MORE STUFF WITH STICKS

A recent rainstorm brought more twigs down in the yard. After gathering them up I noticed that some of them were covered with wonderful lichens so I had to use them for something!  I  cut them taller than a small clay pot, and tucked them under a rubber band going around the pot.

 Then I filled an old jam jar with water and set it inside . . . 

 . . . followed by some sphagnum moss, tucked into the rubber band as I went around the pot. There aren't too many flowers ready for picking yet but it's a small pot, and along with some hosta leaves and other greenery it filled up quickly.

There's nothing quite like fresh flowers in the house!

Thanks for checking in!

-Nan

LLOYD II & GETTING READY TO PAINT

Guess who's going to Boston?  Lloyd II will be leaving my Etsy shop and heading out tomorrow morning.  He is a little apprehensive and it shows, but he'll be fine.  So I spent part of the day getting him ready to go. 

Au revoir, Lloyd! 

Then I picked up a couple new canvases and got ready to paint by taking some photos of flowers from my garden.  Even more than the flowers, I'm looking forward to the challenge of painting the jar of water.  These are in an empty mayonnaise jar.  I love the distortion of the stems underwater, and the little changes in color from above, to surface, to under the water.  We'll see how that goes . . .

 A photo taken from above allows you to see so much more of the water and an interesting view of the stems.  That, along with the sparkle of the glass and the ridges around the rim should be pretty challenging!

 There are lots of different blues, grays, and greens in that water. 

 And so much beautiful detail in these flowers!

I like to crop out individual flowers in different positions and stages of opening so I can get a close-up view of all the colors and shadows.  The photo below really shows good detail of the dark green, overlapping bracts zinnias have, under the flower head.

Zinnias have little "disk" flowers in the center, and "ray" petals around the outside.  To make it realistic it all has to be there.

My canvas for this is large - 24" x 30" - so the flowers are going to be WAY bigger than life!

And just one photo of a large part of my garden.

Just because.

 So, tomorrow will be a painting day.

All.

Day.

Long.

Can't wait!