I love working in this medium and it is so different than transparent watercolor, but love how colors blend so easily.  

This was the perfect set-up for a umbrella day as the wind was minimal, and the temperature was comfortable to stand in the shade.  I was just about to pack up and hand in for my last day of the competition and my umbrella  caught a breeze, and unaware that my easel leg wasn't tighten and as I turned to grab my umbrella and the whole easel gave way to the wind.  Of course the tears came and I almost packed up without the painting, but after a friend came by photographing the event expressed a positive notion of fixing it all in the two hours I had left to turn in I decided to pursue the challenge..  So glad I did as Larry Degraff gave me an honorable  mention for the painting.  I was so excited to receive this award.  I posted the finished painting in the post above this one.  

This is a small farm I always visit on the Augusta bottoms road in Augusta Mo.  The cows walk in over a foot of muck that sticks to their feet making it hard for them to even navigate anywhere.  I feel sorry for them every time I return to this site and paint, and at the same time thinking I should become a vegan, which I love to eat red meat. These  cow's wouldn't be called happy grass fed beef for sure.  I had a great experience this year participating in the annual event , and at the same time I felt frustration trying to figure the best painting composition , especially when the cows will not stand still for a painting.  I did experience twins coming into the world, and as the momma cow went to the higher ground to have her calf, the other cows stood on the lower level in front of me as to protect her from me I guess.  I got a few pictures, but she was two yards away and it was difficult to zoom in. I had not written on this blog for a long time, but  since retirement in December 21, 21, I am just taking in some deep breaths to figure it all out.  So enjoy the painting experience. 
Oh, about this painting, which was a study in white, and I might rework to make it look better and it will be available for my 2023 fall studio sale.  Details later 

It has been awhile since I posted a tree that really inspired me, not that I didn't see one, but maybe I wasn't holding a paint brush at the time.  This tree inspiration happened in Door County, Wisconsin.  It was huge Box Elder, that had all these growths protuding out.

It has been a while since I posted anything on my blog, so now I have decided to post only trees that inspire me.  This one in  particular really caugtht my attention because the sky was shinning thru it so beautifully.  I had never painted a cedar before.   I thought about wiping it down the next day,but recieved a lot of complements when I posted it on  facebook that I decided to keep it for awhile anyway.  A year from now it might be history.  

This is a painting I did in  the afternoon on a hot early September afternoon at Haue Valley Farm.  It was a benefit for the Pacific Meramec Riverwalk Trail and it sold all five hundred tickets in advance. There were also raffles, food, and bluegrass bands, which will happen again next year.    I escaped the crowd to paint this painting, but unfortuately the chiggers were escaping as well, right into all the tight areas of my clothing.  This painting is available,  

This is a painting I did at one of my favorite places to paint and I don't have to drive very far to see such a beautiful 
place.  It is the Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Mo.  This is a cup plant in the prairie.  It is showing the signs of
fall with the browns, purples that show on the cup shape leaves. 

So this is my first blog post that I want to try to explain as to why I am attracted to certain subject matter.  Of course, as a  painter I want to be selective in my choices, but that is not always in my controll.  For instance, this little painting was done in the winter of 2014  at a convervation area in southern Mo.  I went to a native plant talk with my husband and decided to take my paints, and to my surprise they were woods, and lots of them. Not a bad thing if  you can just look in the woods 
and paint woods.  It can be challenging to capture a good composition, which I am always still trying to figure that out.
I was pleased with how it turn out.