German Windowboxes

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Here are more German windows, with flowers, as promised, from one of our wanderings. I was really attracted to the colors, and as usual I am totally in love with the light and shadows. Unfortunately, our trip is ending soon, BUT I've gotten tons of photos and I hope to use quite a few for some larger paintings coming up.

Suave

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Tonight we went to a street festival in the nearest small town. The coolest thing about this was the wine bottles you could buy and drink anywhere. heh. Forgive me if I'm a bit incoherant. : ) The man in the painting was a very suave gentleman in Frieburg, probably waiting for his wife while she did a bit more shopping.

Waiting on the Steps

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I found these 2 sitting in front of a big church in the center of Freiburg, here in Germany. I loved the poses and the tennis shoes.

Yesterday we visited a nearby farm, friends of my husband's mother. They have milk cows, barn cats, and a few turkeys. I never knew cats were so hard to photograph! So I settled for the turkeys instead. Man are they funny lookin' creatures! I painted one today and will post it soon.

A Helping Hand

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I've been wanting to paint this scene for a while. I took the photo this last Easter at a thing in the park. The background was busy and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it. So I finally just started it, and when it got to this point I thought, "I like it like this, can I leave it?" And then I remembered - there are no rules! Happy day. : )

Crazy Chicken

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Another scene from the Gold King Mine. Someday I will catch these crazy chickens in the sunlight. For some reason they roamed only in the shade. We tried to chase them around, but I only got a few blurry photos before they high-tailed it back into the shade.

Shhhh, Someone's Looking!

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I have a whole store of images on my computer from various trips and figure I should use this time to paint some of them. These chickens are from the Gold King Mine in Jerome, Arizona. I came around the corner and I swear they stopped talking right when they saw me.

Together in Freiburg

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Here is a scene from Freiburg. It hasn't been sunny much since we got here. If it isn't raining it is overcast. If someone had told me there would be so few sunny days I would have taken more advantage of the few we have had! But I've taken 3 million photos so far regardless. Hopefully I'll be able to paint from a few more of them.

German Windows

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This is also from a photo I took in St. Blasien. The windows here in Germany are for some reason always so cool! Most of them have window boxes underneath with an abundance of flowers, and I will paint those too, but I loved the simple blue here, half in shadow.

Der Hase (The Rabbit)

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I figured I'd start with a still life for my first painting here in Germany. I found this bunny in St. Blasien in front of a store. It was so perfect next to the plant I took a picture and painted from that. I love all the grays and that cute face!

My friend, Jen, is holding another BUILD-A-BLOG class this weekend, and has also added some FREE newbie videos on her website. If you need some basic pointers about browsers, URL's and some important keyboard shortcuts, be sure to check it out!

Don't Push!

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This is the last of my reserve paintings from before I left home, so tomorrow I'll HAVE to get my butt in gear and take some pictures of the stuff I've been doing here. I've been working only from photos, but there's a tractor I have my eye on ... if it ever stops raining. But hey, I'm not complaining - I'll take rain and cool over 100+ degrees and humid any day!

Empties Reflected

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Today we went hunting for wild mushrooms and blueberries in the forest. What a place!

Curious About a Cherry

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Today we went to the Hohenzollern castle (click the name to see photos of this magnificent place!). And the castle was pretty cool but I have to admit getting there was pretty freakin' awesome! I have one word for you - AUTOBAHN!!! When you're on it you can drive however fast you want. I got up to 150! Ok, it was kilometers per hour, but that's still pretty fast. And yet, there were cars whizzing past. These Germans, they know how to get around. : ) Below is me with my cute boys standing beside an arch in the castle.

Cheery Cherries

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This is a theme with me - 3 cherries in a row. I don't know why I'm so drawn to it. Maybe because they're so shiny and reflective. It's a very happy theme for me. You'll probably see it again.

Tomorrow we're off to see a big castle! We've been to Germany several times now and this will be our first castle-sighting. We're very excited. : )

Follow the Leader

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This reminds me of those lines in weddings where everyone holds the hips of the person in front of them, and they all dance around the room kicking their legs out. Fun times!

Pile of Goodness

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Today is the first day of painting for me here in Germany! It has been a nice break, but it is also a relief to get back to it. I haven't been terribly motivated to get outside and paint landscapes, so we found a new light (after my old one broke at Christmas) and I am now installed in the kitchen with my easel and computer (painting from photos). Today I painted a small "still life" I photographed outside a store in St. Blasien when we were there last week. I will post it soon.

Strawberries & Cream

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Coincidentally, this is what I had for dessert tonight, except the cream was whipped. But you have never seen real strawberries if you haven't seen German ones. They are RED. And I mean red all the way through. And beautiful. I have never seen such PERFECT strawberries! And yummy too. : )

Build-A-Blog Class: sign up now to learn from my friend Jen how to set up your own art blog - this weekend.

Tom und Erdbeeren

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My son's Oma here in Germany got him 2 rabbits: Tom (black) and Jerry (gray). She thought they were both boys but, WOOPS, one is a girl. So, not wanting more rabbits, she had one fixed. I showed her this painting and she said "Tom und erdbeeren!" (Tom and strawberries). Hence the title.

Watermelon Aperitif

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This is the last of the watermelon and my favorite. I know I say that a lot. I think most of the time when I do a series I am wanting to say something specific with my subject, and when I finally say it, I move on. Maybe that makes sense?

I Beg Your Pardon?!

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The watermelon was having a nice visit with the spoon. But the spoon has no social filter and eventually said something offensive. The watermelon is now a bit taken aback!

Watermelon Soup

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I had a vision of this painting before I painted it. I was lying in bed with my eyes closed, after having just woken up. The first thing I think about is what I'm going to paint for the day, but I usually have just very vague images as ideas. This time I envisioned this almost exactly. I jumped out of bed and ran to my studio to capture it. Ok, so maybe I stopped to have breakfast along the way, but ...

Watermelon Holiday

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Right after I asked my new German family for title suggestions I realized, to my dismay, they would all be in German. And I would have to translate. I am trying my best to learn, and am getting better, but it is slow. My sentences are very simple, and I find my English sentences getting simpler as well. : )

My friend Jen is hosting another 2 classes about building blogs. If you are interested you will find more information here.

Summer Stack

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We are safely in Germany and (slowly) recovering from jetlag. We are catching up on sleep, visiting and fun! It will be a wonderful holiday and maybe I'll paint some too. : ) Meanwhile I will post some paintings from before I left. This one was particularly fun. I loved the challenge of the shadows on the fruit.

Starting Line

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Here is my painting for this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge: the Paint What You Paint With Challenge.

Tomorrow my family is flying to Germany where we will stay for a month. We will be back August 2nd, and after I get some sleep and recover a little from jetlag (a day or 2) I'll ship all the paintings that sold while I was gone (I apologize in advance for that inconvenience). If you missed the info the first few times, we go to Germany to visit my husband's birth-mother, whom he found a few years ago. She lives in a 400 year old farmhouse in the Black Forest with 4 horses, 2 cats, 2 bunnies and a dog. We are looking forward to seeing her again!

Colored Glass & Cherries

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We are all done with the workshop today. And despite the unruly Canadians I had a lovely time. The weather was pretty perfect, the scenery was beautiful, and ok, I might have exaggerated their behavior a little. Maybe they were actually pretty nice and wonderful. Maybe I said all that other stuff just for effect. Maybe they look awfully cute sitting around eating lunch outside:

For the group photo we had to set the camera on a car and use the timer, which produced not only a cool reflection in the foreground, but also tilted us a bit. I will miss my cute, fun, tilted Canadian kids!