A visit to Ornans, France

We have just returned from an amazing trip to Ornans, France.

We visited friends who have a summer home there.

I don't know what I was expecting but this was a spectacular town built along the Loue River.

Some of the homes, including the one we visited, are 400-500 years old.  They must maintain the original exteriors but the interiors are all updated beautifully.

Spectacular rocky cliffs and castles overlook the town.

(This is a view from our third floor bedroom window)

The surrounding countryside is a painter's dream

Petunias everywhere

Gorgeous woods nearby

Beautiful old churches topped with the typical rooster

And of course, amazing food!

We were also fortunate to visit the Gustave Courbet Art Museum.  Not only was his collection amazing but the building housing the collection was as unique as any I have seen.

They built around his original home with a very contemporary style complimenting the old walls of his home.  Portions of the building have a glass floor looking down on the Loue River.

This was an awesome trip for us.  It will be hard to top.

It pays to play

More of the same, but it is always different!

This is acrylic paint on yupo.  I let it sit a bit and then dragged a comb through it

Yet another background

We have a beautiful passion vine that covers an arbor.

Each year it is chewed to pieces by the caterpillars of the fritillary butterfly.

But then they "transform" and my side yard is filled with these little beauties.

Wishing you all a Happy PPF!

Paint Party Friday, food for my creative soul

A couple of years ago I found Paint Party Friday

When I wasnt participating, I was lurking.

Since I have been working full time I really haven't had much time for my creative side.

Last Friday I was lurking again and found "Rosie in New Zealand's" entry.

You all know I am the "queen" of yupo backgrounds.

They rest all over the house awaiting inspiration.

Well, this past Friday, Rosie was my inspiration.

You can also see her on Facebook at Rosie Kaplan Art.

Thanks Rosie!

I carefully cut my water color paper and started weaving strips of a discarded background.

And here is the result.  

Another background that is a work in progress.

This won't be posted at Paint Party Friday this week because we are off on a much anticipated trip to Montreal and Quebec City.

If you have any "must see" suggestions, please post them.  We don't want to miss anything.

P.S.  We are back from a wonderful time in Quebec.  It was foreign enough to be interesting and familiar enough to be comfortable.  Perfect!  And I never got this posted.

More backgrounds

Another background on yupo awaiting inspiration.

I love using different techniques but have a difficult time figuring out what I am doing with them.

This one finally evolved into 

This

Which became this...cobblestones in Lisbon

I did these two backgrounds this afternoon.  They are paint on wet yupo.  The one with purple, I used plastic on the paint and smushed it around.  The one with red, I used crunched up wax paper on it.

I love watching the colors work together.

Wishing you all a happy PPF!

Public sketching...a FIRST

March 3, 2015

is a monumental day for me.

We went off to Starbucks this morning and I had my sketch book tucked  under my arm.

A FIRST!!

I have never sketched in public before but plopped myself down with my coffee and 

gave it a go.

I wonder what I thought would happen.

Whatever it was, it didn't.

No one came round to see what I was doing.

No one asked me what I was up t

o.

Absolutely nothing happened.

I simply sketched and enjoyed myself.

Time flew by, my coffee was gone so I headed home to try some watercolor on it. 

Phew!  Done and I survived!
With many thanks to Lynn Cohen and the many sketchers at Urban Sketchers,
I just might be on a new journey.

Sub conscious planning

It has always been a pleasant surprise to me what my sub conscious can do

if I just put an idea to rest in my mind rather than worrying it do death

Last week I shared a background that I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

Well, one night I went to bed, had a great sleep and woke up with a plan

I drew the stencil out on posterboard very loosely.

To make sense out of it, I had to fill in the horizontal strips.
Then I went to work with my Exacto cutting out the squares.
I put the stencil on the background and painted the openings black.
I am sorry I didn't take a photo of the results.
I couldn't make sense out of it...again!
I waited a couple of days to let my sub conscious work on it.
And then I went to work shading the appropriate strips.

I taped it to a glass to take the photo so ignore the white stripes on the left.

And here it was before.

I love these backgrounds because they are so unpredictable.

Happy PPF

A little sunshine from my lanai to warm up those of you suffering through a long winter.

Day off

My favorite way to spend a day off.

This was a screw up...twice so I didn't have anything to lose.

It is a water color spider web on yupo paper.

For whatever reason it beaded up and just didn't create what I had anticipated.

So I sprayed it with a fixative and did another spider web on top of the original one.

Not pretty at all!

Out came my poster board circles and with a couple of layers of transparent acrylic I 

created some sort of space scene.

FUN!

And just the best way to spend a day off.

Another spider web.

Acrylic paint on yupo.  This is so pretty, I sort of hate to cover it.

Another acrylic paint on yupo with stencils and stamps.  This is a bit busy for my taste.

I should have used smaller square stencils to tone it down a bit.  Oh well, next time.

Another "busy" one.  Not sure what will happen with this.

And this one just might stay just as it is.  I love the movement and color mixes.

So I have been missing from PPF but I haven't been idle.

Working just makes it hard to sit down a blog.

But I am lurking and always enjoy seeing what everyone is doing.

Till next time.

Happy PPF