Laurelines

Not another mural post! (yes)

Today the anemones developed some flesh on their wee bones and the geums got stouter and several foliage areas moved into young adulthood. They grow up so fast, don't they, Pa.   (The hostas, however, are lingering in a phase of arrested develoment.  Don't call the Department of Social Services---I ran out of time.)

Turning a corner.

Slow but steady. Excited about the anemones and hostas that got their starts today.

Yucca happens. Mural mulling, too.

The new section is pretty sketchy because I obsessively worked over the veronica incana (the blue spikey flowers) for too long this morning. They seemed so darned mealy-mouthed. Do working and reworking HELP mealy-mouthedness? No, they do not. They make it worse. A word to the wise. Then I obsessed about the flatness of the stems and leaves of the alliums (those big purple globular flowers). I thought and thought. Then I decided to think about the problem another time.   I started the next area, which will be geums and yucca plants. The geums are going to be fun. The apricoty orange will lead us back to the poppies and, someday across the room to the future kniphofia 'apricot glow."  I turned my attention to the yucca and painted those plants with a leaden heart. Big dark green spears. wow. But then I outlined them in yellow, which made them pop and gave me the same feeling that framing something does. You think " wow, what a professional-looking painting! Only this time, it was "wow, what professional- looking dark green spears!"

I had to stop at lunch because I'm going to the doc, but my client came by as I was packing up  and she was so excited about the whole thing, that I got really excited, too. Yucca happens, but there are compensations.

Good for what ails you

Banished from my mural site this morning and feeling low (OK, they had to put the hardwood floor in. This was not unreasonable, but still...) I shuffled home to my studio and began to draw this slender bouquet of orange ranunculus, snagged from our local farmers' market on Saturday. I haven't seen such cozily wrapped bundles since the last time I laid eyes on a brussels sprout.

So if you're reading this and feeling those about-to-be-the-cruelest month blues, take one ranunculus and call me in the morning.

More and more, mural materializes

Inch by inch, we push along.

Mural marches on

Back to work on the mural today. Finished up the poppies and moved on to the allium giganticums. Of course, at the end I'll fine tune everything and add the odd goldfinch. You know what gardens are.

She was a very good dog.

Mollie. March 23, 1996-November 18, 2004.

 

Mural progression

At the end of a short mural day. Lighting problems. Hard to paint in the dark.

Signed,

Whistling

The husband ate my homework

I bought five of these petite and adorable fruits the other day, for sketching. This morning I remembered and went to the fruit bowl to retrieve them. Where there had been a host of golden tangerines, there were now just...these. Oh, my darling clementines.

Behind the scenes at the mural, with a tip of the hat to E

   Yesterday, I was talking to a friend (E we'll call her) about this blog. E said it is rare for non-artist art lovers to get to know much about what goes into making art, what choices, what options, what directions lead to the finished piece She said that she found this aspect of the blog interesting. So.... a little detour in honor of E. Here are the beginning stages of the mural I'm working on, from the underpainting, to prelim drawing, to early delineating with color and shape. I'll update as I go along. I think. Unless I chicken out.