Cactus Monday - Capital

A friend of mine that frequents auctions bought a whole stack of 1924-26 House and Garden and Arts & Decoration Magazines. She let me bring some home to look over. I think it interesting to read the old magazines to see how styles and even advertising have changed over the years. In the 1924 March issue of Arts & Decoration magazine they had an entire page of sculptures done by Celine LaPage. They were just marvelous to me. I decided to sketch my favorite. Of course the other sculptures were marvelous but with much more detail.

My delimma was whether to post it on Cactus Monday or Animal Wednesday. This would cover either or both days. Since I struggle to find cactus inspiration I decided it would be posted for Cactus Monday. You just never know where you will find an inspiration for art. Happy Cactus Monday.

A Heart felt THANK YOU

I want to thank Soulbrush and Margaret Ann for giving me this cheerful, colorful award. What I appreciate most about these talented ladies is that they are so inspirational, encouraging and friendly. I love your blogs too ladies. Everyone that takes the time to look at your respective blogs would find the beauty that simply oozes off the computer screen from your blog.

As the rules say you should pass it on. I must say that both of these ladies have already given this lovely award to people with blogs that I visit and are well deserved. I want you all to know that I am nominating everyone on my must read list.

Autumn Mandala

This is my first attempt to make a mandala. Autumn is one of my favorite times of year so I get lots of inspiraiton from this time. If you like mandalas you can go Teri's Mandalas to see more. Teri is the person that introduced me to mandalas. I am still not sure what they are but seeing her work has intrigued me. Autumn singing with

berries, nuts and colorful leaves

makes me feel alive

Animal Wednesday - Giraffe

We went to the zoo not long ago and the Giraffe's always intrigue me. This one seemed to be saying "Yes, you can feed me. Don't believe that sign." I wish you all a HAW.

Cactus Monday - Prickly Pear Pad w/fruit

When all else fails resort to the Prickly Pear. It is the cactus I am most familiar with. I am trying to do it in a different way each time. I hope you all are having a Happy Cactus Monday.

A Week of Autumn Leaves - 7

This is my last leaf for the Week. It is another Maple leaf but it is from the park. I don't know what kind of Maple tree it is but it is just now having its little helicopters forming. It seems late in the season to me because the Maple tree in our garden has long since had its helicopters released. I imagine there are many Maples.

A Week of Autumn Leaves - 6

This is my Saturday offering of A Week of Autumn Leaves. It is a sassafrass leaf. I also tried to do some shadows as it looked on my table. Sorry about my toes being in the picture. I didn't do a large painting. Just in a small sketchbook so it was difficult to photograph.

A Week of Autumn Leaves - 5

These leaves were painted from a photo that was on Jodi's blog last year. Sometimes I see pictures and I just have to try to paint them. Luckily they worked in with this theme of Autumn Leaves. For more Autumn Leaves you can go to Teri's Painted Daisies.

A Week of Fall Leaves - 4

I just loved finding this tiny perfect maple leaf while out walking Luna. It has such pretty colors. I am having trouble photographing the colored pencil drawings and our scanner is kaput. So please bear with me.

A Week of Fall Leaves - 3

The Oakleaf Hydrangea is turning a dark red. I tried to capture it with colored pencils.

Animal Wednesday - Painted Lady

A watercolor of a Painted Lady. My Dearly Beloved took this picture of the butterfly out in our garden. Sherry asked me if I do butterflies. I do but not usually on this scale. This is a half sheet of watercolor paper so it is big. I had to do big to get all the detail in it. Butterflies are full of wonderful detail. I become obcessed with detail. It is a curse sometimes. I have ruined many paintings and drawings with detail. Sigh~~

Week of Fall Leaves - 2

This Dogwood tree is beginning to turn with deep red leaves. There are also berries on the tree. I couldn't resist doing a berry too. I did this with colored pencil while watching Monday Night Football. That is the good thing about colored pencils. You can be a little preoccupied while using them.

Cactus Monday - Yungasocereus inquisivensis

This is Yungasocereus inquisivensis, a cactus that is very rare and it grows in Bolivia. It will grow quite large, tree-like.

A Week of Autumn Leaves - 1

Teri over at Teri's Painted Daisies has proclaimed this as her" Week of Autumn Leaves." I have decided to try to do a week of leaves. The leaves around here are beginning to fall so I should be able to find some decent subjects. As my first post I am posting this leaf I did last fall with water color. I will get busy with some new ones tomorrow. This should be a good exercise. Would you like to join us? Please do.

Animal Wednesday - Merganser Family

Cactus Monday

This is a leaf of a night blooming cereus with a bud on it. I have been hoping to see one of these this summer. I believe the window of opportunity is about gone. I won't give up hope this year until frost though. Happy Cactus Monday to all the Cactuteers.

Animal Wednesday - Goldfinch

I painted this goldfinch from a photo taken by Sherry over at Q's Corner. She is a great photographer and has much inspiration on her blog for my nature paintings and drawings. HAW to all you Animal Wednesday participants. If you would like to see more animals from Animal Wednesday go to Teri's Painted Daisies. Teri is the host for this muse.

Bloomin' Tuesday - Asian Lilies

I don't usually join in on Bloomin' Tuesday but I thought I would today because I thought about this picture I did in an art class a couple of years ago. I am going to start that class again this week. Looking forward to it.
I hope to learn more. My plodding along by myself is good but I do learn techniques etc in the class. I will let you know how it goes.

Cactus Monday - Prickly Pear

I saw a prickly pear cactus in a barrel this summer. I tried to paint it. The sky got gooky on me but I like the cactus. Sometimes that watercolor does stuff I don't understand and I can't control.

Cactus Monday snuck up on me this week. I did manage to get this onto the computer. Happy Cactus Monday.