More Photos Opportunities from Upper Peninsula

Before we actually made it to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan last week, we made our first stop in Duluth, MN.  For those not familiar with Duluth, it's a mining port town on Lake Superior.  Hugh ships frequent the port taking out taconite.  Although there were no large ships in port the day we were there, I did take a few picks of the lighthouses.

Lighthouses guarding the canal.

The ships coming through are very foreboding. But, the canal also serves all the smaller crafts, sail boats and even kayakers. 

This was, I believe, an old fish processing building that has seen better days.  It's now used by adventurous swimmers who like to dive off.

Traveling onto Bayfield, Wisconsin, we stopped at a State Park where kayaks, boaters reach the Apostle Islands.  This is an old fish processing house as well.  It's now set up as a museum.

Bayfield is a quaint town with small shops and restaurants.  There is a ferry that takes cars over to Madeleine Island, kind of like the Hamptons, only in Wisconsin.

A 55 foot sailboat in the marina.  Good grief.

Lot's of old boats sitting around.  Not sure what the plan is for them.  Maybe restoration?  Don't know.

Have a great day.

Photo Opportunities in the UP

Over the 4th of July, the Hubs and I took a hiking vacation in the Upper Penninsula, Michigan.  The main objective was to capture many images to use as references for my digital paintings. But, we never imagined the beauty we would find.  Not everything about the trip was wonderful--our room in the only hotel in the area had a smell.  There was virtually nowhere to eat and nowhere to shop for food. The heat on one day was almost unbearable when hiking up and down (especially up) the stairs to and from the falls.  But, I think it was all worth it.  Beautiful country.

Here are just a couple of photos (out of hundreds) I took and will use in the future for my paintings. 

Copper Harbor Lighthouse, Lake Superior

This is also Copper Harbor

Manido Falls in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Manabezbo Falls also in the Porcupine Mountains

The Hubs at Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains.

More to come!

Mari's 2nd Birthday

Sweet Mariana's 2nd Birthday party was last weekend.  She had a wonderful time and it gave me an opportunity to get some current photos.  The featured gift was a jumpy thing for the back yard, which after 30 minutes got a hole in it.  But, not before I got some action photos.  Here's the result of a great day.

Mari and her green balloon.

Sister Myah.

Cute kids!

Pretty as a picture!

Run awayyyyyyyyy!

Myah and Papou

Happy Birthday sweet Mariana!  Love you, Gramma Jane.

Commissioned Painting of a Lake Home

I'm feeling fortunate.  My third commissioned piece in two weeks. Client wanted me to paint her parents lake home--the before--as it has now been renovated.  She asked for some color, but not too much (which is hard for me as I love to add the color.)  Anyway, here's the before and after.

Have a great day!

Painting of a Little Boy Golfer

I've finally completed the second part of a commissioned project--it's printed and mailed.  Received this order via my Etsy shop.  This is the photo selected to paint providing I could change the club head from a putter to an iron.

This is my painting of this little cutie golfer.

Here's a closeup.

Have a wonderful day!

Wedding Painting

I've been busy.  I just finished a commissioned Wedding Painting.  Here's the result.  The customer actually preferred the full length image, but I actually like the cropped painting better.  So, I've decided to send her both.

They both printed out nicely.  However, I did have some issues with the printer at first which had me in a panic.  But, I was able to correct the problem.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Floral Watercolor's and PhotoArtFriday

I thought I would enter Photo Art Friday, a site dedicated to Photo Art. This week the focus is on abstract photo art created with a design from nature.  Since my recent posts have been about birds and flowers, I thought I might qualify.  Be sure to check them out by clicking on the button at the bottom.

I hope everyone has a lovely day.

Floral Watercolors

Love this time of year. Things are starting to bloom.

Have a great day!

Watercolor Paintings, Landscape Arboretum

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's day. The Hub's and I went to the U of MN Landscape Arboretum for Mother's Day.  The Azelea's and lilies were in full bloom and I was able to take quite a few pictures.  Here are just two which I hope to get printed.  Both were painted in Photoshop CS5 using the Art History Brush.

Pretty Bird: New Watercolor Painting

I'm continuing with the Bird Theme.  This is a painting of a photo from another Public Domain Site, BestPhotos.us.  I used Pre and Post processing in Photoshop CS5 as well as blending 3 different DAP runs.

Another cloudy, rainy day.  Have a great day!

Watercolor Painting of a Blue Bird

It's so nice to hear the birds singing again.  It's almost time to start planting again as well.  I'm continuing my bird series and hope to have enough to print soon.

I hope everyone has a beautiful day!

More Watercolors and a Question

I received an email about migrating my blogs to a Legacy Blogger Account.  Don't know about anyone else, but it won't let me sign in.  I've tried everything.  Any suggestions?

Still trying to perfect the watercolor look.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Two Cute Kids

My co-workers children.

Before and after.

I hope everyone has an awesome day!

A Bird and a Trailer

Continuing with the bird theme.

A little while ago, the hubs sent me a photo he'd taken while traveling.  Apparently there was this dilapidated trailer just sitting not far from the side of the road and he thought that this is just the kind of photo that I like to paint.  He was right!

Have and wonderful day!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jig

We've been home a few day now from our vacation in Florida and came home to beautiful weather.  It's not going to last long as we are expecting cold, rainy weather over Easter weekend.  The hubs was able to get two rounds of golf in, however.

I've been working on birds.  One of the forums I belong to has an artist who is working through painting birds with the use of DAP, Photoshop and many plug-ins, textures, and papers  I thought I would try this out as well.  I have a long way to go, but I'm learning something new.

In addition, one of the artists that participated in the Open Studio; Street Scenes class I recently attended, let us use some of her photos to play with.  This was a food cart that she snapped while on a recent trip to NYCity.

For those of you who celebrate Easter, I hope you have a nice one.  Have a great weekend!

Our Last Day in Sunny Florida

Boo Hoo.  We leave tomorrow to go back to Minnesota, well rested but sad to leave just the same.  I thought I would post the last two paintings I did for the Open Studio class I was taking.  I'm also posting a photo I took of Joe Mauer during warm up, Minnesota Twins Catcher, that I took when we went to a spring training game on Wednesday.  I haven't had a chance to paint any of them yet, but I did clean this one up.

A Beautiful Day In Sunny Florida

Here we are again for our annual venture to sunny Florida.  I've been remiss in posting, but I have been keeping up with the class at Digital art Academy--this being the last week.  I've put together a couple of paintings, one of which I posted to the class.  However, I will be working on another, more comprehensive painting hopefully incorporating everything we've learned so far in class.  Hats off to Karen Bonaker another wonderful Open Studio.

The second painting is for a Mini Challenge at Retouch Pro.

I hope everyone is having an awesome day.