestled in among the grasses.  As I walked the winding trail to the overlook, I was drawn to the movement of this little bee.  The clover shaped blooms reach up towards him, and other bees buzz in beside him.  There are plenty of blooms in this vast sea of grasses, and so much tranquility in the wide open range.  Painting number 1992 in 1992 days.

Prairie Fire Winery

One of the best parts of plein air painting is having the opportunity to paint in places I may not otherwise see.  To set up in the landscape and paint allows me to REALLY see a place, immerse myself in the surroundings and become one as the painting unfolds.  Long from now, I'll be able to see this painting and recall the day with such clarity.  I will feel the heat of the afternoon, the icy freshness of the sangria, the sting of a bee on my ankle as I visited, and hear the meadow larks serenading while tiny ants crawled on my sketch bag.  All this and more goes into every painting.  Truly a slice of life.  Painting number 1781 in 1781 days.

Late Spring in the Flint Hills

Late Spring in the Flint Hills
Oil on panel, 18x14

While driving home from Colorado, there were so many wonderful views of the Flint Hills!  I love the way the water cuts into the banks, and the way the flint hills rise up around them.  It is like no other place I have seen.  This location is on the western side, just south of I-70.   The very first time I experienced their beauty, it was while riding with my brother and my favorite grandma as a child, on my first trip to Colorado.  It was such a fun trip - and it earned my Grandma Frank the name of "Hot Rod Grandma"!  Perhaps this is where I get that lead foot from... This is painting number 219 in as many days.

Farm House in the Flint Hills

Farmhouse in the Flint Hills
14x11, oil on panel

We drove through the Flint Hills yesterday on our way to K-State for a competition.  These hills are so beautiful - and full of paintable landscapes.  Anyone driving from Topeka to Manhattan will recognize this farmhouse sitting back in the hills just north of I-70.  It was fun capturing the light on the golden winter grasses, and the purplish tree branches.  I need to go  back when I can the whole day to painting!  This is day 26 of the 30 day painting challenge - and I have learned so much this month!  I heard from a friend on Friday that life begins outside of your comfort zone - can this be true?