Cheating?

When I started this blog, I decided I would only post new art. I had a period of major creativity back a few years when I was working from home and taking watercolor classes at the local community college (and also it helped that I had a weekly assignment!), and I have relied too much on showing things from that period instead of continuing to produce new work, so this blog was a fresh start after a long period of inactivity. (And the EDM weekly assignment is helping!)

But! My cat Beatrice has been sick off and on for more than two years, and I finally bit the bullet and took her to a specialist for a bunch of very expensive tests, and everything was good news. I got two kinds of meds for her, her problems have all cleared up, and she is back to her old cranky feisty crazed self. So in honor of Beatrice, and because I came across it the other day and had a good laugh, I'm posting this picture. I called it "Princess Bea and the Pea." I'd like to have done Bea herself over, because I got all messy with my colors and lifted and reapplied once too often, but the expression on her face is dead on (you are staring at me WHY? while I'm sleeping?), and I have to admit I was pretty pleased with those pillows. (And no, I don't own the world's only purple cat--she's black, but my teacher proscribed the use of black, so I went for COLOR.)

Something I'd give away

#320

Fruit! Do you ever get the "right" amount from the tree? My apricot tree gives me 10 if I'm lucky, while I have HUNDREDS of lemons, and I take bags of these little green figs to work with me for weeks every summer. Not complaining about the figs, though--they're yummy.

I started this painting last night at 7:00 when I got home from work, and ran out of light at 8:15, so I finished it up this morning--thus some confusion about where the shadows should have fallen. My biggest challenge with watercolor (well maybe second biggest--biggest is not overworking) is introducing true darks. They look dark--and then they dry and they're medium. Hmmm.

Didn't really plan to go so elaborate with the dish towel, but I needed something besides that white picnic table to put under the fruit, and all my fabric swatches had little flowers and things. In retrospect, probably easier to deal with than the dish towel! Anyway, here it is--fruit to give away. (Though I must confess I ate the figs for breakfast.)