Some more blooms from my lanai

This morning I was greeted by this crazy orchid gone wild.

It is about 10 years old, I have lost the name.  Twice we have divided it but it was such a big job then I am sure we couldn't tackle today.  It is about 3 ½ feet wide.

It is covered with buds and blooms and each bloom measures about 7" wide.

Another nameless cattleya but it has a beautiful scent.

Here we have two orchids, Momilani Rainbow and Tokyo Rose.

All of these (and a few more) are blooming this week.  They are my babies.

I crave their vibrant color!

Merry Christmas (Florida style) and Happy New Year!

Circles

This was an experiment a few weeks ago using matt board as the base.

Part of it was discovering if I could texturize regular paper like I do yupo.

The answer is yes.  The base textured color here is blue, texturized with a dry cleaner bag.

The rest was done with stencils, just like I do on the yupo.  It is hard to see here but I was pleased that the background texture under the white, beige and grey shows quite well.

This is my "dump" from last week

 And here it is this week.  Sorry for the shadow on the left side. 

Knowing I will be otherwise occupied for the next couple of weeks,
I want to wish all of my friends on PPF a very Happy Holiday Season.
I will see you after the New Year.

Ooops, I forgot to share the latest bloom on my lanai

This is a purple vanda orchid

Abstraction

This week I pulled out my old gessoed watercolor paper

and with a class from Jill Krasner, I tried to create an abstract.

It is so easy for me on yupo with stensils and my roller and most importantly, my control.

This is an entirely different ballgame.

I created a small sample of what I wanted to do on the big paper.

I never took a photo of it until after I had reworked it a few hours later.

Then I went to work on the full sheet of watercolor paper.

I had done a second coat of gesso to create texture for the background.

I also used a dry cleaner bag squished onto the paint to get more texture.

Not abstract but it was a lot of fun to do.

You can see above where the old floral was before it got reworked.

And waiting in the wings is a new background done with the acrylic paint "dump".

No idea where this one will go.

And from the lanai this week...

One of my very favorite cattleyas, Chocolate Drop.
I shared it last week but it is even more gorgeous this week
Happy PPF

Grids

A little plug here for Carole Ohl's calendar.

Working full time these past few years hasn't allowed as much time for creativity as I would like.

However, I have always found time to day my daily calendar.  Sometimes I cheat and have to do three days at a time but it gets done.  

When Laura mentioned grids,  in her I am the Diva challenge, I knew I had a page of grids that really came out nicely and I found it!

I pop in and pop out, but I am always lurking around the Diva site.