Setting Suns

After a little over a month in rehab healing from her broken hip, my very determined mother moved back into her home with the help of full time aides.  She continued to receive physical therapy and to reclaim her independence.  After a few weeks back home she asked me to bring Dazz, her dog, back home to her which took us from 4 to 3 dogs at our house.  Mom has continued to improve and is now doing outpatient PT at the main building of her retirement community.  She still has overnight aides but has reduced her daytime hours from 11AM to 7PM.  She's back to inviting friends over for lunch, grocery shopping and bridge.  As long as she has her walker and an aide to bend and reach for her, there seems to be no stopping her.  Needless to say, it's taken a lot of patience and determination on her part and coordinating between her, me and the agency to bring it all about.

I know there's a way to segue from the above into blogging about me painting  ... um ... it takes patience, determination and coordination????  All true.

After all the detail of my Gate 21 painting I needed to turn to something colorful and expansive.  Sunsets were craving to come out of my brush.

Harbor Sunset 11 x 14  $225

I was still drawn to the beauty that is Charleston SC but didn't want to start another gate or building.  So, of course, I chose a whole BUNCH of buildings reflected in sunset.  I was determined to paint looser.  I remembered to take pictures as I worked.  

Charleston Sunset  11 x 14  $225

By the way, my painting does NOT have black on the sides.  I attempted new things on this painting and was pleased with the way it turned out.  However, it was time to move on from cities and sunsets to something else.    

Workshop with Helen K Beacham

I've been trying so hard to update my blog but keep allowing other things to distract me.  Today I was determined to at the very least post photos from the terrific workshop I attended in April, but before I'd entered even one word or photo I decided I needed to set up another blog page of all my paintings in one place with sizes, pricing and the ability to enlarge them.  Let me tell you, that's really s l o w going!!  Have no idea when I'll finish it.  Just figuring out how to go about it took me a while.  

The workshop with the wonderfully talented Helen Beacham was so educational for me, not to mention great fun.  Helen posed for a quick selfie with me.

 Adding my first washes and trying very hard to catch up .

 To make sure we learn as much as possible Helen starts us in on adding details - but I'm still working on beginning washes UNDER the details  (below)

Below was where I had to stop because our 2 day workshop was over.  Helen told us she normally needs 3 days to cover what she did in our 2 day one.  She opened my eyes to seeing colors that I'd ignored before.  We think we see gray or black gates but we're missing the purples and blues and greens that are there.  And BRICKS!  Don't get me started.  The decision making that's involved in what details to include and what to allow the viewer to fill in on their own can be really challenging when you're in the learning process.     

I was excited and pleased when I finally finished my painting.                               Gate 21  11 x 14  $225 matted, unframed