Irises Painting Wins Award

My painting, Irises, received a Judges' Choice Award this weekend at the King George Art Show.  I received a beautiful ribbon and a very nice check.  The judge this year was Lisa Semerad.

Pastels Class

Taught my first class up here in the new studio and this was our subject.  We worked in pastels for this floral still life class.

Another Kind of Painting

I am recovering today from another kind of painting.  In days of yore, I supplemented my income by painting murals and doing faux finishing.  I have always painted my own home and have never hired anyone to do it for me.  Those days are over!  I ache all over today and my thighs and calves are screaming "You Idiot, we can't do all that ladder climbing anymore".  They are sooooo right.  I will get help in the future.  But, the interesting thing here is.......color is color.  I  really enjoy matching a color to another.  I love trying to mix a color that matches some color used elsewhere.  I did not want to paint the entire room, just two walls that had some damage.  The paint on the walls is from 2006 and there were no paint cans hiding anyplace to tell me what color or brand they had used.  So, I got out my trusty Sherwin Williams paint fan, from the old mural days and even though the paint fan dates to 2001, I was able to come up with a darn good match.  When I got down to the store, the clerk and I pulled out some current paint chips and I chose one that was slightly lighter and greyer than my paint fan.  Took it home and darn if it was not a perfect match.  I repainted the damaged walls and you can't tell my paint is newer than what was originally on the walls.  For me, Color Matching is like doing jig saw puzzles, but I just don't have the picture on the box to go by.

The Frame Store & more

Millions of errands to run today, as well as visiting my mom in the nursing home.  When all was done and I was heading back home, I passed by a frame shop for the 100th time since moving here.  I always am in a hurry or have someplace I must be and always tell myself  that I will stop in next time.  Today was Next Time. 

The Frame Store & more is a beautiful little frame shop with lots of ready made frames as well as custom made frames.  They also are a gallery space for some really talented
 local artists.  David and Kim Herman are the owners and I am really glad to have made some new friends up here.  The shop is located at 95 Featherbed Lane in Winchester.  If you go by there, be sure to tell them Linda sent you. 

Mermaid Sketches

I was teaching a drawing class recently and one of the students who was admiring my sketch of a reclining woman, commented that she would make an excellent mermaid.......I have thought a lot about this idea and here are a few thumbnails and the original sketch which I added fins to. Oh and an idea for a fish type face.  Maybe!

Woodpecker Family Finished

This is a really bad photo of my really pretty painting of the woodpecker family.  I used an old camera and the flash washed out all the colors.  Notice the sky is once again a cool blue grey, not turquoise.

Baby Woodpeckers Adjusted and Nearly Finished

I realized after painting the other day, my baby woodpeckers were a bit too large.  I have cut them down a bit and repainted them to an almost finished state.  MAYBE?