Long, Cool Drink

Just finished a colored pencil piece I will be sending off soon to one of the miniature shows. The piece is 2.5"x 3.5".  I really enjoy the cp's and intend to do more in the future.

I saw this lady along with a number of others in Illinois on a motorcycle ride with my husband. I nearly always take my camera when we ride if we're going where I may find "reference". :-)

In The Heartland and in my heart.

Summer is here and that means BUSY! I've been away visiting my aunt, visiting BRIO, my gallery in Galena, camping with my family, etc. Been trying to fit in some painting around all this! Galena was beautiful and the gallery is filled with wonderful things- a number of which I'd have liked to bring home! I look forward to another visit hopefully before summer is over. Marsha, the owner is such a warm and friendly person. It was just a joy to get to meet her. I wish we had more time to visit and get to know each other. I am honored to be among her artists.
Here's what I've been working on lately...
Colored pencil, 2.5" x 6.5" Title: I'm Outta Here!
I finally got this piece photographed- it's been sitting around waiting... I learned alot working on this- my second piece in colored pencils. These are my "evening when I'm not too tired" pieces so they don't happen much or fast! But I really do enjoy the colored pencils. Had several people very surprised when I told them what the medium was. I intend to keep working and learning with these. It's a fun medium and very "transportable".

This next piece is casein, 2.5" x 6.5" Title: Summer in the Heartland
I just finished this piece this afternoon. I am feeling more comfortable with the landscapes and really, really enjoy doing them, although the buildings can give me "fits" at times- getting the lines right! These pieces of farm and country scenes are so nostalgic for me, and make me feel very peaceful. I love farm country- I don't think there's anything prettier than rich farmland filled with bounty. The midwest landscape speaks to my soul.

Updated Works In Progress

Last week was a total wash as far as getting anything done with having my mom here to take care of and this week has been almost as bad. I tried to work some on the turtles last week- the first photo of it was where it was previous to last weeks work.


I had a hard time trying to get the color corrected as you can see. I think the true color is "somewhere in between" these, although I believe it is closer to the bottom one. I have the sun coming in the window- directly in my eyes. Evening seems to be the only time I really have to do this sort of thing and it's always such a bad time to try and see the color.


I was able to do some painting today. When I go down to the studio I have hopes of getting further than I ever do. Today was no exception. I spent alot more time down there than it looks!!! These miniatures take alot of time to get them "right".
I've been "fighting" with that goose all afternoon, and now the duck has joined the fray! Persistence hopefully will pay off and I'll get them the way I want them!

WIP- Rooster

I just couldn't stand it any longer- I MISS MY STUDIO!!! I went down yesterday and got my colored pencils which I've never done alot with, just messing around in my sketchbook a bit- and decided to see what I could do with them. Climbed into bed, turned on the Christmas music, and worked on this rooster which I had drawn out already. I rather enjoyed my afternoon. My morning piano student (a man) really loved it- thought it was some sort of Christmas card sitting there! ha! Anyway, here's the latest from the "sickie"! :-) (I'm not sure how the colors will look to you- he looked fairly close when I worked on him in photoshop, now when I look at the post preview he looks too dark. The paper is white, his breast is just slightly cream colored so you can judge accordingly.

New WIP- Egret

I decided to try something new. I want to paint an egret, a fairly simple background, but wanted to work out the colors at least a bit before starting so I decided to try doing a quick sketch in colored pencil. It was kind of fun- I think I'll do that again, at least some of the time rather than just the graphite sketches. Here's the beginnings of the newest piece.