White Christmas

 This from a friends window on Christmas Eve,

And this from my kitchen window.   Don't know why the snow looks so yellow in my scan... it doesn't in the original.

And now its raining and not so beautiful, so I am going to paint a cream pitcher.

Solstice Moon

Winter Solstice was yesterday and today is a longer day!  This was painted yesterday from memory of the almost full, almost solstice moon as I saw it rising at a little past 4 pm on Friday.  The moon was full yesterday.

I painted this today.

Winter Sun

From the studio window, low sun shining through the thin clouds this morning at about 11 am.  While I painted there was some snow and the sun uncovered.  There was about an inch of snow last night.

This was the sky, a little later, around noon.

Some Views from Windows

From my studio on Thursday...

 from Ellie's house on Monday 

and from my window on Sunday.

  I have at least been painting every day, but as you can see, I'm behind on posting.  I'll put some more of my pitchers on soon.

Cream Pitchers Accordian Book

 Over the years I've accumulated dozens of objects to put in still life paintings.  I  decided to make another accordian book with some of them.  I started with this cream pitchers then started finding more around the house and have now started borrowing from friends.  These are some I've done so far.

The pages are about 5x5 inches.  I may add a table underneath and will write about each one

Window Views on Arches Cover

 I used some little dabs of samples from Daniel Smith to do this one.  One of the paints was Amethyst which saw lovely and I'm going to buy a tube.  It was late afternoon as the sun was low and fog setting in.

This was  mid-day.  The weather has been cold, just a little bit of snow and lots of hoar-frost.

This from a friends house.

These were painted on Arches Cover paper which I'm finding very enjoyable to work with wet on wet.

Another Trip To Juneau

I took the ferry to Juneau on Monday for an appointment on Tuesday, and painted this while stopped in Hoonah.

 I waited for a plane to come home on Tuesday but the flight was cancelled because of fog, so I returned on the Wednesday ferry.

 This is the third time I've painted this view from the ferry docked in Hoonah where we stop between Gustavus and Hoonah.  It was a shorter stop than usual and I did what I could.

This is looking north as we approached Hoonah.

I'm now listening to the radio with news of the earthquake in Anchorage.  We didn't feel a thing here.

Beautiful Sky from the Beach Road

We had a break from the rainy weather on Tuesday and I drove down to the beach and caught a beautiful display of light in the sky from around two until about 3:30. These are two of the three paintings and I took a bunch of photos too.

Once Again, Catching Up

 I just keep getting more and more behind in my posting, so today I'm posting most of the little paintings I've done in the last couple of weeks and will start with a new one tomorrow.

Above is one I did on one of my last days in Florida at the Children's Garden at Bok Tower in Lake Wales.

This is bamboo

 and this bird of paradise  at my cousin's pool room in Palmetto.

On the way home, I spent a night a downtown Juneau with a friend and painted this from her upstairs window looking over roofs.

Back home its been hard to get back in the habit of painting the little watercolors everyday, especially finding a subject to paint. I painted this onion twice one day.

 and a couple of views from a friends house on the river another day.  This is the only one I liked.

This was from memory of the sunrise on Friday, and I don't like what I painted today and yesterday, and  as I often do,  will not put them here.  Tomorrow will be a new beginning.

Trip, Part 3,

Always a stop when I go to Central Florida is the Lake Kissimee State Park and for me the live oaks are the main attraction.  This year I went with my brother and didn't have time to paint, but painted these from photos later.

Trip, Part 2

These seed pods are from a golden rain tree in my son's yard.  The tree is a native of India and quite common now in Florida yards.  The flowers are yellow and these pods grow in large reddish clusters.

Trip to Seattle and Florida, Part 1

 

I got back from my almost three week trip to Seattle and Florida late Friday.  I painted this boat in the boatyard from the ferry while stopped in Hoonah  on the way to Juneau on the  first leg of my trip on Monday, October 22.  I spent the night in Juneau before flying to Seattle on the next day where I spent three days, mostly with appointments at Virginia Mason Hospital.  I didn't even pick up a paint brush, the longest I've gone since February without painting.

I  did draw these at Seatac while waiting for my flight to Orlando.

From the Past

 

I was in Seattle for much of this past week mostly with medical appointments, and came to Florida yesterday to visit with family and now I have some time to catch up.

 This is the longest I've gone more than two days without a watercolor postcard since February of this year.  I had done only one little watercolor last week, from the ferry on the way to Juneau on Monday. I did do a couple of pen and ink sketches while in Seattle and perhaps I will do some watercolor on the sketches and won't feel so bad.

The above was done a week ago, visiting a friend at her home before I left town.

I was surprised to fine this poppy in bloom week before last considering all the freezing we've had.

I planted the seedling that a friend gave me of this hollyhock in a pot and brought it in the house when it started getting cold and painted it the week before last.  When I left home last week there were over 25 bloom on it.

There are a few more postcards that I did before leaving home, but I failed to scan them.  Here are a couple that I just found scans of that I had forgotten to post in September.

It was an overcast day when I did these from a photograph.  I used some while gouache, wet in wet on the second one which I like  better.

Mountain Ash

 The sun came out on Wednesday and the mountain ash glowed.

Gray Days

We haven't seen much but gray skys for the last few days.  There was very heavy rain over the weekend.  This was painted at Susan and Lil's house on the Salmon River on Friday on gray paper.

Another Accordian Book

I had started this little book last year with the first page and finished with some more colorful leaves and berries.  I'll put a cover on it soon.

End of Fall

Fall is coming to a close, so I'd best get these posted before fall turns to winter.  There is already new snow in the Chilkats.  This first one is once again the willow south of the house from my studio window, painted on Tuesday.  I used some gouache.

I did this one on Wednesday, with Kathy and Ellie from Aimee's landing on the Salmon River, looking across to the Howe cabin.  The next morning, Thursday, there was snow on the far mountains which are east of Excursion Inlet.  The closer mountains, Excursion Ridge are west (our side) of the inlet.  It appears, now, that I exaggerated the color in the cottonwood.

This was from a photo I took on Wednesday.  It is Howe's new house, just down river from the cabin.

Again, my default subject, willow south of the house.  This time I was trying for something a little different with irridescent paint, but it doesn't show here.

Yesterday, I spent a pleasant afternoon painting with Ellie at her lovely
 home.  This was a view of Charlie's house  from her upstairs studio where she creates exquisite quilts.