Kentucky Dam Village

      This painting is from a picture I took while my husband and I were in Kentucky with my sister and her hubby.  The guys played some golf, while we went antiquing and shopping for quilt fabrics !  It was a fun trip staying in the village in a condo and cooking meals together.  Fun stuff...

Silver compote

     Does anyone still use these compotes?  I found 2 of them at a garage sale that had tons of pieces of old silver, that nobody wants to polish anymore.   We went to a Christmas House Tour today, in a little town in Illinois, where they had LOTS of old things like that, that people still treasure !
     I guess it's all a matter of 'perspective' and 'priorities',  Ha Ha !
     It makes a nice addition to a still life, though, with it's reflective qualities.....

Plein air at Lafayette Park yesterday

     I was enamoured by this wonderful tree.  The house started out in the dark, and later in the day it began to lighten... Darn, I was already done painting.  I did like the way it turned out, even though my hands were freezing by the end... ha !

Plein air today in Old Orchard in Webster

It was a relative windy day, but enjoyable too.  I was planning on doing a painting of the outdoor market next door to this building, but couldn't get the right angle for it.   I really like this building, which ia one of the older ones in Webster Groves.  It's been a furniture store and a record store, and an outdoor clothing store, too, in the time I've been alive.   It's now a pretty cool upscale interesting restaurant, with outdoor seating and very different dishes on the menu. 
     As I was finishing, this nice older woman walked toward me, glanced back to look at my viewpoint, and then said, with somewhat surprise.  "I thought that view wasn't very interesting until I saw your painting  You made the painting look better than the real thing."  I thought that was very sweet, and told her thanks.  She said ,"Where are you going to display this?" so I told her about the plein air show I'm participating in next month.  She said, "I'll have one of my children bring me."  It's so fun to talk to people who are interested in art !

Lemp Avenue plein air

     After 2 days of non-stop partying for my high school reunion, I managed to drag myself out of bed on Sunday morning to go painting with my plein air buddies.   I was situated in front of this lovely home across from Lemp Mansion (next to their dumpster) and directly above highway 55 overpass.  I never realized how many loud motorcycle gangs traveled up and down the highway all day long... Boy, are they loud.  
     I'm happy with the way this painting turned out, even though I had to leave right after lunch for an appointment, and I had to get the information down pretty fast.   Mark in the shadows and establish your lightest lights, and your darkest darks ! voila !

St. Louis City Garden

     I wanted to try this, knowing it would be hard, but I'm happy with the final painting.  Architectural subjects are so challenging.  They must be perfectly drawn, yet have soft edges.... a difficult task.