Mystery Botanicals #3

The silhouetted self

I choose to paint a branch of the crab apple tree that is high up and silhouetted against the sky. I am tired and a bit cold but am so grateful that I have time in my life to be outside and painting, two of my favorite things.

I paint the fruit solid and the leaves light. The leaves poke about while a solitary cloud lurks at the bottom. This painting has a bouncy disjointed feeling yet maintains a flow of movement.

mystery botanicals #3, September 9,  The silhouetted self 2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny  3.5h

Mystery Botanicals #2

Birthday

Today is my birthday. I paint and pause to talk on the phone. It is great to get all the birthday wishes. The weather is sunny and perfect and a few wasps drop into the scene so I can get that pop of yellow.

I have this flat dark under belly to this piece and a fluffy exploding fruity, puffy cloud top.

Happy Birthday, I am getting older but hey I am still alive - yeah!!!

mystery botanicals #2  , September 8,  Birthday 2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny  3h

Mystery Botanicals #1

The Jittery Neighbour

My 3 children all went back to school today so I am happy to take up my brush again. I am jumping in once more to paint one-a-day nature botanicals in my yard. This time it is fall. Plants will be going to seed, bearing fruit, going to sleep or dying. Plants continue on after winter by a sleeping root or a seed left behind. I am thinking about the dark side of things of death, endings and the mystery of why I am here and also the complexity of leaving behind offspring.  If the spring was Romantic novels then the fall is Mystery novels. So lets explore the darker side of life.

My mom is a great reader of Mystery novels.

This painting is red and black but I pop in bits of grey blue sky to make holes in the flatness. A large orange and black butterfly flaps and flaps around and so I smear in all its jittery movement. I imagine the innocent neighbour getting all jittery as she discovers more about her neighbours goings on. The crab apples dangle. They are such a dark red fruit.

mystery botanicals #1  The Jittery Neighbour, September 7,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" heavily overcast, 3.5h

happy to be painting again so I took a timed photo of the moment -  there was no one to ask as all my kids are back in school.

I can see this baby squirrel through my fence. It is eating a crab apple

a flock of chickadees land in the crab apple tree and eat the bugs.

Romantic Botanicals Wrap up

I am stopping this series and it is officially closed.

Thank you for watching and reading my progress and experiences in this series. Knowing I had readers and followers definitely gave me a huge boost.

It is very tough to stop, the yard is calling and so are my paints. I am terrified that I will loose this lovely endless flow where painting absolutely anything is easy and meditative. I am doing summer stuff now like taking my son to the wading pool and to free Slurpee day and making hot dog dinners. See summer stuff. I am putting aside passionate painter lady for now.

I am taking a break to reflect and plan my next project. Hope you all have a great summer.

Romantic Botanicals #72

More

This maybe my last day of this series. I started painting at 1 pm and my daughter waited for me to go on a bike ride with her until 5:30 because I was painting. I didn't start earlier because I was cleaning. Last year when I did this series I was so sad when I stopped but this year I am just tired. It is so humid out I am covered in sweat.

The Oregano is flowering. I love the way the leave grow symmetrically like a lacy mirrored pattern. I painted a lot of the flying critters. I wanted a more more more painting because it might be the last in this series.

romantic botanicals #72  More, July10,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny, 4.5h

It is so hot out. I have weeded the garden but only the tiny patch I am looking at. Painting is taking up my time.

to show how much time has passed since I started the series, this is the plum tree that I painted the blossoms of.

Romantic Botanicals #71

The True Original

It starts fine, the day, then we hear a sound like a fire hose going off in our bathroom. The hot water connection broke and is spraying hot water. There is 4 inches deep of hot water on the floor by the time Rick turns off the water main. It is fast but the clean up of the bathroom and then the basement and basement storage took most of the day. It is a day that I would not have made art if I was not doing one-a-days. When I sit to paint it feels meditative. I am realizing something about myself, I like structure. Then the thundershowers come.

This is the Oregano in Marshall's garden. I told him it was a pizza spice, which it is.

With this The True Original title I imagine 3 characters vying for the position of most eccentric or unusual person in the village and two of them falling in love with each other and the third winning the title.

This painting is yellowish green. The colour represents the rest of the oregano plant which I give no information beyond colour. There are many buds but only these three stalks bloom. The flowers are tiny and in bunches like mini bouquets. This work is extremely loose because I am so tired and then the rains come. The work is raw like me today.

romantic botanicals #71  The True Original, July 9,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" overcast, 2h

 

 

Spotted some wildlife under the Oregano

Romantic Botanicals #70

Picnic Season in Fleabane

A half a bottle of brush cleaner leeks into my paint box. I knew it shouldn't be there and I kept meaning to take it out but I didn't.  I wash the outside of every paint tube.

I think I need to stop this series soon because I am not doing vacation actives with my kids and summer in Winnipeg is so short. I might stop any day. I have been emotionally preparing for this by starting a second one-a-day drawing project which is in day 14 today. Drawing is portable and quick and it will allow me to do more summer activities with my kids. I will miss making this series because I feel that progressively every painting I am getting deeper into exploring paint, plants, insects and portraying romantic interactions.

Fleabane, Sooth or Philadelphia type I am not sure. I go with the all out daisy like simplicity. I stripe the sky in like a picnic blanket pattern. I use a intense lime green to show the height of summer greenery and sun. The big white butterfly or moth went by so quick I just guess at remembering the white swoosh of it. I like the joyful feeling of this one.

romantic botanicals #70  Picnic Season in Fleabane, July 8,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny, 2.5h

Bee, day 13 of mega draw. The bees are sure getting friendly.