Boats and Homes on the Intercoastal Waterway

While waiting for the weather to warm up a bit more, and for the flowers and trees to start blooming, I decided to paint yet another home on the waterway from the images I took while we were on vacation.  This painting was taken on the the canal side with my telephoto lens from the balcony at the restaurant we were having dinner at.

I hope everyone is having a lovely day.

Prima

This is Prima.  Prima belongs to our daughter and her family.  Prima is sort of a grandpup to us.  Her brother Chappy recently passed of Lupis (See his painting in the Slide.)  We had the opportunity on Good Friday to have dinner with the family and color Easter Eggs...... So I was able to take several photos of the grand kids and Prima at that time.  This is the painting I made from one of those images. 

We are finally having the most beautiful weather.  Mid 60's today...absolutely perfect.  Now, we just need for things to start blooming.  We hope to put the boat in the water next weekend and finally start to enjoy our favorite summer activity....boating.  Mark will fish and I will just soak in the warmth and read while we quietly move around the lake.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful day.

A Beautiful Home

I spent the morning trying to figure out which of the images from my vacation I should paint.  One afternoon, while down in Madiera, Mark took me out to take photos of some of the homes in the area where we stayed.  This painting is of one of those images.  This particular home was on the Intercoastal Waterway, which are a series of canals just inland from the shore.  By living on this waterway, one has the option of boating in quiet waters for miles and miles, but can also boat out into the Gulf if one desired to do so.  The homes on these waterways are varied in shape and size, some more cottagy looking while others are huge, mansion like structures.  Typically there is usually a huge boat or sailing ship that sits at the dock--sometimes bigger that the house itself.

Anyway, this was a fun project to paint.  Enjoy, and I hope all is well with everyone.

On The Beach

This is an image that the Hubs took while we were enjoying the beach right outside our room at Madiera Beach.  If you look closely, you can see the top of my hat sitting in the chair with the pink towel.  This was what it was like each and every day for our vacation...blue skies, soft waves and miles and miles of white sandy beach.
Painted mostly in Painter with several adjustments in Photoshop CS5.

Hope everyone is having a joyous day.

Having a Bad Day

Sometimes I can't resist painting an image of Myah when she's pouting.  She has such great expressions, whether sad, happy, pensive and any number of other great, hilarious facial expressions.  I do have a challenge when painting that hair of hers, however.  It's totally uncontrollable and wispy, flying around in all different directions.

We are, yet again, expecting bad weather--rain turning to snow.  Seems we've missed spring altogether.  The hubs is looking forward to a game of golf, at some point, but will have to wait a bit longer.  We should not complain.  We are both healthy and just back from a fabulous vacation.  We've had some time with the grand kids.  But, like most Minnesotans, we wait with anticipation for a little warmth and sunshine and a desire to get out a move around a little.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.  Mary, we will think of you and wish you well.

Kids On The Beach

Well we are now back home in Minnesota and I've begun to process some of the photos I took while we were in Florida.  One of those was of two kids playing on the beach.  The sunlight was so perfect that early evening, and the kids were so cooperative.  As usual, I made most of my adjustments in Photoshop and painted it in Corel Painter 11.  I focused a lot on the lighting.

We had the most awesome weather while down there, and it was hard coming home, especially since there is yet another cold front coming through--the weather people said we could get up to two inches of snow by tomorrow.  Geez!

Anyway, we can't wait to see and spend some time with the grand kids.

Apple Blossom

My friends at Digital Whisper used a very sweet image of an Apple Blossom for one of their challenges.  Since I'm on vacation I'm not able to access all my other images to do a photomanipulation.  So I decided to paint is like I usually do, using Photoshop to make all my adjustments and then moving to Painter 11 to paint it.  Here is the link to the original image: http://blondebark.deviantart.com/art/apple-blossom-3994129

Today was very warm and so spent the entire day on the beach slathered in sunscreen.  We've been walking up to 2 miles a day and trying to eat right despite all the wonderful seafood restaurants down this way.  Last night we ate at Carrabbas, which was outstanding.

I hope everyone is well and joyous.

Greetings from Madiera Beach, Florida

So, we have made it to the second leg of our trip and we are very busy........relaxing.  I am painting, however.  This painting is from an image I took while we were still in Jacksonville...  my sister, Renee (without glasses) and her best friend from childhood, Bev.

The Hubs and I have been walking every day, two or more miles.  The weather has been beautiful and the beach is so restorative.  Went out last evening with the camera and took a number of images that I hope to use is some of my paintings in the future.

I hope everyone is well.  Have a wonderful day!

Hello from Sunny Florida

Well, at least it's sunny now.  We had three days of rain and were pretty cooped up.  As usual, I got a little burned the first time out.  After the winter we had in Minnesota, I needed to grab some of that vitamin D.

We were also able to visit with some of my childhood friends by having dinner one evening.  I took some pictures and painted them--a little practice so that my skills stay up to par.  One is of Cindy, her mother, Patty, and her two girls, Alisha and Beth.  The second one if of the girls by themselves.  It was lovely to see them and I'll probably be adding more as my time here goes along.

Hope everyone is having a great day.