paintings

Our last night in Wyoming was a little drizzly at dusk, and the cloudy sunset made for some soft, stunning tones.  

Of course, I had to do a painting from the photo I took from the roof of the house!!!  

And, of course, once again, I didn't create the piece on a standard size piece of paper, so it wouldn't fit in a ready made frame.  My choices for framing were either a custom one (too expensive) or another floating frame with the picture sandwiched between two sheets of glass.

(The glass is probably too reflective, when you look at the painting, you see yourself, but Ryan won't care. This one is a gift for him.)

This painting, and the other two vacation scenes that I did were made into note cards to give as gifts.  

The  painting I'd done earlier, was also popped into a floating frame, just like these.   

I really like the ease of this style of framing, but know I can't do it all the time, all over the house, that would be too much of a good thing.  The dusk painting will be in Ry's room, and this one is being sent to the owners of the home as a thank you for letting us stay there. 

The painting that I did of Colorado doesn't exactly match the rest of my house, with its bright colored wildflowers and red rocks.  But it was a sentimental piece for me and I realized that it was a similar size to the painting I did years ago of Destin Beach, FL.  

So, I hung it with the other vacation paintings in the entryway to my studio and my husband's office, at the bottom of the stairs.

It is keeping the three paintings from Siesta Key company.

I'd better not take any more trips, I am out of wall space.

Our time at Siesta Key was the best.

As always.

We like to stay at a place right on the sand, and while it isn't fancy, it is my idea of a dream vacation spot.  When my sisters and I stay there, we like to craft and look out the window at the waves. Sugarwings and I took it a step further and did our artwork out on the patio, listening to the ocean as we painted our view.

We found a sea sponge on the beach to use in texturizing our pictures.  It was just what I needed to paint the sand, along with a few splatters from a rough brush.  Sugarwings got into the splattering too, I'm glad we were using watercolors, or we might  have had some issues with the management…. As it was, I had to ask her to do her splatters away from me, I was getting a few extra on my own painting.

This one is sunset with a wet on wet watercolor sky.

Same view, different angle, so that the small rise seems bigger, almost a hill.   I worked from photos that taken on my ipad, and then propped up on the table to look at.  I know there was a big ocean right in front of me, but I prefer using the photos.

The lighter green in the water is the sand bar and the area to the right is where we spread my Dad's ashes a few years ago.

This is one that I painted with acrylic paints after I got home, from a quick, watercolor sketch I did that day on the patio.

These are small, 9×12", and I'm not sure what I'll do with them. They are kind of small for the wall since they wouldn't show up in detail from across a room. The size isn't standard, I'd have to custom frame them.  They aren't that good to spend too much money on getting them framed… so, I don't know if I'll spring for that.  Maybe a standard frame with a custom cut mat is more affordable, then hang in a small area, like the bathroom?  

They might just go into a scrapbook as a memory of a lovely time with my grand fairy at one of our favorite places.