The opening for the Mid-Southern Watercolorists exhibition was last Friday, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend with my family.   I was honored to be included in such a wonderful show.   We had a great time.  Now, on to the next painting!  I have started the painting of the bridge, but I draw it three times before I start.  It takes longer but it is a process that works for me.  So I call this the planning stage and it takes some time to complete.   I am contemplating both an overcast day or a late afternoon light.  I am torn, but am leaning toward the late afternoon light.  We'll see.   I admit it, I enjoy painting more than dealing with the computer. 

I finished the tractors!!!!  Like a monkey on my back is how I view this painting.  I started my painting of the bridge at the WJC Presidential Library yesterday.  It is large, for me, so it will take some time to  complete.  Hopefully not as long as the abstract of the museum, which took months to complete.   I still have the girls at the ice rink to complete, but in spring, it just fails to excite me.  I'm tired of winter.  It will work for me again in the heat of summer when I long for cool crisp days again.  I believe I am going to do a couple of small paintings as well, some relief items in case I get bogged down with the bridge.  A couple more of the construction site, which I always find inspiring.   It is mother's day and a beautiful sunny day.  I might get out and take photos today.  The peonies are blooming and grandmother's peach iris is lovely this year.  

"Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you."  - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

    I'm still working on the tractors.  Happy so far, and have figured out the background.  On the way down to LR, there is a big piece of equipment that is on the edge of a rice field, right up against a hill covered in trees.  It is there most of the year.  In fact, my youngest uses that piece of equipment as a landmark to know how close we are to our destination.  So I decided to use that idea to finish this painting.  On the second try (the granulating paper from hell) I put the tractors on top of a small knoll, but the big sky just didn't say enough about my home.  They could have been anywhere...not really what I wanted to convey.   Now it speaks of home.  So now I have to decide the order of things, which I could do several ways.   Not quite sure which way to go yet.
     It is a beautiful day here, with plenty of sunshine for a change.  Not really warm, but the light is great.   Good day to take photos or paint.   Painting it is!