What's on the easel?

I've been painting my heart out these last few days, ever since hanging some of  my watercolor  paintings at the Lewisville Library last Friday.  That hanging adventure/project served to remind me of just one of the reasons why I began to teach myself oil painting. . .all those heavy frames and GLASS! 

I started a landscape based on my recent marsh ramblings in South Carolina and Georgia.  .  .but while waiting for it to sufficiently dry before glazing, I picked up a canvas I had been covering with "end of day" palette paint. . .you know, bits and spatters of every color under the rainbow, left after painting all day.  The resulting texture was incredible and after deciding to do a portrait I began the painting above.  It's a departure from my usual working method and I'm loving it. . .it's quick and quirky, filled with blobs and scrapes and I've brushed it on with careless abandon up to this point.  It's now in dire need of some fine tuning, but I've made a promise to myself that I will not fine tune it so much as to destroy my original intent. . .to make it "less than" versus "more than."  I'm being brave showing something that's not finished. . .so bear with me on the process. . .and, after all, the goal is to have it look somewhat unfinished!

It always helps to have a beautiful subject. . .a daughter of a good friend.  Also an unusual angle. . .and a new colorful, uneven working surface to challenge and get me outside my box!  So, I will paint on and reveal the finished painting soon.  I really like having a landscape and portrait going at the same time. . .each informs the other and we all know that all good things in life come from practice, practice, practice.  At least that's what my piano teacher told me all those years ago! 

Some chilly mornings this week, but oh such lovely afternoons.  My deck has become my lunch spot and my neighbor graciously allowed me to take pictures of her tulips in bloom. . .my MOST favorite flower.

Aren't they wonderful, reaching for the morning sun?  I have scads of photos. . .oh the complete joy of digital cameras.  Her yard is a perfect picture of spring right now and I get the pleasure of living in a house that has a view of her labor of love.   

What beauty the natural world gives us. . .just when we need it the most.